3 Things You Need To Know Before Visiting Cuba – 2024

Hi all! I’d like to introduce my friend Sarah, the first-ever guest author for The Girl Who Goes! I met Sarah back in 2018 when we were both assigned the same school as language assistants in Madrid. And just a few weeks ago, Matt and I were able to visit Sarah and her boyfriend, Kelan, in Ireland! As they told us all about their recent trip to Cuba — somewhere I’ve never been — I asked Sarah if she would write a few articles about visiting Cuba for me.

I’m so excited she took the time to share her experience and these essential tips for anyone planning a trip to Cuba, especially in light of the pandemic. I hope you all enjoy! –Cathy

Cuba is one of those bucket-list countries a lot of people talk about visiting. The allure of old buildings and cars, of an old world that appears to be simpler. However, before we visited Cuba in July 2022, we never could have anticipated how far back we were going!

We look back at our twelve-day trip to Cuba with great appreciation for our modern conveniences. Though we felt we had prepared well and done our research, we forgot one key issue — the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, Cuba had shut its borders for two years, and hence a lot of the information we had read was out of date. Luckily, I’ve a great friend Cathy who let me borrow her blog to tell you all about what Cuba is like now, as of summer 2022.

A Bit of History Before Visiting Cuba

Cuba was the first entry point of the Spanish into what we know as the Americas, claimed in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. Its population is a mix of native population, European descendants, and the descendants of those brought as slaves to work in the new colony. Cuba became an independent country in 1902 after three years of U.S. occupation.

The United States and Cuba had positive relations until the establishment of the Communist government in the 1950s, which was led by Fidel Castro. The country remains Communist to this day, and despite an improvement in relations during U.S. President Barack Obama’s time in office, has continued to be isolated politically in the Caribbean.

This set of circumstances has created a unique environment in Cuba, meaning it feels like you step straight back into the past. Basic things we take for granted are more difficult, but the payoff is an insight into a wonderful culture with fantastic people. However, I’m going to take you through three things that I would like to have known before I travelled to Cuba in July 2022.

1. Money Can Be Complicated

Cuba was famous previously for having two currencies — one tourist (CUC) and one local (CUP). CUC was removed in 2021, and now both visitors and locals use the same currency, (CUP or peso). According to the Cubans we met, the reason for this was the pandemic. When COVID hit in 2019, Cuba closed its borders. CUC, which was needed by locals to buy imported goods and to access some services, dried up completely and greatly hurt the economy.

To counter protests, the Cuban government ended the dual currency system and allowed regular Cubans to have a bank account and bank card for the first time. However, it came with a catch — Cubans can only load their accounts with foreign currency. They lodge euros, dollars, pounds and other currencies in the banks, and they then can spend the equivalent in pesos using their cards. It’s a pretty messed up system which seems unbelievable.

Now here’s where it impacts tourists. Every blog and website I read in preparation for our trip said to only convert money with official government currency exchanges called Cadecas. They advised that converting on the black market — i.e. with a regular Cuban person — was illegal for the converter and led to scams.

However, what this research did not take into account was how desperate an average Cuban was to get foreign currency. To buy basic hygiene supplies, nappies, tinned goods, yoghurts, and other products, they needed to load their bank cards. As a result, though the government exchange rate was 1 euro to 25 Cuban pesos, the rate on the street was typically 1:100.

Let’s highlight this with the price of a typical mojito. Outside the more touristy parts, this was typically 150 Cuban pesos. If you are using the government exchange rate, this works out as €8. If you use the local rate, it costs €1.50. As someone who is budget conscious, this is a major difference. We converted €200 in the airport, which lost us the value of about €150 immediately. This was significant for us, as we had hoped to use ATMs (a recent addition to Cuban life) if we needed extra cash during our trip, but these also converted using the government rate.

To survive with our funds in Cuba, we had to stick to a strict budget. Cuba is very affordable, especially if you convert your money locally. This was very easy to do. We stayed in a casa particular at each of our stops, which are rooms rented by the Cuban people in their homes. Each host offered to exchange money at 1:100 and they were delighted we wanted to swap with them. In restaurants, bars and shops, we could pay in euro most of the time at the rate of 1:100.

However, some places used the government exchange rate (especially in the resort town of Varadero), so we always kept pesos on hand for these cases. We never exchanged money on the street, and we would not recommend that. As there were previously two currencies that looked similar, there’s still a chance of being scammed.

If you’re an obvious Irish woman like me, you’ll probably walk down the street and have people asking you to “Change the money” regularly. But don’t worry, those calls were balanced out with the calls of “Happy holiday” and “Welcome to Cuba”!

2. How To Plan Your Housing

As I previously mentioned, while in Cuba we exclusively stayed in the homes of Cuban people, or casas particulares. This is a type of accommodation, similar to Home Stays, that began in the 1990s as a way of allowing Cubans to earn additional income and share the cultural traditions of the country with tourists.

We highly recommend you stay in casas particulares in Cuba for two reasons. Firstly, the money goes directly to local Cubans, which is a great way to support the Cuban people — all other accommodation is managed by the government. Secondly, they are affordable and comfortable. As a couple, we each spent €180 each on our accommodation during our 12-night stay in Cuba. To be honest, we could have spent less, but we “blew the budget” in Varadero to stay at an amazing beach house.

Up until recently, a tourist simply arrived in the town or city they were visiting and locals would approach them offering a room for their stay. Being a planner, this system did not appeal to me, and I was delighted to find out that Airbnb was widely used by hosts in Cuba. This allowed us to pre-select and organise our stays in Havana, Viñales, and Varadero. It also allowed us to pre-pay for our accommodation, which was a big help. All our accommodation was secure, comfortable, had air conditioning, and often had safes. Most importantly, they had friendly hosts who went out of their way to help us have a wonderful time.

I’ve linked our choices for each city here: Havana 1 – Havana 2 – Viñales – Varadero

One other thing to note regarding your housing is electricity. Currently in Cuba, there are electricity shortages. During our stay, there were unplanned black-outs every second day (at least), and our hosts were unsure of how long the power would be gone for. They lasted from 5 minutes to 4 hours on average. As a result, it’s a good idea to bring a good power bank per person, especially if your phone battery isn’t reliable.

3. Food and Water Considerations

In a hot climate especially, drinking enough water is a priority for every traveller. In Cuba, it’s not recommended that tourists drink tap water. However, sourcing bottled water can be a bit of a problem. We struggled to find local food shops in Cuba, and the government import shops don’t generally sell water.

The easiest place to find water was in restaurants and bars, where you can spend anything from 150-400 pesos (€1.50-4.00) on a 1.5l bottle of water. We made it a habit of looking out for cheaper bottles of water wherever we ate, and sometimes just asked at the door of a restaurant to buy water. At times, there would be a shortage and the price would go up overnight or it would not be available, which made staying hydrated a bit stressful.

To counter this, a few tourists we had met brought water filters, such as these “emergency survival” water straws. I would highly recommend investing in this bit of kit, as getting water was one of the more annoying daily chores we faced.

Food however, was a lot more enjoyable. Generally due to our budget we had a cheap breakfast and lunch of eggs and/or soft bread rolls with cheese and ham. This cost on average between 100-300 pesos (€1-3) with a local fruit juice. For our main meal, two things were typical — a plate of meat, rice, beans and/or vegetables or Italian food! Pizza and pasta were very popular in Cuba, especially pizza. Pizza in Cuba is a little different, a bit doughier and with fewer topping options, but it was a handy food to split for lunch or indulge for dinner.

In terms of more typical cuisine, ropa vieja was the most famous offering. Ropa vieja translates from Spanish as “old clothes” and is shredded beef or pork, stewed in a tomato sauce. It was our favourite dinner dish, but we also enjoyed pork chops, spiced chicken, locally caught fish, and even lobster. These proteins were always served with rice and either Cuban style black bean or cooked vegetables. We loved Cuban food, and I plan on trying to recreate some of these dishes at home.

One thing to note about eating out in Cuba though is food shortages, meaning it is better to head for food earlier in the evening to ensure you are able to eat your first-choice dish. Most restaurants in Cuba use chalkboard menus at the entrance, and often the most popular dishes would be sold out by 8pm. However, food in Cuba was always very fresh, due to the fact that they do not preserve food and instead follow the natural harvest calendar and eat food that is in season.

I hope this gives you a bit of insight into visiting Cuba at the moment! With the removal of pandemic restrictions and the re-opening of world travel, Cuba is getting used to having tourists again, and the locals are delighted to welcome visitors once more. We could not be more complimentary of the Cuban people we met. They are some of the kindest locals we have encountered, and they were happy to chat to us about their culture and life in Cuba.

We felt very safe, and petty crime is not commonly directed at tourists, as they are seen as a key part of the economy and should be protected. We were amazed at how positive Cubans were while they acknowledged the hardships they were facing. There is a real sense of community and looking out for one another, a sentiment that we felt was extended to us during our time there.

Cuba is definitely an interesting and beautiful country to experience, and I hope with these tips, you are able to plan your own adventure there!

-Sarah

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. – Cathy

Originally Published on August 26, 2022.