Havana West

Havana and Western Cuba form the country's most-visited region — and for good reason. This is where the capital lies, simultaneously alive and frozen, capital of Caribbean colonial heritage and Afro-Cuban music. It is also here, 180 km west, in Pinar del Río province, that the Viñales Valley unfolds its globally unique karst mogotes, its legendary tobacco and a rural rhythm that wonderfully contrasts with the capital's intensity.

This city + countryside combination in a single region lets you discover the essentials of Cuba in 6 to 8 days, with only a 2h30 transfer between the two hubs. Habana Vieja, UNESCO World Heritage-listed since 1982, unfolds four centuries of Spanish colonial architecture around five monumental squares carefully restored. The Malecón is the collective living room of the capital at sunset. The Viñales Valley, UNESCO-listed in 1999, offers a globally unique geological landscape where the limestone mogotes rise like islands from a sea of tobacco plantations, and where the vegueros (tobacco farmers) perpetuate a craft handed down through five generations on family fincas — that of the world's finest cigars (Cohiba, Romeo y Julieta, Montecristo).

The region also offers complementary discoveries: the beaches east of Havana (Playas del Este, 30 minutes away), the colonial city of Pinar del Río, Soroa with its giant orchid garden and waterfall, or the peninsula of Cayo Levisa to the north for a confidential beach interlude. It is the western arc of Cuba in its full diversity — culture, music, nature and a touch of beach.