Varadero Travel Guide

Varadero in 2026 is a 20-kilometer beach with the lights going out behind it. The sand is as good as ever, but its airport has no jet fuel, Canada's airlines have quit Cuba, Meliá and other foreign hotel chains have pulled out, and every bill gets paid in cash.

Photo: Rômulo Ferreira, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Updated October 2026

BootsnAll Scorecard

3.7 / 10

Varadero scores on one thing, the beach itself, and that doesn't appear on this scorecard. Everything that turns a beach into a trip, from flights and fuel to food and card payments, broke down in 2026, so the numbers sit low.

Value
3.5
Near the 2 anchor, because the state-run hotels are tired, everything is paid in hard cash since Visa and Mastercard stopped working on June 6, 2026, and a Havana family paid 100,000 pesos for three nights in a small three-star hotel in 2025. The €15 Viazul bus from Havana keeps it off the floor.
Getting around
4
The old village is walkable along Avenida Primera, but the peninsula runs about 20 kilometers, fuel shortages have thinned out taxis and buses, and Canada's advisory says some travelers have been stranded with rental cars and empty tanks.
Crowds and timing
3
Crowds are no problem at all, since arrivals in Cuba fell 64.4 percent in January to August 2026, but that is the 2 anchor's other half, with roughly 20 of about 50 hotels operating in early 2026 and hurricane season running June to November.
Safety and hassle
5
Ordinary caution, since the UK still rates crime below British levels, but opportunistic theft is rising, persistent hustlers work the cigar and taxi trade, and the FCDO notes tourists have been killed riding coco-taxis.
Food and drink
3
Near the 2 anchor, with food shortages and spoilage during blackouts reported even in hotels, all-inclusive buffets where staff say shrimp and lobster almost never appear, and a town whose restaurants depend on visitors who aren't coming.
Indie fit
3.5
Built around all-inclusive packages, and most of the big hotels are on a US restricted list or closed, though casas particulares in the old village and Boca de Camarioca and the Viazul bus to Matanzas and Cardenas still work.

Editorial scores, 1 to 10, against the same written anchors for every city. Half points allowed. The overall is the plain average of the six.

Overview and Things to Consider

Varadero is a sandbar with hotels on it. The town sits on the Hicacos Peninsula, a strip of land no more than 1.2 kilometers wide that runs more than 20 kilometers northeast from the mainland, with the Straits of Florida on one side and the Bay of Cárdenas on the other. Punta Hicacos, at the tip, is the northernmost point of the island. The beach runs almost the whole length, white, shallow and turquoise, and Tripadvisor ranked it among the world's ten best beaches as recently as 2025. Nobody disputes the sand.

For thirty years Varadero was Cuba's industrial beach, a place built to move Canadians from a winter airport to a buffet and back in a week. It claimed more than a million visitors a year and around 41 percent of the tourists staying in Cuba at its peak. You'd have loved it if you wanted a cheap week of sun, rum and a reliable beach. You'd have hated it if you came to Cuba to meet Cubans, because the resort strip was designed to keep the two apart, and the town lost much of its own social life as hotels took over.

The 2026 moment is a collapse, and there's no point dressing it up. After the United States cut off oil to Cuba in January, Cuban airports ran out of jet fuel in February, Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat suspended every Cuba flight, and by June they had made the suspensions indefinite. Meliá left Cuba entirely in July. Varadero workers describe hotels without water, sent-home staff and a town of empty craft stalls. Canada and the UK both advise against non-essential travel to Cuba as of late September 2026.

So here is the position this guide takes. If you're asking whether to book a winter beach week, the answer for 2026 is no, or at least not yet. Go to Punta Cana or Cancun, which have fuel and functioning card machines. If you have a reason to be in Cuba anyway, family, work or a long-planned trip to Havana, Varadero is reachable by bus, the beach is emptier than it has been in decades, and the cash you spend in a casa reaches people who need it.

How Varadero Got Here

The name means a place for hauling boats ashore, and the peninsula first appears in records in 1555. For centuries it was a salt works more than a beach. Spanish salt from Hicacos supplied the fleet from 1587, and the ruins of La Calavera salt works still stand in the nature reserve at the tip. The town's official founding came on December 5, 1887, when ten families from Cárdenas got permission to build summer houses between today's Calles 42 and 48. Some of the red-roofed wooden houses from that era still line Avenida Primera.

The money arrived in the 1920s and 1930s. Irénée du Pont, the chemicals heir, built an estate here and spent $338,000 on a three-story mansion called Xanadu, now the clubhouse of the golf course. Gangsters followed, and Al Capone is on the list of people who stayed. After 1959 the revolution expropriated the mansions and in 1960 built the Park of the 8,000 Cubicles between Calles 44 and 46, where any Cuban could leave their things and rent a swimsuit. In the 1990s, desperate for hard currency after the Soviet collapse, the state bet on all-inclusive resorts run with Spanish chains like Meliá and Iberostar, and that model is the one now coming apart.

Getting There and Around

Varadero's own airport, Juan Gualberto Gómez (VRA), sits on the mainland west of the peninsula, closer to the city of Matanzas than to Varadero. For years it was Cuba's second-busiest, fed by Canadian and European charters. In 2026 it barely functions as a gateway. TUI pulled out in 2024, Condor followed in 2025, and every Canadian airline suspended Cuba service after February 9, 2026. A September 2026 notice to airmen listed VRA among ten Cuban airports with no Jet A-1 through October 1, 2026. In practice you fly to Havana. A Hosteltur roundup dated October 2026 counts American, Southwest, Copa, Aeroméxico, Viva Aerobus, Wingo, Conviasa, Air China and Air Europa still serving Cuba, almost all into Havana, carrying fuel for the return or stopping in Punta Cana to refuel. Delta is cutting back and has asked to keep rights to frequencies it doesn't plan to fly from October 25, and EFE reported on October 1 that Cuba was still short of jet fuel.

From Havana, the drive is about two hours along the Vía Blanca through Matanzas. The cheap, legible way is Viazul, the state long-distance bus company. Its July 2026 fare table lists €15 one way from the Havana bus terminal to Varadero's bus station, 175 kilometers, or €17 to the hotel strip, and €17 from Havana airport's Terminal 3 straight to the Varadero hotels. Buses stop at Matanzas and Varadero airport on the way. Viazul prices only in euros and takes international cards online through a Spanish payment processor, which makes it one of the few things in Cuba you can pay for with plastic. Canada warns that fuel shortages often disrupt public transport, so book ahead and confirm the day before. A private car costs more, and the price depends on whether the driver can find fuel.

Entry rules are the same for US, UK, EU, Canadian and Australian passports. You need a Cuban tourist visa, now issued online as an eVisa for 90 days and extendable once, unless a package operator supplied the card. Fill in the D'Viajeros customs form no more than 72 hours before arrival and carry its QR code. Bring proof of medical insurance, a return ticket, a passport valid six months, and the ability to show about $50 a day. You can't leave with more than $5,000 or 5,000 pesos. Drones and e-cigarettes are seized at the airport.

Americans have an extra layer. Tourism to Cuba is illegal under US law, and travel must fit one of 12 categories, in practice usually family visits or support for the Cuban people. Effective September 30, 2026, the Office of Foreign Assets Control removed the professional-meetings category, tightened educational travel and extended the ban on dealing with entities on the State Department's Cuba Restricted List from direct to indirect transactions. That list names about 20 hotels in Matanzas Province, nearly all of them in Varadero, including Paradisus Varadero, Meliá Peninsula, Iberostar Bella Vista and Memories Varadero. For an American, a casa particular is the legal choice as well as the better one.

Getting around the peninsula is harder than it looks on a map. The old village between roughly Calles 23 and 54 is flat and walkable, and Avenida Primera runs along the ocean the whole way. Beyond it, the Autopista Sur carries traffic out to the resorts, nearly 20 kilometers. Official yellow taxis are the safe choice, and Canada advises agreeing on the fare first because there are no meters. Horse carts fill some gaps. The UK warns that tourists have been injured and killed in three-wheeled coco-taxis. App taxis exist, but data signal is weak and a blackout kills them.

What's Changed Since 2016

September 2017: Hurricane Irma hit Varadero as a Category 5 storm on September 8, tearing up trees and roofs and flooding much of the town. Irma is a reminder that the September to October peak of hurricane season lands squarely on this exposed sandbar.

2024 to 2025: Europe left first. TUI ended its Amsterdam and Brussels flights to Varadero in 2024 as passenger numbers fell, and Condor announced the end of its Frankfurt route for 2025, leaving the airport without year-round service to Europe. Cuba as a whole drew about 1.8 million international visitors in 2025, against 4.26 million in 2019.

February and July 2025: Washington blacklisted Varadero's hotels. The State Department's Cuba Restricted List, in the version effective February 6, 2025, names most of Varadero's big resorts as properties tied to the Cuban military, and a July 14, 2025 update added Varadero Sol Caribe. Then on December 18, 2025, Cuba launched a floating official exchange rate, and by October 2026 the Banco Central de Cuba Segment III rate stood at 695 pesos to the dollar, against an informal rate near 775 on October 3.

February 2026: the fuel ran out. Cuba told airlines on February 9 it could no longer refuel planes, Air Canada suspended flights that day, and WestJet, Air Transat, Rossiya and Nordwind followed within days. The state shut low-occupancy hotels and moved guests into others, and reports put roughly 20 of Varadero's 50 or so hotels in operation. Arrivals in Cuba fell 64.4 percent in January to August 2026.

June and July 2026: the money side broke. Visa and Mastercard stopped working in Cuba on June 6, so cash became the only practical way to pay. Canada's remaining tour operators made their Cuba suspensions indefinite the same week. Meliá said in June it was dropping 15 hotels, including Paradisus Varadero and Meliá Peninsula Varadero, then left Cuba completely in July after US sanctions on Cuba's Ministry of Tourism. Iberostar stopped operating 12 of its 18 hotels on June 1, and Canada's Blue Diamond stopped operating on the island.

September 30, 2026: new US rules took effect, removing the professional-meetings travel category and banning indirect as well as direct transactions with listed entities. The same month brought an island-wide blackout on September 18. In early October 14ymedio described gasoline back on Havana's streets but home blackouts still running past 20 hours.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"Varadero is the easy option, with direct flights from Toronto and Montreal and a transfer to your resort included." Not in 2026. All Canadian airlines have suspended Cuba service indefinitely, Varadero's airport was listed without jet fuel through at least October 1, and the airlines still flying to Cuba go to Havana, leaving you a two-hour road trip at the end.

"Pay by card at the resort and bring a little cash for tips." Visa and Mastercard have not worked in Cuba since June 6, 2026, and foreign cards don't work in ATMs. Bring every dollar or euro you'll need in cash, including enough for a medical emergency, since Cuban medical bills are payable only in US dollar cash.

"Change money on the street, because the black-market rate is five times the official one." That gap has mostly closed. Cuba's floating official rate, launched in December 2025, stood at 695 pesos per dollar in October 2026, against about 775 on the informal market, and changing money outside banks and CADECA booths is illegal.

"An all-inclusive is the safe way to do Cuba, since the resort has everything." Resorts run on fuel too. Canada warns that shortages can hit food, water and hot water at resorts and that generators need diesel, and a Los Delfines worker said his hotel closed in 2026 for lack of water and power. For Americans, about 20 Varadero-area resorts are on the Cuba Restricted List.

"Varadero is Cuba's best beach, so it's the best place to see Cuba." It's the best beach to stay away from Cuba. The town lost its cinema, central park and carnival to the hotel model, and workers say all-inclusive guests leave without setting foot in a shop. Matanzas, 32 kilometers west, and Cárdenas, at the base of the peninsula, show you the country.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about walking to the end of Cuba? The Hicacos Point Natural Park at the peninsula's tip covers 3.12 square kilometers of dry forest, lagoon and beach set aside in 1974. Trails lead to the Cueva de Ambrosio, about 250 meters of cave with dozens of pre-Columbian pictographs, past Mangón Lake with its 31 bird species, and to the stone ruins of La Calavera salt works.

Matanzas is 32 kilometers west and a different world, a working port city of about 160,000 known as the Athens of Cuba for its poets and as a birthplace of danzón and rumba. Viazul charges €10 from there to Varadero. See the Pharmaceutical Museum, an apothecary dating from 1882, the 1863 Sauto Theater, and the Bellamar caves outside town, a national monument. The provincial religious life is strong enough that Cuban exiles now fly back for Santería ceremonies, and some casas cater to them.

Cárdenas, at the base of the peninsula, is where most Varadero hotel workers live and where the resort's prices stop applying. It's laid out on a grid copied from Charleston, South Carolina, it runs on horse carts, and it's where Narciso López first raised the Cuban flag in 1850. The Arechabala company launched Havana Club here in 1934. A shared ride from Cárdenas to Varadero cost a worker 200 pesos in March 2026, and an electric car back cost 500.

Spend an evening in the old town rather than at a buffet. Parque Josone, at Avenida Primera and Calle 56, was laid out in 1942 by the managing director of the Arechabala rum company and his wife, and it's the town's gathering place for birds, vendors and music. Locals still drink at the beer parlor on Calle 43 and bowl at the alley on Calle 45, according to Floridita Varadero's longtime staff.

Divers know Varadero for something other than sand. There are more than 30 dive sites off the peninsula, including the Cayo Piedras del Norte marine park, where a scuttled navy vessel and a Soviet AN-24 airplane sit on the bottom, and Ojo de Mégano, an underwater cave to the east. Ask any operator still working whether its boats have fuel, since Canada notes dive centers may not meet home safety standards.

For a longer day trip, Viazul runs from Varadero to Playa Larga for €12 and Playa Girón for €14, the Bay of Pigs coast on the Zapata Peninsula. It's the opposite of Varadero's managed beach, which is the point.

The Part Most Guides Miss

The best thing about Varadero in 2026 is the thing the crisis made possible, which is having the beach nearly to yourself. A coast built for more than a million foreigners a year is now taking a fraction of that, and the beach in front of the old town stretches for kilometers with hardly anyone on it. If you're already in Cuba, a night or two in a beachside casa in the old village, swimming early before the heat and eating whatever your host found that day, is a better use of the peninsula than any all-inclusive week ever was.

Where to Base Yourself

The old village (Calles 23 to 54). The original town, with wooden houses, casas particulares and the public beach a block from almost every door. It suits independent travelers and anyone barred from the big resorts, Americans included, and you can walk to Parque Josone and the bus station. The catch is that it shares the town's power and water cuts. A worker at Hotel Los Delfines on Calle 32 said in March 2026 that his area had no water and the hotel closed because of it, so ask your host about tanks and a generator.

The resort strip on Autopista Sur. East of the golf course, hotels fill the peninsula almost to the tip, with the beach at the door. It suits people who want to sleep in sight of the sand and don't plan to leave. The catch is long. Many properties have closed or changed hands since Meliá left and Iberostar cut back, about 20 are on the US restricted list, there's little to eat outside them, and a taxi to town depends on fuel.

Santa Marta and Boca de Camarioca. Santa Marta and the fishing village of Boca de Camarioca, about 5 kilometers from Varadero, are where most of the old municipality's 20,000 people lived, far more than on the peninsula itself, and Boca de Camarioca has waterfront casas particulares. It suits slow travelers who want a neighborhood rather than a strip. You'll need a bike, a tricycle or a ride to reach the good stretch of beach.

Matanzas. A real city 32 kilometers west, with a cathedral, a theater, rivers and bridges, and a casa scene that survives on returning Cubans and the odd foreigner. One host there kept prices at $30 or less with breakfast in 2025. It suits anyone who wants Cuban city life with a beach day trip, by Viazul for €10. It doesn't suit anyone who wants to wake up to the sea.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Money first, because it shapes everything. Cuba is a cash economy in 2026, Visa and Mastercard don't work, foreign cards won't draw from ATMs, and Canadian dollars are hard to change, so bring US dollars or euros in small bills. Cuban immigration can ask you to show about $50 a day, which makes a fair floor for a budget. A casa room has run about $30 a night in this area, and a state city hotel about €70. Medical bills must be paid in US dollars, and Cuba won't let you leave with an unpaid one.

Plan for blackouts. The national grid collapsed eight times in 2026 by EFE's count, with island-wide outages on March 16, July 6, 10 and 14, August 2 and September 18, and Canada says outages can run past 24 hours. Most big hotels have generators, but generators need diesel. Bring a headlamp, a power bank, any medicine you need, toiletries and some snacks. Canada also suggests installing a VPN before you leave, since internet access can be blocked or cut.

Safety is ordinary caution, with sharper edges than before. The UK says crime remains lower than in Britain but opportunistic theft is rising, and both governments flag theft from casas, from cars and from luggage in taxi trunks. Canada reports sexual assaults against Canadian women at beach resorts and warns about spiked drinks. If you're a victim, file a police report before you leave the country, or no investigation can happen.

Health and water need attention. Canada recommends hepatitis A vaccination for Cuba, lists dengue and chikungunya notices, and advises avoiding ice and drinking bottled or boiled water, which matters more when the public supply is unreliable. At the beach, riptides are common, not every stretch has lifeguards or flags, and Portuguese man o' war, called agua mala, wash up. Same-sex marriage is recognized under Cuban law, though the UK notes that gender diversity isn't widely accepted.

Tips matter here more than almost anywhere. In 2026 a café clerk in Varadero described spending 700 pesos a day commuting from Cárdenas, which her tips barely covered. Leave tips in cash, and if you have room, pack things that are scarce, like medicine, batteries or rechargeable lights, for your hosts.

What things cost in Varadero

Prices checked October 2026. Each links to where we read it.

ItemPriceSource
Viazul bus, Havana bus terminal to Varadero€15 (about $17) one way, €14 per leg on a round tripViazul fare table, Jul 2026
Viazul bus, Havana airport Terminal 3 to Varadero hotels€17 (about $19) one wayViazul fare table, Jul 2026
Viazul bus, Varadero to Trinidad or Playa Larga€22 (about $25) to Trinidad, €12 (about $14) to Playa LargaViazul fare table, Jul 2026
Viazul bus, Matanzas to Varadero€10 (about $11) one wayViazul fare table, Jul 2026
Local commute, Cárdenas to Varadero200 CUP (about $0.30) by shared ride, 500 CUP (about $0.70) by electric car14ymedio via Havana Times, Mar 2026
Casa particular room with breakfast, Matanzas$30 (about 20,850 CUP) or less a night14ymedio via Havana Times, Aug 2025
State hotel room, Velasco-Louvre in Matanzas€70 (about $79) a night in summer 202514ymedio via Havana Times, Aug 2025
Three nights for a Cuban family at a small three-star Varadero hotelOver 100,000 CUP (about $265 at the mid-2025 street rate)14ymedio via Havana Times, Jun 2025
Official exchange rate at banks and CADECA booths695 CUP per US$1, 782.71 CUP per €1Banco Central de Cuba, Oct 2026

Dollar figures use the Banco Central de Cuba's Segment III rate of 695 pesos to US$1 and 782.71 to €1 (about €1 to $1.13), as posted in October 2026. Viazul prices only in euros.

If Varadero Is Part of a Longer Trip

Varadero only makes sense in 2026 as a leg of a Cuba trip that starts in Havana, and the order is simple. Fly into Havana, spend your city days there, then take Viazul east for a beach finish before going back to Havana for your flight. From Varadero, Viazul's fare table lists Santa Clara at €17, Cienfuegos for €16 and Trinidad for €22, so a loop of Havana, Varadero, Trinidad and Cienfuegos works on buses alone, if the departures are running. Check the day before. Fuel decides.

Getting into Cuba means routing through a hub that still flies there. From the US, American and Southwest still fly to Havana, though American travelers need a legal category. From elsewhere, Copa connects through Panama City, Aeroméxico flies from Mexico City, Viva Aerobus also serves Cuba from Mexico, Wingo from Bogota, and Air China and Air Europa from Madrid. Canadians lost their nonstops from Toronto and Montreal, and anyone connecting through a third country has to get the eVisa before flying. If you're stitching Cuba into a longer multi-stop trip, AirTreks can build the routing around those hubs, but leave slack, since airlines have been dropping Cuba on short notice all year.

Yearly Things to Consider

Varadero's year used to follow the Canadian winter, full from December to April and quiet in summer, when it's hot and wet and the hurricane season runs from June to November, peaking in September and October. The figures below come from Havana's Casa Blanca station, 1991 to 2020 normals, the nearest published climate normal. Varadero, 140 kilometers east on the same coast, averages roughly 55 inches of rain a year. In 2026 the calendar matters less than the fuel supply. Canada warns conditions could worsen in hurricane season, and nothing will improve in a hurry once a storm takes the grid down. If you're going, December to April, the driest months on the Havana record, give you the best weather and the most daylight for a place where the power can't be trusted after dark.

Varadero month by month

MonthTempRainfallSeasonNotes
January80°F (27°C)2.2 inHighDry, with the sea near 73°F (23°C). Peak Canadian season in normal years.
February81°F (27°C)2.3 inHighDriest stretch. Matanzas Province hit 32°F (0°C) on February 3, 2026, a Cuban record low.
March83°F (28°C)2.1 inHighLeast rain of the year, long sunny days.
April86°F (30°C)2.3 inHighLast dry month on the Havana record, though Canada counts April as the start of the rains.
May87°F (31°C)4.7 inShoulderRainy season starts, with afternoon storms.
June89°F (32°C)6.6 inLowHurricane season opens June 1. Wet and humid.
July90°F (32°C)4.9 inLowHot and humid. National Revolutionary Day holidays run July 25 to 27.
August90°F (32°C)5.7 inLowHottest month, sea around 82°F (28°C).
September89°F (32°C)6.9 inLowWettest month and hurricane peak. Irma hit on September 8, 2017.
October87°F (31°C)5.5 inLowStill hurricane risk. October 10 is Independence Day.
November84°F (29°C)3.2 inShoulderRain eases, and hurricane season ends with the month.
December81°F (27°C)2.3 inHighDry season returns, along with the Canadian charter season in normal years.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in Varadero

Arrive from Havana on the morning Viazul, check into a casa in the old village, and spend the afternoon on the beach in front of town. On day two, take a taxi or bike to the tip of the peninsula early for the Hicacos Point trails, the Cueva de Ambrosio and the salt works ruins, then swim at the empty beaches along the resort strip. On day three, walk Avenida Primera and Parque Josone in the morning and take the afternoon bus back to Havana.

5 Days in Varadero

Do the three-day version, then add the mainland. Spend day four in Matanzas, by Viazul for €10 or a hired car, seeing the Pharmaceutical Museum, the Sauto Theater and the bridges over the Yumurí and San Juan rivers, and the Bellamar caves outside town. On day five, ride to Cárdenas to see the town the hotel workers come from, with horse carts on a Charleston grid and Plaza de Colón, then return for a last swim.

1 Week in Varadero

Split the week. Spend three nights in the old village of Varadero and two in Matanzas, which gives you beach mornings and city evenings, and use the last two days for the Zapata Peninsula, with Viazul to Playa Larga for €12. Spend a night on the Bay of Pigs coast before heading back to Havana. Book each bus ahead and expect at least one cancellation.

2 Weeks or More in Varadero

Two weeks in Varadero alone would be a mistake right now. Treat it as one base on a loop instead. Do Havana first, then Varadero and Matanzas for five or six days, settling into a casa in the old village or Boca de Camarioca, then Viazul to Trinidad for €22 and Cienfuegos on the way back west. Internet is unreliable, so this isn't a remote-work stay. Bring cash for the whole trip, a power bank and a backup plan for getting home.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

Varadero Travel FAQ

Not on any regular route you can count on. All Canadian airlines suspended Cuba service in February 2026 and made it indefinite in June, and the airlines still serving Cuba in October 2026 fly almost entirely into Havana. Varadero's airport was on the list of Cuban airports without Jet A-1 through at least October 1, 2026. Plan to land in Havana and take the bus.

Havana, for nearly everyone. The city has the culture, the restaurants and the flights, and Varadero is a two-hour bus ride away when you want a beach. Stay in Varadero only for the beach days, and stay in the old village rather than the resort strip so you can walk to food.

Yes, and you have to prove it on arrival or buy a Cuban policy at the airport, which may cover little. Pick a policy that covers medical evacuation and hospital stays. Cuban hospitals want US dollars in cash, and you won't be allowed to leave the country with an unpaid medical bill.

Bring cash for the whole trip, in US dollars or euros, with plenty of small bills. Change some to pesos at a bank or CADECA booth at the official rate, which in October 2026 was 695 pesos to the dollar, below the roughly 775 on the street but far closer than the old gap. Viazul tickets can still be bought online with a foreign card, because the company sells in euros through a payment processor in Spain.

No. Customs confiscates drones on arrival and returns them only when you leave, which can take a while, and e-cigarettes and vaporizers are seized outright. GPS devices can also be held until departure, and satellite phones are banned.

Drink bottled or boiled water. Canada advises travelers to Cuba to avoid ice and to get vaccinated against hepatitis A, and the public water supply in Varadero has been cut off in parts of town during the 2026 crisis.

The water is usually calm and shallow, but riptides do happen and not every stretch has a lifeguard or flags. Respect red flags, don't swim alone or after dark, and watch for Portuguese man o' war, which Cubans call agua mala, especially after onshore winds.