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 get you to the working man’s paradise but you will be in a hotel where only the bad quality and lousy service will give you an impression of the real Cuba. Cheap but not Cuba Real Cuba We can, however, help you to discover the real Cuba cheap(ish) by helping you to avoid al the scams, show you the ropes of ..read more

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 Money Works in Cuba… Without understanding the madness of currency calculating a budget is useless! This post was written in 2016 and is still perfectly valid as long as you follow the insights I provide here! Although we’ve had about 1200 % inflation in the last 3 years, prices in USD or Euro have remained ..read more

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 its own fleet afloat after a few accidents that left Cubana with a very low score on international safety lists. I advised everyone not to take this risk. There were just too many planes falling from the sky. Solution: Atlantic Airways. Entirely in accordance with Cuban philosophy, an unprofitable ..read more

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, but that could be different next week. Thanks to 7 Turkish floating power plants, we have had no power cuts for 2 months now. As soon as Cuba does not pay the bill, they will sail away and the power cuts will, of course, return. The Turks gave a little warning last week, cutting the power for a ..read more

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 depreciation was previously around 500%! 2022 added to that of about 400%. 10 times! So everything has become about 10 times as expensive in two years! That does not bother you, as a tourist, if you understand how money works here. If you don’t understand that, then, due to lack ..read more

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 restaurants made new menus with new prices in Pesos. Before then, what we’ll call “the old days,” I favored the Paladars, although there were a few excellent state restaurants as well. The complications of Money. Some state restaurants had prices in Moneda Nacional (Pesos Cubano), others in C ..read more

Money is a complicated matter in Cuba and so are prices. Until January 1, 2021, we had the fable of the dual currency. Here you can read the history of the (completely incorrectly named) tourist peso. In fact, there was never a dual currency until Cuba abolished the dual currency. Then suddenly there was a lively trade in USD, Euros and all kinds of other hard currencies. With all its consequences. I will spare you the whole story and focus here on the practical side and on the possibilities and problems that this offers you, as a tourist. There is an official exchange rate of the Peso which i ..read more

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 that have no support. It’s becoming a social project and growing a lot of people helping. I need about 25$ per day to feed around 50 people a good Caldoza. Funding it myself for now but since I make my money in tourism my income first 10 days of may was 68$… You understand the problem in the lon ..read more

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