Jon and I traveled to Havana, Cuba last week and still can't believe how beautiful it was! We keep saying to each other that it is hard to explain to someone who hasn't been there. The architecture is intricate and beautiful, I imagine it is what parts of Europe look like. The classic cars were our favorite part of the trip. The US cut ties with Cuba in the early 60s so no new cars have been imported from the US. It kind of feels like the whole city is stuck in the 60s. No billboards, no technology, no hustle and bustle like the US. It was really like stepping back into time. There is so much poverty in the city but the people are so happy. It was very eye opening to see people living on nothing being so content, meanwhile in America we all struggle with wanting more, more, more. One of our tour guides said Cuba is 25-30 years behind in technology and it is apparent when you try to sign onto WiFi, it is basically non existent! It was incredible to unplug, relax, learn, explore, and immerse ourselves into a new culture.
Getting There
American travel to Cuba has been restricted until only
recently after negotiations with President Obama happened. In 1961, America
stopped trade with Cuba and it turned into a 50+ year issue, read more about it
online, it is so interesting! Anyway, now that Americans are allowed to travel
to Cuba, I wanted to jump on the opportunity (while we still can? Who knows
what our president will do…). We flew Southwest Airlines- Austin to Fort
Lauderdale and Fort Lauderdale to Havana which was only a 45 minute flight,
gate to gate. Upon booking travel, we had to state a reason for travel since
technically “tourism” is not allowed. After chatting with friends who had
recently been, I wasn’t worried about not qualifying for travel. Options for
reason for travel were journalism, business, family visit… a few others…and I
chose journalism. I was told by friends and prompted by SWA to buy a Cuban Visa
online for $50 a person. I did it 3 months ahead of time but we had the option
to buy them at the gate in Fort Lauderdale. I would buy ahead of time just to
be safe. A valid passport is also a
requirement.
Where to Stay
It is hard to get an idea of the lay of foreign land,
especially land that not many people are familiar with. I talked with friends
and read lots of travel blogs (also, ladies if you love travel, join Girls Love
Travel on FB! The group is amazing and so helpful. Warning, it will make you
want to travel, travel, travel). We learned that the hotels in Cuba are all
government owned and while they are very nice, they are expensive and it is
better to support locals by staying in AirBNBs. It is very common for people to
stay in the homes of locals and the locals will cook breakfast, etc. We found
the most adorable private apartment on AirBNB with amazing reviews! The reviews
of the apartment and hosts were what sold us! We paid $36 USD a night (which
was during peak time!) for a private apartment with a king bed, AC (not
common!), tv, bathroom, mini kitchen, and living room.
Here is the link for our
AirBNB, I HIGHLY recommend it if you are going to visit Havana. It is in the Vedado
neighborhood, right by the water, walking distance to Hotel Nacionale and so
many restaurants/night clubs. We felt incredibly safe (our apartment had a gate
outside the steps downstairs) and were able to get cabs immediately on the
corner.
Money
The currency in Cuba is the CUC, Cuban Adjusted Peso. They
also have another currency for locals called the CUP but it is not worth much
so when you exchange your money, be sure you are getting CUC. After doing
extensive reading on visiting Cuba and talking to friends who have been, we
learned that the Euro has a better exchange rate to the CUC versus the USD. In
fact, there is a high penalty rate for exchanging USD in Cuba and when you are
on vacation spending quite a bit of money, you want to save as much as
possible. Credit cards don’t work in Cuba so you must travel with enough cash
to last you for the whole trip, that was a little nerve racking! I went into
Wells Fargo (my bank), 2 weeks before our trip to order EUROS. Again, after
researching and talking to friends, I didn’t want to run the risk of running
out of cash on our trip so I ordered $1500 USD worth of EUROs. They do keep
some at the bank but had to make an order for me which took a few days. Our
AirBNB host picked us up from the airport and we were able to exchange right in
the airport. We only exchanged about 2/3 of our money the first day, you are
able to exchange currencies at most of the big hotels and banks. I made sure we always had small bills/coins
for short taxi rides and tips.
How Much We Spent
Jon has a Southwest Companion pass so I fly for free with
him anywhere (cha-ching). We booked his ticket with points so I am not sure how
much tickets cost but you could easily check Southwest.com or your favorite
airline (we saw United and JetBlue flights there, not sure who else flies
there). We paid for our AirBNB ahead of time with my credit card, which was
only $130 USD for 3 nights! We also paid for a 3 hour classic car tour of
Havana ($90 USD) through AirBNB ahead of time… I had no idea you could book experiences
on their website, it was so cool! At the end of our trip, we exchanged the CUC
we had left for Euros and then the day after we got home I went back to Wells
Fargo to get USD and I got $465 back (we brought $1500). Everything is pretty darn
cheap in Havana… we had sit down breakfasts for $7 USD, fancy seafood dinners
with cocktails and lobster for $30 USD, and souvenirs for all the kids for less
than $10 USD. Seeing all of the poverty in the country and learning how little
the locals live on, we made it a point to tip really well during our trip. We
also splurged and hired a driver each night for a drive around the city which
was our favorite part but if you wanted to do Havana on the cheap, unnecessary.
We spent $200 on cigars and rum as gifts too. As cheap as everything was, the
most expensive thing we bought was a beach towel! We only had two small bath towels
at our apartment and didn’t want to bring those to the beach so we bought one
at the souvenir market. Only 2 booths out of probably 100 had them and we
talked them down to $25 which was a lot considering the beach towels we have at
home were $7.99 at Target! We also spent $80 to go Cabaret Parisien at Hotel
Nacionale (more on that later). It was nice to be able to put money directly
into people’s pockets buying things off of the street. I exchanged our
remaining CUC to Euros at the airport and then Euros to USD at our bank when we
got home and got back $465. So we spent a little over $1000 in Havana, plus our
AirBNB ($140), car tour ($90), and flights (not sure). You could definitely do
Havana cheaper though!
Bringing Kids
This was a kid free getaway for us and I am so glad we didn't bring them. We were so confused by not seeing a lot of kids when we were there... our tour guide told us most families just have 1 kid because it is so expensive. We did see kids going to school in the mornings in their cute little uniforms but for the most part we didn't see a lot of local kids or tourist kids. I would have felt perfectly safe bringing my kids to Havana but it was just not somewhere I desire to bring them... it was hot, not a lot of places had AC, the sidewalks were bumpy and uneven, I can't imagine pushing a stroller, and we were in and out of taxis and buses. It would be a lot of work with kiddos to see the city and we were so glad to be able to explore without them!
What To Pack
- ·
Comfortable shoes- I packed 3 pairs of cute flip
flops, 1 pair of tennis shoes, and one pair of wedges and wore my tennis shoes
90% of the time and my comfy flip flops 10%. We did lots of cabs and taxis but
still a lot of walking and exploring. Comfort over style in Havana!
- ·
Sunscreen- I threw in sunscreen last minute on the
morning we left and I am SO glad I did! We both got burned on the first day riding
in the classic car on our tour of the city, whoops. We made sure to lather up
because the sun just feels a lot hotter down there. We also went to the beach
one day so sunscreen is a must.
- ·
Sunglasses- obvious item to pack but don’t
forget! It is VERY hot and sunny
- ·
Swimsuit/towel- if you plan on going to the
beach, don’t forget your suit and a beach towel. We forgot a beach towel so
ended up buying one at the souvenir market and it was pretty expensive ($25).
Makes me wonder if they are just hard to find down in Cuba.
- ·
Bags- Jon brought his work backpack and I brought
a crossbody purse which was perfect for our trip. It felt weird not carting
around tons of baby/kid gear, I basically had an empty purse the whole time.
The backpack was nice for travel (my book, ipad, headphones) and also for the
beach day.
- ·
Hand sanitizer- we were warned that there isn’t
much running water in public in Havana and I was shocked to find that for the
most part, the places we went DID have it. A few times we were out and about
without a place to wash our hands before we ate so hand sanitizer was a must. I
also brought a package of baby wipes but we never ended up using those.
- ·
Small package of tissues- one thing that was
hard to find in public was toilet paper. Lots of places you had to pay $1 CUC
to use the bathroom and then there was a lady in there selling toilet paper.
Some places it was free to pee but no TP. I kept a small pack of tissues in my
purse that I used for TP.
- ·
Immodium- despite being diligent with only
drinking bottled water, we still experienced a touch of Montezuma’s Revenge. I
think it comes with the territory of visiting a 3rd world country.
Take my word for it and buy a small pack, Jon and I both used it. Also bring Ibuprofen.
Long days in the sun can cause headaches and sore bodies.
- ·
Sound machine on your phone- even though we had
a private apartment, it got loud with barking dogs, taxis, talking people. We
have a sound machine app on our phone and put it at full blast to drown out the
city noises and sleep in.
- ·
Toiletries- I brought our own shower toiletries
and I am glad I did. The AirBNB had some non-descript bottles in the shower so
I was glad we came prepared.
- ·
Snacks- I packed quite a few snacks that we didn’t
end up eating but it was SO nice to have protein bars, sunflower seeds, and
Chex Mix in our apartment when we went back to rest in the afternoon.
Trip Advisor App
We use Trip
Advisor all the time when preparing to travel and I learned something so
valuable before we left for Havana. You can download the Trip Advisor City
Guide for any of their cities that allows you to use it without internet! This
was a LIFE SAVER!! Right when we landed in Cuba we realized we probably should
have printed out a map so we could get our bearings but it was too late. I came
with a list of what we wanted to do and restaurants I had researched with the
addresses and how far it was from our apartment. I still have no idea how this
worked but the Trip Advisor App tracked us in real time and we were able to
figure out where we were and where we needed to go. This helped when trying to
figure out where to eat (reading reviews), and finding our way back to our apartment.
I am going to do this every time we travel, even when we are in the States! We
tend to always get the notification from our cell phone carrier when we travel
that we are almost out of data, whoops.
Speaking Spanish
I am going
to be 100% honest with you and say that if you don’t have any Spanish, I wouldn’t
go to Havana. The locals speak very little English and most of the restaurants
we went to were all in Spanish. Jon knows pretty good Spanish (thank God!) and
we still ran into some road blocks. We laughed at how funny it must look to
talk to another grown adult but have a language barrier…. Lots of laughing and
slow talking like we are talking to babies. If you plan on going to Havana and don’t
know Spanish… start learning! “Como se dice” is “how do you say” and that is a
great way to learn with a native speaker.
You also want to know how to ask how much something costs, where the bathroom
is, giving directions to a taxi driver, basic food words, and numbers. Jon did
most of our talking to the locals and I would just say that “Mi espanol es un
poquito y muy mal”…. Very limited and very bad. The only time we spoke English
was to each other so coming back to the states was funny! We instinctively
spoke Spanish to the flight crew, customs workers, waiters, etc.
What To Do
I am going
to list in bullet points everything that we did with a little info on each. We
packed a lot into the 2.5 days we were there. The one thing we didn’t have time
for was driving to Vinales (3 hours away) to see the tobacco/coffee farms. Many
people also drive to Trinidad (4 hours away) to see the sugar farms. We ran
into a lot of Europeans on our trip who were in Cuba for 1-2 weeks and they
would spend a few nights out in the country on the farms. Our AirBNB host
offered to help us coordinate a driver to Vinales, along with tours and lodging
for a night but we just didn’t have time to fit it in.
- ·
3.5 hour tour in a classic car
of the city- our favorite part of the whole trip! Since historically
Americans haven’t been allowed to travel to Cuba, my knowledge of the country
was minimal. We learned so much, saw all of the best views and important
landmarks, and loved getting to know our driver. We booked it ahead of time
through AirBNB experiences. There are so many other fun things you can book
through them! I highly recommend our tour guide Soto, he had great energy and a
hilarious sense of humor. Here is a list of where we went on the tour:
o
Revolutionary
Square- you will see the statue of Jose Marti and learn about Che Guevara and
Camilo Cienfuegos, two huge figures in the Cuban Revolution that are still
celebrated today. You
may recognize Che
from Rage Against the Machine prints.
o
Colon Cemetery
(Neocropolis de Crisobal Columbus)- famous cemetery where Christopher Columbus
is buried. There are thousands of beautiful grave sites.
o
Almendares
Park/Isla Josefina- the most beautiful park we’ve ever seen! It had
gorgeous banyan and willow trees with lush greenery. We saw people in all white
digging and burying things, our tour guide told us about a polytheistic, voo
doo religion that came from Nigeria that is now becoming popular in Cuba. It
was so surreal and sad to watch these people search and attempt to sacrifice
things (we saw lots of animal bones and carcasses from sacrifices) to gain
power, riches, and happiness. We came back to the park a few times, it was so
gorgeous.
o
Hotel
Nacional- this is the oldest hotel in Cuba, owned by the government and
right on the gulf shore. It is beautiful and immaculate and has lots of
information on the Cuban Missile Crisis. We walked through the underground
bunkers and learned a lot that American History does not teach.
o
I can’t remember the name but we went to a giant
army base that was built in the 14/1500s. Each time we were in a classic car,
the drivers took us there, so you won’t miss it! It has the most beautiful view
of the city right on the water.
o
Christ of Havana- also a
beautiful view of the city from the other side of the bay. Cuban Jesus is holding
a glass of rum and a Cuban cigar.
o
El Capitolio- this was
our initial meeting place for our tour and we drove around it but it was closed
for renovations. It is beautiful!
o
We drove through Old Havana and Central Park and
learned so much about the beautiful city of Havana.
- ·
Fábrica de Arte Cubano- this came
highly recommend to us and it was amazing! It is a big old warehouse or church
building that they’ve remodeled into an art gallery, exhibition hall, music
venue, bar, and night club. It was $2CUC to get in and drinks were really
cheap. We walked around all of the interesting art exhibits and listened to a
jazz artist. We ended up in a large venue where they had a huge iMax like
screen and were playing a documentary on scoring and music in Hollywood movies.
It was SO COOL! We stayed from 8:30-10:30p on a Sunday night and it wasn’t too
busy. I’ve heard it can get busy depending on who is playing music, etc.
- ·
Museo
de la Revolucion (Museum of the Revolution)- after learning about the Cuban
Missile Crisis and Cuban history from our tour guide, we knew we wanted to go
to this museum. It is in a beautiful stone building (all of the architecture is
so old and intricate… makes me think of Europe). It was a bit confusing because
it didn’t tell you what room to go in first so we had to piece things together,
and like I said above, not everything was translated into English but we loved
it. We had read reviews on Trip Advisor that told us to be prepared to learn
about what the US did to Cuba and be shocked because they leave those parts out
of US History… and they were right. Outside they have the real cars and boats
the Cubans used during the revolution and so many cool artifacts. I think it
was $10 CUC per person to get in.
- ·
La
Zorra y el Cuervo- we read about this jazz club before coming to Cuba and
we are SO glad we went! It was right around the corner from our apartment and
we were told to show up early which was good because a line formed 30 minutes
before doors opened. You enter through a vintage phone booth and $10CUC gets
you admission and two cocktails. We got there a little before 9:30p on Monday
night and were second in line. It’s a small venue so they only let a certain
number of people in. Doors opened at 10p and music started at 10:20p. A world
famous group played, the drummer was insane, pianist was incredible, and bassist
was playing 6 strings. We overhead a guy talking who composes music for orchestras
for movies in LA and he came just to listen to this group. We absolutely loved
it!
- ·
Floridita-
this is a famous restaurant in Cuba, known for being Ernest Hemmingways
favorite bar and the birthplace of the daquiri. We went during peak lunch hour
and it was insane, we didn’t even ask how long the wait was. They had a full
jazz band and cocktails while you waited. We didn’t end up eating there but it
was cool to see. It is right in the heart of Old Havana by Central Park.
- ·
Feria
Artesanal Nave San Jose- this is a huge souvenir market we went to, it’s
right by where all of the cruise ships doc. Items were so cheap and we loved
browsing, buying things for our kiddos, and soaking it all in. The artwork was
so beautiful, displaying the classic cars and architecture. We didn’t see any other stores where we could
buy souvenirs so be sure to visit this!
- ·
Playa Santa Maria- I had no idea beaches were so
gorgeous in Cuba but they knocked our socks off! We took an air conditioned
charter bus (Transtur) to the beach 30 minutes away (pick up/drop off was Central
Park). It cost $5 CUC… a steal of a deal! Cabs to the beach were $30-40CUC.
There were a few stops at different beaches but our AirBNB host recommended Santa
Maria and it was nice because most people stayed on the bus for the next stop
so it felt more private. We weren’t sure what to expect but there were lounge
chairs and umbrellas you could rent for $2 CUC each and cocktails, food, and
cigars for purchase. This was one of my favorite parts of our trip….we swam
then laid on our chairs in the shade just relaxing. The sun felt a lot hotter
than Texas sun so bring sunscreen! The bus picked up every 40 minuets until 6pm
so we stayed for 2.5 hours then hopped back on the bus, it was the perfect amount
of time.
- ·
Cabaret
Parisien- a few people told us about the Tropicana show in Cuba and after
doing some research, it seemed expensive and over rated. We ended up finding
out about the Cabaret Parisien at Hotel Nacionale and were excited that it was
highly rated and more affordable ($40CUC each). We read reviews NOT to eat
dinner at the show beforehand and we didn’t buy tickets until the night of at
9pm. The show is at 10pm so we were there pretty early and they seated us in
the front row…. And by front row I mean I had to lean back during some of the numbers
because I was about to get kicked in the face! The show was 100% in Spanish and
it was wonderful! Beautiful costumes and dancing and it was such a different
entertainment experience than in the US.
- ·
We also spent time exploring on our own. Walking
the small streets of Old Havana, going into hotels, looking into windows,
talking to locals. One thing I kept saying to Jon was the lack of signage all
over the city. When I think of America, I think of Times Square with all of the
advertising and lights… Havana was the opposite. You kind of had to know where
you were going because stuff was unmarked. As we walked, we weren’t sure if we
were in a neighborhood or residential area or more commercial. Everything was
intermixed. We loved looking inside of boxing gyms and schools… the children
all wear cute little uniforms.
- ·
Each night we went to Hotel Nacionale and chose
a classic car we liked and paid the driver $30CUC to drive us around at sunset.
It was so relaxing and fun!
Where to Eat
I am going
to list all of the places we ate with a small description. I did a ton of
research before we went and had a long list of restaurants to try and we didn’t
go to any of them. We trusted Trip Advisor when we got there and took advice
from the locals we met. We were told not to expect much from the food and I can
see why but I wasn’t totally disappointed! We ate a lot of yummy seafood and
ended our trip with a few Cuban meals. We definitely didn’t over eat when we
were there and we were sad we didn’t get lots of treats (one of our favorite
parts of traveling is finding awesome treats). I did bring a package of chocolate
Pocky that we polished off when we came back to the apartment at midnight each
night. I wasn’t prepared for the odd pairings of food at meals but we went with
it!
- ·
Toke- this was right by our apartment and it was
a great place to go our first evening. I ordered shrimp and spaghetti and that
is exactly what it was. A huge pile of spaghetti with garlic and tons of grilled
shrimp. Jon ordered lobster enchiladas that turned out to be a bunch of seafood
in a sauce with rice and beans. It was really good and so cheap. We also went
here on our last morning for breakfast. Jon got simple fried eggs and toast but
I got a Cuban sandwich and it was HUGE and delicious. A few restaurants served
plantain chips, I love those.
- ·
El Biky- also right by our apartment in the
Vedado area, it was very fancy but really inexpensive. We got an “Americano”
breakfast…. Bacon, eggs, toast, and fruit. They have a bakery attached so we
got a chocolate pastry for the road.
- ·
Elizalde- we were starving after the car tour
and chose a highly rated restaurant by Central Park. This was probably my least
favorite meal… it wasn’t bad but not something to write home about. I got a club
sandwich and Caesar salad and Jon got some seafood paella or something? It was
pretty expensive too.
- ·
Balcon del Habana- our second night we asked our
driver where he recommended we go to eat and he dropped us off here and we are
so glad he did! It was on the beautiful deck of a big, historic home, with an
intimate atmosphere. We got a seafood platter for 2 and enjoyed lobster tail,
shrimp, and white fish. They brought out flan with a candle and sang happy
birthday to Jon. It was our most expensive meal $50 CUC but so delicious.
- ·
Café Nana- this was a few minutes from our
apartment and we stopped in for a quick breakfast one morning. There were only
a few breakfast options on the menu of each place we went to so we stuck with
eggs, bacon, and toast and paid $10CUC. Lots of places also have fresh squeezed
fruit juices.
- · Fonda La Paila- we ate dinner here on our last
night and it was absolutely delicious! We were so over seafood and got excited
when we stumbled upon it while walking around and read about the delicious “bbq”
on Trip Advisor. We got roast chicken, filet mignon, black beans, and black
rice… it was amazing! It was tucked into the side of a hill with outdoor lights
and neat decorations.
Getting Around
We took taxis most of the time. Cars are either classic cars or junky old Russian imports and we took about half and half. You definitely pay more for the classic car taxi so we did that when we wanted a relaxing ride but if we just needed to get from point A to point B, we would flag down a cheaper taxi. Always ask "Cuanto cuesta?" (how much?) before getting in. They also have these funny little motorcycle egg taxis that were the same price as a regular taxi. We took one for the experience and it was fun and windy. We had our AirBNB host pick us up from the airport and I highly recommend arranging airport transportation before you go. There is a bus system in Havana and it costs something like $.05 per ride. That may sound enticing but these monster buses were packed with 100 people at a time. Taking the bus is definitely a way you can save money during your trip but it wasn't what we wanted to do.
WiFi
Don't expect to be able to work during your trip to Cuba. Internet was scarce and intermittent. We bought WiFi cards and went to a park nearby to sign on (you can tell the areas with WiFi because you see a bunch of people glued to their phones). We were only able to send a few messages, load email, and FaceTime with our kiddos but no browsing or surfing the internet. I thought it would be overwhelming to be without internet but it was pretty darn awesome. It made me realize how much mindless time I waste on my phone. Jon and I talked, relaxed, napped, and just enjoyed the silence rather than filling our time on our phones. All of the hotels we went to had WiFi, but still not great connection.
I feel like I covered it all but if you have any other questions about traveling to Havana, Cuba,
send me an email!
