Several excellent day trips are reachable from Havana. The most popular is Viñales, about three hours west by bus, a valley of dramatic limestone mogotes (isolated rock towers) rising above tobacco fields and traditional farmland in Pinar del Río province. The valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the landscape is unlike anything else in Cuba. Organised tours run from Havana; independent buses are cheaper and roughly as easy.
Varadero beach, about two hours east on the northern coast of Matanzas province, is Cuba's primary beach resort — a long peninsula with white sand and shallow turquoise water. It is extremely touristy and somewhat removed from the Cuba of everyday life, but the beach itself is genuinely excellent. Best reached by Viazul bus or organised transfer from Havana.
Trinidad, five hours southeast, is the best-preserved colonial town in Cuba — smaller and less restored than Old Havana, with cobblestone streets, pastel-painted houses, and a slower rhythm. The journey is long for a day trip; many visitors prefer to stay one or two nights. Viazul buses run daily from the main bus terminal.
Closer to Havana, the Hemingway Marina and the small fishing town of Cojímar — where Hemingway kept his boat and based "The Old Man and the Sea" — can be reached by taxi in thirty minutes, as can Finca Vigía, the writer's preserved hilltop home, and the sprawling Parque Lenin on the city's southern edge.