Top 10 Marinas in Cuba
Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, more than 1,200 kilometres from cape to cape, and for the cruising sailor it remains gloriously underdeveloped: long stretches of mangrove cay, reef-fringed lagoons and only a handful of full-service marinas strung along a vast coast. Sailing here means embracing the country's particular rhythm — the despacho paperwork between every port, the guarda frontera who check you in and out, and anchorages where you may be the only boat for miles. Provision well, carry spares, and treat the cruising permit seriously. These ten harbours and bases are where the Cuban cruise begins and ends.
Marina Hemingway — the famous gateway west of Havana
Marina Hemingway, a few miles west of central Havana at Santa Fe, is the island's best-known yacht harbour and for many the port of entry. Four parallel canals dredged into the coral hold visiting boats stern-to or alongside, and the whole entry ritual happens here: you wait at the sea buoy, call the marina on VHF, and the officials — immigration, customs, the agriculture inspector with a dog, sometimes a doctor — come aboard to clear you in. It has hosted the Ernest Hemingway International Billfish Tournament since 1950, and from its docks a taxi reaches Old Havana's plazas in half an hour.
Marina Tarará and the Havana coast
East of the capital, Marina Tarará sits in a sheltered river mouth amid a former beach-resort complex, a quieter alternative to the bustle of Hemingway. The protected basin and the long sandy beaches of the Playas del Este nearby make it a pleasant base for exploring Havana without the city's intensity. Like everywhere in Cuba, services depend on the day's fuel and water supply, but the staff are practised at handling foreign yachts, and the run downwind into Havana harbour or back to Hemingway is short and simple. The old harbour of Havana itself, behind the Morro castle, is a commercial and cruise port rather than a yacht haven, but few approaches in the Caribbean match the sight of the Malecón sea-wall and the dome of the Capitolio opening up as you close the coast.
Varadero — the Marlin marinas of the Hicacos peninsula
The Hicacos peninsula at Varadero, a 20-kilometre spit of white sand that is Cuba's tourism heartland, holds the Marina Gaviota Varadero — among the largest in the country — and other Marlin-operated bases. Deep, well-marked and close to the international airport, it is the most resort-like marina in Cuba, with fuel, water, repairs and charter operations on hand — for many sailors arriving by air to join a charter, this is the practical start of the trip. From here the cays of the Archipiélago de Sabana-Camagüey stretch east, more than 460 kilometres of low coral and mangrove islets with the Cayo Santa María and Cayo Coco resorts among them, and to the south lies the run toward the Bay of Pigs and the Zapata wetlands, the largest in the Caribbean and a paradise for birdwatchers and bonefishers alike.
Cienfuegos — the pearl of the south
On the south coast, Cienfuegos occupies one of the finest natural harbours in the Caribbean: a near-landlocked bay entered through a narrow channel guarded by the 18th-century Castillo de Jagua. The Marina Marlin Cienfuegos and the Club Cienfuegos — a flamboyant former yacht club building on the Punta Gorda — give the bay a sailing tradition, and the city's French-influenced grid, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is among the most elegant in Cuba. The huge protected anchorage makes Cienfuegos a natural hub for the south coast and the offshore cays.
Trinidad and Casilda — gateway to the colonial coast
A short sail east of Cienfuegos, the small harbour of Casilda serves Trinidad, the perfectly preserved Spanish-colonial town a few kilometres inland, also UNESCO-listed. The Marina Trinidad gives access to the Península de Ancón beaches and, offshore, to Cayo Blanco with its reefs and the long chain of cays of the Jardines de la Reina to the southeast. Trinidad's cobbled streets and the Valle de los Ingenios sugar valley behind make this one of the richest cultural landfalls on the whole coast.
The Jardines de la Reina — Cuba's wild southern archipelago
The Gardens of the Queen, named by Columbus for his queen, form a 150-kilometre chain of mangrove cays and coral reefs along the south-central coast, now one of the Caribbean's largest marine reserves. There are no marinas here, only anchorages and the live-aboard dive and fishing operations licensed to work the protected waters: crocodiles in the mangroves, sharks on the reefs, and visibility that runs to tens of metres. Reaching the cays from Júcaro or Cienfuegos demands careful pilotage through the channels, but no other Cuban water rewards the effort so completely.
Santiago de Cuba — the Marina Marlin of the southeast
Far to the southeast, Santiago de Cuba — the island's second city and the cradle of its revolution — sits behind a magnificent bottle-shaped bay guarded by the 17th-century Castillo del Morro, a UNESCO World Heritage fortress. The Marina Marlin Santiago de Cuba near Punta Gorda is the main yacht base for this end of the island, well placed for boats arriving from Jamaica or Haiti across the Windward Passage. The mountains of the Sierra Maestra rise straight behind the city, and the Caribbean Sea here is deep and blue right up to the coast.
The eastern cays and clearing out
From Santiago the coast runs east to the dramatic cliffs around Baracoa, Cuba's oldest town, and to the marina facilities at the eastern tip near Puerto de Vita and Guardalavaca in Holguín province. Marina Gaviota Puerto de Vita is a common entry or exit port for boats heading to or from the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos. Wherever you leave Cuba, the despacho ritual repeats: clearance papers stamped, the guarda frontera aboard one last time, and a final stretch of that long, reef-guarded coast slipping astern.
Explore on the map
Every harbour and cay in this story — Marina Hemingway's canals, the great bay of Cienfuegos, the wild Jardines de la Reina — is plotted on our interactive map. Trace the run from Havana along the north coast to Varadero, or drop south to the colonial harbours and the offshore reserves. Open Cuba on the map and see how a single enormous island offers a lifetime of anchorages, if you are willing to sail it on its own terms.