🇨🇺 Cuba · Western Cuba
Varadero is the beach that appears on Cuba's postcards: 20 kilometers of fine white sand sinking into an almost unreal turquoise sea, on the narrow Hicacos peninsula, in the north of the island. It's the great Cuban beach resort, the country's sun-and-beach destination par excellence and one of the most famous in the Caribbean, with an endless strip of all-inclusive hotels where thousands of travelers —above all from Canada and Europe— arrive in search of rest, warm sea and caipirinhas by the pool.
Unlike other Cuban destinations, Varadero is visited not so much for its history or its heritage as for its generous nature: the beach, the sun and a warm, transparent, shallow sea that invites you to swim for hours. It's the place where Cuba relaxes, where the rhythm is set by the sun, the dip and the sunset over the water. But beyond the big resorts, there's a Varadero with its own town, its casas particulares, its paladares and charming corners, such as Parque Josone or the Punta Hicacos nature reserve.
This guide covers Varadero with a practical eye: its legendary beach, the water activities, the excursions by sea and land, and its role as a base for getting to know other areas of Cuba. It's an ideal destination for combining absolute Caribbean rest with getaways to Havana, Matanzas or the interior, and for understanding why, for almost a century, Varadero has been synonymous with a paradise beach.
The Hicacos peninsula, where Varadero now stretches, was inhabited in pre-Hispanic times by indigenous peoples, and its name derives from the 'varadero', the place where boats were beached (taken out of the water). During the colonial era it was an area of salt flats: from here salt was extracted that supplied much of western Cuba. The birth of Varadero as a beach resort is placed toward the end of the 19th century, when well-off families from the nearby city of Cárdenas began building summer houses facing the sea; 1887 is considered the founding year of the resort. In the first decades of the 20th century, Varadero became the summer spot of the Cuban elite and, later, of foreign millionaires: the American magnate Irénée du Pont de Nemours built there in the 1920s-1930s his luxurious Xanadú mansion (today a hotel and golf course). In that era Varadero lived its golden age as an exclusive destination, with casinos and luxury hotels. After the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, the properties were nationalized and the beach was opened to popular enjoyment. From the 1980s and 1990s, with the opening to international tourism, Varadero was transformed into Cuba's great tourism hub, with the massive construction of all-inclusive hotels that consolidated it as the country's most important sun-and-beach destination. The full history is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The province of beaches and sugar mills: the 'Athens of Cuba', city of bridges and poets, cradle of rumba and danzón, heart of the 19th-century sugar boom, home to Varadero —the country's largest beach— and to the Zapata Swamp, the largest wetland in the insular Caribbean.
Read the history of Matanzas →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Before it was one of the most photographed beaches on the planet, Varadero was a salt flat. For centuries, the narrow Hicacos peninsula —the piece of Cuban territory that juts furthest north into the sea, in the province of Matanzas— produced not tourists but salt, evaporated from Caribbean water to preserve the food of western Cuba. That this tongue of sand ended up turned into the most glamorous beach resort in Cuba, with the mansion of an heir to the DuPont chemical empire on top of its only hill, is one of the most astonishing transformations in the country's history. And it all began with a seafaring name.
Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area was frequented by indigenous peoples, as the archaeological finds and the cave paintings preserved in caves of the peninsula, such as the Cueva de Ambrosio, attest. The name 'Hicacos' derives from the icaco or hicaco, a coastal shrub with edible fruit that is abundant in the region.
The name of the resort itself, 'Varadero', has an origin linked to the sea and to navigation. A 'varadero' is the place on the coast where boats were beached, that is, where they were taken out of the water to be repaired, sheltered or loaded. The sheltered area of the peninsula served that function, and from there the place name stuck that would end up naming one of the most famous beaches in the world.
During the colonial era, the peninsula's main economic activity was not tourism, but salt. The Hicacos salt flats, where seawater was evaporated to extract salt, supplied this essential product —used above all to preserve food— to much of western Cuba. So, for centuries, the future paradise beach was, above all, a territory of salt flats and boat-beaching grounds, still far from the luxury destination it would become.
Tourist Varadero was born at the end of the 19th century. The well-off families of the nearby city of Cárdenas, drawn by the extraordinary beaches of the Hicacos peninsula, began building summer houses facing the sea there to escape the heat and enjoy bathing. The year 1887 is considered the founding moment of the resort, when the distribution of plots was formalized and the first holiday houses were built.
During the first decades, Varadero was a local, family-oriented resort, tied above all to the bourgeoisie of Cárdenas and, later, of Matanzas and Havana. Colonial-style wooden houses were built next to the beach, the first regattas and social events were organized, and the place gained fame as the loveliest summer spot in the region. The white-sand beach and the turquoise sea were already its great appeal.
With the turn of the century and the first decades of the 20th, Varadero consolidated itself as the summer destination of the Cuban elite. Yacht clubs, hotels and an increasingly intense social life around the beach were added. What had begun as a handful of summer houses of families from Cárdenas was slowly becoming the most prestigious resort in Cuba, the prelude to its golden age.
The 1920s and 1930s marked Varadero's golden age as an exclusive and glamorous destination. The great symbol of that era was the arrival of the American millionaire Irénée du Pont de Nemours, heir to the powerful DuPont chemical empire, who fell in love with the Hicacos peninsula and bought extensive land there. There, between the late 1920s and the early 1930s, he built his luxurious summer mansion: the Casa Xanadú, on the rocky rise of San Bernardino, facing the sea.
Du Pont's presence drove the urbanization and the rising value of the peninsula. Varadero filled with mansions, clubs, luxury hotels and, in the climate of first-half-of-the-20th-century Cuba, also casinos. It became the summer spot of Cuban high society and of foreign millionaires, a destination synonymous with luxury and exclusivity, with its paradise beach as its great attraction. Golf, water sports and social life animated the season.
That Varadero of the golden years was, in a way, an enclave of privilege in which the spectacular beach was largely reserved for the enjoyment of the elites. The Xanadú mansion, which survives today as a hotel and restaurant, is the most visible testimony to that era when the peninsula was the playground of the richest, before history took a deep turn.
The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 completely transformed the character of Varadero. Private properties —mansions, hotels, clubs and the elite's summer houses— were nationalized as part of the revolutionary process, and the spectacular beach, until then largely tied to the enjoyment of the upper classes and wealthy foreigners, was opened to the enjoyment of the whole Cuban population.
During the following decades, Varadero became a place of rest for Cuban workers and families. The Xanadú mansion and other properties changed use, and the peninsula was reorganized under the new social logic. The public beach and popular access to the resort remained a mark of the era. At the same time, some tourist infrastructure was maintained and developed.
This stage meant a fundamental change in Varadero's identity: from an exclusive enclave of millionaires to an open resort, a symbol of the new order. That condition of a public beach along its whole length —which is preserved to this day— is one of the particularities that set Varadero apart from other great sun-and-beach destinations in the world, where the best beaches are usually privatized.
From the 1980s and, above all, the 1990s, Varadero went through its most decisive transformation: becoming Cuba's great tourism hub. After the fall of the socialist bloc and the economic crisis of the 'Special Period', the Cuban government bet heavily on international tourism as a source of foreign currency, and Varadero —with its exceptional beach— became the country's main sun-and-beach bet.
Dozens of large all-inclusive hotels were built along the Hicacos peninsula, many operated by international chains in partnership with the Cuban State, which extended the hotel zone toward the northeastern tip. Varadero came to receive hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, mainly from Canada and Europe, drawn by the climate, the Caribbean sea and the holiday packages. The resort acquired an international airport, marinas, golf courses, shopping centers and all the infrastructure of a mass tourism destination.
Today Varadero is, along with Havana, the most visited destination in Cuba and one of the best known in the Caribbean. The 'bubble' of the big resorts coexists in it with a town of casas particulares, paladares and local life, and with protected natural areas such as the Varahicacos Reserve. Its history sums up, in a way, that of Cuban tourism: from an elite resort to the people's beach and, finally, to an economic engine of the island through international tourism.