Money and prices in Cuba

Money and prices in Cuba can be quite complex, following the history of the country’s currency system. Up until January 1, 2021, Cuba had the dual currency system, which included the so-called “tourist peso” (a misnomer). However, this dual currency system was eventually abolished. Thus creating a dual currency system (yes, that’s Cuban logic). Afterward, […]

Jineteros and Jineteras

How to handle Jineteros and Jineteras (street hustlers) Don’t avoid the Jineteros and Jineteras: they are fun, and you can’t avoid them anyway. Bad advice The whole Internet and all travel guides are full of warnings: Avoid the Jineteros and Jineteras because they are trouble! Beware! Warning! Run away! As you might have noticed, my […]

How to book a Casa Particular in Cuba

Last update 02/2020 Do Book a Casa Particular! The best way to discover Cuba is book a Casa Particular. Sometimes this is confused with ‘staying at the home of real Cubans’ but you have to realize that most Casa owners are the elite Cubans because they have access to hard currency. The ‘real’ Cubans would […]

The current situation in Cuba March 2024

What’s Cuba like at the moment? This is a page that I will have to edit every month because today’s circumstances are not next week’s. A lot is changing at the moment and that is happening very quickly. For example, last month’s fuel shortage with long queues for the gas stations has now been resolved, […]

Inflation in Cuba

Since January 2021, when Cuba abolished the double currency system and switched to the CUP (ordinary Cuban Peso), not only did a double currency system arise, inflation also ignited. In 2021 the official inflation was 67% but those are the official prices and at those prices nothing is for sale at all. The actual money […]

How to find a good restaurant?

Good food in Cuba In Cuba, good food can sometimes be difficult. How do you find a good restaurant? You basically have four categories of restaurants in Cuba: good and expensive, bad and expensive, Cheap and good and Cheap and bad. How not to How do you make the distinction? Certainly not with Tripadvisor because […]

How to book a Domestic flight in Cuba?

Yes, there are domestic flights in Cuba again and you can take them too! Covid brought all domestic flights to a halt and since then Cubana Aviation (Cuba’s flag carrier) planes have failed to take off and are rotting away in a corner of Jose Marti, Havana’s airport. Cuba has given up trying to keep […]

Cuba Cheaper

Cuba is not cheap, but you can make it cheaper. Updated July 2018 To discover Cuba cheaply is quite impossible… You can go to Cuba cheap, but then you do not discover it. The cheap way to go to Cuba, without actually getting to know it, is to take an all-inclusive holiday package, which will […]

Where to eat? State or Paladar?

Where is the best place to eat in Cuba? In the private restaurants, also called Paladar or at state owned restaurants? Some sort of comparative research halfway through the year after the CUC was abolished. On January 1, 2022, the CUC officially no longer existed and you could no longer use it to pay. All […]

Reasonable budget for Cuba

What is a reasonable budget for Cuba? You can spend all the money you want in Cuba; it is not a cheap destination. It’s not Asia, and you definitely can’t live on 5 $ per day. We’ll explore a reasonable budget here. But before you go into determining your budget, you have to understand how […]

How to get around in Cuba

There are many different ways to travel from A to B in Cuba.  Here is a list of the different forms of transport from the most expensive and comfortable to the cheapest. Rental Car. It’s hard to rent a car. There are just not enough cars available as Cubans rent many of the cars that […]

Soup kitchen

The situation here in Camaguey is deteriorating. Due to the crisis, the blockade (embargo) and distribution issues food is hard to get by and expensive if you can find it. The socially weak are getting hungry… I live in a bad neighborhood (really bad :-)). And have set up a soup kitchen for the elderly […]