Cuba Bike Tour Plan 2021-22. Two Exciting Options
By Lee Orphan. Learn more about him on our Tour Leaders page.
The past year has been a tough time for planning bike tours – to say the least! COVID-19 has wiped out travel plans for most people around the world. I’m still hopeful that with vaccines getting distributed we can get out and enjoy cycling in Cuba next winter season.
With that in mind, I’m teaming up with the #1 bike touring company in Cuba, with 20 years of experience operating tours in Cuba, and a home base in Havana. The tour operator BicycleBreeze (formerly CanbiCuba) lets you “pencil” yourself in for the tour, and will not seek your final confirmation until it is determined that the tour can proceed safely.
I'm leading and profiling two tours for the 2021-22 season:
1 – Western Cuba Tour – “Fat Mary” aka María la Gorda – November 6-20, 2021.
This is a very popular route, typically with a tailwind due to the predominant east to west winds in Cuba. On this route you will cycle from Matanzas to Havana and beyond, all the way to the western tip of Cuba at Maria la Gorda (the tour’s namesake). In Havana, we will pause a few days to explore the capital city, including the old town and we will witness the traditional “closing of the city” ceremony. Beyond the north coastal cycling route, we cycle through the western province of Pinar del Rio. The quiet back roads of western Cuba will take you past lush green fields of tobacco through the Viñales Valley. Viñales is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its unique karst landscape, indigenous architecture of thatched-roof houses, and traditional crafts and music. Between cycling days, we will rest and restore our energy on several of the most beautiful beaches in Cuba.
2 – Eastern Cuba Tour – Celia Sanchez “The heroine of the Revolution” – January 8-22, 2022.
Ride through some of the most beautiful and historic areas of Cuba. Beginning in Holguin, and circling the Sierra Maestra Mountains stopping in Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Manzanillo and more. This is the part of Cuba where revolutions are born. After touring the historic city of Santiago de Cuba you will ride the south coast road where the Sierra Maestra mountains fall to the sea. The breathtaking vistas will stay with you forever. Walk to La Plata, Fidel’s hideaway camp, high up in the mountains and see the landing spot of the Granma, you will be amazed that those young men made ashore to carry on and rid Cuba of Batista. The tour is named after Celia Sanchez, the heroine of the revolution. She was a girl from the Sierra Maestra and knew the area well and was acquainted with the mountain people because she assisted her father, in his medical practice, serving the poor people who lived up in those high mountains. Not only did the locals know Celia well, they loved her for her her kind work helping the people as she worked with her father, who had his practice in the small town of Pilon at the western end of these famous mountains.
