Hola from Havana! A dispatch from Cuba

Posted On January 29, 2024

The past year has taken us on some very long flights to far flung destinations, so when it came time to plan a family trip with my parents this winter, I yearned for an international trip that didn’t require a long flight but wasn’t Mexico. Any reasonably logical daughter would choose something safe and easy, like a cruise to the Bahamas or a weeklong condo rental with an ocean view and a bottle of rosé. To my parents’ chagrin, that’s of course not how I roll. What popped into my mind was, why not Cuba? Beautiful landscapes, hordes of antique cars which my dad loves, it is incredibly safe, and some of the nicest people you will meet anywhere… how have we not been here yet? Oh, yeah, those restrictions…but they are less tricky than I thought.

*The Bacardi building in Havana. The Bacardi family made a fast exit out of Havana after the revolution; the rum is now made under the brand “Havana Club”.*

Cuba is not an “easy” country to visit as an American, which explains why Americans comprised few of the nearly 3 million tourists that visited Cuba in 2023 (Canadians make up 40% of the tourism; Russia comes in at #2). Due to current restrictions as of 2023/2024 when we traveled, Americans cannot travel to Cuba for vacation, but only under certain approved categories. What you may not know is that any American can travel to Cuba under the premise of “Support the People.” This means you can’t kick your feet up in a state-run beach resort (only homestays are allowed), it’s cash only (your US credit cards and ATM cards don’t work on Cuban soil), and a few other logistical challenges. However, traveling under the “Support the People” category was a lot more straightforward than I realized. As travel to Cuba cannot be a “vacation”, you must have a planned agenda that includes cultural experiences and meaningful interactions with the local people – something we prefer when we travel anyway. And even more surprising – no one appears to be stringently checking this on either side of the border. Landing and departing in Cuba induced a lot more perspiration and anxiety, but minus having a piece of pottery confiscated, was pretty straight forward and didn’t feel any different from other international trips. Of note, we did carry our printed itinerary just in case – and I would suggest you do the same.

It is possible to plan your own trip, but for a first trip we opted to have Eli and Jordan at Your Cuba Travel arrange everything tarmac to tarmac, from our visas to restaurant reservations. Selecting an all inclusive trip meant that everything was taken care of – we only needed to bring some cash ($USD) for souvenirs, tipping street musicians and guides, and extra cocktails. I found this simple and easy, since for an American, a trip to Cuba is not a trip that one can plan on their own with a Lonely Planet guide and a few hours of downtime. Budget $250-300 per day for nicer homestays, higher-end restaurants and having a guide and driver with you every day; days spent on your own with no guide or driver will be considerably less.

Getting there and around

Multiple flights run daily from Havana on American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, so there are many options (we used points to fly Southwest from Ft. Lauderdale to Havana). On the US side, Tampa is probably the easiest airport to navigate, followed by Ft Lauderdale, then Miami. While the majority of flights arrive in Havana, there are multiple other airports you may consider (given the state of the roads and the loooonnnnggg drives between other cities, consider starting your trip in Havana and flying out of Veradero, Santa Clara, or another major city). American Airlines serves the most different airports in Cuba. Immigration is simple though a bit of a wait; your luggage will be scanned before you are able to leave the airport.

If you will be spending a lot of time traveling around the country, I highly recommend hiring a driver. There are buses, but they are incredibly slow; hiring taxis point to point can be done, but we enjoyed having the same drivers and car for the entire week. Driving distances can be long between Havana and other destinations: 5 hours to Trinidad, 3 hours to Vinales, 2.5 hours to the beaches of Veradero or Bay of Pigs. The roads are not well maintained so the max speed we traveled at even on the main highway was 60-80km/hr. The taxis or cars you will ride in will usually be older classic cars that have been renovated, and they drive slower than the more modern state-run taxis on the road. I was impressed at how immaculate our drivers kept their cars – and they were retrofitted with modern amenities like power steering and power locks. Don’t miss out on riding in the classic cars – it’s a must do!

Where to go

So many places to choose from! I suggest getting a guidebook (such as the National Geographic guidebook) to help plan. For a first visit to Cuba, here are some highlights to consider in your itinerary:

Havana, of course! I recommend 2 to 3 nights at minimum, depending on what you want to see and do. A convertible tour of the city and a guided tour of the old town are a must. Favorite paladars we tried included La Cocinero (with a visit to the art factory next door after dinner) and Balcones Del Diego. Cap it off with a visit to the Tropicana for a late night show.
Trinidad: My favorite city of the places we visited. A tour of the old town is a must to learn about this well preserved colonial city founded in 1513 by the Spaniards. After, meander the many art galleries which remand open until late. Trinidad is a great place to have a drink and listen to live music, you will hear bands playing Cuban beats everywhere. There are also dancing schools if you want to brush up on your salsa dancing with a class. There is hiking nearby, and a beautiful beach 15 min away. For lodging, I highly recommend the very modern and well-located Hostal La Moda: large rooms, walk in showers, with a lovely rooftop deck and seating area. Nearest airport is Santa Clara, or it is a ~5 hour drive to Havana.
Cienfuegos: a lovely city, makes an easy stopover on the route from Havana to Trinidad.
Veradero: This is the beach area that brings all of the tourists from Canada, Russia, Europe, and elsewhere in South America. Since this is also heavily populated with state-run resorts that are a no-no for Americans, it won’t be the same vacation for you the American that it is for the other foreigners….but if you can find a homestay in the area….
Playa Larga/Bay of Pigs: This is the beach area to go to for the best snorkeling on the island. The beaches themselves are small, and bring bug spray – we were eaten alive here! Since this area is in-between Trinidad and Havana, it is a popular stopover. We found the lodging options to be very rustic compared to everywhere else we stayed.
Viñales: about 2.5 hours west of Havana, this is a haven for hiking and outdoor activities, as well as the place to be if you want to visit a tobacco farm.

Lodging

First, recognize that Cuba is not a destination for you if you are looking for 5 star accommodations. The casa paticulares or homestays you will stay in as Americans vary from very basic rooms to newly remodeled large houses more similar to a European B&B. All of the places we stayed had modern bathrooms with hot showers, decent to mediocre beds, and a full breakfast service with coffee, juice, toast, and eggs. There are homestays listed on AirBnB and Homestay.com where you can book in advance if you are not traveling with a tour company. For Havana, staying in old Havana neighborhood is nice to be able to walk to many restaurants and sights and you will find renovated places in old Havana with modern amenities; the drawback is that it is very noisy at all hours. Stay on outskirts of Havana for more peace and quiet, but only if you will have a driver for the time you are there. Bring earplugs for sleep regardless because rooms are not soundproof and even in a quiet neighborhood you may hear dogs, chickens, etc. Our homestays all provided a bar of soap, roll of toilet paper, and towels but no other amenities (nicer places did include hair dryers). Outlets are mostly US 110V, same as the US.

The Food Scene

Food shortages abound in Cuba, but you will not starve as a tourist. Restaurants are either state owned, or ran out of a local’s home, called paladars; as Americans you generally eat only in Paladars – but we did not find that to be a bad thing at all. We found paladars to be more fun and unique anyways; in Havana, many of them are in unique historic buildings and are quite trendy. Menus are often very extensive but sometimes a restaurant will be out of certain items like fish, chicken, etc. (one bar we went to after New Years was out of limes!). You could tell that improvisation was common due to intermittent difficulty obtaining basics such as onions. Cocktails and drinks were about $2-3.50 each. Entrees were large portions at most places and usually shareable; at a nice paladar, entrees ran about $5-15, with sides often extra. The same basic menu items (fish, lobster, pork, ropa viejo with lamb or beef) are served everywhere with a few variations. It is good to ask if the restaurant has a specialty dish – I had the best goat I have ever had and wouldn’t have known to order it if I didn’t ask. Some homestays offer dinner to their guests for about $15/person which included a soup, followed by a selection of meats served family style along with rice (a choice of white, or moro – rice mixed with black beans) and a common salad of white cabbage, tomato and cucumber. Dining at homestays is common in smaller towns like Playa Larga on the Bay of Pigs, and honestly, one of the best meals on our trip was at a homestay.

*One of our favorite paladars, El Cocinero, is located in a former cooking oil factory. The restaurant is on the roof.*

We were cautious at the beginning of our trip, but two days in, we started to eat some of the raw vegetables and did not have any major stomach issues. We did avoid street food, and ice cubes (unless the ice cubes were in a cocktail with alcohol and citrus). For drinking water, we brought a Steri-pen and used it to treat the local tap water which worked well. Bottled water was only for sale at restaurants and gets expensive and wasteful, so I highly recommend bringing a water sterilization kit and your own water bottle; we saved empty plastic bottles and filled them with our treated water so that we always had plenty.

Other tips:

Visa: all Americans will need a visa. Most tour agencies will obtain them for you, but you can purchase one ahead of time if you are booking your own trip. We did see a cart in the Ft. Lauderdale airport selling visas as well. Your passport will not be stamped; keep the visa with your passport.

Health: Health insurance is included in the cost of your plane ticket from the US. Save your plane ticket for proof of insurance. I would make sure your vaccines are up to date; similar to the rest of the Caribbean, it is smart to have hepatitis A and typhoid vaccines. Bring any and all prescriptions and over the counter medications with you, because the pharmacy shelves in Cuba are bare.

Money: Cuba uses the CUP. The exchange rate is highly variable and terrible at the airport. At the time of our travel, $1=120 pesos at the airport or 250-260 on the street. You might be able to exchange with your homestay or guide, or ask them who you might be able to exchange money with. We did not exchange any money for pesos, but it would have been nice to have some for bathroom fees (50 pesos, we usually just gave them $1 for the 4 of us) and cover fees at salsa bars (50-100 pesos, state run places would not accept USD). If your trip isn’t pre-payed, bring LOTS of cash – remember, no ATM card!

Packing: I am not going to lie, packing for Cuba is a little like packing for a camping trip. There is no Mini-Mart or Walgreens around the corner. Outside of Havana, we never saw anything that resembled a convenience store to buy common goods. Bring it all – water filter and bottle, head lamp (we only encountered one brief power outage in Playa Larga, but they can happen), ear plugs, bug spray, sunscreen, all the toiletries including shampoo, and toilet paper (see below). I didn’t use a money belt but would bring luggage locks.

The low down on the loo: I had never seen anyone so anxious about something on the trip as my parents were about the bathrooms in Cuba. We found the bathrooms at the homestays, paladars, and major tourist sights were modern, with modern toilets. Some of the bathrooms we encountered at rural roadside cafes were definitely in need of some maintenance, and sometimes we had to drive a long way to find one that was open and/or not broken. Most everywhere had ample toilet paper, but bringing our own was wise and came in handy on a few occasions. Some bathrooms asked a fee (50-100 pesos); we typically left $1 for the 4 of us to use the facilities and this seemed to be acceptable. Our only really bad bathroom experience was at a NYE party of 500 people with one small 2 stall bathrooms. Overall, no different than many countries we have visited.

Safety: Cuba is by far one of the safest countries we have traveled to. It felt similar to Costa Rica. You will see iron bars on many houses, but many of these are actually from the 1800s. We felt safe walking around at night and this is a country I would feel safe traveling solo.

Live music: One of the best parts about Cuba is the live music – you will see musicians and bands performing everywhere! However, we found it to be very loud in smaller venues so bring ear plugs everywhere with you. Live salsa music is another must experience; keep in mind that some salsa places only accept CUP for cover charge, but we were able to find some who would take our dollars (it was about 20-50 cents for cover).

Giving back: Cuba has no shortage of shortages. We brought many items to gift to our guide, drivers, and homestays. One of the most needed items is over the counter medications: Benadryl, Tylenol, and Ibuprofen are very hard to find and we made a lot of Cubans happy when we brought nearly an entire suitcase of medications! We also brought spices (salt, pepper, cumin) as gifts since they packed small. Shoes, clothing, and many every day items are also welcome.