Cuba - Travel Tips and Advice

Accommodation

When you book accommodation on the Internet, make sure you call them to confirm as well. Generally casas don't have Internet and the booking you made was to a middle man (whose only function appears to be running a website advertising casas, and sending you "confirmation emails" that are not real confirmations). Calling ahead also protects casa owners against no-shows. If possible get them to pick you up from the station, as taxi or bicitaxis might try and take you to another casa (and earn a commission in the process). If you don't speak Spanish well enough to call ahead then just ask your current casa owner (or an amigo) to help.

Accommodation types are mainly casas or hotels. There are virtually no hostels outside Havana (even there it's few and far between). Casas usually have a double and a single bed, so if you're a couple, or in a group of three then it's much cheaper. If you're a lone traveller then here's no harm in bartering with your host, or suggesting you don't mind sharing if they have surplus demand. 

Only casas with the blue anchor logo can host foreigners. Red ones are for locals.

Travelling around

Viazul bus tickets are best reserved online or at least a day or two in advanced in person at the bus station. If you reserved online make sure you print off the confirmation and have the paper copy on you - NOT just on your phone (which they won't accept). Get to the bus station at least half an hour before the scheduled departure to check in, otherwise you might be classified as a no-show and your ticket reallocated to someone else. 

If you don't have a ticket reserved already, get to the station earlier and announce your request for a standby ticket. You'll have to wait until the bus arrives or is ready to leave as they need to ascertain how many tickets are available for sale. If there are none left then you can try and offer to stand up if you don't want to wait for the next one. 

If you have the time to wait around for local buses, and know the routes, they are extremely cheap - usually 0.2 or 0.4 pesos (not CUC).

Money

The difference between CUC ($) and CUP (peso cubano) is 25 times! 1CUC=25CUP

Banks and Cadeca's (casa de cambiar) usually have the same FX rates. If you want local pesos then you need to change them at a Cadeca. A meal at a local peso restaurant will set you back anything between 40 to 120 pesos.

Lots of people rely on tipping so do it. 1 peso cubano for toilets. 10% in restaurants and tour groups (if you think the service is good). 

Comms

The official WiFi network, available in many park squares in cities like Cienfuegos and Santa Clara, is called Etecsa. You need to get a WiFi scratch card ($2 for one hour) to sign on. For some reason my Google Nexus 4 doesn't like this WiFi network (something about weak ephemeral network) so I don't even get to the scratch card sign in page. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue? I've tried restarting my phone, clearing cookies and cache, but to no avail. I've had to resort to standing outside hotels that have their own WiFi network (but still need the scratch cards).

The important stuff

Most public toilets, even those in a lot of restaurants, don't have (1) toilet seats and (2) toilet paper.

Conserve water. If there is a leak anywhere (e.g. toilet) let your host know straight away, the last thing you want is to empty your host's water tank!

Only foreigners buy bottled water and they are not available everywhere. Places might sell soft drinks, beer, rum but not bottled water (they have a good life here).

Get to the airport in good time. Just in case your booked flight is shown as 1 hour earlier with a different airline!