You must be on your way to Havana; a city full of open-hearts eager to welcome new characters into their colourful streets. I read a Lonely Planet guide describing the locals as the “Irish of the Americans”. This mannerism was totally visible within just 48 hours of being there. The Cubans are caring, patient, jolly and charismatic with a great sense of humour. Like every off-the-beaten travel destination; Cuba requires slightly more thorough preparation in order to ensure that your trip goes as smooth as possible. More so in this case, I know research is needed; because I had plenty of hiccups along the way to Havana. Below are my recommendations for the journey, which are based on true travel fails of my own whilst transitting between Mexico to Cuba: read further to find out how you can be prepared for your journey to Havana.
Flights
There are daily flights between Cancun and Havana airport. All of which are approximately £50-90, which is exactly what I booked Cuba very last minute without planning to do so previously.
Crossing the Mexican Border
Please make sure to continue reading if you arrived in Mexico by a land border. This will certainly catch you out if you are unlucky enough not to be educated on the matter by anyone else.
If you are staying for less than seven days, consider yourself exempt from the following. Otherwise, if you are staying in the country for longer, then you will be required to pay a visa fee. This can be paid either upon entry, or when exiting the country by plane. I advise everybody to pay this upon entry, it saves the hassle of figuring it out at a later date. The process isn’t as standard and straight-forward as paying the fee as you go through immigration at the airport. Instead, there is a tiny office in the corner of Terminal 2 behind the restaurant: “Guacamole”. Check out this place before proceeding through security. There they will check your passport and you can make the payment.
this process is kept almost secret. There are no signs, no warnings, no passport scans until you are about to board your plane in the final minutes before take-off. The later is the unfortunate time the news was broken to me, where I then had to sprint through the airport and back through security to have the airline ground staff hurry me in doing so. Not the ideal situation as you can imagine, so I advise you to pay this fee as soon as possible.
Obtaining Your Cuban Tourist Card
There are many websites in which you can purchase this legal documentation by mail. That option would be for the people who feel more at ease when they have all their travel documents prepared ahead of time. Don’t let this scare you into thinking this is a tricky process, or that mailing is the only option available to purchase the card. Upon entering the airport terminal in Cancun, take a visit to your airline’s help desk, in my case, this was AeroMexico. You’ll pay 300 pesos for them to hand over a small form. It won’t take you minutes to fill out but make sure to keep both halves safe throughout your visit. They will take both from you as you leave the country.
Withdrawing Cash
Havana’s airport has many ATM’s and currency exchange desks but please make sure you are prepared with alternative methods as these options aren’t always reliable. For the sake of a worst-case scenario, I was equipped with three debit cards and one credit card – NONE of these worked. I was deserted in Jose Marti International Airport with no cash, no food, no friends, no coins for phones, no data to call home and no wifi to Google a solution to my problem. It’s safe to say, I had been checkmated. What I learnt from this mishap was to always carry USD or even better, Euros (for exchange rates). That way, I’ll always have at least something to exchange when technology fails.
Pro Tip: One way to avoid any debit card blocking is to notify your bank of your visit to Cuba. By doing so, they know that the withdrawal isn’t a fraudster and will allow you to continue using your card as normal. This communication will not be easy in Cuba because internationals calls are expensive and internet access is very, VERY limited. Please do this before you leave Mexico, or better still… Your home country.
Understanding the Currency
There are two currencies in Cuba. Firstly, there is CUP (Cuban National Peso) which is exchanged every day by the locals. If you are looking to live like a local, spending as little as possible, CUP would be your currency. You need a least a few coins of CUP to take public transport and eat in local restaurants.
CUC (Cuban Convertible Peso) is what you will withdraw from the ATMs. CUC is for tourists and businesses as it aligns to the American Dollar in almost a one to one conversion rate.
It will not be an uncommon scenario where you pay CUC but receive CUP in change. Just make sure of one thing… When asking how much a product is worth, double-check whether this is CUC or CUP as this is an easy way for the locals to pocket some extra pennies from the confused foreigners.
Transport to Havana
I suggest you look no further than the taxi service to travel to the city of Havana. There is a method of public transport, however, it takes a considerable amount of extra time and can be difficult to figure out, especially if you don’t speak the language nor have wifi to research the logistics.
You should pay no more than 20-25 CUC for a taxi into New or Old Havana. Time to get your haggle on.
Pro Tip: Make sure to have a screenshot of your address. This is a popular hurdle for people to be caught out on when it comes to having no wifi.
Navigating the Streets
To my well-travelled readers, it will be an obvious point to mention Maps.Me. However, if this name is unknown to a crowd then people must be educated right away about its greatness. Maps.Me stores a download of an area on your phone for the user to navigate whilst being offline. It’s essential for any traveller, and even more essential for people travelling in a data-restricted zone.
Now that I have guided you from Mexico into the amazing city of Havana, the rest is up to you and your adventurous spirit to figure out. I just know that you, and your travel buddies, are going to have a blast! Price points, locations, transport links change all the time, please feel free to comment below if you notice any of the above information needs to be updated for the next travellers.
Are going alone as a solo female traveller? You should read this.
Peace,
@katie.maree
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