Cuba – any tips

Thinking about doing three weeks in Cuba later in the year. Neither of us have been and are not too bothered about giving up on the US. Any positive or negative tips would be most gratefully received. Not cycling, public transport.

Not sure you have to give up on the US. Been to Cuba twice and US since.

Nice country felt very safe but went on package type holiday and with some independent travelling. I know someone who just went with no plan and ended up staying with a family for a couple of weeks and being shown around.

Don’t know if that link will work or if it’s of any use.

Id love to go there.

It’s a terrible shame they are having really hard times due to ex pats with a grudge living the good life in Florida and destroying any US presidential hopeful that wants to move on from the Cuban missile crisis days.

Theur healthcare system is in an appalling state for instance, there was a good segment on the Beeb a month or two back. They are training great doctors and other professionals… Only to see them emigrate as the country is in such a mess. 😐

Spent a couple of weeks driving round and staying at b&b. Loved it and hope to go back one day. Roads were much better than I’d been led to believe except that one time we nearly died when a cow wandered into the motorway. Lots to see and do. Havana is amazing. We were there when the Rolling Stones played a free concert, which was a bit special !!

An amazing country with some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Hope to go back someday too

Absolutely loved it. As above, great people – despite the decades of austerity.

Havana is great – take walking shoes; I’m sure the restoration of old buildings is still continuing; the city architecture was great at getting the Castros to provide funding for the restoration and renovation work.

The fortress is great at night; walk the Malecón in the evening; go to the Havana Club distillery and drink some really old rum; there’s a great car museum  – old american imports; watch the boys cruisin’ in their american cars from the ’50s – how they keep them going is a marvel of ingenuity!

Revolution Square for civic pride – and the massive mural if Che on an adjoining tower block; there’s a viewing platform at top of the Jose Martí memorial but we didn’t do that.

If your view of public transport includes internal/domestic flights – they’re a very different experience to the international flights. Domestic terminals – even in Havana – are, let’s say, basic; domestic flights run on ‘Cuban time’ – being 2 or 3 hours late is not unusual so regard domestic timetables as a very rough approximation.

Definitely go to one of the paladares – private homes with licence to serve food and drink.We travelled to one in a fully restored cardinal red Buick – that was fabulous.

If I went again, Santiago da Cuba would be the preferred base.

Beach resorts are fine; air and sea temp of 84F was very acceptable!

Go; you’ll love it! Culture, history, music.

Have a read of ‘Slow Train to Guantanamo’ for a feel of the place.  Went about 10 years ago, fabulous place, unique, with good and bad elements as a result of that.  Best Mojitos you’ll ever have, which is a good job as most of the food was bloody awful 😁.

Unless US immigration policies have changed, you having a Cuban stamp in your passport won’t affect your legal right of entry into the US.

That’s based on personal experience; they were separate holidays – Cuba first, US two years later.

Loads of good comments from Frank – Havana was great for just walking and biking about – I think we spent a good 5 days there.

We did a home stay in Vinales – again you can hire a bike and do a bit of walking, it’s a small country town and you can see most things in a full couple of days.

We loved Trinidad, went by bus from Havana and spent a good 4 days there in another home stay. It is just so full of music and dancing it had a wonderful vibe. It was wonderful to see just how good the taxi dancers were in the square – some were really old looking guys but with fantastic moves. Also can hire a car and driver for a trip to the mountains and can hire a bike for a ride to the beach.

And yes, the mojitos were great.

PS I had no trouble going to the USA a few months later.  I think the restrictions are more focused on their own citizens.

We were there when the USA beat us in the World Cup. The place was absolutely full of yanks. A truly shit day.

There are about 3000 americans living in Cuba; US tourist numbers to Cuba have crashed so it’s a very long time since ‘the place was absolutely full of yanks’ – which is perjorative term.

It’s popular with Canadians – but they’re not americans.

US beat England in world cup in 1950; didn’t think you were that old zip. It’s a big enough place to avoid a few americans.

Your post is absolutely useless for the OP; do you have any tips?

Tip: Have an amazing time

😀

Thanks all, a lot to go on here. We’re fairly intrepid travellers and may well report back around November. Cheers!

We were there a few weeks ago, there was a surprising number of USAians. Not vast numbers, but noticeable, Germans appeared to ne well represented. The Canadians mainly go straight to the beach and stay thete (according to our guide, confirmed by ouy day at a beach hotel).

If you like diving/ snorkelling the Bay of Pigs area looked great, but we were only passing through to visit the museum there- which is great.

Endorse everything said above, beautiful place and lovely people. The food was OK really, but would have been v dull for a veggie. The trek to visit Fidel’s mountain guerilla hideout is fun, worth taking your walking poles for if you use them.

I read online that US dollars are very popular and the unofficial exchange rate differs massively from the official one. Any advice about currency? I have used money changers in El Salvador/Guatemala and although they looked stereotypically terrifying they did provide a  good (honest?) service. Not sure if I want to walk about with my pockets full of notes.

It’s popular with Canadians – but they’re not americans.

They are literally Americans… 🙂 But I know what you mean.

In case it’s not clear, I think the OP reference to not travelling to the US relates to the inability to use an ESTA if you been to Cuba since Jan 2021 (Edited typo). It’s correct you aren’t banned, but you have to apply for a tourist or business visa which is much more onerous and costly including visa interview at the US Embassy.

I read online that US dollars are very popular and the unofficial exchange rate differs massively from the official one. Any advice about currency?

Youll need to Google to check I have this right but IIRC there are two currencies- local money and foreigner money. The rates you mention relate to local money. Which is fine but maybe you could get hassle if someone is in a bad mood. To be honest we didn’t want to buy anything apart from food, and it was cheap enough that we didn’t begrudge paying a bit extra.

Re currency, there is a local rate and an official rate. Local rates were 250 – 280 Pesos/dollar (or was it Euros – both are welcome), official rate about half that. Government hotels and the larger chain ones do not offer exchange at all, don’t accept foreign currency and some insist on payment by credit card (which will give you the government rate). If you stay at guest houses they normally offer to change money at the local rate, that is where we changed our money. Restaurants often accept both Pesos and dollars, but check the prices to see what rate they are applying. Probably best value is to change money at local rate and pay in Pesos.

ETA thay gave up on the two currency model, now there is just one Peso, but two rates as above.

Went many years ago and loved the whole experience, but long enough ago to think much of my advice is out of date.  But I too really enjoyed the trip to Fidel’s mountain hideout (up “Cuba’s steepest road”), the Bay of Pigs, Che Guevara’s mausoleum, Trinidad (try the lobsters), and spectacular mojitos in Niquero.