Bacuranao is the first beach you hit heading east from Havana on the Via Blanca — 16km from the city centre and about 20 minutes by taxi under normal traffic conditions. It’s a narrow strip of beach that’s popular with Havana residents, particularly on weekends, and has the basic facilities — food vendors, beach chairs for rent, a bar — that make it a functional escape. The water here is less clear than the beaches further east because of proximity to Havana harbour, and the beach itself is narrower and less well-maintained than Santa María del Mar.

Bacuranao’s advantage is purely logistical. If you have a few hours free on a Thursday afternoon and you want to be in the water with minimal travel, this is the right choice. There’s also a small marina and dive operation at Bacuranao that organises boat trips along the coast — worth investigating if you want to see the coastline from the water rather than the beach.

Santa María del Mar is where the Playas del Este arc is widest and most attractive — the sand is whiter and more extensive than the beaches closer to Havana, the water is clearer, and the overall atmosphere has a resort-town quality without being heavily developed in the all-inclusive sense. Several hotels back the beach (the Cuatro Palmas is the most prominent) and provide the food, drink, and facilities that make a full beach day comfortable. Chairs and umbrellas are available for rent, water sports operators offer jet ski and banana boat rides, and the shade trees at the back of the beach prevent the midday sun situation that plagues more exposed strips.

For families traveling to Havana with young children, Santa María del Mar is the logical beach day — the water is calm, the beach is wide, facilities are reliable, and the distance from the city is short enough that a morning start doesn’t require an alarm at 6am. On weekends in high season (December–March), the beach gets busy by 11am. For a less crowded experience, arrive by 9am or go on a weekday. The beach’s western end, where it transitions toward Boca Ciega, tends to be less crowded than the central section.

Guanabo is the furthest and most developed of the Playas del Este, and it’s different from the beaches closer to Havana in one significant way: it has a real town behind it. Guanabo is where Havana residents rent summer houses and spend August. It has a grid of streets with casas, paladores, a modest commercial strip, and the kind of neighborhood infrastructure that makes it the right choice for an overnight stay rather than just a day trip. The beach itself is wide, the water is decent, and the afternoon breeze off the sea cools things down after the midday heat.

For solo travelers or independent couples who want a beach base close to Havana without the corporate resort feel, Guanabo is the most interesting option in the Playas del Este. Casa particular accommodation here is cheap by Havana standards — $20–30 per night — and the evenings have the specific energy of a local Cuban summer weekend in the way that a resort beach never quite captures. The paladares in Guanabo serve fresh fish at prices that reflect local rather than tourist economics.

Jibacoa sits in Mayabeque Province about 60km east of Havana, past the Playas del Este and past the urban and peri-urban influence that affects water quality along the coast closer to the capital. The result is noticeably cleaner water with coral reef in accessible snorkelling depth starting from the beach — something the Playas del Este doesn’t offer. The reef at Jibacoa isn’t the most spectacular in Cuba (the Jardines de la Reina in the south is in a different category) but it has healthy sections with reef fish, sea turtles, and the kind of underwater visibility that makes snorkelling genuinely rewarding rather than merely wet.

The beach itself is good — narrower than Santa María del Mar but backed by limestone cliffs and low tropical vegetation that give it a wilder feel than the more developed Playas del Este. There are campismo facilities (basic Cuban camping complexes) along the Jibacoa coastline that offer very affordable accommodation, and a few small casas in the nearby village for overnight stays. Jibacoa is not a day-trip beach in the same way that Santa María del Mar is — the extra distance means you need a full day rather than a half day to make it worthwhile, and the transport logistics are less convenient than the closer beaches.

Getting there: private taxi from Havana is the most practical option (negotiate for the full day — around $60–80 USD round trip with waiting time). There’s no regular tourist bus service to Jibacoa. The Viazul bus to Matanzas passes through the area but doesn’t stop at the beach itself. A rental car makes Jibacoa the obvious choice if you have one — the drive on the Via Blanca through the Yumurí Valley approaching Matanzas is one of the prettier coastal stretches in northern Cuba.

Varadero is not a day trip in any casual sense — 140km in each direction means either a genuinely long day starting very early and returning late, or a simple overnight. Most travelers who do Varadero from Havana go for at least one night, which also makes sense because the beach is best experienced over more than a few midday hours. The early morning on Varadero, before the all-inclusive guests emerge, with the light on the water and almost nobody on the sand for the first kilometre, is one of the genuinely beautiful things available to visitors in Cuba that costs nothing except an early start.

The beach itself: 20km of fine white powder sand on the northern shore of a narrow peninsula that juts east into the Atlantic. The water is turquoise and warm, the visibility is good, and the sand is of the type that doesn’t get unbearably hot in direct sun. The seabed slopes gently enough that children can walk out considerable distances while remaining in shallow water. Compared to the Playas del Este — which are pleasant but clearly urban beaches — Varadero is a resort beach at a genuinely different level.

The resort strip infrastructure is substantial and the all-inclusive hotels are right on the beach. For a day visitor who isn’t staying at an all-inclusive, the public beach access is maintained — you can use any part of the beach and buy food and drinks at the restaurants along the shore road. Non-guests at the all-inclusives don’t have access to the hotel pools, but the beach itself and the water belong to everyone.