Edit: Shortly after this post was published the Trump administration announced that they would once again increase travel restrictions to Cuba. The information in the post was accurate at the time of this writing, but if you have more accurate information please share it in the comments.
Edit 2: Information from the Trump administration now bans travel by Americans to Cuba under the People to People purpose, the American Cruise lines operating in Cuba have all had to change their ports to non-Cuban ports. Please check with the state department for the most up to date guidelines if you are traveling to Cuba by some other means.
It has been a dream of mine since high school to go to Cuba. Sadly, it wasn’t possible at that time. But now that American’s are allowed to visit Cuba, I knew we had to jump at the chance to see this beautiful country. Cuba is definitely another world in so many ways and as Americans there were certain rules we had to follow while we were in Cuba. Today I’m sharing 4 things you need to know about traveling to Cuba.
1. Money
The first thing you need to know is that your American credit or debit card is most likely not going to work while you’re in Cuba. So that means you are going to need to use cash during your visit. While some vendors take American dollars, most do not and you will need to use the Cuban convertible peso or CUC (pronounced kook). You can exchange cash for CUCs at any state run hotel, the airport or if you’re coming on a cruise ship like we did, the port. The current exchange for CUC to dollar is 1:1, but they charge you a 16-17% exchange fee. So for every $1 you get about .83 CUCs. A way to get around this is if you happen to have Euros from a European trip you have been on (as long as it is paper bills, not coins) you can exchange those instead. We exchanged 40€ and got 49 CUCs. One thing that is important to note is that only tourists use CUCs. The Cuban people have their own peso that they use and it is worth hardly anything. So make sure when you are getting change from vendors that you are receiving CUCs. The way to know you are receiving CUCs is to see if there are monuments on the money. Monuments are for tourists, faces/people are for the Cubans.
2. Cuban Visas
In order to enter Cuba as an American you have to get a visa. In order to get a visa, your reasons for traveling need to fall within one of twelve categories: “family visits; official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations; journalistic activity; professional research and professional meetings; educational activities; religious activities; public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions; support for the Cuban people; humanitarian projects; activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes; exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials; and certain authorized export transactions.” (source)
You will need some sort of documentation to prove that you did what you said you were going to do. For example, on our visas we said that we were going for educational activities. Those included going on two different tours through our cruise line. But you could also book third-party tours or activities to qualify for this category. We were told to save our tickets from our tours with a copy of our visa application in case there were any questions about why we were in Cuba. Note that after we participated in our educational activity (aka going on our tours) we were free to explore Havana on our own.
3. Have Reasonable Expectations
Cuba is not a modern country like America. There are a lot of things that are so different from our country. If you are planning on staying at a hotel know that there is a decent chance you may not have electricity or running water for all of your stay. There are times when large portions of a city do not have electricity. Hotels may have high star ratings like they do in the U.S. but they are probably more like two or three star hotels (with the price tag of the higher rated ones!) That is one reason why I really liked coming in on a cruise ship. I knew what to expect in terms of accommodations and food. Cuba is trying to become more focused on tourism, but it is not quite there, which is actually really refreshing. While a lot of people don’t speak English, they are learning and know some basics. If you stay in touristy areas, restaurants will have English translations of the menu and shop owners will be able to converse with you enough for you to purchase their items.
4. Know the Limits
Lots of tourists go to Cuba for three things: cigars, rum, and coffee. Know that you may only bring back 100 Cuban cigars, 1 liter of rum and 1 kilogram of coffee to the United States per person.
Do you want to go to Cuba? Do you have any questions about Cuba? Let us know in the comments!
