Havana 4 Day Itinerary (Plus Cuba Trips)
Four days, three trips out of the city
Four days is where a Havana-based Cuba trip starts to look complete: one day to land and get cash sorted, then three separate trips, Vinales, Playas del Este and Varadero, each with a genuinely different character. This plan extends the 3 day itinerary by one day; give it a fifth day and Vinales upgrades from a day trip to an overnight in the 5 day itinerary .
| Day | Focus | Travel time from Havana |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Arrival, cash, Havana basecamp | 0 (in the city) |
| Day 2 | Vinales day trip | 2.5 to 3 hours each way by car, closer to 4 by Viazul bus |
| Day 3 | Playas del Este beach | 20 to 30 minutes each way |
| Day 4 | Varadero day trip | 2 hours each way by car, 2.5 by Viazul |
Book these before you go:
- A Vinales day tour on GetYourGuide , which fills up fast in tobacco season.
- A Varadero day trip on Viator if you’d rather not manage the Viazul timetable yourself.
- A casa particular or hotel room in Havana on Booking.com , tighter to book last minute during the 2026 supply crunch.
Day 1: Arrival and Havana basecamp
Land at Jose Marti International, agree a fixed cash taxi fare before getting in, roughly $25 to $35 to central Havana; meters are effectively decorative. Check into a casa particular or hotel in Habana Vieja or Vedado, and handle cash immediately: change what you’ll need for the whole trip through your casa host, a paladar, or a hotel desk, at the informal rate (past 670 CUP to the dollar in mid-2026, still moving). Cards are not a fallback here: Cuba suspended all Visa and Mastercard processing islandwide as of June 2026, verify current status but plan on cash regardless. Check the current US travel advisory for Cuba too, since the power and fuel situation it flags affects all three day trips below. Spend the afternoon around the plazas of Habana Vieja, dinner at a paladar.
Day 2: Vinales day trip
Vinales, a UNESCO-listed valley of tobacco farms and limestone mogotes, is worth the drive: 2.5 to 3 hours by car or guided tour ($25 to $70pp), or the cheaper Viazul bus (about $17, but only Friday, Saturday and Sunday, closer to four hours each way; check the current Viazul schedule before planning around it). A tobacco farm stop and, if time allows, horseback riding through the mogotes fill the day. It’s a full 10 to 12 hours door to door, and a genuinely good use of it.
Day 3: Playas del Este beach
Havana’s own beach, 20 to 30 minutes east: Santa Maria del Mar for the developed strand, Guanabo for something quieter. This is a different destination from Las Terrazas, a mountain eco-village west of the city that some guides wrongly lump in with this beach; they’re in opposite directions. Bring cash, since card payments are dead islandwide as of mid-2026. Half a day here is plenty, leaving the afternoon free.
Day 4: Varadero day trip
Cuba’s flagship beach resort strip sits about 140 to 150 km east, roughly 2 hours by car or 2.5 by Viazul, which runs the route four times a day for $14 to $20 one way. It’s day-trippable in a way that actually works, unlike a rushed Vinales round trip: two hours out, several hours on the sand, two hours back.
Is Varadero worth a day trip from Havana?
Yes, if you want a straightforward beach day without an overnight commitment. It’s prettier and more resort-built than Playas del Este, and further, so budget the full day for transport plus beach time rather than trying to combine it with anything else.
Close the trip with slack, not a tight connection. Cuba’s 2026 fuel shortages have made bus and taxi frequency less reliable than the timetable suggests, so build in buffer on the Varadero return, especially if your flight is early the next morning.