I just recently got back from a 5-day vacation in beautiful Varadero, Cuba. It wasn’t my first time visiting the Caribbean island: I’d visited Cayo Coco back in 2018 with my ex-boyfriend’s family. We never left the resort and spent the entire time on the beach.

Relaxing, sure, but not my idea of a vacation. I’m a do-er - I love doing things, getting out and having new experiences. I was in another country, and I wanted to see what it was like. There’s nothing wrong with lying on a beach, but after a week of doing the same thing every day, you get a little bored of the whole thing.

But this trip to Varadero was a whole new experience, in the best possible way. Every day, we were off doing something new and exciting. We were DOING things, just like how I wanted to!

So, that being sad, if you’re a fellow do-er, here’s some of my tips for having a great vacation in Cuba:

1. Thoroughly research the resort and the area you want to stay in before you go

This one should be a no-brainer - you want to know that you’re spending your money well, after all. If you do the work ahead of time, the vacation will be a lot more relaxing.

We chose Varadero the second time around for my trip based on recommendations. The city is entirely focused on tourists: there are over 70 resorts in Varadero. As our tour guide explained, there are three resorts currently built that are going to be the final ones in the city.

They have literally built so many resorts that there isn’t room for any more. That’s how tourist-focused they are.

Varadero is about a 2-hour drive from Havana, and gives you access to a lot of fun, engaging excursions and activities. With so many resorts to choose from, with some research, you should be able to find one that suits your needs for any downtime you might have outside of off-resort activities.

For my trip, we decided on the Ocean Vista Azul resort. For a similar price to other 5-star resorts in the area, we got access to their exclusive “Privilege” experience: larger, more extravagant rooms, the ability to make reservations at their a la carte restaurants, private bars, lounges, pools… even an entire beach reserved for only those who were willing to pay that little bit extra.

The better food at the a la carte restaurants alone was enough to make the extra bit of money worthwhile. Don’t cheat yourself on your accommodations: even if you’re spending a lot of time off-resort, you still want to enjoy it at the end of the day when you return.

2. Get. Your. Vaccines. Especially Dukoral.

In case you haven’t heard it before, in most places, the food in Cuba isn’t great. Though they might say that the tap water is safe to drink and held to a high water quality standard, there’s still the chance that you’re going to get sick.

I don’t want to make it sound like there’s no food safety or cleanliness, or that everything is improperly prepared, or anything like that. There are some Cuban foods that I absolutely love! But the fact remains, when I went on my first trip to Cuba, on the last day, I got super sick and was feeling crummy for almost an entire month afterward.

After that experience, for my return trip, I made sure I was prepared.

I took all of the major vaccines the first time around, and was still covered. (For the curious, that’s Hepatitis A and B, and typhoid. The last thing you want is a nasty, lasting illness from a trip.)

But the second time, I decided that I wanted to try and do what I could to avoid another unpleasant stomach adventure. When I found out that my boyfriend had gotten Dukoral with his travel vaccines, I immediately knew that I wanted to get some for myself. Drink a little nasty-flavoured liquid and (potentially, hopefully) avoid being sick for a month post-trip?

Hell yeah! Sign me up!

While my stomach is still a little off after returning home to Canada, I still have no regrets on taking the Dukoral - because I know how much worse it can be if you don’t try to have any kind of protection for your stomach at all.

If you’re like me and have a sensitive stomach, or just want to avoid any unpleasant surprises from your trip once you’re back, make sure you do what you can to protect yourself. The last thing you want is to have your trip ruined by stomach issues when you’re supposed to be enjoying the weather, and everything else that Cuba has to offer.

After all, it’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

3. Don’t be afraid to find your own activities

For more of the excursions I went on while in Cuba this time around, we relied on bookings through Transat. For the most part, it was a great decision - our days with the excursions were packed with things to do, and we never really had to worry too much about the petty details about where to get food while we were out, or how we’d get home at the end of the day.

The first excursion we went on was the Jeep Safari. Spending most of the day in a smaller group, driving around in a Jeep or a boat, was a great way to experience all of the activities. The weather didn’t allow us to do any snorkeling on the day that we went, but the boating, exploring the old coffee plantation, and enjoying a dip in the natural swimming pool were all plenty of fun on their own.

You should know how to drive standard to get the most out of the Jeep Safari, but if you head to Varadero, I can’t recommend it enough.

The second excursion we went on with Transat was a cruise on a catamaran out to Cayo Blanco, with a couple stops along the way for some snorkeling off the boat, and a fun dolphin experience. While not quite as enjoyable as the Jeep Safari because of the larger group, and a LOT of smaller children coming along, this one was still fun, and helped make up for the snorkeling we missed with the Jeep Safari. Cayo Blanco was a beautiful beach, and there’s nothing like riding around on the ocean in a boat with an open bar.

That being said, you can still a great excursion experience, but without some of the annoyance that might come with travelling along with a large group.

On one of our last days in Varadero, we decided to use Varadero Tour Taxi for a day trip out to Havana. There was a similar offering from Air Transat, but it was in a large group, on a large tour bus - you didn’t get that private, quiet experience, and the ability to customize where you wanted to go during your day out in the town. Our tour guide, Alex, was amazing, and provided lots of interesting info, along with taking us to a restaurant where we had what we considered to be the best meal of our trip. He wasn’t overbearing, and let us have plenty of time to explore the places we stopped on our own, and get what we wanted out of the tour.

The tour we took also allowed for the option to enjoy the Cuban Tropicana experience - we chose not to partake this time, but if I returned, I’d definitely want to give it a shot, or just explore some of the nightlife in Havana.

We also used the tourist buses available to us to go down to Varadero itself on our first full day in Cuba, and had a lot of fun exploring the available shops and markets for a day.

In general, don’t be afraid of doing your own thing, and going off the resort! That’s where all of the fun happens.

Do you have another tip for travelling to Cuba? Have you gone and found something I didn’t mention? Leave a comment below.