Cuba '18
For as long as I could remember I wanted to go to Cuba, I looked up to Celia Cruz growing up and would sing along to her songs and embrace my melanin, la negra tiene tumbao đđ˝. So when the opportunity came up to visit the island, I was all in. No questions asked.
My best friends and I decided that weâd go on a cruise in 2018 (my first one ever!) and it was interesting to say the least. Me being the mother hen that I am, I took on the responsibility of planning our day and a half in Cuba with as much as we could fit in. I was EXCITED to plan this and nothing was getting in the way of what I..excuse me, we..wanted to do.
Visaâs
First thing first, you need to purchase a Visa. We paid $75.00 each for ours and we had to get them prior to getting off the boat, while going through customs we had to present our visas and our passport to get into the country.
Currency
They recommend you exchange cash when you get into the country but itâs not necessary. Youâre able to pay using USD in most places, but I feel itâs much easier to pay with their currency. They do not take cards at all, so be sure to have cash before arriving.
Also I love keeping at least a bill or coins from where Iâve visited so this is also why I always do the currency exchange.
Transportation
There are a couple different ways that you can get around, there were taxiâs, and horse carriages..you name it. It took us about 30 minutes to find what worked best for us and what was most cost effective. We struggled for a bit to find a ride that wasnât trying to scam us and thankfully we came across this AMAZING taxi driver who took us everywhere, literally.
My best advice is to âshop aroundâ for pricing on taxiâs. Most of the people that are lingering around price really high due to the model of the car theyâre driving. But honestly, if you donât settle for the first car you see and take a second to look around, youâll find some people have really great pricing for taxi service. The first person we were going to go with was charging us double the amount than the taxi driver we ended up going with.
You might get lucky like we did and find a driver thatâs willing to drive you around all day, again, I cannot emphasize how amazing he was with us.
Also, thereâs no WiFi or internet on the island so itâs important to download your maps and things you might need prior to getting to the island. Google Maps has this cool feature that you can download your maps and can access it without internet, I highly suggest doing this.
To Do..
Prior to going on the trip I did a lot of research on where we would be docking, and must doâs on the island in the area or not too far away from where we docked. We also had booked an excursion for more historical/sight seeing later on in the night, so anything I planned was based off of what wasnât included in that.
We had one day of our own adventure and an excursion we booked through the cruise and the second day was a half day of our personal plans.
With that in mind, our busiest day would be the first and our second day would be our exploring on our own day.
This is what we did:
Fustlerandia - Jaimanitas, La Habana, Cuba
CallejĂłn De Hamel - La Habana, Cuba
Cristo de La Habana
Bodegita del Medio
Hotel Nacional
Havan Club
La Floridita
La Habana Vieja
CafĂŠ el Escorial
** We did a lot of walking between our tour and just getting to certain places on our second day. Some of the things I mentioned or youâll see are things we saw while we were walking/lost in Habana. Which honestly was a beautiful experience.
FoodâŚor Not
Something we didnât get to do was eat food. Which honestly broke my heart, I LOVE food. We really wanted to grab a bite but we were in a rush to get to certain places and didnât want to risk wasting time.
Also, we heard the food wasnât the best, so we focused on site seeing rather than eating. We did, though, find a really cute ally way restaurant that had amazing options and their drinks were to die for. We sat and had one drink before starting our day and to our pleasant surprise a band came out and started playing music, it was my first memory there and the sweetest.
Last Day
Our second and last morning there was amazing, we headed off the boat to get some coffee at this cafĂŠ that was not far from where we were docked. The walk over there was gorgeous and the location of the cafĂŠ was even sweeter. From the cafĂŠ, we walked through Old Havana which led us to Havana Club, where we purchased Cuban cigars and rum.
We saw nail salons, and bookstores, we saw what homes really look like. We got to see Cubaâs people (outside of the touring areas) and we got to enjoy a walk that none of us might get to experience again.
This small island that seems to be stuck in the 1900s was magical to say the least. Its people, the culture, the hidden gems, and the beautiful structures, every small detail was appreciated and valued for me.
Overall
If you have the opportunity to go, GO. Regardless of what you see in the news and what stories people have to share when they get back, experience it on your own. The people are genuine and sweet, the energy is lively and rich.
Be mindful of where youâre going, make sure you download Google Maps of the island (this is what saved us), and make sure youâre mindful of the people around you.
I was only there for one day and a half and I did not even scratch the surface of this beautiful island. When I get the chance to go back, Iâd like to travel farther into the campo and get a better understanding of the culture and submerge myself in that.
Cuba was exactly what I thought it would be at first glance and I would love to go back and get to experience more.
