My trip to Havana, Cuba

Havana, Cuba

Ever since the borders to Cuba have been opened up to the United States, I wanted to go see what Cuba was like. The reasons I wanted to go sooner than later was because :

•  I was worried that the borders may end up being closed back off from Americans.
• I also wanted to go to Cuba before Americans swarmed Cuba making it too touristy.
• Seeing a communist country would be interesting to see since the only other country that is still communist is  China, but it seems to be more influenced these days by money. Also, I didn't feel like paying $140 for a visa. Since my friend asked me a couple of months ago invited me to go with her and friends to Havana, I said hell yes !

My flight itinerary was:

August 17th: Depart from Atlanta, GA to Havana, Cuba at 11:30 AM

August 20th: Return from Havana, Cuba to Atlanta at 2:30 PM

The cost of my flight was $335.31.

This does include a $25 fee for health insurance in Cuba since our health insurance doesn't apply in Cuba. Your plane ticket is what you use as proof for health insurance if you do need to use it while you are travelling there.

I'm sure a lot of you guys are curious about Cuba, and here are a few things that you may want to know before going:

• I highly recommend traveling with someone who is proficient in Spanish. It is definitely possible to get around with speaking Spanish, but it does make things a lot more difficult if you do so.

• There are 12 categories that you can choose for a visa when visiting Cuba. I chose "Support for the Cuban people".

• Travel visas are purchased when checking in to your flight at the airport, and prices vary. I took a direct flight from Atlanta to Havana,, and paid $50 at the kiosk when checking in.

• For Delta, you have to go to the counter at the gate and have your documents checked before lining up to board the flight.

• 1 US Dollar is technically equivalent to 1 CUC, which is Cuba's currency for tourists, however when exchanging currency, there is essentially 13% in fees, so in reality 1 CUC comes out to $0.87 US Dollars.

• If you want to figure out how much you need to pay in dollars, either ask a waiter or just take the amount in CUC and multiple by 1.13 (13%).

• You can exchange currency at the airport, and certain hotels such as Hotel Nacional, but it is technically illegal to exchange US Dollars anywhere else so be careful if you decide to exchange your USDs somewhere else.

• Most touristy places do take Euros, Dollars, and CUCs, so you probably can get around without having to exchange money, but you will still end up being charged the same 13% as if you had exchanged money.

• What is nice however, is that when you pay in dollars, you will sometime receive CUCs as change.

• Havana is safe - Everyone is nice there, and while I was there, cops were patrolling the streets, so no need to worry about safety in my opinion. All the locals I spoke to also said that Cuba is safe.

• One can bring back 5 Liters of alcohol, and either 2 cases of cigars if there is a seal on it.

• There is an ATM at the airport. Unfortunately, my debit card didn't work so I am unable to tell you my experiences with it.

• I wouldn't rely on using a credit card, but touristy places probably do take them. Floridita Bar does accept Visa and Master Card, but for some reason they didn't take my Chase Sapphire Reserve. It may have to do with agreements with banks or potentially the card has to be within a certain network other than just Visa.

• Air conditioning is pretty hard to come by. Most places don't have it, and the place we were staying at only has it in bedrooms.

• Internet is scarce. There are WiFi parks, and our Airbnb did have it. However, internet is charged by the hour, and my understanding is you can only buy 3 WiFi cards per person per passport, which equates to three hours of internet. The cards cost 1 CUC each, and can be purchased from ETESCA, which is the telecommunications company in Cuba. Our Airbnb host had a bunch of these cards, but he was charging us 2 CUC per card.

• Before going to Cuba, check with your cell phone provider and see if they have some kind of internet plan for you to use there. I have T-Mobile, and when I arrived, I received a text saying data is $2 / MB + tax which is very expensive.

• Don't forget to put your phone on airplane mode to avoid being charged exorbitant fees by your cell carrier.

• There doesn't seem to be any regulations on car emissions, so it can get rather stinky and smoky while riding or walking around.

• I honestly didn't know what to expect, but surprisingly, most of the tourists I saw while I was in Havana was mostly Spanish speaking tourists from Central / South America or Europe. I saw very few Americans there, and some locals were saying there was decline in Americans visiting Cuba after Trump became President of the US.

• Apparently, getting bags from baggage claim can take quite a while to retrieve when arriving in Havana so in case you must check a bag, I would recommend against doing so.

Things I noticed or experienced while I was there:

• Excuse me is permiso in Cuba.

• Cubans are very nice and very helpful.

• Everyone jay walks there, so don't be surprised if people do.

• The old school American cars are very cool to see. You can rent one or ride in one as a taxi, and they're everywhere.

• Rum in Cuba is called ron.

• It is hot as hell in Cuba while I went, so I would recommend going in the fall or winter.

• Cuba reminds me of Taiwan in the respect that the people are equally nice, the weather is similar, and the appliances like faucets and air conditioning is very similar.

• While I was there, it was the week of Carnival, where locals are off for the whole week. If you walk along the Malecon at night, there's street food, dancing, and parades that go through there. There were a lot of people selling cigars at a discounted rate. (50% or more)  I got a great deal on some Cohiba Esplendidos which Fidel Castro apparently use to smoke, and they're the best cigars I've ever tasted. However, I'm not much of a cigar smoker, and I would also say buy with caution if you choose to purchase them that way. Otherwise, you can purchase cigars from the store next to the Fabrica de Tabaco Partagas which is near the Capital building (Capitolio)

•  The architecture in Cuba is rather nice and plazas kind of remind me of ones in Europe. Upkeep of building wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but the roads are terrible !

Below is my itinerary if you would like some ideas on where to go and what I thought about the places I did visit:

Day 1:

• Took taxi from airport to Airbnb in Old Havana.- Rested and took another taxi from Cafe Laurent, had dinner there while watching the sunset.

•  Walked around the Malecon and saw the Carnival.- Since the Carnival was going on, apparently anyone can buy cigars for 50% off.

• We went to a house, and I bought 25 Cohiba Esplendidos.

• Walked over to Cabaret Parisien which is at Hotel Nacional It was a pretty good show goes on from about 10 PM to 11:45 PM.

• While waiting to take our cab back from Hotel Nacional, we walked inside and took a few pictures. I definitely recommend going inside to take pictures.

Day 2:

• Went to the information center on the way to Floridita Bar. Honestly, it wasn't worth going to.

• Afterwards, we walked less than two blocks down to Floridita Bar, had a couple daquiris, a mojto, seafood platter, and a cuban sandwich.

• Walked to the capitolio, however unable to go in. 

• Since chinatown was close by and my friend and I were trying to kill some time, we went there. There's a place that sells pizzas and smoothies. Since it was so damn hot there, I got one and it only cost 5 pesos ! The comes out to 1/25 US dollars and it was amazingly delicious !- Since we were still trying to kill time, we ended up at a restaurant in chinatown which had A/C and cheap drinks. (2.5 CUC for Mojitos, 2 CUC for beer)

• At 3:30, we tried going to to the Fabrica de Tabaco, but unfortunately, they moved, and was "open" to 3. It was nice however to get a picture of the factory however.- We did stop by the tobacco shop next to the factory and my friend bought a few cigars to bring back.

• Luckily, we met a fellow American at Floridita, and we walked with him to a few places such as La Bodeguita Del Medio which was is where the Mojito was born.

• Afterwards, we walked through the Plaza de Catedral, and walked near the Malecon back to the Airbnb to rest.

• Since we were going to meet our new acquaintance at Fabrica de Arte around 10 PM, we decided to eat at a restaurant called Lamparilla which was named after the street we were staying off of.

• The entrance fee to get into Fabrica de Arte was 2 CUC, which was definitely worth it ! They give you a card which is used to tally up drinks and food that you order, and at the end you pay before exiting. 

• What makes this place so great is the variety of art as well as how much is going on in just one place. There's three floors to the place, an you get to see a mix of contemporary and experimental art, watch a video on the projector, see a live band, dance to music being played by a DJ, and more ! We stayed until midnight, which is when it started getting quite busy. Unless you like to be in crowds, I would say that going from 10-12 is plenty of time to walk around and enjoy the place at a leisurely place.

• After Fabrica de Arte, we took a cab back to our Airbnb and called it a night. Side note - it can be a little far depending on where you live, so be prepared to spend a little more for a cab to get there.

Day 3:

• We woke up a little later on Sunday, but we walked from the place we were staying at to the Museo de Ron (Rum Museum).

• On the way there, we passed a lot of shops as well as Plaza Vieja and bought ourselves some souvenirs to bring back and had some delicious fresh gelato.- Luckily, when we arrived at the Rum Museum, they had an English tour starting in a few minutes. It looks like they have tours every hour in English, so plan accordingly. It cost 7 CUC, and in my opinion was cool to see, but honestly it's not a must see for me.- We then walked past the catholic church, then to the plaza de San Francisco to see the Castillo de San Salvador. I thought the canons and moat surrounding the castle was very cool. If you want to go in and see the castle, it costs 3 CUC to enter. My friend went in and told me there wasn't much to see.

• Since we were so close to the Malecon, we walked along it, took pictures of it as well as the statue of Jesus, and as we walked towards the Ambos Mundo Hotel where Hemingway often went to, we took a few pictures of the Church of Virgin Mary.

• The hotel has a pretty awesome rooftop bar with a great view, and drinks were reasonably priced at 4.5 CUC for a daiquiri.

• After the hotel, we walked back to get ready for dinner at Paladar La Guarida. Conan O'Brien went here, so I figured it would be worth checking out. The food was pretty good, but priced on the higher side. Between my friend and I, we each ordered 2 drinks, shared 2 appetizers, and entree, and each had a dessert, and walked out spending about 120 dollars. Plan to spend at least 2 hours for dinner.- We took a cab back, and had a beer each while smoking a cigar to end the night.

Day 4:

• We had the Airbnb owner cook breakfast for us which was pretty good. It consisted of coffee, eggs, and a lot of fruit.

• After breakfast, we took a taxi to the airport, and came back to Atlanta.

How much did the whole trip cost me ?

Activity	Cost
Airfare	$335.31
My portion of Airbnb	$110.57
Taxi from Airport to Airbnb	$17.50
Drinks	8.5 CUC
Dinner at Cafe Laurent	31 CUC
Cabaret Parisien	$35.00
Cab to and from Hotel National for Cabaret	15 CUC
Floridita Bar Lunch + Drinks	$30.00
Chinatown	7.5 CUC
Fruit drinks from tabacco shop	3 CUC
Water and Mojito at La Bodeguita del Medio	6 CUC
Dinner at Lamparilla	24 CUC
Internet cards from ETECSA	3 CUC
Taxi to Fabrica de Arte	10 CUC
A mojito and entrance fee to Fabrica de Arte	4.5 CUC
Souvenir magnets	3 CUC
Rum Museum entrance fee	7 CUC
Gelato and water	4 CUC
Lunch at La Mina	18 CUC
Bag of coffee as souvenir	9 CUC
Drinks at Hotel Ambos Mundos	$11.00
Taxi to dinner at Paladar La Guarida	5 CUC
Dinner at Paladar La Guarida (entree, dessert, drinks)	$58.00
Taxi back from restaurant to Airbnb	5 CUC
Breakfast, Drinks at Airbnb + Internet Cards	25 CUC
Taxi from Airbnb to airport	$17.50

Total Cost: $827.89

Any values in CUC were multiplied by 1.13 (13%) to get the cost in dollars, and added togther.

Photos from the trip:

View from our Airbnb when we arrived.

I took a pic of a street walking around in Havana.

Floridita Bar, where Ernest Hemingway use to drink at quite often.

Havana has some pretty nice architecture such as this building.

El capitolio.

A quick pic inside the capital, we weren't allowed to go in for some reason.

An awkward pic of the ceiling of the capitol.

A picture from the front of the old tobacco factory.

I thought this looked kinda cool, so why not take a pic of it?

Plaza Vieja !

Inside the Havana Club Rum Museum

Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta

A small portion of the Malecon near the castle.

The entrance to the Ambos Mundos hotel.

View from the rooftop bar at the Ambos Mundos Hotel.

Balcony picture from our Airbnb facing the capitol.

Local Cuban beer, Cristal. Not too bad !

View from Cafe Laurent, where we had dinner our first night.

Drinking a mojito while enjoying the view.

Ham and fish croquettes, delicious !

Pork with sushi rice !

The sunset while eating dinner, beautiful !

Cabaret Parisien at Hotel Nactional !

One of the performers that walked down the aisle by our table.

Another performer walking down the aisle. 

The whole cast in the cabaret.

Picture of the main hallway in Hotel Nacional.

Floridita Bar !

The bar inside Floridita right before it got very busy !

It's Ernest Hemingway ! A lot of people were taking pictures with him while sitting on the stool.

The main gate to Chinatown.

Some more cool architecture in Havana.

Another Chinatown gate.

The bar at La Bodeguita del Medio, where the mojito was created.

One of the many cool murals while walking around Old Havana.

Dinner at Lamparilla. The seafood risotto at the top right was probably the best dish I had !

Drinking Santiago rum out of a cool glass !

This was on one of the walls at Lamparilla, very interesting !

Mango daquiri shaped like a minion. I didn't really taste any alcohol, but it was tasty !

This is the card that you get when you get into Fabrica de Arte. They write down what drinks you have on this card, and you pay before exiting.

Live band playing at Fabrica de Arte.

Old school architecture in Old Havana.

We were walking around, and I thought this captured vibe of Havana.

Another shot of Old Havana.

The entrance to the rum museum.

A few of the nicer bottles offered by Havana Club. Too bad we didn't get to try it.

One of the intersections at the Plaza de San Francisco.

The entrance to Paladar La Guarida.

First floor walking up to La Guarida.

The second floor on the way up to the restaurant.

Stairs leading up to the top floor of the restaurant.

This is facing the back of the restaurant. You don't see this much back in the states !

The view from the balcony while eating dinner, we got really lucky !

Good bye Cuba, it was fun !

If you made it this far down, thanks for reading this post ! 

Pictures will be available for sale soon if you liked any of them. Stay tuned !

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