Cuba- Havana

Dear lilioftheworld.com reader, here is Lili, your co-editor.

Cuba- this unique island country is a dream destination for many tourists. Located in Central America Cuba is somehow different from the neighboring countries. Although it starts to open itself towards the rest of the world, it is still a largely isolated state. And this is her charm. In the post below you will read our recommendations about what to do when in Havana and also some general info about the country.

I dedicate this post to a colleague of mine who is planning her holiday to Cuba and she was eager to read our impressions and recommendations :). For more inspirations for long haul trips, visit the special section.

As with any other post, we will start with the description of the trip. Before that – a short “disclaimer” – we went to Cuba in February 2017 and since then there have been developments, which might have changed a bit the situation over there in comparison with our experience.

This was our summer holiday, so we were looking for beach relaxation. We flew to Havana where we spent 2 nights, then we headed to Trinidad for other 2 nights. From Trinidad we went back to the North- to Varadero where we stayed in an all-inclusive hotel for 6 days and then back to Havana for 1 night before our flight back. The trip was altogether 11 days. Whether it was enough- you can easily spend 3 weeks in the Cuba. We saw just a small part of it. Although Cuba is not super big, it takes longer than expected to move from place to the other. But more in the description below.

The post will consist of two parts. Below you can find some general info about travelling to Cuba and Havana and here you can read more about Trinidad and Varadero.

Lili’s good-to-know tips when going to Cuba:

• The Country state

  If you are not coming from a country where communism was reality, be prepared to see something you have never experienced. We were born in Bulgaria and Cuba now is what Bulgaria was 25-30 years ago.

  

• Get everything you will need

  for the trip from your home country. Do not expect to find shops where you can buy sunscreen, sanitary napkins, earbuds, etc. Even food is scarce there.

  

• The Cuban currency

  is… actually they have two currencies- for locals and for foreigners. The purchasing power is different- the one for the tourists is more expensive. But you cannot buy things in the currency of the locals. You should exchange money in the bigger towns. We would advise that you do this in Havana and you exchange enough for the whole trip. In smaller cities it could be more difficult. In the central part of Havana, you will find enough currency exchange places, but be prepared to wait on a queue.

  

• The first currency is peso (CUP, also called the “national currency” or in Spanish moneda nacional); the other being the convertible peso (CUC, often called “dollar” in the local language). In general 25 CUP = 1 CUC. The convertible peso is 1:1 with the USD.

  

• Internet

  I read somewhere that nowadays the Internet is available in more places. I cannot say whether this is true or not. When we were there, Internet was luxury. Not only it was not available everywhere (only in some central spots in the city), but it was quite expensive. It was 2CUC for 1 hour.

  

  We had to go to the park where wi-fi was available, try to log in every time entering the 20-digit username and password and hope to have connection before your voucher expires. Of course you are not the only one who wants to do this. Creative tactics like going to the hotspot during the night help a bit, but not always. As we said, you are not the only one who wants to be connected. Although it might sound awful, thanks to this lack of Internet Cuba is what it is nowadays and has preserved its charm and spirit.

• Take some giveaways

  with you when going to Cuba. In some parts of the country they really live a different/ difficult life. For example, even in Havana only the casa particular have washing machines. It is luxury. Cubans buy only what is available in the shop and usually it comes once a month or once in several months. E.g. they cannot choose between several types of glasses. Locals stay in a queue and hope that they can take from the delivery this month. So, you can really make someone happy if you bring a lipstick, a nail-polish or something else which is considered luxury by the locals.

  

• Plan longer time

  for moving from one place to another. Like most of the other countries in the Caribbean, Cuban people are a bit relaxed. They are not in a hurry, so do not expect things to happen fast. However this is not the main reason for slow transportation. Neither is the quality of the roads. We were impressed that they are in a very good condition. The problem is that the cars are old (some of them ancient 🙂 and most of them can run as fast as 80-90 km per hour. The other reason for the lower speed is that you will see not only cars on the road. Different carts, animals or just people passing are part of the normal view even on the “highway”.

• Bargaining

  Although you can bargain there, you will be more successful if you or someone from your group speaks Spanish. Without Spanish you have lower chances (not to say zero) that you will negotiate good prices. Like in other Caribbean and also South American countries, most of the locals in Cuba do not speak English.

  

Transportation

We were very lucky as my sister who speaks Spanish was with us. Not only we could have a proper conversation with the locals, but also we managed to negotiate lower prices. We were a group of 4. And this was a huge advantage as this made the cost of the trip per person lower. In general Cuba is not very cheap place for foreigners. For example we took a car with a driver from Havana to Trinidad (about 4-5 hours drive) for around $160. You better go to the Chinese town and negotiate the car from there as in other places the price was two times higher.

We had similar cost from Trinidad to Varadero where the distance is slightly shorter. Although you might be seduced to travel these long rides with an old classic car model, better took the newest one in order to have a more comfortable and safer ride. Leave the ride in the old typical Cuban cars for the shorter distances.

Accommodation

Although in the past it was quite difficult to find a place to stay, things in Cuba have changed. Even platforms like Airbnb are available there. For Havana and Trinidad we chose casa particular– this is the local equivalent of Airbnb (the second as mentioned is also available). In Havana we had a friend of ours who recommended the house of an acquaintance, but in Trinidad we chose it on our own. Also the same for the last night in Havana before our flight. Be prepared that you will not have an immediate answer from the hosts as they face the same issues as the tourists. They do not have permanent access to Internet.

The typical thing about casa particular is that you stay in the same place where the host family does. They can prepare your breakfast for a fee of $4-7 and believe us- you should take it. Not only it is very rich, but also extremely delicious. We also took advantage of the family cooking for us for one of the dinners. You pay $10 and they prepare a dinner with typical Cuban dishes. As you already know we are not that much into food, but this was incredible. And it gives the feeling that it is very light and healthy. Because of the lack of these additives which our food is full of. The ingredients are simple, but the result is amazing.

Havana

What to do in Havana in 2 days?

• Old town

  

  Or the so-called Havana Vieja. Just take any street and start exploring. Graffiti, people sitting in the streets and just looking at the by-passers, amazing colonial architecture- this is just a small part of what you will see with every step you make. We made thousands of photos- every single one looking like a postcard.

• Take a ride in an old Cuban car

  

  Yes, it is a touristic thing, but it is a nice way to explore the wider center. And you can make very nice photos. Of course you can negotiate a bit the price, but it was more or less fixed. We paid 35 CUC and of course we chose the colour of the car. The total time of the ride is one hour. Some of the interesting things we saw during the ride were:

  • Plaza de la Revolución. This is where you see the Jose Marti monument and the giant face of Che Guevara.

    

  • National Hotel. The number one accommodation option for millionaires and movie stars visiting Havana in the 1950s. The National Hotel preserves part of its beauty as one of Havana’s best cultural hotels. One of the architectural landmarks of the city, it’s also worth visiting to spend an afternoon in its ample gardens overlooking the Malecón.

    

  • Cigar factory. We stopped in a cigar factory during the ride, but we will talk more about this when describing the visit in Trinidad as there we had more authentic experience.

    

• El Capitolio

  Actually our casa particular was 5 mins away from this building. The El Capitolio Nacional (National Capitol of Cuba) is one of the most emblematic buildings in Havana. This majestic construction, located in the centre of Havana, is similar to that in Washington D.C. If you ask some tourist agencies the Havana El Capitol is “a meter higher, a meter wider, and a meter longer, as well as richer in detail than the one in Washington”. However, we didn’t find official source to verify this info :-). To finish its construction they needed more than 5000 workers, 3 years, around 4 months and the total cost of the project was around $17 mln USD.

  

• Hotel Inglaterra

  Located close to El Capitolio, hotel Inglaterra is the oldest hotel in Havana. No, we are not recommending you to stay there. It has an amazing rooftop bar with good view to the boulevard, the square in front and also to El Capitolio. And two more things- surprisingly, it was not expensive at all, even cheaper than some bars in Havana Vieja. A Pina Colada cocktail was around 3CUC. The second advantage is that you have Internet access. Of course you still need these vouchers, but this is quite rare to have Internet in a building.

  

• El Floridita Bar

  El Floridita, the bar where American author Ernest Hemingway spent many of his nights in Havana from the 1930s to the 1950s, proudly pays tribute to the writer with a life-size statue and a special daiquiri named after him: the Papa Doble. You will notice from a distance the big pink sign of the bar and you will inevitably hear the loud music. However, this bar is for tourists. Take a pic and then find a more authentic place in the streets around.

  

• Museum of the Revolution

  You know that we are not that much into museums, but we thought this one is worth it. We went quite early, so we managed to somehow escape the crowds. The Museum of the revolution used to be a presidential palace once. Nowadays its exhibits are largely devoted to the period of the revolutionary war of the 1950s and to the country’s post-1959 history. Our country (Bulgaria) used to have close connections with Cuba and we even saw some Bulgarian names in the historical documents. It is a rare thing as until 20 years ago it was very difficult for Bulgarians to travel. We were impressed to see that we had such close relationship with a country thousands of kms away.

  

• Rum museum

  For more people (we count ourselves here as well), Cuba means rum and cigars. Although we didn’t visit the museum (as we could not catch the opening hours), we made sure we taste the different types of rum. The most surprising thing for us was that every rum there is of high quality. There might not be many goods offered in the shops, but they have many different types of rum. And I have to admit that I do not drink hard liquor and I was still able to appreciate the rum. You will love it for sure.

• Havana Cathedral

  

  This is one of the eleven Catholic cathedrals on the island. It is located in the Plaza de la Catedral on Calle Empedrado, between San Ignacio y Mercaderes, in the old part of Havana.

One thing was a bit disappointing for us. What we have read is that Havana never sleeps, that at night you see people in the streets, dancing salsa and just having fun. Not sure whether there was a specific reason, but we did not see any of these. Yes, people were friendly and we did not feel threatened at any moment, but we wanted to see this “dancing” spirit.

No matter what the program of your trip is, Havana should be part of it. Give yourself 2 days as it has what to offer. Do not miss the other part of our Cuba trip dedicated to Varadero and Trinidad.