Travel to Cuba

The first trip of the year and I’m off to Cuba on a girls trip. Once I heard that US citizens could travel there, I was beyond excited. After doing some research and planning, I found the process to be quite easy. Check out my guide and review below.

Can US citizens visit
Yes! I traveled December 31, 2018- January 4, 2019. After the second travel restriction advisory.

Booking your flight
When booking your flight, the category you should select is “people to people.” Next, when choosing this category, you need to plan out an itinerary that includes activities that support the Cuban people. For example, staying in a Cuban home, eating at privately owned restaurants, taking a salsa or cooking class, or participating in any tourism activities anything hosted by locals.

To keep cost down, I booked two separate round trip tickets. My first ticket was from Atlanta to Miami on a paid ticket and my second ticket was from Miami to Havana using SkyMiles.  I like to call this method a 2 for one trip. I got to visit Miami, Florida for one night and enjoyed the remainder of the trip in Havana, Cuba. Whoop whoop !!!!!

Where to stay
We stayed in an Airbnb near Vedado, a few miles west of Old Havana. Our host Aymara was fantastic in arranging transportation, tours, and accommodations.

Things to know

Traveling through Cuba was challenging at times because everyone does not speak English and my Spanish is very limited.
I suggest you hire a translator or if you are lucky like me, one of the girls in our group spoke Spanish and Airbnb host was bilingual. Having a translator made our travel easy. . Our host also gave us a cellphone just in case we needed assistance. (a major plus)

There is limited wifi, but there are many hotspot locations
You can purchase an hour wifi card for about 1CUC or 2UCU.

Bring more than enough cash even if you don’t plan to spend it(emergency cash) I suggest converting euros rather than the US dollar because you will get a better conversion rate. Do not exchange all of your money at the airport because the US dollar is taxed and you will not get the best conversion rate. I suggest exchanging only the money you need for your taxi, which should cost about 25 to 30 CUC per car. Next, ask your host to trade the rest of your money for a better rate.

My budget was CUC 100 a day per day for three days, and I didn’t even spend half of that. The food and drinks are cheap.  Your transportation and tourism will be the biggest expense.

Advice: Ask as many questions as possible. Your idea of something could be completely different than what you’re thinking.

Things to do

I enjoyed the of the breeze, relaxation and fresh coconut juice of Santa María del Mar beach.

Next, enjoy yourself a ride around town in a classic car. Make sure that your driver speaks English and will be able to provide you with history about the country during the tour. Although I enjoyed the wind blowing through my hair in the drop top 1957 Chevrolet, it was a waste of money because I did not learn anything.  Luckily, my host was able to give me a history lesson to make up for lost times.

I wanted to visit the cigar factory. Unfortunately, due to limited time, I didn’t get to go. However, I was able to purchase authentic Cuban Cohiba. Beware!!! Only purchase cigars from licensed cigar stores, don’t buy on the street!

My favorite part of the trip was the salsa class. It was a 2 hr salsa class and I must say after taking the class I felt like a professional salsa dancer.

Restaurants

It is imperative to understand the difference between privately own and government-owned restaurants. Most of the government-owned restaurants will include gratuity, and the prices are usually higher. The privately owned companies, the food, and drinks are less expensive, and you may tip based on your service.  Privately owned restaurants gave me a more organic feel of Cuba. I was able to socialize with the locals and get to know more about them. Overall each restaurant I went to food was terrific, don’t forget to try a Havana Special, by far one of the best drinks I have ever had.

Overall the trip was amazing!!!! Cuba will be a place that I will revisit. I hope you enjoy my review on Cuba, Havana. Feel free to ask questions or leave a comment below.