Here’s our 10 day Cuba and Mexico City itinerary. We spent eight days in Cuba visiting Havana, Trinidad, La Boca and Playa Ancon followed by a weekend in Mexico City. If you’re curious about the places we stayed in Cuba you can find all three in this post here. Info about staying in Trinidad Vs. La Boca Vs. Playa Ancon is at the bottom of this post since I get asked a ton!
As for our overall itinerary, eight days in Cuba was a good amount of time for our first trip, but we immediately wished we had more time for Mexico City! We went back less than three months later so we could have more time to explore the city. I’ll make that another post – it’s one my favorite destinations!
Our schedule:
Day 1: Havana
Day 2: Havana
Day 3: Havana
Day 4: Havana to Trinidad – This takes about 4 hours by car.
Day 5: Trinidad
Day 6: La Boca
Day 7: La Boca
Day 8: La Boca to Havana to Mexico City – We caught an early morning ride from La Boca to the airport in Havana which takes about 4 hours, then hopped on the flight to Mexico City which takes about 2 hours.
Day 9: Mexico City
Day 10: Mexico City
Trinidad vs. la boca vs. playa ancon:
I get asked about which of these three locations is best to stay in a lot. Here’s my opinion:
From Trinidad it’s about 10 minutes to La Boca and 15 minutes to Playa Ancon by car. I was very unimpressed by Playa Ancon. I had no desire to stay at a hotel anyway, but that decision was confirmed when I saw the tired, concrete hotels that lined Ancon. Overall I would say, visit if you want to but can’t recommend staying there.
Now it’s down to La Boca and Trinidad. La Boca is a very small, quiet town with no restaurants or nightlife. We ate dinner at our casa and spent our nights reading on the porch with a glass of Havana Club. We actually enjoyed the quiet in La Boca so much that we stayed for an extra night. But we’d already gotten plenty of nightlife in Havana and Trinidad 😉 If you’re looking for a little more excitement: restaurants, salsa dancing, etc. I’d definitely recommend staying in Trinidad.
As far as the beaches go, a bus goes regularly from Trinidad to various spots. My favorite were the beaches along the road between La Boca and Playa Ancon. La Boca itself is on an inlet and doesn’t have much of a beach, but a short bike (or car) ride down the road is plenty of crystal blue water and white sand beach. We had a cab take us there one day and our driver offered to come back and pick us up if we gave him a time, which ended up being the best option for a relaxing day.
