Why are there no ferries to Cuba, from anywhere?

I’ve been told there are no ferry connections between Cuba and any other country, and that it’s an in-joke on travel sites to produce outrageous answers whenever people ask about getting a ferry between Cuba and somewhere else.

Are there really no ferries at all? And if so, why not? I can see why there’s no Cuba-Miami connection, but why not Mexico? Jamaica? Haiti? The Bahamas? They aren’t particularly far away and, this may be my ignorance, but I wasn’t aware Cuba had any major political problems with any of them.

There’s not enough demand to make it worthwhile, from what I’ve read.

From wikitravel:

There are no regular ferries or boats to Cuba from foreign ports, although some cruise liners do visit. Yachters are expected to anchor at the public marinas. Most ports are closed and tourists are not permitted to walk around them. Private vessels may enter at Marina Hemingway in Havana or Marina Acua in Varadero. There are no visa requirements. Expect to hand out several $10 bills to facilitate your entry.


Why? Good question.

How far will ferries travel on open water? Cuba is 90 miles from Key West. Haiti looks to be closer, but the Carribbean isn’t exactly smooth sailing.

Yeah, I was going to say I associate ferries with getting out to nearish islands, coastwise trade, crossing reasonably narrow passages. Cuba doesn’t have that many super-close neighbors – Caymans and Haiti look to be closest, and neither has any compelling commercial reason for people to travel back and forth to/from Cuba.

Are ferries a widely used form of transportation in the Caribbean at all?

I’m pretty sure the distances between islands in the Caribbean are on a similar scale to those travelled regularly by marine ferries in the Maritimes and Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, for example), and the weather out there can get pretty nasty. From what I can tell, it seems that with enough money, a shipyard can build nearly whatever ship you need for whatever conditions needed (see Oasis of the Seas). There are Ferries in the Mediterranean as well.

I think economic/demand issues are much more of a factor than ship capability.

I initially read this as “Private vessels may enter Mariel Hemingway.”

But be aware that doing so may be a federal crime, if one is American. If memory serves, US law prohibits Americans from spending money in Cuba.

You could say that the ferries on the Baltic are a mixed breed between car ferries and cruise liners.

Ah yes, Land of the Free.

There has been, although I’m not sure how successful it is, a ferry service between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Also, Puerto Rico has two island municipalities (Culebras and Vieques), and their common way to go to the main island is by ferry. This is a regular service, multiple times a day.

I’m not sure about ferry services between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, or between the Virgin Islands. It would not surprise me if there is a service.

Same for ferry service between the Lesser Antilles. Wouldn’t surprise me if there is one, but I’m not sure about it.

I hadn’t thought 100 miles is that far for a ferry service: there are ferries in Europe that travel those sorts of distances, and ones in South East Asia that travel further, for instance. And the distance between Cuba and Haiti looks more like 50 miles anyway.

I don’t see how it could be dangerous weather or conditions, because there are loads of cruise ships that go to Varadero in Cuba and Montego Bay in Jamaica. As for lack of demand, can there really be no demand whatsoever for a cheaper connection than flying between Cuba and any other country?

100 miles is no distance to speak of. It’s about one third of the distance between Stockholm and Helsinki and there are two daily ferries between the two cities every day plus four between Stockholm and Turku and one between Stockholm and Tallinn and one between Stockholm and Riga. On top of that there are also a couple of ships doing daily cruises on the Baltic.

Map

I thought ferries and cruises are built for different sea conditions and different distances, so what may be easy ride in a cruise may be choppy with a ferry.

Now… There are only two other countries/nations in the Caribbean that may want to have a ferry service, or where it would be “logical” to have it. Haiti is not one of them. The countries are Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The later, being a US territory, is prevented from going to Cuba (likewise, no tourist planes going to Cuba from PR). With the first one, there probably is no commercial reason to go there. I don’t understand this demand you keep mentioning.

As to cost, while the ferry between PR and its municipalities is cheaper than airfare, the plane is faster, less crowded, and not THAT expensive. So for tourists who want to relax and enjoy vacation, going by plane may be more relaxing and faster than taking time in crowded ferries across potentially choppy waters.

Why are there only two countries that “may want to go to Cuba”? Why not a link between Cancun and Cuba? Both places are popular tourist destinations with huge local populations as well. I find it hard to believe in those circumstances that there is literally no demand, whatsoever, for any cheap transport connection. Flights between Cancun and Cuba are hundreds of dollars - a 100-mile ferry would surely be a hell of a lot quicker and cheaper. If your argument is that there is literally no demand for a transport connection by sea between Cuba and any of its neighbors, I think the burden of proof lies with you on this one.

Maybe. But if you’re saying every single potential traveler thinks like that, and that there’s not even enough demand to sustain, say, one ferry crossing a week to Cancun or Haiti, I think you need to back that up, because it strikes me as very odd.

Just curious - how long does a 300-mile ferry ride take? How many people are on it? Just people, or cars too? What’s the price? Just curious!

Two I’ve used:

Playa del Carmen to Cozumel has a large passenger ferry. It’s only 12 miles offshore though, and the ferry takes 45 minutes and runs hourly.

The Cayes in Belize use ferries too, from Belize City, although they are more like large powerboats due to the low volumes.

Stockholm - Helsinki/Tallinn boats leave at 5pm and arrive at 10am both directions (and Stockholm is one hour behind all destination ports, do the calculations yourself). They could do it in shorter time but for duty free reasons all ships make a stopover in Mariehamn on the Åland archipelago between Sweden and the Finnish mainland (like the Canary Islands Åland is not part of the EU). All ships are primarily car ferries that double as pleasure cruisers (there area a couple of ships that only do cruises, but I leave them aside).

As for capacity (which varies from ship to ship) I really have no idea and the same goes for prices that vary a lot depending on the time of the year, what kind of cabin you have etc. Check it out for yourself:

Viking line

Tallink/Silja

I took the Helsinki to Stockholm ferry. It’s an overnight trip. We left around 5PM and arrived in Stockholm at 9:30 in the morning. (I think there’s a 1-hour time-zone change in there though.)

The ship is a roll-on/roll-off ferry with elements of a cruise ship (the central atrium, glass elevators, shopping, etc). This was in 2000, just pre-euro, and the voyage was apparently considered to be in international waters, hence the duty-free shops. There was a large liquor store, and people were leaving it pushing shopping carts of booze. I called it “across the Baltic by shopping mall”. There was also a large restaurant, where I had venison. :slight_smile:

As a hiker with a Eurailpass discount, I shared a cabin below the car decks. My roomate was an elderly Swede who was going to visit his much younger wife.

My Eurailpass gave me a 50% discount off the price for the basic cabin, the C-class, which now seems to be 122 euros (165 diring the high season).

Helsinki to Stockholm on the Silja Line
The Silja Symphony

Pre- or post-euro doesn’t matter, it’s the EU membership that counts.