Cuba?

We are contemplating a trip to Cuba next year (with the kids, who will be 14 and 12) and I’m wondering if anyone here has been. If so, any thoughts? I’m excited about the idea of going now, while it is still somewhat undeveloped and unsullied by the presumably inevitable changes that tourism and $$$ will bring about. If anyone has any thoughts or experiences they could share, I’d love to hear about it…

Interestingly American just cut the number of flights due to lack of demand

Well, they haven’t been waiting for American vacationers/ tourists. I haven’t been in to Havana, but otherwise it’s much like many other Carribbean islands. A bit cheaper than anywhere except Dominican Rep.

I am headed there for 2 weeks over the holidays. Wife, 14 yo daughter along with sisters are on trip as well. I will report back on what I find.

Look forward to the report, my son is going with some friends from school over spring break next year.

Thanks for all the responses. I look forward to hearing about your trip Andrew.

Yes, report back Andrew. Thanks.

Andrew, please let us know about your recent trip. Thanks.

There is another Cuba thread here on WB. I posted some notes there. Went about 4 years ago, so should be close enough, but more Americans are arriving, and I hear it is getting crowded, more touristy, and more expensive. However, still no need to worry about McDonalds or Starbucks on every corner.

If you can’t find it, ping me.

Edit:
http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1335750#p1335750

Went there almost 2 years ago and spent about 4-5 days just in Havana. The people were great, food was amazing and it was one of my more memorable trips.

Happy to give any advice you’d like. We did the normal stuff - Hemingway bars (Floridita, La Bodeguita del Medio), Hotel Nacional, car ride in an old T-Bird, walked the Malecon, all the various Plazas, churches, etc.

I was there last week on a small (maximum of 704 passengers) cruise ship and we visited 3 port cities - Santiago de Cuba, Cienfuegos and Havana. On all 4 days in port we were on buses with 20-30 people and a tour guide or two. We had about 6-7 hours in Santiago and visited El Morro Castle, the town square where the oldest remaining building is located, a bar where we watched an 8 piece Cuban band, San Juan Hill, and drove by many points of interest. In Cienfuegos we only had 4 hours and we bailed on the bus after 45 minutes as we wanted to walk around on our own. We visited the Teatro Terry Tomas (sorry for not using the accent), and bought some rum at the best cigar store we encountered. We spent about 10 hours in Havana last Friday and 6 hours on Saturday. The previous poster, Doug, got to see a lot more of Havana than we did so he has a lot more info to offer. We went to La Floridita, La Bodeguita del Medio, Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso, Miramar (where we had lunch at La Bonita, the best of our 3 lunches), a cemetery, Cojimar (a small fishing village where Hemingway got his inspiration for The Old Man and the Sea), among other places.

We really enjoyed the architecture, music and the people. We always felt safe and saw a minimum dose of the street hustle. I’ll reserve judgment on the food of Cuba as we only had 3 lunches on the island, which were included in the tours provided by the ship. One lunch wasn’t very good, one was okay and one was good.

I would highly recommend taking your family to Cuba, Todd. Maybe they could read The Old Man and the Sea (if they haven’t already)?

Has anyone been recently? I’d like to take my wife and two kids (13 and 14). I’d like to do a completely guided tour for several days, maybe a week. Thought about doing a cruise that stopped overnight but if I’m going to Cuba, I really want to go to Cuba, not just stop off. I’m wondering about lead time in getting a visa. Any info from someone who has done this recently would be appreciated.

I am heading there mid January for 4 days. There really is no visa necessary as the airline provides it (the one that flies into Cuba itself.) So basically United is getting the visa and health insurance for me in Houston before we take off to Havana. You do need to pick one of 13 different reasons for traveling and we picked support for the cuban people and have an itinerary packed full of activities with cuban locals from tours, to talking about entrepreneurism to eating inside people’s homes. I’m super excited for the trip!

Enjoy photography? A number of photographers are leading trips these days.

I’ve been 4 times. 3 times to resorts and once as an independent traveler to Havana.

Food in resorts is ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC, even at quote unquote 5 star establishments. If you are planning on a resort beach vacation avoid Cuba, the food alone will ruin the trip.

If however you are planning on staying in hotels in Havana and will be dining at local restaurants, or even local people’s homes (I highly recommend this, even if being offered a meal on the street seems shady), then I trust you will find Cuba to be a great experience. The people are warm and friendly, the architecture has so much character, and those old cars, too cool…I would like to go back and tour around the region west of Havana one day, but I will never go back to a resort there, ever!

Are you going solo or with a tour group?

There is no one there that knows even a little bit of English–so someone in your group better speak pretty good Spanish would be my only advice.

My wife wants to go to Cuba in October. There were changes made during the Trump years that restricted visits and where one can stay (not allowed, for instance, to stay in govt or military owned hotels), where on the island one can go, etc. What is the situation now for US citizens to go to Cuba? Is it better to go from Canada or Mexico than from the US? Also, my wife and I have dual citizenship, so maybe go using a different passport?

Advice would be greatly appreciated.

I’m surprised someone with dual citizenship isn’t familiar with the benefits of being able to travel using your other passport, return using your US passport.

Don’t be surprised. Because I live in the US and have no current address in the UK, I am just a bit twitchy about using the latter one. A few years ago, I got hell for using it going in and out of Canada.

But, the other part of my question is, if one is using a US passport, what restrictions remain vis-a-vis individual travel, accommodations, etc.?