Fodor's Expert Review Hershey Railway
Once the property of the Hershey chocolate barons, Cuba's first electric railway was built in 1917 to haul sugarcane and workers to the sugar refinery. Now the quaint electric engine slowly pulls three passenger cars with wooden benches to a picturesque station in Matanzas, making many stops along the way. The ride usually takes about three to four hours to travel 95 km (60 miles). It's an interesting trip, but you can't be on a tight schedule, because the train isn't always on time and sometimes doesn't even get from Havana to Matanzas on the same day. The best train to take is the 12:21 pm train from the Casablanca station in Havana, or the 12:09 from Matanzas, but always check the most current schedule first. You buy the tickets on the train.