Cuba travel guide. Budget, transport, books to read.

May 6, 2018

This article is for people, who plan their trip to Cuba themselves. For our trip stories and photos please read CUBA (I). Local life. Matanzas town, CUBA (II). Local life. Cienfuegos city and CUBA (III). Havana.

One week in Cuba was a part of our extended trip through Caribbean islands. We have visited three cities: Matanzas – a small local town, Cienfuegos – a bigger local city and Havana.

Budget

● EUR250 /person were our total expenses within Cuba (40-50 EUR per day). Consider this as a very low budget for Cuba because most of the time we mingled around locals, travelled outside touristic zones and did not purchase any touristic entertainments (museums, salsa shows, water sports, vintage car rental, etc.).
● EUR 24,00 visa.
● EUR 360,00 for the flight Frankfurt -Varadero.
● 355,00 EUR for the flight Havana – Martinique.
● About EUR 20,00 for health insurance. We bought Patriot America insurance at IMG Global. Adriano says that after eight years of his loyal experience with this company, his feedback is very positive. There were no issues when he reported some expenses in the past. Another great thing about his company is that it also covers very remote and exotic countries, which other companies do not (for example Pakistan, remote Pacific Ocean islands, etc.).

This budget is from the trip in 2015.

Visas

For Europeans, it is easy to get a Cuban visa. You can do it before departure in big international airports like Frankfurt airport. Another way is to send the online application in advance to your local Cuban agency or Embassy and receive it at home by mail.

Flights

If you depart from Europe, there are many options, but we found German Condor airlines offered good deals, especially for roundtrips to Varadero.
It costs more, but if your time is limited consider using two different airports on opposite sides of the island. Cuba is a long island, and it is not convenient to come back to the initial airport. We recommend you to arrive at Varadero or Havana airport and leave from Santiago de Cuba (or vice versa).

Stay away from Cuban airlines. Flight Havana- Martinique

Cuba is not very well connected to the islands around. Most European tourists do roundtrips to Cuba and back and do not face this problem.

We had a list of Carribean islands, which we wanted to visit and of all of them, we only found one weekly flight Havana – Martinique operated by Cuban airlines. It is legendary chaos in our experience. The delay was 8 hours. We were lucky though; it could have been a day or two. In the end, we reached Martinique, and the plane was fine, but I honestly do not recommend Cuban airlines. Their service on the ground is absurd. Havana airport was excellent, and other flights were well organised. The problem was this one particular airline.

If you are interested in more details on how it went, read here.

Local transport

There are intercity buses for tourists, which cost around 15 USD per person. If you travel in a couple or more people then it is better to take a private driver/taxi. It would cost similar or even less per person, and you would benefit from having more flexibility to stop when you like a place, would get an experience of driving in a vintage car and would have an opportunity to talk to the driver. The exact cost depends on the distance, but just to give a rough idea, we paid around 50 USD for one trip between Matanzas – Cienfuegos, or Cienfuegos – Havana.

Hotels

Photo from www.booking.com

Excellent 4- star hotels in Havana charge 80-100 EUR for a double room per night.
The photo above is from Velasco hotel in the centre of Matanzas little town. In general, in local towns there is less choice, Havana can offer any type of hotel you wish for.

We always stayed at “Casas particulares” (Cuban name for Bed & Breakfast). These are very simple, but nicely furnished apartments or private rooms with private bathrooms, air conditioning, quite often there is a dining room and dishes available. You can search for them online or upon arrival. When moving around, we would ask our current host of “Casas particulares” recommendation for the place to go in the next town. Finding a room in October was not an issue. We have booked in advance only first night hotel in Matanzas because we arrived very late. Later, people that had been recommended to us were promising “exceptional price,” but in the end, it was always the same 20-25 $ for a double room. Havana is more expensive, but also in Havana, at only 1km away from the centre you can find an air-conditioned room for 25$. From my point of view, air conditioning in Cuba is a must, if not for the heat, then for very high levels of humidity.

Money

Cuba has two currencies – locals use Cuban Peso (CUP- ₱), and tourists use Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC), which they call “cuc”. Officially, as a tourist, you can only get CUC, and it is equal to the American dollar. Everything in Cuba has two prices – one for locals, another for tourists, as they use a different currency.

We took Euros in cash and changed them to CUC in a local bank. ATMs are available, but we did not try to use them. There shouldn’t be a problem with European bank cards, though American credit cards are not accepted anywhere in Cuba.

TIP! If you want to eat very cheap food in Cuba, become friends with locals and get CUP local money. Local sandwiches, so-called pizzas (oh dear, forgive them for using this name so irresponsibly), vegetables and fruits sold on the streets cost nothing when you pay in CUP. The only way to get CUP is if some local wants to make a deal. In general, they are interested in making the change and getting some dollars or CUC.

Food

One meal per person in “Casas particulares” or in restaurants will cost a tourist 10-15 CUC (=$) per person. This is the price for tourists. However, you do not always have another option. One reason is that you are not supposed to have local money at all, another is that quite frequently, local places have nothing to eat. “Today we did not get any products,” they would say, or you would not like to eat the same sort of pizza or sandwich all the time. If you are very sensitive to hygiene, you might also find some local bars beyond your tolerance limits.

A local woman takes money with her bare hands, counts the coins on the table, a second after takes the sandwich (not packed in any way) with the same bare hands and puts it on that same table. I can imagine hearing a Western man screaming in panic “Bacterias! Disgusting! Call an ambulance!” I do remember that 30 years ago such hygiene level was a norm also in the Soviet Union, while today it would be a huge scandal. During our trip, we did not suffer from stomach problems, but you would better get some medicine just in case.

The cheapest way to cook a meal is if you get local CUP currency and buy products in local markets. We went crazy over avocado salads and our homemade avocado guacamole with fresh bread. We were also buying a lot of fresh fruit juices, bananas, papayas, tomatoes. There was not a lot of variety, but the food was delicious, natural and fresh. Travelling in Cuba is not so much about a cuisine experience.

Language

Spanish. In touristic areas like Havana people speak some English, everywhere else at least some basic Spanish is necessary. Surprise surprise but cheaters and money beggars speak English better than the others.

Every time I remember those incidents in Havana; I just want to scream out “Bastards! You ruin the whole experience of this lovely country that is Cuba for visitors”. Unfortunately, these things tend to become a usual experience in very poor and very touristic regions, not just Cuba. Getting back to the topic of language, study Spanish or at least carry some essential phrasebook.