10 days in vibrant Cuba

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Share The Cool

8 min readDec 5, 2016

My friend and I took advantage of the Thanksgiving break to travel to Cuba for 10 days. Many friends asked us “Why Cuba?”. The true answer is just “Because we can now!”.

Cuba used to be a destination a lambda American would never consider because it was not an option. Since Barack Obama restored diplomatic relationships with Cuba, things are getting easier and for the first time, Havana was a possible destination.

We had many other countries in mind: Peru, Japan, South Africa; but the word “Cuba” resonated and thrilled us. We didn’t know what to expect, but we knew this was a unique chance to witness Cuba before world globalization and Americanization hit the land.

Anyway, Cuba it was! And we couldn’t be more excited!

Traveling to Cuba from the US

✈️ Flight

For over 50 years, there was no direct flight connecting the United States and Cuba. But this is now past, and it’s finally possible to travel with JetBlue, Delta and American Airlines to Havana, Cienfuegos, Santa Clara, Varadero and other cities (click here for more details!)

There is no direct flight from San Francisco, so we decided to take the cheapest option and connect in San Salvador. During our layover we were able to purchase Tourist Cards at the gate, allowing us to travel for 30 days in Cuba. I believe it’s possible to obtain your Tourist Card by appointment at the embassy in your home country.

If you are American, you will need to fill-out a form attesting the reason of your trip (e.g. journalism, charity, education). Tourism isn’t among the list, but nowadays with our smartphones everyone is a mini-journalist, no?

💵 Money

Cuba has two official currencies: the CUC that fluctuates with the USD (1 CUC = 1 USD) and the MN Peso (1 CUC = 25 MN).

During your trip, you will be paying in CUC principally (hotels, Casa Particulares, taxis, visits fees, restaurants, drinks). If you go to a small bakery or ride a local bus, you might get change back in MN, but this currency is primarily reserved to Cubans.

It is crucial that you define your budget before traveling to Cuba. Travel with lots of cash since you can’t use your credit and debit cards anywhere for payment. Holders of non-American debit cards can use their cards in ATMs to withdraw CUCs (so if you only have American bank cards: plan to have lots of cash!).

You can exchange your foreign money at the airports, banks, or at houses of change named CADECA. The usual conversion fee rate is 3%. Note that if you bring USD, you will be charged an extra 10% tax (total of 13%). It’s recommended that you bring Euros of Mexican Pesos instead of USD. In our case, it was better to exchange our dollars to euros in San Francisco, and then exchange them to CUC in Cuba instead of bringing dollars. It can seem counter-intuitive to exchange twice and pay fees twice, but 10% of fees is a lot!

🏡 Housing

For housing, you have two options: hotels or Casa Particulares. We didn’t stay in any hotels, but the process seems straight forward and you can book online.

If you are looking for a more “local touch”, then Casa Particulares are the way to go! Cubans in big cities rent one or several rooms of their house for tourists and even prepare breakfasts and home cooked dinners.

Casa Particulares require a certain license from the government to operate and are regularly inspected. Casa Particulares listings are available online, on TripAdvisor, or other tourist websites (Cuba Junky: http://www.cuba-junky.com) or even Airbnb.

We booked our first two Casa Particulares through Airbnb and asked our hosts to help us find the following Casa. Cubans have a strong sense of network and in one or two phone calls you are all set up. Hosts will also gladly arrange activities you are interested in (horse riding in Viñales).

We really loved staying in Casa Particulars. The houses are very cute, and we got to interact with locals. Also, the home-cooked meals are so much better than what we could find in restaurants.

Budget: count 25–30$ for a night per room. Add an extra 5$ for breakfast/person and 10–15$ for dinner/person.

🚙🚖🚌 Transportation

Within a city, I highly recommend walking. You have no idea how many interesting things you can stumble upon between point A and B. If the distance is quite long, you have several options:

Bus: you can take a local bus for 1 Peso Moneda National in Havana. It is not straightforward since there are no lines map or schedule. But just ask someone waiting at the closest bus stop and they will help you out!
Taxi: the easiest way to move around is by taxi. You can hail a taxi in the street or ask your hotel/Casa Particular host to arrange it. Most of the taxi driver don’t use the counter, so define the price with them beforehand (and the currency)!
Some taxis called “colectivos”, run on specific axes and pick up several people along the way. A Cuban version of Uber Pool :) And it is very cheap (10 MN per person).
Bikes: in some cities like Viñales moving by bike can be a great option to commute and explore in the same time. You can usually rent them for 5$ for the day.

To go from a city to another, you can rent a car, hire a private driver, or ride a taxi or take a bus.

We took a Viazul bus to go from Havana to Cienfuegos. I recommend buying your ticket two days in advance at the bus station to secure spots (the offer is usually far lower than the demand).

We also traveled twice in Taxi Colectivo arranged one day prior with 6 other travelers in Ford cars from the 50’s. We had a blast and had interesting conversations with the drivers and other passengers.

Budget: 40$ per person in Viazul to go from Havana to Cienfuegos (add 5 to go to Trinidad). With a Taxi Colectivo, it costs 45$ per person for Trinidad/Viñales and 15$ a person for Viñales/Havana.

Where to go in Cuba?

In 10 days, we had time to explore 4 different cities: beautiful Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad and Viñales. And we definitely will need to go back to explore the rest of the island.

Havana

You can’t go to Cuba without stopping at Havana for few days: vibrant, colorful, intriguing !

Make sure you check out some live music, try their tasty mojitos, walk/run/drive on the Malecon, and of course get lost in the old Havana. If you have time, check out the modern neighborhoods such as the Vedado, take a ferry ride to enjoy the sunset from the Casa Blanca, and why not learn some history at the Museum de la Revolución!

We lodged in different neighborhoods, but I have a huge preference for Havana Vieja despite our okay-ish Casa Particular.

Recommendations:

Restaurant: Paladar Los mercaderes
Bar & Restaurant: El Chanchullero (the best drinks!)
Bar: O Reilly 304
Bar: Chacon 162 (bar)
Nightclub: Espacios
Music: Cafe Paris
Music: Buena Vista Social Club
Casa Particular @ Vedado: Casa Graciela y Alejandro (gracielaenlinea@yahoo.es, phone: 833 5263)

Ernest Hemingway recommendations (I didn’t go unfortunately):

Bar: Bodegita del medio for a Mojito
Bar: Florida for a Daiquiri

Cienfuegos

We decided to stop at Cienfuegos for a night to chunk the commute time between Havana and Trinidad, and we didn’t regret it!

We had an afternoon to enjoy the sea front, watched some kids training for box and got amazing shrimps at Paladar Aché!

Recommendations:

Restaurant: Paladar Aché
Casa Particular: Casa Daisy & Paquito

Trinidad

Trinidad is a beautiful Spanish colonial city with colorful houses and cobblestone streets, part of the UNESCO World Heritage.

During the day we explored the churches and the cute streets of Trinidad, with the sound of Aragon de Cuba floating in the air. At night, change of mood! Drinks at the pirate bar Taberna La Botija and dancing at the Disco Ayala on the most popular Reggeaton singles.

The following day, we took a bike ride and did some snorkeling between Playa la Boca and Playa Ancón.

Recommandations:

Casa Particular @ Trinidad: Casa Sol
Casa Particular @ Playa La Boca: Terrazas del Caribe
Bar, Restaurant: Taberna La Botija
Nightclub: Disco Ayala

Viñales

After the beach of Playa La Boca, direction the mountains of Viñales and its tobacco farms. Our Casa Particular helped us arrange lots of activities:

a horse-riding excursion through the lands of Piña del Mar to visit a tobacco farm, a natural cave, and the coffee plantations
a private salsa class
a nice massage to relax our muscles from the horse-riding

If you like smoking cigars make sure you make a stop at the tobacco farms where they treat organically the tobacco leaves.

Conclusions and buen Viaje!

This trip was fun and very enriching. We loved walking around, exploring, dancing, but the most interesting was to dive into the Cuban culture and rules.

Throughout the days we met some locals that opened up to us, invited us to their modest homes, and described their joys of being a Cubanista. But also the struggles.

The government has a strong influence in people life: it provides free education, free healthcare and makes sure everyone has a home and a job. In the other end, it owns and regulates everything: the alimentation, jobs, hobbies, information. It is prohibited for a Cuban to eat lobster (exclusively for tourists), to have cable TV at home, host a foreigner without a license, or demonstrate publicly.

Financially it is also a struggle. We met engineers that stopped exercising their specialties because it was more profitable to be a Casa Particular host or a taxi driver. In average people working for government owned companies make 1000 pesos a month, which is equivalent to 40$.

We felt the youth frustration from living in a society where ambition is not valued. They dream of traveling and seeing what the rest of the world looks like. Older people are still thankful for the Revolution movement led by Fidel Castro 58 years ago and are mourning the loss of their national hero.