My Travel Forum Holiday Discussion & Chat

[Angietravels]

Hi I;m looking for advice on exploring Cuba and travel onwards to St Lucia, any places that are not to be missed and recommendations for casa particulars, advice on best and cheapest route from Cuba to St Lucia, thanks, look forward to hearing about your experiences

[gary123]

Hi Angietravels, Welcome to the forums
This is one area I have not yet visited and so am unable to offer any advice.
Have you decided on when you plan to go ?

[travelator]

Hi Angietravels

This is my first post here and this may be too late for you. I went to Cuba in 2006, unfortunately I didn't really record this trip on my blog and I've got an awful memory, for what they're worth, here are my comments on practicalities (there are plenty of descriptions of the experience on the net).

Getting there from the UK: it is worthwhile checking out "charter flight" web sites and late bookings on the major tour operator websites. I got a latebooking return flight to Holguin, Cuba for £201 with one night all inclusive thrown in.

Entry to Cuba: I had to fill in a form detailing where I was staying - so I guess you are supposed to have somewhere booked to stay. I didn't know what all inclusive I would be staying in on night one as that was to be allocated by the tour rep, luckily I had noted down an address from my guidebook just in case and gave them that.

I see from the FCO travel advice site, that you now have to have travel insurance on entry (from a list of Cuban approved ones), otherwise you will have to buy it on entry at I guess great expense.

Language: I would say you to travel around Cuba you need some Spanish, luckily I went with a friend with basic Spanish. Apart from Havana, English was not spoken at any of the Casa Particulares we stayed in, we strugled a couple of times booking coaches.

I've been through quite a few countries without a guidebook, but without basic Spanish, and to finda Casa Particulares, I would say one is essential for Cuba. I believe public internet is still poor/non existent. The Lonely Planet I took met all my needs.

Transport: The only way leave our all inclusive was by Taxi. To travel town to town we used both "up market" Tourist and Cuban coaches depending on seat availability (both break down).

Safety, I felt safer in Cuba than the UK. We were happy wandering the streets of towns and cities at night (with our Lonely Planet maps). Havana, we stayed a few miles out and felt quite safe walking
back in the early hours of the morning. (I've a vague recollection there were a few streets nearby we were advised to avoid, near our Casa).

Police: Had problems at all.

Money: ATMs: I had no problem using ATM's (but see below) with my Nationwide Visa debit card (best way to obtain foreign curreny at the time as it had no service charge worldwide - you now pay 1% outside Europe). There was one oddity, from the receipts it looked like I was experiencing a double conversion into $ then pounds (but it still seemed to give a reasonable exchange rate). I'm not sure what the current situation is as Cuba has ceased linking its currency to the dollar.

I have heard of people being unable to use cards (including Brits?) this may be because Visa cards with processing centres in the USA (which I also believe include a few minor UK cards) will not work because of the USA embargo on Cuba.

Cuba has both an "internal" and Tourist currency, most of what you buy will be in the tourist currency, but it is worth getting hold of say £10 of "internal" currency, which will enable you to buy say a Piza from a for 25p, or a meal in a market.

Accommodation: I'm used to staying in Hostels, in Cuba the budget end is Casa Particulares (rooms in Cuban's houses) they are supposed to be licenced, we did stay in an unlicenced one in the centre of Havana that was fine, though the owner and I expect, you would be in trouble if caught.

I would advise you to book ahead from the town you are staying in. We left the all inclusive for Holguin expecting to be able to find accommodation without a problem, we ended up driving round the city trying the hotels and found only one with a room spare.

Toilets, even in tourist areas a lot of the toilets in bars etc are effectively flushed by the next deposit.

No MacDonalds anywhere, quite a refreshing change (though the toilets would have been nice)

A proportion of the tourists outside the capital go to certain cities to get a Cuban "girlfriend" for the day or week, the police are hot on this sort of fraternisation, but if the Castro regime should cease, it could unfortunately end up like Bangkok.

For what its worth my text edited and poorly maintained blog ( link edited by gary123 ) has a map of Cuba with my route halfway down the home page, and a few pictures under "other countries -> Cuba, I never got round to a write up.