Cuba Travel Guide

Climate:

Best: Nov-April
Worst: July, Aug [frequent thunder storms, extreme heat & humidity]
OK: May-Oct, [still rains, heat, humidity and storms, but not so bad]

Length of stay:
Minimum worthwhile stay, not incl. flights:
1 week for some city culture, some beach life.
Pleasant: 2 weeks, travelling around key towns [incl. a flight to Santiago] and having a beach ball.

Festivals Guide:
end Feb, Havana Carnival, normally lively, the city goes extra wild during February weekends.
Feb every 2 years, Havana International Jazz Festival.
April, Varadero Electro-acoustic Music Festival.
end June, Trinidad, Fiestas Sanjuaneras.
end July/begin August, Santiago Carnival.
Oct, Havana Festival of Contemporary Music.

Cuba Activities Guide:
Inland:
Cycling on some lovely, little used roads, tho' smoky trucks can get up your nose. It's especially pretty around Trinidad, Pinar del Rio, Santiago.
Hikers can find lots of excellent routes, but most are ill-marked and mapless. The most challenging is 3 days over the Sierra Maestra mountain range. Attractive walks around Trinidad, Pinar del Rio, Santiago.
Horse riding is widely available.
Golf offers only two courses, at Havana and Varadero.
Watersports. Scuba is everywhere with many superb dives; south coasts are calmer in winter, north in summer.
Rental equipment may be in poor state.
Snorkelling is often good too, tho' Varadero has nothing to offer in this area.
Surfing is OK from Nov-April on the NE coast, but bring your own board.
Windsurf boards are available for rent at all big beaches, at a hefty price.
Fishing. Big game fishing was made famous by Hemingway and is excellent along the NW coast, including around Havana.

Cuisine information:
Local cuisine has come a long way recently and good food and ice-cream is frequently available - mostly from private restaurants called 'Paladares'. They are sometimes a hassle to find [use a pedal taxi] - and won't exist in beach resorts - but serve great homecooking at half the price of the generally poor State establishments.
Officially Paladares are not allowed to serve seafood [to protect the State places], but often discreetly provide superb lobster.
Warning: black beans 'n' rice can get tiresome, and even expensive hotel breakfast buffets are a disaster.

Cuba Travel Star Guide:
Monuments **
Shopping and souvenirs **
Walkability ***
Food Quality and Variety ***
Value for Money ***
Hotel Prices and Value ***
Beaches *****
Wildlife *
Landscape ***
Local People ****
Architecture ****
Safety ***
Nightlife and Clubbing ****
Health Problems not bad
Museums ****

Shopping information:
The best souvenirs are Ché T-shirts that come in a hundred styles. But why no Fidel shirts?
Cigars will be offered to you on every street corner, while original art works can be sensational and good value, tho' you might require an export permit. Check with the artist before you lose it at the airport.
Items made from shells, coral and animals are both immoral and illegal, so avoid them.
Otherwise shop goods are poor quality and souvenirs no better.

Hint:
Learn a little Spanish! No es difficile, hombre.

Why Travel to Cuba?

The Caribbean's most interesting island has great beaches, watersports and no shortage of steaming sun - just like the rest of those tropical islands, but Cuba also encompasses gorgeously decaying colonial towns and ancient American cars, a wild and varied music scene enjoyed by all local people too, a fascinating history, friendly people and it's good value.

Downside:
- Good, tasty food is not found on every street corner.
- You'll know where every casual conversation - and there'll be plenty of it - is going.... Cigars! Paladares! Ladies!
- There's an edgy undercurrent of potential violence around, which occasionally results in robbery, so care is required outside posh hotels and beach resorts. See Travel Safety Driving for a reality check.
- Standards are low, so beware the rental car with only 3 nuts per wheel [e.g.Transauto], or the salmonella salad. See Travel Health.
- Driving should be a pleasure but the almost total absence of signposts makes things difficult, even if you speak Spanish.

Cuba's main attractions:
*Havana, a large and endlessly interesting, dilapidated old city, full of bizarre vehicles, beautiful buildings, chatty people and a wild nightlife. Somewhere between Barcelona and Rangoon in the style charts.
*Trinidad, a charming and well preserved small town with a centre of cobbled streets and cute pastel houses with tall, barred windows. Lots of live music.
*Santiago [de Cuba] has almost all Havana's assets, plus a lovely valley setting, some of the country's oldest palaces and museums, some fine, frilly architecture, and less street hassle than the capital. But it's a flight from Havana.
*Viñales [near Pinar del Rio], this quiet region is one of the country's prettiest, with flat agricultural land disturbed only by the sudden sprouting of hills [karsts - like SW China, but less so]. Great for hiking and horse riding, there are a couple of ranch/hotels around the tiny town. Beware mosquito overload.
* Varadero beach, a dull town with few restaurants/bars since most hotels are all-inclusive, but the beach is huge and clean, the water's warm and the monster hotels are comfortable, efficient and good value, though mostly packaged people.
*Guadalavaca beach. Excellent beach, but very package tour oriented.
*Maria La Gorda beach. A superb beach, especially for divers, but far from anywhere.
*Sancti Spiritus, Cienfuegos, Santa Clara et alia. Classic Mexican-style towns with colonnaded central plaza and scattered pleasant colonial buildings. No big deal.
Bay of Pigs [ Playa Larga, Playa Giron], grubby and uninteresting.
Ancon beach/peninsula [south coast, near Trinidad], a small and unnattractive beach with sad hotels and happy sand flies.

Accommodation advice:
Like restaurants/paladares, hotels have their private equivalent - the Casa Particular [private house]. These fill the gap between sleeping in a doorway and a 5* hotel in some places, so are vital for low budget travel. For $20 you'll get a private room with aircon and en-suite shower. Some are cheaper. Meals are extra.
Positive points: relatively good value; give you a look at [well-off] real home life and a good chance to get to know the people better.
Negative points: no rooms with a view; a hassle to find; maybe noisy/uncomfortable bed/ mosquitoes/ erratic power supply.

Money guide:
$ are not accepted in cash or travellers cheques, nor will most banks or hotels take popular American credit cards such as Citibank or Amex.
Furthermore ATMs are not very reliable and charges are very high [about 13%]. So...Americans need to get alternative currency, preferably cash.
Sterling £ or €uros are OK, but will need to be changed for CUC [Convertible Pesos = nearly $1]. The country also uses the Cuban Peso which is much less valuable and you may receive some in change. Take care not to be ripped off when changing money.
Use of local pesos is a pain but the times are a-changing and you will have to too.
Put most of the cash in a sealed/taped envelope or small locked bag and leave it in the hotel safe. A non-US credit card is useful to have as back-up.

Tipping advice:
Officially not on, but most people working in the service sector expect something from foreigners these days...and their wages are pathetic - $15 pm if they're lucky. So don't be mean.
However, DON'T give money [or goods] away for nothing unless you wish to create or perpetuate a begging culture. [e.g. $ 'for milk for my children' is a commonly aimed plea at women travellers].
Cubans usually expect a tip in return for a photo now - due to overgenerous previous snappers.