Varadero & Matanzas Province

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Varadero & Matanzas Province % 45 / POP 692,536

Includes  Why Go? Varadero ...... 199 With a name translating as ‘massacres,’ Matanzas prov- Matanzas...... 216 ince conceals an appropriately tumultuous past beneath Cárdenas...... 224 its modern-day reputation for glam all-inclusive holidays. San Miguel de los In the 17th century pillaging pirates ravaged the region’s Baños & Around. . . . 226 prized north coast, while three centuries later, more invad- ers grappled ashore in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) Península de Zapata. . . 227 under the dreamy notion that they were about to liberate Central Australia the nation. & Around...... 228 The Bahía de Cochinos attracts more divers than mer- Boca de Guamá. . . . 228 cenaries these days, while sunbathers rather than pirates Gran Parque Natural invade the northern beaches of Varadero, the vast Caribbe- Montemar...... 230 an resort and lucrative economic ‘cash cow’ that stretches Playa Larga...... 231 20km along the sandy Península de Hicacos. Playa Girón...... 232 Providing a weird juxtaposition is the scruffy city of Matanzas, the music-rich provincial capital that has gifted the world with rumba, danzón, countless grand neoclassical buildings and Santería (the province is the veritable cradle of Afro-Cuban religion). Tourists may be scant here outside Best Outdoor of Varadero, but soulful, only-in-Cuba experiences are sur- Adventures prisingly abundant. ¨¨Wildlife-watching, Río Hatiguanico (p231) When to Go ¨¨Diving, Bahía de Cochinos (p232) ¨¨December through April the all-inclusive hotels in the tourist set-piece, Varadero, hike prices for the temporada alta ¨¨Boat trip, Río Canímar (p215) (high season), the best time for beach-basking. ¨¨Skydiving, Varadero (p201) ¨¨Hit Matanzas city around October 10 for the annual rumba festival, Festival del Bailador Rumbero. ¨¨November to April are the best months for bird-watching in Best Casas the Ciénaga de Zapata. Particulares ¨¨Hostal Azul (p220) ¨¨Villa Mar (p221) ¨¨Casa Mary y Angel (p205) ¨¨El Caribeño (p231) 199 Varadero & Matanzas Province NortherSiVagrhtaderos n Matanzas

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cnr Av 1 & Calle 47) 1 & Av cnr

; admission CUC$1; admission

(Map p204 Parque Central Parque

cnr Av las Américas cnr Av Sur) & Autopista Calle 57; cnr Av 1 & Calle 58; Av cnr

; ; ; Parque delas 8000 Taquillas Walking up Calle 57 from Av 1, you’ll from Av up Calle 57 Walking Expropriated afterExpropriated the Revolution, the one block east. Everything east tow of the small stoneEverything water If you’re set in the town, en on sightseeing If you’re (sporting shoppingsmall subterranean a and center) Santa Elvira Santa (Map p204 classical mansion here: the Retiroclassical mansion here: Josone. mansion became a guesthouse for visiting foreign dignitaries. The park is now a pub may of all – you lic space for the enjoyment quinciñeras their see Cuban girls celebrate (15th-birthday here. Josone’s celebrations) with a lake expansive, feature shady grounds (CUC$0.50 per person per hour)rowboats atmos hour), per (CUC$5 water-bikes and tree myriad resident geese, pheric eateries, for a ride). (CUC$1 species and a minitrain a public swimming pool (admission There’s CUC$2) in the south of the park and the odd Good music can be ostrich lurking nearby. heard nightly. Varadero de Municipal Museo pointingly bland, save for a somewhat for out- save bland, pointingly church, colonial-style of-place Josone Parque (Map p204 oasis. green in this pretty sconce yourself Theseback to 1940 landscaped gardens date name from the former own their and take y Llaguno and his Iturrioz Fermín ers, José the Arechabala rumwife Onelia, who owned distillery in nearby Cárdenas and built a neo- tel atop Varadero’s 18-hole course with golf Varadero’s tel atop to sipping sunset a top-floor bar conducive cocktails. tractive of the bunch, Varadero’s Museo Museo tractive of the bunch, Varadero’s has been turned into a balco Municipal, nied chalet period furniture and displaying more It’s history. a snapshot of the resort’s think. interesting than you’d Mansión Xanadú (Map p206 an old Spanish fort,er (it looks like but was built in the 1930s), next to the Restaurant to the Du once belonged del Quijote, Mesón the millionaire American Here family. Pont the three-story built Irénée, entrepreneur, now an upscale ho It’s Xanadú. Mansión see many typical wooden beach houses with wooden typical see many The porches. elegant wraparound most at 7pm) squares, squares,

------Sights Most Varadero tourists buy their vaca Varadero Most POP 27,630 POP For art and history, you’re in the wrong you’re art and history, For place; nevertheless, there are a few sights worth checking out if the beach life starts central two town’s Varadero to bore you. baggable on the spot. 1 tels and casas particulares in Varadero town tels and casas particulares Varadero in are end of the peninsula that the western at ful beach life, Varadero can provide a few ful beach life, Varadero after sloth of well-earned nights dusty a spur-of-the-moment spell on the road. For of economical ho there are plenty stop-offs tion packages overseas (you need to book (you overseas tion packages and are to getin advance the best rates) enjoying or two content to idle for a week resort of their the all-inclusiveness (and Cuba touring you’re if However, not?). why your and want to alternate independently, less stress with some esoteric rambles ble hinterland for nearby ‘reality checks’ in ‘reality for nearby ble hinterland Cárdenas or Bahía de Cochinos. Matanzas, periences. For these you’llperiences. For need to escape Canadafrom crowds wristbandthe wearing and Europe and dip into the readily accessi terrupted 20km stretch is of blond sand that best. But, undoubtedly one of the Caribbean’s tourist-friendly mega-resortwhile this large, it be essential to the Cuban economy, may exunique Cuban of in the way little offers ism. As resort the largest in the Caribbean, unsubtle and constantly a huge, it guards evolving 50), shops, stash of hotels (over activitieswater and poolside entertainment; its beach, an unin though its trump card is Varadero 20km-longsinuous the on located Varadero, the vanguard peninsula, stands at Hicacos most important industry – tour of Cuba’s turing into lush, dramatic valleys like the valleys like lush, dramatic turing into into enigmatic or sinking de Yumurí, Valle outside Matanzas. caves try this, the over and commerce. Despite distinctlyriding feel is green, and most of a farmland – think undulating the region is and American prairie North cross between rup Broads – occasionally Norfolk the UK’s Home to Cuba’s largest resort largest area (Varade to Cuba’s Home biggest one of its ro) and ports (Matanzas), the northern coastline the province’s is also center and a hub for indus main population NORTHERN MATANZAS