Omadhoo, Maldives is on the east side of the South Ari Atoll. It’s a small populated island with a port and sand spit on the southwest side. We were blessed to have 5 nights there. This is very subjective, but I think Omadhoo Island might be the best island for budget travelers in the Maldives. Not so crowded like the more popular backpacker island.
How to Get to Omadhoo
There are two ways to get to Omadhoo from the capital city of Male… a 2.5 hour speedboat for $25 or a much longer slow ferry for a few bucks. Due to our flight timing, we could only get the speedboat. It was a good way to travel and many locals were doing the same.
Where to Stay in Omadhoo
We arrived just before sunset so we had time to shower before one of the amazing meals at the Kuri Inn. The Kuri Inn was fully booked so the put us in the nicer overflow guesthouse the Coral View Inn, just 2 blocks away. Here we had paid $65 per night per person for room and full board. Book your accommodation here.
The Omadhoo Beach
The first morning there, I realized we were in heaven. The little sand spit at sunrise was divine. I would spend many sunrises and sunsets here of the next few days.
Omadhoo BeachThis is the life – on Omadhoo Beach
Kuri Inn Meals
The meals at Kuri Inn were abundant and tasty. There were multiple choices for each meal. Each breakfast we got to have some Lisa jam!
Dinner Buffet at the Kuri Inn
Whale Sharks on Ari Atoll
Perhaps the best thing about Kuri inn were their day trips. Each evening, Ismael the manager would tell us what tour was on for the next day, and I did a tour three of the days.
The most expensive tour was a long speedboat ride to the south end of the greater Ari Atoll with the hope to see whale sharks. It had been a longtime dream to see these creatures so I was so happy to make the trip. By the time we arrived, there were at least 20 boats cruising back and forth, with the captains looking for a sign of whale sharks. After cruising for nearly an hour, our captain said “put on your mask” We jumped in the water and he yelled “look down now”. I pulled out my camera and managed to take these 3 photos before I started swimming in chase.
Whale Shark at South Ari Atoll
A few seconds later a MOB of 100’s of people were all thrashing trying to follow the fast swimming fish. In the mob, someone managed to knock off one of my fins so I had to stay back and find it. By that time the fish was long gone. Well, at least I could say I saw one. On the way back to Omadhoo, we stopped at a small sand island that was owned by a resort. We were only allowed a short visit. I got the impression we weren’t supposed to be there. There was a cool purple jellyfish that had met his demise on the island.
Dead Jellyfish
Deserted Islands – Absolute Maldivan Paradise
The other day trips were A*M*A*Z*I*N*G. We had full day trips to various deserted islands in the area. Islands that had no trees, 1 tree, and the largest island that had 7 palm trees!
white sand and perfect waterFlying heron in the MaldivesPlayful dolphinsTraditional Maldivian boatThe island with one palm tree – paradise
Each of these islands was totally surrounded by coral reef and the snorkeling was great.
You will see many colorful fishesGiant ClamBeautiful but deadlyYes, I swam with a shark!
But the coolest thing about these islands were the perfect white sand beaches and swimming pool-like water.
Even Omadhoo had some great snorkeling. There were a couple Russian girls on a tighter budget that were unable to do tours so they just snorkeled all day long on Omadhoo. They had some amazing footage of turtles, Manta rays, and other amazing stuff.
Do you have a bigger budget for Maldives or celebrating a special occasion like a honeymoon? Consider staying at the Conrad Maldives. If you’ve been stockpiling Hiltons Honors points, they can also be redeemed here.
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In researching the Maldives, the general consensus is the skip Male Maldives if you can. But I think it’s worth spending a little time in the capital city of Maldives. We were “forced” to spend some time in Male Maldives since our flight from Dharavandhoo to Male was arriving in the morning and our ferry ride to Omadhoo wasn’t leaving until 4pm so we had about 8 hours in the city. Here is what to do in Male Maldives if you have a day to wait for a ferry, speedboat transfer, or a flight.
Getting from the Airport to the City
To get from the Airport to Male, Maldives, you must first catch a ferry to the city island. This is super easy – you just catch them a few steps from the airport and it’s a scenic ride. We had all our luggage so we found a hotel that was willing to store it for the day so we could walk around.
Markets
We spent quite a bit of time in the market areas on the north end of the island. The fish market was amazing.
The Grand Mosque
The Grand Mosque is the largest and fanciest mosque in the country. They gladly accept visitors if you take off your shoes. It’s wise to dress modestly here, as well as all over Male.
Only Muslims can visit the older mosque. It looked cool from the road.
City Beach
A manufactured beach is located on the east side of the ocean. Despite the ugly city buildings around us, this beach was quite nice. It was home to a cute lizard. The water temperature was perfect for a quick swim, but practice modesty if you are a female who plans to swim here.
To the Private Ferry Dock
After about 4 hours we had seen all the major sites of Male, Maldives. We picked up our bags and walked down to the private ferry port on the south side of the island as we had been told the out boat later that day would store our bags if we wanted to walk around more. A good place to have a late lunch and to use the restroom is the the Merrybrown fast food chicken restaurant across the street from the port.
I’m glad we had some time to see some of the daily life in Male – the capital and largest city of Maldives, but one day is definitely enough.
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Have a late flight in and/or early flight or ferry out? Consider staying in Male, Maldives for a night (Check Rates and Availability)
If you don’t want to hang out if Male and would rather go to a resort from Male, try the Kuramathi Island Resort.
Dharavandhoo is one of the populated islands in Maldives that is accessible by commercial plane from Male and has reasonably priced accommodation. The island is easily walkable and there are a few restaurants. There’s a forested section on the northwest of the island with a white sand beach, a real tropical paradise.
For our first 5 nights in Maldives, my friend and I had purchased a package deal. The $1,000 fee included airfare for 2, 5 nights accommodation at the Dharavandhoo Stay guesthouse, breakfast and dinner daily, use of snorkel gear, a speedboat ride to a resort, a sunset fishing trip, and a snorkeling trip to Hanifaru Bay to see the Manta Rays. We talked to other tourists staying on the island and we had the most incredible deal of any. Our host was Adam who was a funny guy that smoked like a chimney.
The Island of Dharavandhoo
Dharavandhoo island is a locals island with several guesthouses and a new hotel around town. The western part of the island was covered by trees. The entire north coast has a beach.
Snorkeling from the Shore
Near to the town was a portion where the coral was cleared away for easy access for bathers and small boats. We found this was the best place to enter for snorkeling. There were some great things to see here including an eel and lionfish.
Hermit Crabs
One interesting thing about Dharavandhoo is the extreme number of hermit crabs. There are 100,000s of hermit crabs of all sizes and colors. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Here’s a hermit highway:
We called this one Big Red. He was one of several crabs that had made home in plastic containers.
Fruit Bats
Dharavandhoo is also home to 100’s of fruit bats. Can you tell this bat is a male?
A Day at a Resort
One day we headed to the nearby (barely) 5-star Kihaad Resort. After paying a $31 resort fee, we were free to use most of the facilities of the island resort. It was interesting to look at the price list of activities – the people at the resort were paying 50% or more than we were paying for the same tours from Dharavandhoo local island.
At 10am there was a fish feeding so we got to snorkel with loads of stingrays and some fish that sort of looked like sharks.
We sat on the beach and did some people watching. An advantage of bathing at a resort rather than a local island is you can wear your swimsuits without cover-ups at the resorts. The local islands have modesty laws (Sharia law).
In the afternoon we took a swim in the pool and had a beer. All alcohol is banned in Maldives EXCEPT at the resorts as the islands are private.
I am glad we got to check out what a Maldivian resort is like but even more glad we didn’t stay at one!
Snorkeling with Manta Rays
The most famous site of the Baa Atoll is the Hanifaru Bay. The Bay is not what I typically think of a bay… The “shore” of this bay was completely submerged! An underwater coral atoll creates this bay. At certain times a year, it’s very easy to find Manta Rays here, with their 10 foot wing span. A few times of year, there will be 100’s of Mantas here in a feeding frenzy. While in Dharavandhoo, I made two trips to this bay:
The first trip was part of our paid package. We set out on a mostly sunny day with a few clouds in the sky. We got near the bay and told to jump in the water and swim a long distance. The boats aren’t allowed to enter the bay to protect the wildlife. So I started swimming but noticed the sky was getting darker. I was falling a little bit behind the pack when it started pouring. All the sudden the blue ocean turned dark gray, the small waves got bigger so that I couldn’t see the other snorkelers, and the rain worsened the visibility so bad that I couldn’t even see the boat. For a few seconds, I started to panic. One of the guides found me and told me to keep my head down and this helped me float and ignore the fact I was in the middle of a rainstorm in the middle of ocean (it seemed). A few minutes later the rain stopped and the sun came out. We saw a couple Manta rays in the now murky water but we were limited to 60 minutes in the water and we had wasted much of the time in the rain. It was really disappointing. Not the 100’s of feeding Mantas as I had hoped.
After the disappointment, I debated going again, but decided it was worth the extra $60 to give it a try again. My friend skipped this round, but there were a lot of nice people on the tour that day. The weather was beautiful this day. You can see how clear this water is on a clear day:
We were successful to see at least 5 Mantas this day. Not the 100s that I had hoped for but did get to see a Manta swimming in circles, where you could see their ghost white underbellies.
Sunset and Night Fishing
One evening we went out for sunset and night fishing. There were good views as we headed in a boat northwest from Dharavandhoo.
Five of us fishing caught a couple dozen fishes.
They made the unfortunate decision to boil the fresh fish that night since we got back so late but we convinced them to grill us some fish the next night.
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If you’re flying Europe or the US east coast to Asia, the Middle East, or Africa, there’s a chance that you’ll have the opportunity to fly Emirates Airlines. If you can, try to get flights with a long layover in Dubai so you can get a taste of this incredible city.
Emirates Airline
Emirates Airlines is great. Emirates Airlines had a great deal that got me JFK to MLE, MLE to CMB, and CMB to JFK for $1,040. What a deal. The flight to Male, Maldives had a 10 hour long layover in Dubai. The aircraft from JFK to Dubai was an A380, and somehow I ended up with my whole row… that’s 3 whole seats from aisle to window!!!! It was almost like flying in first class but paying coach prices. Leaving JFK was this sunset.
Planning Your Layover
The fact that you’re on this website is a good sign that you’re researching what to do during your long layover in Dubai. I purposely schedule long layovers when I can so I can get a taste of a city or country that I’ve never visited before. Here are my other plans on how to plan and spend a long layover.
Arrival in Dubai
Arrival in Dubai was early afternoon. Immigration was very swift and as an America I could visit without paying for a visa (This was in 2016, please check state.travel.gov to see the most recent entry requirements for Americans)
I didn’t have enough time in my long layover in Dubai to go out to the desert and do a Dune Bashing in Dubai trip so I decide to do the Burj Kalifa instead. Several weeks before the trip, I had purchased the “At the Top” ticket to the (almost) top of the Burj Kalifa, the world’s tallest building (as of 2016 that is). I jumped on the metro and headed to the Burj. From here it’s a very long walk, all indoors, to the huge mall. My flight was a little late so I had to speed walk to make my appointment time of 3pm, but got there just in time.
After a short wait, I was in the elevator going to the 124th floor. There were two floors accessible under my ticket, the lower floor had an outdoor patio, but with a really high glass railing, probably to discourage jumpers. The views from here were amazing. I got to enjoy in daytime:
Notice the shadow of the Burg:
Sunset is great:
And finally night.
The bright lights on the ground are from the nightly fountain show.
After I enjoyed the daylight, sunset, and night, I headed down to the mall. It was interesting to see this mall with contrasts in the Middle East. Emirate men in full garb eating at Five Guys Burgers. Decorations that looked like Christmas décor, including a giant gingerbread house. Out the back of the tower is a view of the tower itself and lighted fountain show.
Other tips for a Long Layover in Dubai
Dubai is in a conservative country so you should avoid clothing that’s to revealing or short. Read this to determine what is appropriate Dubai clothing for the activity you plan to do.
It is hot in the desert and flying is also know to dry you out, so make sure you drink enough water so you don’t get dehydrated. You
Insider Tip for Burj Kalifa: buy a ticket for 1-2 hours before sunset. The times to go up are strictly adhered to the time on your ticket, but you can go down at any time you want so you can see daylight, sunset, and night scenes on one ticket.
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Do You have an Overnight Layover in Dubai?
Getting Back to the Airport and DBX Airport Amenities
The ride back to the airport was just as smooth as the ride in. I had time at the airport to have free dinner with my meal voucher from Emirates air. Not only do they have spectacular service on board, if you have a long layover in Dubai, Emirates will give you a free meal voucher.
I have traveled with friends in the past and had a miserable time due to differences in travel styles. When one person wants to get up early in the morning and the other one wants to sleep in until noon every day, and one wants to separate but the other one refuses. These experiences were so bad, it permanently damaged my friendships. After these few bad experiences, I decided that I should only travel with people with whom I’m compatible.
In 2012, I met someone on the internet that independently wanted to ride the TransMongolian railway. Taking this epic train journey and visiting the Gobi Desert had been a longtime dream but I was not happy with the rushed itineraries and prices of group trips. I met E on a travel companion website (Lonely Planet Thorn tree) and we talked about taking 24 days to go from St. Petersburg, Russia to Beijing, China by rail via Mongolia. This would be a long time to travel with a complete stranger so I decided to find out if we were compatible before making the 24 day commitment. I sent her the Travel Compatibility questionnaire and I answered it at the same time. In the end, our answers were surprisingly similar and we were in fact good travel partners.
I recommend if you’re traveling with strangers, or even friends or family, that you each take this questionnaire and find out if your travel styles mesh. If you’ve ever watched The Big Bang Theory, you may know about the roommate agreement – this is my travel version!
Knowing if you’re travel compatible before you go can ensure a good time. When taking this questionnaire, it’s beneficial to not just answer yes/no but to go into details to measure compatibility. When I traveled with a stranger for 24 days, our answers were nearly identical and we made very good travel partners. Feel free to add your own.
Alternatively, if you think it’s silly to do a compatibility quiz, pick out a few of these topics that are important to you and start a conversation with your potential travel partner. It’s most important to like to do similar things, have similar hours, and similar budget.
(1.) Do you prefer cities or countryside?
(2.) Do you like to drink/go clubbing?
(3.) Do you like cultural performances?
(4.) Do you like shopping?
(5.) Do you like museums?
(6.) When/how do you prefer your meals? Sit down, or on the go?
(7.) How long does it take to pack/get ready in the morning?
(8.) Do you like to “sleep in” on vacation? What time do you typically wake up?
(9.) Do you like boat rides? Train rides?
(10.) Do you like trekking/hiking? What lengths, difficulty?
(11.) What do you do with your down time on vacations?
(12.) Do you watch TV on vacation? What types? News, Movies?
(13.) Are you willing to split for a day if we’d like to do different things?
(14.) What type of accommodations do you prefer?
(15.) What budget are you on? What is your target cost per day?
***
Edit 11/10/2018: I had a reader named Jeff send in the following additional questions, great suggestions:
(16.) How do you experience other cultures?
(17.) Do you like to chat with the locals?
(18.) How long can you stay in one place?
(19). Do you prefer to be fully planned or can you make your day as you go?
(20.) Would you travel with someone you just met in a dating app?
Are there any questions you would add to this list?
Dining with friends in Sofia, Bulgaria
Edit 4/8/2019 – New questions thanks to reddit:
(21.) Do you snore?
(22.) Are you a planner/leader or a follower?
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The bus ride to Playa Larga was relatively uneventful. We had one stop in the town of Giron, famous in the Bay of Pigs incident. It was completely dark by the time we arrived in Playa Larga and we had no idea where to find Otto’s House, our casa for the next 3 days. Some of the casa owners were there to pick up their guests, and one told us it was a little far so we should take a bicycle taxi. So we made a deal for a couple dollars to get a ride and loaded our bags. This was our first time in a bicycle taxi and we noted all of the different types of vehicles we had utilized on this trip.
Otto’s was a cute house just a block off the beach. It wasn’t beach view but had some nice rocking chairs outside. Otto spoke excellent english – his father lives in the US.
We wanted to do a trip to the Peninsula de Zapata national park and there was a polish couple at our casa that wanted to as well, so we planned a trip with them the next day.
I woke up early and went over to the beach for sunrise.
I meet a group from Colorado that were on a art and political people to people trip and were riding around Cuba in an old school bus. We compared notes and found we had learned many of the things they had discussed as part of their organized trip.
After a big breakfast at the casa, our 50’s car and national park guide picked us up and we started driving east. This confused me because I thought the national park was west of town. We soon discovered we were heading to a smaller unit of the national park, and not the place any of us had specified. The particular guide we had couldn’t take us to the other part of the park (each guide had their own specialty). Although we were disappointed, we decided to make the most of it. He took us on a trail among the raised coral and pointed out lots of interesting plants. I especially liked the flowers of these air plants:
He took us down into a small cave that had 100’s of bats. The ceiling was very low so these bats were so close to our heads. I could hear the flapping of the wings when they got close. This was a special kind of bat that was a herbivore. They only ate certain kinds of leaves and the floor was covered with partially chewed leaves.
Outside the cave, the guide showed us a hiding snake. This snake lived at the entrance and when the bats went out for the night, the snake had easy hunting.
This large hermit crab was found nearby. The guide showed how strong it was by prodding it with a stick. This thing could take your finger!
Visit and Swim in the Cenotes of Cuba
He took us to another trail where we saw a series of cenotes – sinkholes that were filled with a combination of sea and fresh water. The water in these Cuban cenotes was beautiful. From above we were able to see a couple pre-historic fish that were part crocodile & part fish.
At the last cenote, there was a staircase down to a landing where we donned snorkeling gear and swam around the natural pool. The sunlight rays were amazing from under the surface and I swam with a couple turtles and many fish. Unfortunately, the pre-historic fish were not in this pool – all of the pools are connected and they’re scared of people so they were hiding.
He showed us one special cenote that is famous for scuba diving. There is a certain time of day where the sun ray can be seen 75 feet below the surface. Thus was the end of our tour. The day was quite early so I inquired about being left at the Cueva de los Peces which was on the way back to town so all of us got dropped there, expecting to catch a bus back to town later in the afternoon.
This “beach” was like no other I had been too. The entire surface was made out of sharp risen corral so we put our stuff under a tree to go swimming. Luckily the locals had made a cement platform at the end of the beach with a rusting metal ladder into the bay. There were loads of fish just off this platform because other tourists were feeding them bread and rice.
The water temperature here was much higher than our swimming at Cayo Jutias off the north coast. I swam out to the farther coral. There were some fish here but I’d seen much better snorkeling at other places in the world. The most interest thing to see here was the scuba divers.
Across the street was a dive shop, restaurant, small shop, and the most accessible of the cenotes in the area, the Cueva de los Peces. I took a swim here but the one in which we swam in the morning was more interesting.
We still had a couple hours until the bus so I walked around and took some pictures of the coastline.
Back at the casa, we had Otto arrange another national park trip tomorrow with understanding that we’d be going to Las Salinas to see the flamingos. Later we had the most amazing dinner – fried plantains, black bean soup, squash, salad and a whole toothy fish with a lime in it’s mouth! The cook at Otto’s was the best that we had – her breakfasts and this dinner were so tasty.
After dinner I went to the center of town to the local bar. It was a great mix of locals and tourists and a 3 piece bands played. Just before I left, another band was coming in and one of the members came to chat me up. His name was Elvis and he told me they’d be playing at the beach bars the next night. I was feeling tired so I didn’t stick around to see them go on.
Visit the Peninsula National Park – Las Salina
The next day the Polish couple and us got another 50’s car and another guide and we headed west. Today was a convoy of 4 vehicles – some had only 2 people and others were quite full. We realized everyone had paid $35 per vehicle and they really could have consolidated us into fewer vehicles so this was a way to make more money. We drove thru a forest and eventually got to some large pools. There were just a few flamingos here, but they were very far away.
We drove further to see many more pools and many more flamingos. Some of the flamingos were white – these were young flamingos that hadn’t eaten enough shrimps to turn pink. Gorgeous, isn’t this?
In addition to flamingos there were other sea birds, including pink spoonbills and a flock of these other unidentified birds.
As we exited the park, we saw a tree full of storks.
The day was young so I went for a quick swim in the bay. There was supposed to be snorkeling here but it was really far out. At some point I was so far from shore, I decided to turn back. My biggest disappointment had been that we hadn’t seen the bird that is most famous in this park – the world’s smallest bird, the Bee Hummingbird. This hummingbird is literally the size of a bee. I went on a walking trip towards the national park and took a side road, keeping my eyes open to look for this elusive bird. I could see a gate farther down the road so I kept walking. This road took me past the city dump where a couple dozen goats were getting their daily fill. I discovered the gate was the national park and the park attendants diligently guarded it. They said the closest trail was far away and I’d need a guide, and that it was possible to see those hummingbirds in this area. I looked and looked and didn’t see the bird, but I did see many beautiful butterflies.
Playa Larga Cuba Restaurants
For dinner, we headed into town. There were two restaurants with similar names Chuchi el Pescador (the fisherman) and Chuchi el Gordo (the fat guy), we ate at the fisherman’s. For $15, I had plantains, rice, salad, lobster, fish, and 2 beers. This was a great meal too. Playa Larga certainly had the best food of the trip.
We went to the beach to watch the band that I had met last night. They sang my favorite Cuban song – “El Cuarto de Tula”. We followed them down 3 different bars and had a great time dancing. My biggest regret is that I didn’t buy their CD – they were so good and fun. Elvis told me about a 4 day provincial party that was starting tomorrow but we already had plans to go to Havana so we would miss it. If I ever go back to Cuba, I’d love to go to one of these parties. They don’t appear to be advertised in any of the guidebooks, and the dates vary by year.
Watch the Sunrise and Sunset
Before heading to Havana, I arose for one more sunrise and one more big Otto House’s breakfast.
I was sad to leave Vinales but we had reservations for the bus and a casa in Trinidad. We boarded our bus at 7:00 and were excited when we left at 7:05 – nearly on time so we exclaimed “Yay!” We road thru the countryside and were nearly to the highway when the bus driver pulled over to take a phone call. He was on the phone for over 5 minutes as the passengers were getting restless and asking what was going on. Finally the bus attendant told us in English – they forgot 2 people in Vinales and we were going to drive back to get them. Why they just didn’t have a smaller car pick them up and then meet up with us at the first bathroom stop I’ll never know but I guess they don’t care about the cost of all that gas to backtrack. In all, we lost about 2 hours on this fiasco. Other than this, the day was pretty uneventful. The scenery wasn’t particularly interesting. We stopped for lunch at some roadside stop with an overpriced restaurant, shops, and a really sorry zoo.
We arrived in Trinidad in late afternoon and rushed to the casa so we could drop our bags and take advantage of the little bit of sunlight left. There was smoke and ash falling all over the city – farmers were burning their pastures on the hill to the east of town. There was nice light in the central square so I took lots of photos.
We paid $1 to go to the top of the convent with amazing views from the tallest building in Trinidad. We could distinctively hear the roar of the fire from here. The first floor of the convent contained memorbilia of the fighters, including Che Guevara’s hammock.
We had dinner at the casa, that was very bland but we got to talk a lot with the owner. He had previously been a computer programmer but now he stays home to run the casa as he’s the only one in the house that knows English.
The next day we had a great breakfast
and then headed to the train station for the daily tourist train only to find out it wasn’t running. Next we tried to buy bus tickets to Cienfuegos in two days time but both of the bus companies were totally sold out of all tickets to any destination in the next 3 days! After all these unsuccessful attempts this morning, we had wasted half the day. We then decided to do our back up plan – visit the Parque el Cubano, a nature reserve outside of town. The walk took much longer than I had thought but it turned out for the better. Large busses were leaving as we were arriving so the park was relatively empty for our visit. The trails in the park were not challenging. They criss-crossed a stream and took us by a cabin manned by an old man. He served us some herbal tea and I tried to talk to him in my broken Spanish. He had relatives in Tennessee. Many of the people we talked to had relatives in the states. There were several swimming spots and we saw some small wildlife – lizards with naturally curly tails and 100’s of wasp nests (say that 10 times fast). The main attraction of this park was a beautiful waterfall with a gorgeous swimming pool at the base. The water was really cold as it streamed down from the mountains.
We walked back to town for dinner and then spent the evening at the Casa de la Musica, where there was band after band and cheap drinks.
Today we were able to catch the tourist train to the Valley de los Ingenios. This was extremely touristic. 100% of the passengers were non-Cubans. We had boarded early so we found a seat but then the buses and buses of people came and the train was standing room only. Our first stop was an hour at the Iznaga tower, in a small town that was historically a sugar plantation.
We had some fresh squeezed sugar cane juice with a dash of lime that was refreshing on this sunny day. About half of the passengers got back on busses in this village so there was now a seat for everyone for the rest of the day. We stopped at the end of the line were a deserted sugar mill was converted into an open air museum. We returned back in Trinidad for enough time to do a photography walking tour around the colonial city. It was interesting to watch the locals activities.
Often doors were open so I peeked inside to see Santeria altars. We made it to the Santeria Temple where we learned more about the religion.
That evening we attended a show that was members of several Grammy nominated groups, including the Buena Vista Social Club. The $35 ticket got us our own table, some weird appetizers of olives, cheese, and cold cuts, and two drinks. The quality of these musicians were great but the show was a little cheesy. At one point they asked for people’s nationalities so they could play short song snips from those countries. Then there was a conga line… Ugh the show would have been so much better without that cheese.
Our taxi to Cienfuegos wasn’t coming until 5pm so we had another day in Trinidad. We visited the municipal museum that had this amazing view.
Cindy took a salsa dancing lesson and I sat at the Casa de la Musica to watch more live music. Our taxi showed up a little late so we spend a bunch of time talking to our casa owner about politics, Cuba, and Airbnb.
Our taxi driver was a young guy with a 1980’s Renalt. He had been driving since 6 am in the morning and was now on his way home to Cienfuegos. We stopped just outside of town so he could spend a few minutes with his novia (girlfriend). Our casa in Cienfuegos was kitty-corner to the main square – an amazing location and a beautiful building. We headed to the Casa Prado restaurant tsuggested by our driver and had a great meal on the roof while listening to a 3 piece band.
We heard 1970’s and 80’s disco pumping from a Discoteque across the road. I so wanted to dance but realized I was carrying everything – cash, passports, cameras so I didn’t want to stay out too late. We stopped for ice cream at Coppelia. It cost 3.5 CUP, or 14 cents for 5 small scopes of different flavors with a papaya topping.
We walked down the pedestrian shopping street and I did a shot of rum with some young men and we took some pictures together. The central park was a wifi zone so there were lots of young people doing their communication there.
Finally, we arrived at a dance club at 9:45 that was a half block from our casa but alas the music finished at 10pm as it was Sunday night. Lots of missed opportunity this night but the nightlife in Cienfuegos had many more locals than any night spot I visited in the rest of Cuba.
We had nearly a full day in Cienfuegos before we were to catch a bus to Playa Larga so we made the most of it. We walked all the way to the south to visit buildings with French and Moorish Architecture.
Lunch was another bowl of ice cream at Coppelia and then we spent quite a bit of time checking out the shops on the shopping street. The shops are so weird. There are glass cases like you see in department stores around the world but instead of jewelry, perfume, or electronics, these cases contained things like soap, toothbrushes, and hair ties.
We still had time to kill so I did something a little crazy and got a haircut. I was hoping to get a trim but she chopped my hair off. That being said, the cut eventually grew on me and it got rid of the frizzy ends.
We stopped at all of the historic buildings on the main square – the cathedral, the opera house, and the palace. This is a great spot for Architecture buffs.
It was easy to spy on the cars from the roof of the palace.
Our Casa owner in Havana had arranged our taxi collectivo ride to Vinales, several hours west of Havana. A big gray tank of a 1950’s vehicle picked us up and took us and 8 other passengers to Vinales for $20 per person. The driver joked that it’s name was “The Titanic”.
The driver asked about 10 different people on the street before he finally realized to drive down a side street to our cute little casa on the edge of town. It was a cute, newer concrete square with a porch and rocking chairs. The owners, Myrna & Omar were the nicest people ever.
What to Do in Vinales:
Take a Hiking Tour to Valle del Silencio
We went to the casa listed in the lonely planet for having great sunset tours. A great older car picked us up and dropped us on a country road in Valle del Silencio. Our guide took us up the back way where we saw cute farms and animals. There was very little machinery in Cuba as they were stuck in the 1950’s so many of the farmers still use oxen to haul goods and plow their fields.
We walked by some boys/men making horseshoes – this picture is for the ladies!
We walked thru palm filled valleys and ended up at a coffee farm. The farmer showed us how coffee is harvested and roasted and we had a chance to drink coffee or lemonade made from fresh farm honey. We hiked a bit farther and ended up at a tobacco farm. The farmer there showed us how cigars are made. I learned that cigars are made with whole tobacco leaves – there are no shredded leaves like in cigarettes.
The farmer gave us a complimentary cigar to smoke as we watched the sun set behind the mogotes rock formations, and we could order $3 mojitos. What a treat to drink, puff, and watch the amazing sunset.
As it was getting darker, we walked down a trail to a road where the car was to meet us but this is Cuba so no doubt it was late. While we waited the guide told us a lot about the economy of Cuba and how educated people are moving into tourism. Tonight was the full super moon and it looked like a giant pumpkin in the sky. We went back to our casa where we had ordered dinner for the night. There was a huge spread – a big pork steak with loads of sides and flan for desert.
The next morning we had a huge breakfast and then walked to town for the 9 am hop on hop off bus around Vinales. For $5 all day there is a HOHO bus that stops at 10 different sights around the town. We waited and waited and started chatting with some tourists about what they were doing for the day. We talked to a couple women from Germany and a woman traveling solo from Chicago and we agreed we wanted to do a walk in the countryside to Los Aquaticos spring and visit at least one of the caves. At 9:20 we decided we’d look for an alternative to the bus that was now 20 minutes late. It took about 10 minutes to speak in broken spanish to get a driver. None of the drivers were willing to wait while we hiked so we agreed to go to the cave first and then to the hike where the driver would drop us and we’d make our own way back to town.
Our first stop was Cueva de los Indios (Indian Cave). We were a little early for the 10 am opening so we enjoyed the plants in the garden and watch 3 people in traditional indian wear that were posing for tips with tools, a hawk, and a jutia (giant tree rat, native to the area).
The cave was more impressive than I had anticipated. I explored some dark passages with my flashlight only to discover dozens of cockroaches – we are in the tropics after all. A river runs through the second half of the cave, so we got in a boat and rode around to see rock formations pointed out by spotlight by the boat captain.
He dropped us outside of the cave at some gift shops, where we took pictures with our cute driver Luis and his car.
He made a short stop at another cave so we could check out the bar/restaurant – it looked like a really fun venue – it would have been fun to come out there for some music. Luis then drove us west of the town. He asked a few people and eventually drove down a country road.
When he realized it was a dead end and there was no turn around, he dropped us and pointed to a blue house on the hill so we were on our way.
Just a few minutes later, the road turned into a trail that led onto a farm. There was a cowboy and a teenage boy there and they let us walk thru. Their backyard was amazing! Puppies, baby pigs, coffee bushes, coconut trees. We were taking a bunch of pictures so the cowboy joined us.
He offered us Coconuts to drink so he climbed up the tree with his machete and gave each of us a coconut. After drinking the coconut water, he chopped them open and we ate the coconut meat.
We gave him a few dollars and we set off through a field. We were clueless where we were going but we had some nice views of rock formations and saw a bull with impressive horns. Thank goodness he was tied up because he took a charge at us.
We could not find the trail and were about to give up when another cowboy walked by. He pointed the way and we were back on our way. There is no way we would have found that trailhead without his help. From there, the trail was well marked through a forest. Eventually we came to a clearing with amazing views and huge turkeys wandering about. It was only about a week until Thanksgiving so the turkeys were making me feel homesick.
And then we got to a fork in the trail. One trail led slightly down hill and the other headed up a steep sandy trail. The German ladies and I decided to climb up the hill and scout out the trail. There was a ranch at the top but it seemed deserted but then we started hearing male voices with our two friends at the bottom of the hill. For a second I was worried something bad was happening but when we came back down the hill we discovered it was a local guide and a single woman traveler. The guide said we should actually take the lower trail. A whole 2 minutes later, the trail seemed to end in a boggy field. We looked and looked for a trail and eventually discovered the trailhead thru some tall weeds, but not until after we had tromped thru the mud a couple times. After passing thru more woods, we finally came to the casa azul – the blue house. We had made it to Los Aquaticos! Los Aquaticos is known for it’s healing powers. We sat in rocking chairs on the front porch with an amazing view and drank fresh mango juice. I also filled my water bottle with the spring water since it was supposed to have healing qualities.
The trail & roads back to town were really easy. There were some great farm scenes on the way.
We discovered this was actually the correct route to Los Aquaticos. Our driver had dropped us at the longer, less clear route. Oh well, we had a great time on our adventure and this was probably my favorite day of the whole trip.
Go Shopping
Back in town, we shopped at the cigar and rum shop – we seemed to end up here every day we were in Vinales but I never bought anything, but just enjoyed the air conditioning. The small supermarket always was full of tourists buying water.
We stopped at a little restaurant on the road to our casa and had Ropa Vieja (old clothes) beef with salad, rice, and beans. That evening, I spent quite an amount of time talking to Myrna in Spanish. She told me how she had quit her job as a special ed teacher to run the casa so her children could have a better life (both were college students, one to be a doctor and the other a dentist). Shetold me the town gossip in Spanish – not sure how much I actually understood – and then we watched a Brazilian soap opera dubbed in Spanish. I tried to explain how a telenovella is a opera de jabon, or soap opera in English. She didn’t get it. We compared the games we had loaded on our smart phones. It was a really fun night.
On our last day in Vinales, I got up early to walk the hill behind town to enjoy the sunrise.
Sip the Local Coffee
I still had time when I got back so I sat on the porch to enjoy the view and drink coffee grown on Myrna’s mother’s finca (ranch). Pure heaven.
Take a Day Trip to Cayo Jutias
For our day activity, Omar had arranged a shared taxi to go to the beach at Cayo Jutias, a beach on a cape named for the local tree rats. This beach was on the northwest coast of Cuba. We picked up a German guy in town going to the same destination and then made several rounds looking for more passengers but unlucky for the driver he had to go with a half full car. Our price was fixed at $15 a piece so his profit wouldn’t be high today.
The drive took a couple hours. Our driver stopped at a couple shops to get his daily supplies for the day. First stop was to buy cigars which we found out costed 8 cents apiece. The he stopped for a chicken lunch in a returnable container. The German guy bought one to and by the question from the driver I got the impression that the chicken seller was making quite a profit off the tourists.
We drove down the cape with a distinctive lighthouse and were dropped at the beach and told to meet there at 4 pm – we had 6 hours at the beach. Despite the rodent reference, the beach was really nice. The German guy asked if he could hang out with us at the beach and Maureen, the woman from Chicago that we had hiked with yesterday was waiting there for us so the 4 of us set up a spot near the bar and restaurant. 3 of us went for a walk all the way to the end of the beach.
Further along were some of the 1950’s cars that had driven others to beach being worked on by their owners. It takes a lot of work to keep these old cars running and we took the chance to look under the hood of several cars and get some photos. Some of the engines looked original but I loved the engine that said Toyota on it!
The water was murky this day because there had been storms the prior night so snorkeling was out of the equation. But the waves were not bad so it was fun to float and swim. The water wasn’t super warm so I only swam once, and then spent the afternoon reading and sipping a pina colada. The bartenders were funny, they filled the glasses half way up with rum and the rest with a mixers. We thought “whoa, this is going to be a strong drink” only to discover we could barely taste the rum. It was obvious that the rum bottles were about 75% water. Kind of silly since a bottle of rum costs about $2 but I guess it saves them on mixers too.
Mojito!!!!
We had a blast with our driver on the way back. We had him stop and buy us some of the 8 cent cigars. After the pina coloda kicked in, I desperately had to go to the bathroom so the driver pulled over at the side of the road. Somehow I was crouched over the edge of a steep, steep hill. A couple minutes later when the car hit a huge bump and we all raised about a foot out of our seats we were joking it was a good think there wasn’t a coche mojado!
Vinales Nightlife
We met Maureen later for dinner and then went to the open air night club that was next to the city church. This was great – $1 cover charge and cheap drinks. Almost all the seats were taken but we found 2 seats together right in the middle right next to the dance floor. This was a great place to sit if you wanted to be asked to dance – I got to dance with several local guys. Florian, the German guy showed up later and we found a chair for him. He admitted he was a serious dancer back in Germany so we danced once but the dancefloor was so full you could barely move. At one point a dancing show occurred with local dancers looking for tips. Overall it was a fun night.
We spent 2 nights in Havana, Cuba at the beginning and 2 in the end of our 14 days in Cuba. Check out this 3-Day Itinerary of Havana.
The immigration queues were pretty long when we arrived and the line for currency exchange looked even longer. The taxi driver sent by our guesthouse looked a bit impatient and we wanted to get to the city so we agreed to pay him in USD and we headed off in the Lada to the city. Our guesthouse (casa particular) was located between Vedado and central Havana. After checking into the 3rd story apartment, we headed out in search of a currency exchange. Finally after walking quite a while we found an exchange bank. With cash in hand, it was getting darker so we headed back to the casa, looking for a spot to eat. Somehow we ended up at a kiosk and we got a couple cheese pizzas for 40 cents apiece. I wasn’t crazy about it – the sauce was more like ketchup! After a shower and freshen up, we headed out for the Saturday night and ended up at La Zorra y El Cuervo (the fox and the crow) jazz club. The 5 piece jazz band incorporated electronics into their show and the $10 cover charge allowed us 2 cocktails – Cuba Libre (rum & cola), Mojitos, or Ron Collins.
On Sunday we did a long walking tour, circling the barrio known as Vedado. We first headed to the Plaza de Revolucion. Several of the buildings have metal murals of revolutionaries – the most famous being Che.
On the south side of the plaza, is a large tower to celebrate Jose Marti.
As this is one of the top tourist sites of Havana, there’s a high concentration of nicer maintained 1950’s cars that double as tourist taxis.
Just further south, we saw the Communist Party building where the guard forced us to cross the road to stay more than a full block away. From here we headed west to the gigantic Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) cemetery. There were some amazing statues in this cemetery and in the chapel in the center we came upon a funeral. The hearse was an old station wagon!
From there we walked up Calle 23, one of the main streets. We walked around the Coppelia ice cream shop but chose not to eat because the line was around the block. The next stop was an Alley called Callejon de Hamel where there is Santeria dancing and music on Sunday afternoons, in an alley full of modern art by Salvador the artist. We visited his galley and actually got to meet Salvador himself. For dinner we ate at a Paladar – a non-government run restaurant – I had breaded chicken, rice and beans, and a Cristal beer. This was the paladar made famous by Anthony Bordain.
We checked out the historic Hotel Nacional and walked by the US Embassy. An interesting thing about the embassy is that there are dozens of flag poles in front of the building that faces the city of Havana. When US-Cuba relationships weren’t so good, and before the building was an embassy, the US posted anti-Cuba messages on a ticker at the top of the building. So Cuba put up all these flag poles and when they flew Cuban flags it was difficult to read the ticker messages!
From there, we walked down the Malecon, a wide street with a wide sidewalk next to the sea. I joined a photography group and got some lessons as we waited for the super moon to rise above the fort across the river from old town Havana.
For the last 2 nights of the trip, we had taken a private car with a Polish couple from Playa Larga to Havana for $20 per person. We stayed at Rolando’s Backpackers – I was curious what a hostel in Cuba would be like. We paid only $9 per person per night and we were given a lot of info in Spanish as we checked in. The location was right in the middle of central Havana. The street was teaming with activity.
Onion seller
After dropping our bags, we visited the vegetable market we had spied on our taxi ride to the hostel. Tropical fruits were incredibly cheap.
We stopped at a very eclectic restaurant. Although it was completely empty, they claimed they were full with reservations but they let us look around. On one wall they had pictures of famous patrons that included Beyonce, Jay Z, and Michelle and Barack Obama.
We had most of the day left so we decided to do the hop on hop off bus for $10. We headed very far west and got off at the western most spot. From there, we caught a taxi to Fusterlandia, an interesting house made of cement and mosaic tiles designed by the artist Fuster.
Back in town, we had dinner in Chinatown – for some reason they only had about 25% of their menu available as their grill wasn’t working. After dinner we hung out at the hostel and met one couple that had been in Cuba just two years earlier and they said there had been incredible change in that period of time. The next day was our day to hang out in old Havana. The architecture there was amazing, and much more restored than central Havana where we were staying. Old Havana had lots of Ernest Hemingway’s old haunts, and we stopped at the Capital, the Cathedral and a small fort.
We had cold chocolate shakes at the Chocolate Museum. Oh the smell of that place! You entered the very air conditioned building and were overtaken with the smell of chocolate. We checked out some shops and when we heard one of my favorite songs of Cuba, Daddy Yankee’s Shaky Shaky, the shop owner was so excited she showed me several videos of Cuban stars. Their music videos are so funny – almost all of them include videos of sites around Havana and dancing girls. By late afternoon, I was done with sightseeing so I headed to La Floridita, Ernest Hemingway’s favorite bar and the birthplace of the Daquiri where I luckily found a seat at the bar and had a couple of the most expensive cocktails in Cuba (at a whopping $6 each!) while listening to an amazing band. In fact, sipping with Ernest Hemingway at La Floridita is one of the best things to do in Havana.
We had dinner at another place in Chinatown, but it was way overpriced. As it was Friday there were sometimes boxing at an arena called Kid Chocolate named after a famous boxer but unfortunately there were no fights tonight. I met up with others and we went to a night club/art installation in an old church called La Fabrica. There were 1000’s of people there and it seemed like 50% of them were Americans. There was a huge queue by the time we left at 10:30. I wanted to get some sleep before heading to the airport at 3am.
As the taxi took us to the airport, the streets seemed very quiet. There were people on the street but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until we arrived in Mexico City a few hours later that we discovered an announcement had been made just after midnight that morning that Fidel Castro had died.
If you would like a $40 discount on your first Airbnb stay, please click HERE. (full disclosure: I get a $20 credit)
I LOVE Airbnb. I’ve had some really great experiences and you can too.
I stayed on this amazing docked sailboat in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. I grilled some fish and mixed some cocktails and watched the sun set from our own private dock.
I stayed in this little house in a kibbutz near the Israel/Lebanon border
I stayed in several casas in Cuba. See more info here.
If you would like a $40 discount on your first Airbnb stay, please click HERE. (full disclosure: I get a $20 credit)
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