Topless buses shuttle up and down Varadero

A brand-new fleet of topless, double-deck buses is making the rounds in Varadero to cater to tourists with a fixed timetable stretching from 9am to 9pm. The buses virtually tour the entire beach peninsula from the Paradiso Puntarena Hotel all the way to the northern tip of Punta Hicacos.

The comfy vehicles offering the new Varadero Beach Tour make 42 regular stops properly marked during a one-hour-and-five-minute drive all along the beachfront hotel and service areas. The 20-kilometer-long tour is charged at $2 apiece. Passengers can take as many spins as they want at no extra charge.

As Cuba’s Minister of Tourism Ibrahim Ferradaz put it during the opening of the new service, the new moving watchtowers will take tourists anywhere around the beach and let them take a better look of the premises. They will see Varadero’s development projects in a similar calm ambience to the one visitors enjoy inside the hotel facilities.

This kind of service is also available in other 33 cities around the globe, especially in capitals and historical cities. Yet, the Varadero bus service is the first of its kind in all Latin America.

“We got cracking with three buses here, yet the circuit should take a pool of up to seven vehicles, plus a reserve,” explained Evidio Rodriguez, TRANSTUR Director General. Mr. Rodriguez also said authorities are weighing the possibility of implementing similar services in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, including an expansion of the Blue Beach’s schedule to the Tropicana Cabaret next to the Canimar River in Matanzas. The latter service will allow tourists to watch the nightclub’s show and make their way back to Varadero.