10/05/2025
Hi! maybe it’ll be useful for someone (as of May 2025):
🛌 Accommodation:
All our stays were in casas particulares, which we booked via Airbnb. The average cost was $10–15 USD per room. The standard was very good — clean, private bathrooms, and air conditioning.
🌏 Internet:
We didn’t buy a tourist ETECSA SIM card and have been using Wi-Fi. In restaurants and hostels, Wi-Fi is often very weak or doesn’t work at all when there’s no electricity. Locals have mobile internet and sometimes shared it with us. ETECSA provides public Wi-Fi in city centers (usually in parks). You need to buy a scratch card with login details at an ETECSA office (1 hour = 25 CUP). It worked well for us.
⚡️ Electricity:
In Havana and Varadero (Airbnb), we had electricity almost all the time. In smaller towns, there’s often no power for most of the day. Some Airbnbs have backup generators — lights and fans would still work.
🍕 Restaurants:
Basic meals (pizza, pasta, chicken) are available, typically for 1200–2500 CUP. We mostly paid in cash (cards not accepted). Local food — e.g. a small, tasty cheese pizza for 250 CUP (approx. 2.5 PLN). In non-tourist spots, coffee costs 100–300 CUP, and a large bottle of water is 200 CUP.
💵 Exchanging pesos:
We brought both dollars and euros. At the moment, dollars are slightly better to have, as euros are now treated nearly the same. We exchanged $100 at a time by asking at our Airbnbs (as of April 26, 2025, the rate was 360 CUP per dollar). In many places, USD and euros are accepted directly.
In official shops where prices are in USD, you can only pay by card (from a non-American bank). Our ING credit card worked (Revolut did not). These shops — we jokingly called them “Pewex” — sold various items: food, cosmetics, etc., at fairly reasonable prices. Alcohol and ci**rs were much more expensive than in street shops (e.g. Havana Club Especial 1L on the street costs around 2000–2500 CUP, while in shops it’s $11 USD).
Our route:
Havana – Viñales:
Viazul bus, €16, booked online, 4 hours, no delay.
Viñales – Havana:
Taxi colectivo at 8:00 AM, $20 USD. Must be reserved a day in advance. It’s a shared car for 5 people and goes almost twice as fast as the bus.
Havana – Cienfuegos:
We caught a taxi colectivo, $20 USD, a 10-person van. We waited about 2 hours for it to fill up.
Cienfuegos – Trinidad:
We had internet issues but managed to buy a Viazul ticket at the bus station office in Cienfuegos and paid by card — €10. If there’s no electricity, card payments aren’t possible at Viazul offices.
Trinidad – Varadero:
Viazul bus via Santa Clara, over 7 hours, €22.
Varadero – Havana:
Viazul bus, 2h, €15.
Viazul gives slight discounts when buying multiple tickets at once. All buses were on time and had air conditioning.
ℹ️ Additional info:
• No one at the airport asked us about travel insurance.
• Drones are prohibited in Cuba (I declared mine, and they stored it at the airport — storage cost is approx. 250 CUP per week).
• We rented bikes and a scooter twice — a great way to explore the surroundings.
• We felt safe everywhere, but we didn’t walk around too much after dark.
• Download an offline map (e.g. mapy.cz).
• Spanish is essential here — even at the airport, almost no one spoke English. Knowing the basics is very helpful.
• Be sure to bring enough cash in USD — that’s crucial.
This is a beautiful island with extraordinary people living in tough conditions. Tourism is a huge support for them, so we encourage you to visit and explore beyond hotel resorts. The beaches are empty and stunning.
