Cuba Guide
Pinar del Río
Getting around
As with much of Cuba, relying on public transport in Pinar del Río is a hazardous, patience-testing business. Much of the province is quite simply out of range of any of the public services, which, where they do exist, are more often than not extremely unreliable. Víazul provide a daily bus service from Havana to the provincial capital and then north to Viñales, and there are daily Astro buses following the same route. Very few visitors ever take the train into Pinar del Río, as it is notoriously slow and doesn't make any useful stops except for the provincial capital itself; the other towns which it stops in are at least a few kilometres from anywhere worth visiting.
For any kind of independence travelling in and around the Sierra del Rosario or the eastern half of the Sierra de los Organos, you'll need your own car, which you will have to rent in Havana, Viñales or the provincial capital. Most drivers speed their way through the province on the autopista, which comes to an end at the city of Pinar del Río. Running roughly parallel is the Carretera Central, a slower option, which takes you closer to the mountains and gives better views of the surrounding landscape, whilst the most scenic, slowest and least travelled route of all is along the northern coastline. Once past the provincial capital, the Carretera Central is the only major road.