Cuba travel guide: Everything you need to know before you go

Dazzling sugar-gentle beaches, twinkling turquoise seas, palm-tree studded mountain trails, muscular castles, and rather towns brimming with handsome villas, dwell bands, salsa dancing, and artwork. Oh, and all those vintage, colourful American cars… Cuba is an enigma, clinging to socialism even though finding its ft in a submit-pandemic world. Come for vibrant Havana and its nightlife but choose off into the wilds of this crocodile-shaped isle for journey, wild beach locations, cultural quirks, cigars, diving, festivals and foodie places, and the most effective issue of all – the heat and witty Cubans.

Recent travel limits and entry necessities

There are no Covid limits on entry or on the floor. Travellers ought to get a visa-like tourist card and fill out the on the internet Viajeros kind just before travelling.

Ideal time to go

Cuba is a excellent destination yr spherical, but is insufferably sizzling in July and August (though the town of Santiago de Cuba hosts two riotous, musical festivals in July that are value catching). November to April is significant season, when the weather is wonderful, and costs are greater. Dozens of festivals and functions are held in this period: music, dance, ballet, jazz, film, and art. Hurricane season operates from June until November.

Leading areas and cities

Havana

The Spanish conquerors of Cuba grew wealthy on the back of the sugar and tobacco trade and poured their wealth into 1 of the greatest cities in the Americas. As a final result, Havana is magnificent: richly labored with colonial villas, embellished churches, flower-loaded patios, Artwork Deco towers, and 50s mansions. Obtain its heart in the streets of the Aged Metropolis, now lively with indie stores, bars, and cafés. Stroll the ocean promenade, the Malecón, and hail a chrome-festooned classic motor to tour the castles on the bay and the leafy streets of villas and galleries of the Vedado neighbourhood. By night, seek out out rooftop bars, art gallery openings, and boho nightlife spots across the metropolis.

Viñales Valley

It is impossible not to be seduced by this lush valley of mini mountains, royal palms, tobacco farms, horse-driving farmers, and cutesy B&Bs in rural Cuba. At dawn a mist encircles the columns and porches of residences in Viñales town. Breakfast on eggs and mango as the sun burns by, then undertaking out on a horse, or by foot, to investigate this Jurassic location of Cuba the place towering limestone humps, known as mogotes, dot the valley ground, a end result of thousands and thousands of yrs of erosion. At sundown sit on the porch of your B&B sipping a freshly created mojito. You will locate delectable farm-to-fork food stuff in Viñales, far too.

Trinidad

On the southern coast of Cuba, the tiny, cobbled streets of Trinidad spill down the foothills of the Escambray Mountains to the wonderful blue Caribbean Sea. Trinidad is a photographer’s and salsa dancer’s aspiration. Massive mansions, all cinnamon, avocado and ochre-hued and equipped with European marble and chandeliers, were crafted by sugar barons who reaped monumental wealth from the slaves who worked their report-busting sugar plantations. These days these ornate buildings are galleries, museums, restaurants, and non-public properties. Come across some of the most ridiculously pretty B&Bs in the place in this article. Dance the night away to live tunes and recover on the close by Caribbean seaside the following working day.

Santa Clara

Che Guevara, the Argentine health care provider turned Cuban guerrilla, is buried in an elaborate mausoleum sculpture sophisticated on Santa Clara’s Revolution Plaza. Together with his mortal remains are all those that died with him in a unsuccessful guerrilla marketing campaign in Bolivia in 1967. Go to the neighbouring Che museum, way too, right before heading off to the Café-Museo Revolución in which, together with a potent cup of Cuban coffee you can soak up the café owner’s unbelievable Che memorabilia collection. Nightlife pivots all around the theatre and bars of the major square but really don’t miss the superb El Mejunje alfresco club well-known for dwell new music, cabaret, and LGBT nights.

Santiago de Cuba

With winding historic streets that climb from the tremendous harbour up to the city centre, you will get a sense of the location of the island’s 2nd town. It is surrounded by monumental mountains, 1 of them named just after a famous cocktail. And it was in this fabled put, that Señor Bacardí found the tricks of ageing rum 160 yrs ago and released the world’s most popular rum. Examine the households, museums, and new music spots of this lively metropolis – more Caribbean in feel than distant Havana and soak up the dwell African and Spanish rooted music in city centre venues, daiquiris and mojitos in hand! Fidel Castro’s tomb is identified at the city’s impressive marble cemetery.

Greatest less than-the-radar destinations

Baracoa

Baracoa is Cuba’s very best-stored top secret. 6 hundred miles from Havana, it’s a trek to get there, but oh so really worth it. You will climb mountains, bathe in crystal-very clear rivers, swing in hammocks, pay a visit to cacao farms, research for aboriginal hideouts, and flavor some of the greatest meals in Cuba – fish bathed in coconut, and a mashed coconut, honey, and nut dessert wrapped in a palm cone. Dance it all off in the minimal bars and Casa de la Trova (a area assembly dwelling or dance hall) fringing the very small principal sq..

Caletón

Down on the south coast of Cuba – with one road in and one particular road out – is the Bay of Pigs, infamous for the US tried invasion of the island in 1961. But it is not just a web-site for historical past buffs: the h2o is the most gorgeous in Cuba, aquamarine flecked with inky indigo blue, property to vibrant fish, and the odd war wreck. Snorkel, dive, and bike to solution beach locations along the jagged limestone coastline below, backed by swamp peppered with Cuban crocs and vibrant endemic birdlife.

Gibara

Distant Gibara is a fishing port of white properties and jumbled rooves crammed around a tiny harbour in northeast Cuba. It bursts into lifetime for the yearly worldwide cinema competition in August which attracts Cuban and worldwide stars. Arrive for the caves that can be explored with guides, the tasty regional fare rooted in fish and shellfish, and a spotlight – the prospect to dive in a series of attractive sinkholes scattered in pristine jungle settings close to town.

Most effective issues to do

Continue to be in a Cuban B&B

Couple destinations in the entire world present extravagant digs for incredibly reasonable charges. In Cuba you can mattress down in villas, mansions, fincas (farmhouse stays) and Art Nouveau residences for unthinkable selling prices. But, much more than that, the Cuban households who host international attendees will be the stars of your remain. The images of amazing interiors will get a zillion likes on the ‘gram, but the memories of your warm, loquacious hosts with 101 gripping tales to tell will linger lengthier.

Employ the service of a automobile

Lonely mountain streets with epic scenery, isolated Spanish colonial towns and rural villages, virgin white sand shorelines with not a different soul in sight, and quirky attractions located absent from vacationer hotspots. All this is achievable in a seek the services of car, and extra. You’ll have to have to reserve, and gas expenses are growing, but there is no greater way to check out off the overwhelmed monitor in particular as the general public mentor community is minimal. Bring your very own snorkel, and lunch!

Acquire a guided artwork tour

1 of the extraordinary hallmarks of Cuba’s 1959 revolution was a big investment in the arts. You will come across planet-course artwork in Cuba, Havana primarily, and a guided tour to the households and studios of some of the finest artists at get the job done on the island is a intriguing introduction to the fertile arts’ scene, and everyday living in Cuba in basic. Functions from Cuba’s residing artists are located in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork and MoMa, and London’s Tate. Pick out your medium, or let the information pick out for you.

Finding close to

Selecting a automobile isn’t low-cost. Use the community mentor corporation Víazul (bookable on-line inside of and outside the region) which runs regular buses from Viñales in the west to Baracoa in the east, with routes out to common seashore resorts and cities. New air-conditioned train carriages released in 2019 but the network is antiquated. Practice tickets can be purchased at any Viajeros company place of work on the island (income acquire). Licensed and unlicensed taxis can be utilized to get to distant places.

How to get there

TUI is the only airline flying immediate from the Uk to Cuba (Varadero beach front vacation resort) from Manchester. From London you can fly with Air France, Iberia, and Air Europa by means of other European towns, or with a pair of spending budget airlines together with Spain’s Entire world2Fly and Iberojet.

Funds preserving suggestion

Wifi is obtainable at community wifi hotspots and accessible by scratch playing cards bought from phone (Etecsa) workplaces or by resellers on the street. Obtain a Cuban SIM card (which can be acquired on the internet prior to you fly) and select it up at Havana’s international airport. A 30-working day Turista SIM card costs US$25 and contains 6GB of details, 100 texts and 100 minutes of calls. Major-ups can be purchased on the net.

FAQs

What is the weather like?

The temperature is easily incredibly hot and breezy from November by means of to April. Day by day tropical rains commence in May well and operate to October, but even these downpours evaporate in seconds. As talked about previously mentioned, July-August can get too stiflingly scorching for numerous.

What time zone is it in?

Cuba is five several hours guiding GMT.

What forex do I need?

Cuba united its twin currencies in January 2021 the Cuban Peso (CUP) is now the sole official forex, but the financial situation in Cuba is currently sophisticated – with locals making use of MLC (a currency which Cuban should add to their bank cards by acquiring overseas currencies) for some purchases. This is an outstanding overview.

For a getaway, provide lots of Euros in money (additional than you assume you’ll require) to fork out for lodging on the go, restaurant meals, and personal transport and expert services. Bring a debit or credit history card (with no connections to the United States get in touch with your lender to examine) to buy essentials these types of as bottled drinking water, medications, cleanliness products and solutions and some meals at “MLC” (Moneda Libremente Convertible) stores, where by funds is not approved. Bank cards are made use of to shell out for car or truck hire the island’s only mentor provider, Víazul routines this sort of as diving, sailing outings and canopy walking and accommodation and foods at govt-owned inns and dining places, as perfectly as to withdraw hard cash in Cuban Pesos (CUP). The CUP is utilised to obtain street food, restaurant meals, museum entrances, local transport, and coach transport. Alter a tiny volume of Euros into CUP on arrival. Black marketplace costs for your Euros will make your holiday break much cheaper.

What language is spoken?

Spanish is the official language.

Anything else I must know?

Cuba is a communist, 1-party state. Do read through up on the politics and economics just before you go to. Bring all drugs you may well require with you.