Did Cuba at Christmas, stayed at the Barcelo Marina Palace and I'd stay there again in a heart beat.
Food
- It's not "bad" so much as bland. There's salt & pepper on all the tables but don't be afraid to bring some hot sauce for spicing up eggs and such. Never went hungry, but certanly no meals to write home about. But avoid the cold cheese, taste like @$$.
Cigars
The hotel I stayed at had a well stocked humidor and seemed very willing to sell singles. So if your just looking for something to suck on in the lounge or on the beach it's not a bad place. You may over pay a bit on single sticks but the convenience factor of buying singles is the trade off.
Now if you want a box of cigars, I'd highly recommend the habanos store in Plaza America in Varadero. It's an official state store and I found it to be the least intimidating in that most boxes were on the shelves with clearly marked prices on the bottom. Or just wait till your departure flight and hit up the duty free in the air port.
Unfortunately the factories were closed when I was there, but the Partagas factory in Havana does daily tours and the hotel we were at did offer a Havana day trip with the factory tour. But like I said the factories were closed for Christmas/New Years when I was there so we missed out on that.
Rum
Drink it, no really. Get your self a bottle of aged Havana Club and kick back. As good as the cigars are, the rum is even better. I'm not a big rum drinker, but the rum there is a step above any other I've ever had.
Things to do
Visit Havana, over night and avoid the bus tour if you can. Havana is very beautiful but I found the bus tour was very rushed and from the second we stepped off the bus we were targets for pick pockets and street scammers. Being in a group of tourist it felt like we had huge targets screaming "we have money! take it!".
This is not a knock on the Cuban people mind you, even breaking away from the group a bit we didn't experience this. Just specifically in a group getting off a shiny air conditioned bus seemed to be setting us up as targets.
Varadero - It's like the Cuban version of Banff, lots and lots of street vendors/shops all pretty much peddling the same stuff. Having said that, step into one of the street side Cafes/Bars and have a proper Mojito, it's much, much better than what you get at the resort.
Bottom line
I mostly went to unwind on my honey moon, I wanted a week of knocking back drinks on the beach and that's exactly what I got. Which I admit is a very different mind set than "I want to see a another country and experience their culture", it's much more "I don't want to even look at my phone/internet for a week"
Would I go again? Absolutely.
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