I dont need to say much read my trip report at

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/reviews/caribbean/cuba/guardalavaca/paradisus-rio-de-ora-resort-hotel-and-spa/

Flying time 9+hours but if you go Thomsons or T Cook seat pitch is now 31" all with seat back IFE soon goes.

Weatherwise - driest months with comfortable humidity and warm breezes - end Feb and all of March into early April - also most expensive however!!.As you get further into "Summer" ie May onwards the humidity goes up along with the temperature until you get into late July thru to October which is hurricane season.
If you want a really undemanding chilled out beach holiday try Cayo Guillermo; Guardalavaca offers a bit more variety in terms of trips,snorkelling etc- but still quite quiet.
Never been to Varadero(going this March!) but it appeares to be the best place to go if you want to visit Havana and want a bit more night life etc.
Roll on March 11th

snowyboy wrote:

Flying time 9+hours but if you go Thomsons or T Cook seat pitch is now 31" all with seat back IFE soon goes.

Seat pitch is 33", BA, Virgin etc offer 31".

Cuba is a fantastic country (been twice). We've always gone in March and always found blue skies. Weather is of course unpredictable, but if you avoid May - October (hurricane season), you should get some great weather. You'll find loads of information on this forum, inparticularly the dedicated Cuba thread.

Darren

Right again must have been the hangover 33" but 36/37" in Premier.

Thanks for update.

As Dazbo says, March is a great time to go - very little humidity and the greatest chance of settled sunny weather but overall you won't go far wrong travelling in our winter/spring. From May onwards the humidity (and hence the risk of hurricanes) increases and this year the hurricane season extended well into November. So I would say that your best window is probably December through to early May.

That said, I'll probably go back this July! After my last July trip I vowed I'd never go back in the summer again because the humidity was dreadful and the rain was of monsoon proportions but this is the 50th anniversary of the Revolution, and Fidel proclaimed the success of the revolution from the balcony of the Town Hall in Santiago de Cuba, and Carnival in Santiago centres on Cuban national day (26th July) and they are sure to make a big deal of it this year, so what can I say? I've been persuaded that this year's Carnival in Santiago is one not to be missed - and all my dance pals are going and we all usually have such a good time together and if I sleep the afternoon away the humidity might be bearable and the memories of how dreadful it was are fading and..and.....

SM

We went in July 08 and back again 09 did not find the humidity to bad and we had no rain at all first two weeks in July sorry one small shower to lay the dust.

I think you must have struck really lucky! But it does depend a lot on where you go - the southeast coast being hotter and stickier than the northwest for example. But wherever you go in July you do need to decide whether you want to run the hurricane risk or not. I've always escaped with only minimal effects on our plans - others haven't always been so lucky.

SM