All About Vinales Valley
[in spanish means VINALES = VIÑALES]
Viñales Valley, in Pinar del Río, Cuba, designated Cultural and World Heritage Site by UNESCO, opens to nature lovers who visit the Island. It is a unique attraction whose history goes back 300 million years ago, in a magnificent landscape where its unparallel nature is perfectly combined with environmental protection and human action. It is also renowned for growing the best tobacco in the world. The 82.5 square miles Valley is a highly representative of Cuban carsic mountains, surrounded by singular knolls with round summits and rare shapes called mogotes (hummocks). It shelters endemic flora and fauna richly endowed by exclusive species such as the Cork Palm, a living plant fossil, and the Bee Hummingbird or Zunzuncito, the smallest of birds. The village, placed at the heart of the Valley, is a traditional site whose main street shows column galleries and red-tiled houses.
Interesting attractions along the area includes, besides the Valley, mountain ranges and mogotes, the Indian Cave, the Nightingale Valley, Palenque de los Cimarrones (a fugitive slave settlement), Saint Thomas Great Cavern, as well as other caverns belonging to the Majagua-Canteras and Palmarito mountain range, Saint Vincent Valley and Viñales village. It is the ideal spot for nature tourism and adventure such as trekking, mountaineering and speleology. Jutia and Levisa keys, with beautiful beaches to visit, are just an hour away from the Valley. Viñales village is a picturesque place of a deep-rooted musical tradition and a high plastic arts development which integrate into the socio-cultural life of the town. The mogote known as Dos Hermanas (Two Sisters) shows one of the biggest murals in open spaces world over. The Prehistoric Mural -a 120.00m x 180.00m hillside- reflects the biological evolution of the Sierra de los Órganos, one of the two World Biosphere Reserves of the province.
TripAdvisor, in section “Visiting Cuba”, list Viñales Valley in World Heritage Sites in Cuba, Top Rated B&Bs, Top Rated Attractions and Popular Cuba destination.
Lonely Planet Guide:”…characterized by its quiet, unhurried streets lined by rustling pine trees, Viñales is a town of creaking rocking chairs and well-polished front porches, where the enthusiastic locals will greet you as one of the family. Along with Baracoa this has to be one of the friendliest places in Cuba and for this reason alone it justifies a two- or three-day lay-over. “