CUBA!
I will format this later but after sending via email over 50 times I figured its worth just putting online.
http://cubatravelservices.com/ (the app)
Galileo offline map (sync cuba)
TripAdvisor (download the havana offline map)
Currency: Cuba has two currencies, the CUC and the CUP. You will use the CUC (convertible peso, also referred to as dollar) the CUP is for locals. The CUC is pegged to the US dollar.
Take cash with you (Euros if you can, there is a 10% conversion charge on USD).
CIGARS
Officially, if you are traveling to Cuba under one of the 12 special categories, you are now allowed to bring back $400 worth of souvenirs, including up to $100 worth of Cuban cigars. Yay!
Does that mean $100 of official branded cigars with a receipt? What if you buy unbranded “loose” cigars from a tobacco farmer in Viñales for $1 each?
Well I don’t know for sure, but I did manage to bring 30 Cuban cigars back into the United States. I was asked if i had tobacco or alcohol and did was not questioned further
INTERNET
look for any place with a group of people sitting on their phones — thats wifi. i never felt unsafe having my phone in my hand. cards are available at most hotels or in ETECSA shops for $3 per hour. you need an ID to purchase at ETECSA, hotels/hostels will be more expensive.
Restaurants:
in order of my preference, all require making a reservation which you can do early in the day or day before
(In Havana. Eat anywhere with palador in the name because its a private restaurant)
- La Guardia (don’t miss sunset on the rooftop bar, )
- El Cocinero (don’t miss sunset on the rooftop bar, you can also be seated up there for dinner, walk into the silo and look up)
- El Del Frente (same street and owner of 304 o reily)
- Manager is Wilson, he loves music and is trying to start a music festival- hit him up on arrival, he will tell you local spots +53 52377533 on WhatsApp or just go to the bar. you can say i sent you
- Cafe Laurent (didn’t go, strongly regret that)
- 304 OReily (honestly, i think this is overhyped, it was GOOD, but frente was better)
- El Cafe (#1 for brunch) — Amargura #358 e/ Villegas y Aguacate — +53 7 8613817
Bars
- Roma (Aguacate 162 in old havana) this bar is only around 2 months old, had the best cuban local vibe. admission is limited for internationals and i suggest going early. the owner is chris
- Fabrica de Arte: (next door to el coinero) Awesome Cuban bar/lounge/art museum with live music — this is where we mingled most with locals (albeit the more progressive ones who want to go to things like Fabrica de Arte and talk to Americans) who spoke English and also where I learned the most from talking to people since I don’t speak Spanish
- note: we saw bartenders and servers from other places we had hit up, and made fast friends who were all willing to direct us to cool or new things that aren’t in books like lonely planet.
- El Del Frente again, rooftop was a cool vibe but more of a sit at the bar option or get dinner too
Stuff to do:
Hemingway mini tour and shopping for souvenirs in old havana
- To Have and Have Not begins in Plaza de San Francisco; parts of Islands in the Stream were influenced by his nights on the island;
- Obispo Street, in the nearly 500-year-old Spanish colonial Habana Vieja, the city’s Old Town. The cobbled pedestrian street is packed with people browsing bookstores, musicians playing in doorways of cafes and bars, and coffee-sippers standing at popular cafes. Visitors queue up at an open-front pulled-pork sandwich shop with alluring aromas. I wander the book market that rims the plaza. Most vendors sell old paperback copies of Hemingway’s El Viejo y el Mar (The Old Man and the Sea). I buy a baseball poster of the Industriales, who could be considered Cuba’s New York Yankees.
- At the nearby Hotel Ambos Mundos, I stop to ask about seeing Room 511. This is Hemingway’s old quarters, and the room is more or less as he left it. And for a small fee, visitors get a few minutes inside. I look at his typewriter, his fishing rods and the 1954 telegram letting him know he’s won the Nobel. Then I pause to take in the corner room’s view of hilltop forts, the harbor and colonial rooftops, essentially the same view Hemingway had when writing Green Hills of Africa here.’I hire one of the taxis to reach the next two big Hemingway spots, starting with Finca Vigía, about 10 miles southeast of Havana. This 19th century villa in San Francisco de Paula is the home where Hemingway lived longest in his 61 years.
Cabaret Parisién — Hotel Nacional, cnr Calles 21 & O — $30, 9pm phone: 7–836–3564 (I did this, my friends thought it was cool, i thought it was mostly a waste of money and a night we could’ve done something more local/unique)
VINALES:
taxi each way will run about 90 cuc, maybe less if you can negotiate in spanish or book online before going? you’ll need to know your exact timing and locations to do so.
horse back riding guide
email: yosmanyduarte@nauta.cu
phone: 55450494 name is Many (like manny) — took me to an amazing tobacco farm, cigars were hand rolled and $3 each — maybe not QUITE covina quality but 1/3 the price and still so good.
address of the bar/restaurant we really liked was right in the main part of town: 75 Salvador — cisneros granma — met local musicians playing for everyone who then took us to salsa bar by plaza and taught how to salsa
the plaza has an amazing salsa dancing club that was essentially a cuban talent show.
about vinales: Viñales Valley was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 due to its dramatic landscape of karst limestone domes called mogotes, traditional agricultural methods of farming, and rich cultural history.
The valley was formed underwater, rising from the sea millions of years ago. Ancient ocean fossils can still be found in the caves that dot the landscape.
The New York Times called Viñales one of the top places to visit in 2016.
But aside from being a beautiful travel destination, Viñales is known for the quality of its tobacco
