Varadero

Varadero is a resort town in the province of Matanzas, Cuba, and one of the largest resort areas in the Caribbean. Varadero is also called Playa Azul, which means "blue beach" in Spanish.
It is situated on the Hicacos Peninsula, between the Bay of Cardenas and the Straits of Florida, some 140 km east of Havana, at the eastern end of the Via Blanca highway. The peninsula is only 1.2 km wide at its widest point and is separated from the island of Cuba by the Kawama Channel. This spit of land however extends more than 20 kilometers from the mainland in a northeasterly direction and its tip, Punta Hicacos, is the northernmost point of the island of Cuba. At the northeastern end of the peninsula there is a nature reserve with virgin forests and beaches. The Hicacos Point Natural Park is a 3.12 km2(1.2 sq mi) ecological preserve established in 1974. It contains the 250 m (820 ft) long Cave of Ambrosio, Mangon Lake (home to 31 species of birds and 24 species of reptiles) and the ruins of the La Calavera (The Skull) Salt Works (one of the first salt works to be constructed by the Spanish in the New World). Thecays developed off shore, such as Cayo Piedras and Cayo Cruz del Padre are the western most part of the Sabana-Camaguey Archipelago.
Juan Gualberto Gomez Airport, situated west of the peninsula, is Varadero's airport. It is the second-most-important airport of the island after Jose Marti Airport in Havana, and serves international and domestic flights.
The first mention of Varadero was in 1555. The place was first used as a dry dock (Spanish: varadero) and the salt mines of the peninsula (closed in 1961) supplied most of the Spanish Latin America Fleet since 1587. However, the foundation date of Varadero as city was only on December 5, 1887, when ten families from the city of Cardenas obtained a permission to build their vacation homes between today's 42nd and 48th Street.
It was established as municipality (Spanish: municipio) at the administrative re-distribution of July 3, 1976 from territories previously part of Cardenas.
Varadero is foremost a tourist resort town, boasting more than 20 km of white sandy beaches. The first tourists visited Varadero as early as the 1870s, and for years it was considered an elite resort. In 1910 the annual rowing regatta was started; five years later the first hotel, named Varadero and later Club Nautico, was built. Tourism grew in the early 1930s as Irenee du Pont Nemours, an American millionaire, built his estate on the peninsula. Many famous and infamous people stayed in Varadero, for example Al Capone.
After the Cuban Revolution in 1959, many mansions were expropriated from their rich owners. As a symbol of the new integrated tourism for Cubans and foreign visitors of all social classes, the Park of the 8000 Cubicles (Parque de las 8000 Taquillas) was built in 1960. Visitors could leave their belongings in the basement of the park, had access to sanitary installations and gastronomic services on the first floor, and could rent bathing articles and swimsuits. The surroundings of the park became the center of the city.
In addition to its most valued resource, the beach, Varadero has natural attractions such as caves and a chain of easily accessed virgin cays. There are also cultural, historical and environmental attractions in the vicinity, such as the cities of Matanzas and Cardenas, the Zapata Peninsula and the resort of San Miguel de los Banos. Varadero, which is a free port, also possesses facilities for scuba diving, deep-sea fishing, yachting and other water sports.
Varadero receives about 500,000 visitors per year.
Varadero is primarily visited by European, Latin American and Canadian tourists. The number of U.S. tourists visiting Varadero, although increasing, has been limited because of the restrictions that make it illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba as tourists.

Attractions

- Varadero amphitheater
- Plaza America Convention Center
- Ambrosio'd cave
- Muslims' cave
- Nuestra Senora de Fatima church
- Inmaculado Corazon de Maria church
- Reformed Presbiterian church
- Varadero Municipal museum
- Josone park
- Varadero Golf Club