My Beloved and I need to Get Da Fuck Outta Here (Portland, Oregon) as soon as it is feasible. We’ve looked at several various spots and, on a lark, I looked into Havana and found out that flights are damn cheap and Air BnBs are even cheaper…even in the middle of town. So what advice have y’all got for me?
Good points, bad points, best time of year to go there etc. Whatcha got for me?
What do you like to do on your vacations? Cuba is obviously hot most of the year, and while there’s some great stuff to see in Havana, I’d probably only give it 2-3 days before hitting a beach somewhere.
Food was dreadful (scrawny chicken/fish and plain rice, mostly), although this was 20 years ago so things may have improved.
Live music is in every bar, restaurant and hotel - it’s the real highlight of Cuba.
The place we are looking at is a penthouse at the Malecon, right at the beach. No big excursions planned, lazy days, meeting new friends and dipping into the night life, mostly.
I’d imagine you could have quite a bit of fun on a trip like that. Just don’t eat anything or drink anything not in a sealed container. 
There’s no beach to speak of in Havana - the Malecon is just a wide road that overlooks the sea, with a bit of a cliff drop below it. Beaches would be a car (taxi) ride away.
Go to the Hotel Nacional for a cocktail - it oozes 1920s charm, and was very popular with the mafia back in the day. Very atmospheric.
Highlight for me was the Museum of the Revolution.
Best time of year would be the same as for any Caribbean island - avoid late summer and autumn.
I’d suggest to make a trip to the Coppelia ice-cream parlour, not very far from the Hotel Nacional. It’s located in a spectacular futuristic (in the sense of 1960s architecture) building and was one of the prestige projects of the early revolution to pretend it was capable of raising material standards of living of ordinary people. The food is not sealed but hygienically safe. The place was also featured prominently in one of the most successful Cuban films ever, Fresa y Chocolate.
Oh, one thing to remember - whilst state run places (some restaurants, museums etc) require you to pay in Cuban Pesos, private businesses are desperate for your cash dollars, so take a wad of US dollars in one dollar bills (this is because they have dollar stores, which are very well stocked shops where the only acceptable currency is dollars - note, only Cuban locals are allowed to shop at these places, not tourists).
Cuba is wonderful although Havana is okay for no more than a few days in my opinion.
It is oddly the most entrepreneurial place I’ve ever been to. Everyone is looking for a way to make more than the state wage, so tipping goes a long long long way. There is no incentive for hotel staff to pay you any attention until you put a couple of dollars under their nose.
The food is not great HOWEVER if you’re staying at a casa familiar they may ask you if you want them to cook for you. This is where you’ll get a home cooked meal and there’s a good chance it’ll be pretty good. Some hotels will be good but with the tipping thing in mind they will be really disinterested in you unless you’re a tipper. At a casa familar you will get treated excellently because you are their source of extra income.
Speak to your taxi driver and you may find out that they are highly educated and once worked as a highly skilled scientist, but to make more money they quit to drive taxis. Can’t get extra money in a science lab, but you can driving a taxi.
The old city is beautiful but as a tourist you will be pestered. It’s not as bad as Delhi or Bangkok but it is still annoying.
The best place in Cuba I visited was Trinidad. A unesco world heritage site - it’s a gem of a town. Colonial buildings, cobbled streets, ultra friendly people, great rum, salsa dancing, and near the beach. What’s not to like?
Trinidad would be amazing given the OPs desire to just chill out and enjoy some nightlife, but it’s a long way from Havana. You’d need to fly to Santa Maria Airport.
I also loved Santiago, but again, opposite end of Cuba so would require different flights.
Havana’s good fun, but it’s certainly a city break. Trinidad would give you town and beach.
Pretty sure you can do day trips from Havana to a good beach resort.
You can find private B&B accommodation (“casas particulares”) at bbinnvinales (dot) com.
Lots of great private restaurants listed on Tripadvisor. The quality has gone way up since the old days.
You can hire a car & driver to take you to other cities (including Trinidad) for a very reasonable price. (Ask at your accommodation or at a travel agency.)
Nice beaches at Playa Giron (in the Bay of Pigs).
Then they must have changed things sine I was there (in 2008). As I understand it, there are two Cuban currencies running in parallel, both denominated in pesos: Moneda nacional (CUP), and peso convertible (CUC). The former is what Cuban state workers get their salary in; the latter is directly pegged to the dollar. You can exchange dollars for pesos convertibles at exchange offices (of which there are many). Anything that goes beyond mere subsistence would be paid for in pesos convertibles, which is economically equivalent to paying in dollars (in essence, peso convertible banknotes can be thought of as vouchers for dollars). But you still wouldn’t use dollar bills directly, so there wouldn’t be a need to bring a wad of them.
We (wife & I) had a private tour of Havana. Just the 2 of us & the guide. I’d recommend it. It’s a great place full of friendly people. It’s sad that they’ve been so repressed. On the other hand it’s good that they don’t suffer the never ending commercialism & greed that we’ve become so jaded about. One can only hope that when things do open up there, as I expect is inevitable at some point, they will move with caution and try to avoid all that North America has become.
If your intent is to stay at a resort. Well, you can go anywhere on the planet that the weather suits. A resort is a resort is a resort.
Correct. One requires Convertible Pesos (CUC). You can convert there or before you leave. Canadian or Euros are more acceptable than US in Cuba. This is due to the US embargo. I would just take CUCs & have done with it. You won’t need your home currency while there.
My SiL went to Cuba for a week, and she enjoyed herself immensely. If you’re going to go, the sooner is definitely the better because it is hot as hell there in the summer.
Nope, dollars still very much appreciated.
Spent a week there and had a great time. Hope you like the smell of diesel exhaust.
Absolutely. And if you buy a cigar there, it will be a real Cuban Cohiba. If you’re into cigars, be careful about where you buy them – counterfeits are everywhere.
Also make sure to have a drink at the Floridita.
Yes. Dollars are basically the currency of Cuba. A popular tourist scam is offering to change your dollars for pesos. Don’t. Nobody (except, as mentioned in the quoted post, state agencies) takes pesos.
Varadero is lovely.
In my experience, everyone (except the above-mentioned state agencies) is more than happy to take US dollars.
I do not doubt you at all. I just had zero trouble using US dollars. The Canadian thing sounds true, given the number of Canadians who travel to Cuba for winter vacations (probably a much bigger number than US tourists).
Tip – you can always make deals with the tourist bus guides to get wherever you want to go. If there’s an extra seat or two on the bus, the guide will be perfectly happy to put you on the bus, even if you’re not part of the tour group that booked the bus. He’ll want dollars, of course. And he will speak perfect English.
This does not square with my experience; it was CUC that everybody was after, not dollars. Of course the CUC derives its value from being pegged to the dollar, but I never used dollars directly a single time during my three weeks of travelling around the island. I would exchange euros into CUC at an exchange office and go with that (plus a small amount of CUP, for petty things like bus fares). I suppose people would have taken dollars as well if I had offered them, but CUC was perfectly fine, and prices for the “good” stuff (most things that you can buy with CUP are rationed) would be quoted in CUC, not dollars. For some quirky reason, the CUC is/was not exactly at parity to the dollar; it was something like $1.08 per CUC, which I think had something to do with the buy/sell spread of the currency exchange offices.
Is Cuba open for tourist visits? This state department site suggests not, but maybe I’m missing something?