AIBU to ask about your experiences of holidaying in Cuba...

[Liveonyournerves]

Thinking about Cuba for a Xmas holiday.

I've never considered it before - I'd love to hear people's experiences. And whether the food was good and if it was expensive for tourists.

Thanks

Loved it. Was based in Varadero but travelled around. Swam with dolphins (in the mangroves but yes it was an organised activity) and spent 3 days in Havana which was phenomenal, we did loads and saw an amazing show at Club Tropicana.

Downside is my DP at the time got a sickness bug and was taken out for 2 days. I just sat round the pool / on the beach with my books I did check in regularly with poorly person

This was almost 20 years ago now though.

Been twice. Once to Gaudavalaca and once to the Cayos. Lovely white sand and turquoise sea.

Is the food really that bad? I mean I don't need 5 star haut cuisine, and clearly I'm not going to get it, but I thought there would be seafood etc

Loved Cuba. Agree with other posters to be generous on tipping. Go to the art galleries and the gorgeous beaches and to a dance show. The people are wonderful.
I went a while ago and food was mostly awful - but if you’re in Havana, go to Chinatown and there was a nice chocolate museum when we were there.
Don’t drink the water and walk in the middle of the road (a local taxi driver warned us of this because of collapsing buildings; we thought he was joking. he wasn’t)

@marchez 😂

Typo.2014

And yes, the food was very bad. Due to the import rules at the time majority of ingredients were home grown. Not good.

If you like salty pork, rice and beans then the food is fine. I can't imagine the pandemic will have helped with quality, as they relied heavily on tourist income and that vanished. I went probably 10 years ago and some of the things people are saying are unfamiliar. There was no begging or pickpockets when I went. It was an amazing, beautiful country. We did the casas paticulares everywhere outside of Havana. Stayed in one bad one, but all the rest were brilliant. It does help to have some Spanish if you do that, as most hosts didn't speak English.

I thought the food was quite nice. And I enjoy nice food. It was 5* though.

@Liveonyournerves

Is the food really that bad? I mean I don't need 5 star haut cuisine, and clearly I'm not going to get it, but I thought there would be seafood etc

It’s mostly pork, rice and beans. Everyone can cook that but it’s a bit bland and gets repetitive. At the resorts they will try to cook a more varied menu but it’s somewhat limited, the chefs are unlikely to have been trained to the standards you would see in most other countries. There wasn’t really a lot of seafood, despite it being a Caribbean island, their main industry is tourism. The tourism industry thrives from the culture rather the food. Normally huge amounts of Canadians will visit every year - it’s like the Brits popping to Tenerife and Lanzarote - so the resorts are built to cater to those but in Havana you don’t have that the same.

@KarlUrbansWife if you’re fine with going for the culture (and mojitos ) rather the food, it’s fantastic. We’re kinda nerdy so we visited the revolution museum and its fascinating to see it from the Cuban side, rather the US side that we usually see. I loved it. I wouldn’t go back but that’s only because it’s changing so quickly and I think by the time we can afford to go back (which will be many years from now) a lot of it will have changed. Plus it was our honeymoon so at the resort we watched the sunset on the beach with champagne while a local saxophonist played as the sun set (managing to end the song perfectly as the sun dipped below the horizon) and we had many spa treatments, so future visits probably wouldn’t measure up the same!

We didn't get hassled at all - I think because we avoided the resorts. We went via Varedero and weren't impressed - I think there are lovely white sand beaches in Cuba, but they are a little bit off the beaten track.

I would go back - the cultural stuff is really interesting, the music and the sites, the people were just lovely to us (it was just me and my children travelling) and the scenery and architecture are just stunning. The cocktails too! I'm not a fan of the other Caribbean islands though, luxury resorts, or beach holidays.

It's a fascinating place. We did a mixture of resort in Varadero and a bit on our own - Havana, Bay of Pigs etc.

Pros
The beaches and sea are absolutely beautiful. One of the nicest places we have ever swam in the world. Excellent snorkelling in the Bay of Pigs. The music is just fantastic. They do a damn good mojito and rum is dirt cheap.

Cons
The food is pretty awful. We are quite easily pleased food wise and don't have any dietary requirements or foods we don't like but we found we were happy to get back home to eat and that never happens when we go on holiday. We stayed in a 5* resort in Varadero and still the food was not great. It was edible and we didn't get sick or anything but we just didn't really enjoy it. The quality is not good and the variety quite limited. We did go to a couple of local restaurants where the food was better so worth doing that.

The worst thing for me is how poor the place is. You see people queuing for their rations. Some queue for ages. The shops are often bare by lunchtime. We got chatting to one of the entertainment staff in our hotel and she was talking about their lives and how poor they are and she was so grateful that we left her our shampoo and shower gel and toothpaste when we left as they just can't get them. We also left a lilo for her to give to her son to play on and she cried because she was so grateful. It made me really sad.

Tips
If you do decide to go, do try and see a bit out of the resorts as it is worth it. Also take GBP or USD and have plenty of cash. Many places don't take card still and the ATMs are incredibly temperamental. You will always get a better rate using foreign currency than pesos as locals can use foreign currency in certain shops and get more items. They've done away with the two currency system now so it's just pesos or foreign but foreign is better.

Personally I would be tempted to visit Havana again but would not go for another holiday there. I'm happy that I've been but would not be tempted to go back and I rarely feel like that about places I've been.

Sorry that sounds a bit negative but trying to give an honest opinion. Hope it helps!

Beautiful (in parts) but many of the locals see tourists as walking ATMs, so you constantly get hassled and ripped off. The beaches we went to were beautiful but very polluted- lots of rubbish on the beaches and in the sea. Interesting experience but I don’t think I’d go again.

There was a woman who did a good travel blog about Cuba, wish I could find it again!

I didn’t like it to tbh. As a females travelling alone, Cuban men just assumed we were prostitutes, which was weird. It’s not really possible to have any kind of interaction with any local people (even fleeting accidental eye contact) without being hassled for money. No ones actually selling anything, they’re just begging and quite aggressively. We had to lock all of our clothes (inc. bras) in our suitcase to stop the maid from stealing them. Even the airport staff on the way home stole from us. A fitting end to a slightly depressing holiday. I feel bad for the people that live there but it’s not set up for tourism.

Thanks so much, everyone. I worry that they'll only be open for a month before we go. They will likely have been depleted by the lack of tourism, and this could make for a strange environment - lot more hassle, lot more need for tourists/money, and even worse food. Plus I think they are meant to have great healthcare but what if we got sick there?

I find it almost impossible to decide on whether to go on holiday in December! Keep going around in a loop

We have been twice, quite a few years ago when things were quite tough for Cubans.

We went to a resort on the Bay of Pigs in a village called Playa Giron. The resort was very basic. The rooms were in concrete bungalows I think were built by the Americans.

It wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but we loved it, mostly because of the nature around us and the Cuban people and music. It was affordable for us and was our first time on a trip like that after our kids grew up.

The people were warm, proud, friendly, and just plain down to earth lovely. We spent Christmas there and the entire village were invited to the resort for a meal and music. The little girls were all dressed up in party dresses.

We woke up to the noise of village fisherman early one morning in the water with nets catching little fish a barracuda has driven into the bay. We also had horse grazing just outside our bungalow.l

There was a cenote nearby and the snorkeling was great. I taught DH to snorkel there.

I can't say what is like in Varadero. But omg the music was fabulous at our little resort. The food was nothing fancy but well prepared and healthy. We went on a couple of excursions and they were great.

We’ve been twice, travelled around and stayed in small hotels, resorts and casas particulates. It’s my absolute favourite travel memory, I loved it there. Resorts did the trick but the food was a hit and miss and they were full of old white men who picked up local ladies to accompany them, I found it cringe. Casas particulares were great - staying with local families in the spare room, it cost peanuts and normally included breakfast and dinner too. We had some amazing home-cooked meals, often fresh lobster, oh and the most delicious eggs for breakfast. Varadero for me is a waste of time but there are so many fantastic places worth seeing, the Cayos, Vinales, Trinidad, outstanding snorkelling in the Bay of Pigs and of course Havana itself is a wonderful adventure. I do think though that Cuba is for the more resilient travellers and quite disappointing as a fly and flop destination.

We arranged an amazing trip staying in Havana and then with local families in Trinidad and a couple of other colonial towns. It was fantastic.

We ended up with a week in a Canadian owned resort in Varadero. Beautiful setting. A little shabby in parts and not comparable with 5* in Asia for example. Service was friendly rather than slick. Although there were 6 restaurants the food was pretty much the same but there was ample choice and sea food etc was a good standard. Take tabasco if you want spicy! Stuff ran out though and wasn't replenished so we had no ketchup or teabags for most of the week.

Drinks though were ok- cocktails especially and the evening shows were always fun!

I went many years ago, but loved Havana. Beach resort was meh. Lots of package hols tend to have 10-11 days on beach, 3-4 days in Havana. Don’t do that - you want half your time (at least) in Havana. And as others have said - you don’t go to Havana for the food! If you just want a beach holiday though, I’d go somewhere else.