The first mention of Varadero was in 1555. The place was first used as a dry dock (Spanish: varadero) and the salt mines of the peninsula (closed in 1961) supplied most of the Spanish Latin America Fleet since 1587. However, the foundation date of Varadero as city was only on December 5, 1887, when ten families from the city of C�rdenas obtained a permission to build their vacation homes between today's 42nd and 48th Street.
It was established as municipality (Spanish: municipio) at the administrative re-distribution of July 3, 1976 from territories previously part of C�rdenas. In August 2010, the Varadero municipality was abolished according to a Law approved by the Cuban National Assembly, becoming again part of the C�rdenas municipality
