THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS – I will add the rest of the text and some pictures as soon as I can!
We are now back from 2 weeks cycling in Cuba on our tandem. Most of it was spent touring the West and central region. We have a coupled Ventana ECDM full suspension mountain bike tandem that we use for mountain biking in the Alps. I made some alterations to the bike to make touring possible and everything worked really well (it is the only coupled bike we have hence the only one we could get on a plane easily which is why we took it)
We used the cycling cuba book as the basis for our travels and other blogs for more recent info and inspiration (links at the bottom of the page). All the contact details for the accommodation are also at the bottom of the page.
So…this is what we did on our 2 week tandem bike tour of Cuba.
Day 1 & 2: Assemble bike & explore Havana
We landed in the evening and got a taxi straight to our pre booked Casa (booked as we could leave our bike boxes there while we travelled). We had a quick wander around the local area to get our bearings. We managed to chance upon some live music in the gardens of a cultural centre which we enjoyed and then when we got back to the Casa there was more music going on across the road so a really nice start to the trip.
The next day I was up early (jet lag) so assembled the bike. We had breakfast in the Casa (great fresh fruit, bread, jam,eggs and coffee) and then planned to explore the city. Unfortunately there was torrential rain in Havana for the next two days so we delayed setting off till it cleared up. We toured round all the sights in the rain but couldn’t wait to get on our bike and start the trip.
Day 3: Havana -> Bahia Honda (110km)
On the third day the weather was looking better so we decided to set off. It started raining as soon as we left but it was only short lived and the sun came out soon after. Once we got out of Havana the traffic disappeared and we pretty much had the roads to ourselves. We did see a big group of local cycle racers from Havana out training – we kept up for a bit but were dropped in the end! As this was the longest ride we had planned for the trip we kept up a steady pace to make sure we arrived before dark.
We couldn’t get an accommodation recommendation from our Havana Casa but we found somewhere on the main road in town as soon as we arrived.
Day 4: Bahia Honda -> Vinales
Day 5: Vinales -> Cayo Jutias
Day 6: Cayo Jutias -> Vinales (via Puerto Esperanza)
Day 7: Bus Vinales -> Cienfuegos (8 hours)
Day 8: Cienfuegos -> Santa Clara
Day 9: Santa Clara -> Remedios
Day 10: Remedios -> Sancti Spiritus
Day 11: Sancti Spiritus -> Trinidad
Day 12: Bus Trinidad -> Havana (6.5 hours)
Day 13: Day trip to the beach & disassemble bike
Day 14: chill out then fly home
Accommodation
We stayed in casa particulars for the whole trip and had a good experience at all of them. The details of the ones we stayed at are.
Havana
Casa Graciela
Linea 658 e/A y B
Vedado
Tel: 833 5263
Mob: 052925925
Bahia Honda
Casa Jose Luis
Bahia Honda 23
#2042
Tel: 668466
Mob: 52982036
Vinales
Pracelys Dovalo
Adela Ascoy #2
Tel: 048 696669
Santa Lucia
Cienfuegos
Santa Clara
Remedios
Sancti Spiritus
Trinidad