Western Cuba feels less like a destination and more like stepping into a parallel version of the world – one where time has slowed down and taken a different path altogether.
Havana gives you the first glimpse of this, with its faded grandeur, colonial architecture and lively atmosphere hinting at a much richer past. But it’s when you leave the capital that the experience really becomes distinctive. The countryside opens up into vast, largely untouched landscapes, where life moves at a noticeably slower pace and small towns feel frozen somewhere in the mid-20th century.
Driving through these areas, you see a mix of charming simplicity and underlying oddity – long queues outside basic shops, quiet streets lined with porches, and occasional reminders of centralised planning in the form of half-empty developments.
What ties it all together is the people: welcoming, proud, and very much part of what makes the experience memorable.
This slightly surreal contrast — between beauty, decay, warmth and strangeness — is exactly what makes western Cuba not necessarily wow, but quite compelling. It’s not a polished or easy destination, but it offers something genuinely different, especially if you venture beyond the main tourist routes.
The itinerary I’ve listed here is more for the west of Cuba and the one we enjoyed. Your other option of course is to head south from Havana to the colonial landscape of Trinidad and then dive in Bahia de Cochinos. The below itinerary though gets you more off the beaten tourist track and this was in particular something that we enjoyed so much about Cuba – a glimpse into that strange tangent the country has taken.
In a nutshell:
- Feels like stepping into a parallel world — not just “old”, but genuinely different
- Havana is the headline, but the real experience starts once you leave it
- Expect things to feel a bit… odd (queues, empty buildings, slow systems)
- Havana > cycling in Vinales > scuba diving in Maria la Gorda
- Best for travellers who enjoy observing and experiencing, not just ticking sights