Americans Cannot Use Credit Cards or ATMS 

It's crazy, but it's reality. If you are American, you need to bring enough cash with you to get you through your entire trip to Cuba. If you run out of money, it will be extremely difficult to get more. Western Union operates in Cuba, but good luck finding Internet to contact your friends and family back home to ask them to wire you money. Internet is tough to find in Cuba—we'll talk about that soon.  

Traveling with a wad of cash in your pocket can be the cause of some anxiety, but thankfully, Cuba is an extremely safe country. So long as you keep your wits about you, everything should be fine. In Cuba, you don't need to worry much about theft. 

However, one thing that you DO need to worry about is getting ripped off when you go to exchange your money. In a lingering vestige of economic tensions between the U.S. and Cuba, Cuban currency exchange officials are known to change USD at unfavorable rates. They will actually take a 10% fee of whatever you change. When you land at the airport in Havana, there's even a separate currency exchange booth for USD, which is a bit sketchy.  

To work around this, it is highly advisable that you change your USD to Canadian Dollars (CAD) or Euros (EUR) before getting on the plane to Cuba. Then, when you arrive in Cuba, you can get the normal exchange rate. Changing your money twice is a hassle, but it will save you money in the long run. It did for me at least. Normally, exchanging money has a fee no matter what, but we exchanged such an abnormally high volume of cash in the Fort Lauderdale airport that we actually exceeded the final threshold of the exchange service and it was done for free. They told us that if we brought our receipts back at the end of our trip, they would change the rest of it back for free as well... and they did! This was total luck though. 

This detail caused me some real anxiety as I prepared for my travels through Cuba. I was afraid that I would run out of cash, so I grossly over-budgeted. I'll break down the costs involved in my trip in our next section so you don't have to freak out and over-budget like I did. 

Cuba Uses A Separate Currency For Foreigners 

One country, two different currencies. It's a weird set-up, but it's not overly complicated once you get into the swing of things. One currency is used by the locals, and the other is used by foreigners who are traveling in Cuba. 

CUP and CUC look very similar, but their values are very different. Look at the pictures above, and commit them to memory. You need to be careful that, when your taxi driver gives you change back, he is giving you the correct currency. It's okay for Cubans to give you change in CUP, but you will need to do the math for the exchange rate to make sure that you are receiving the right amount of change. The exchange rate is as follows... 

25 CUP  =  1 CUC = (roughly) 1 USD

Yes, the exchange rate between CUC and USD is basically 1:1, so that makes things easy. However, you should do your math carefully when converting between CUC and CUP. In all situations, try to have exact change if you can. Most Cuban people will not even be able to break a 20 CUC note, and if they can, they will often need to do so with CUP. 

So, for example, if your taxi ride across Havana costs 10 CUC, and you give the taxi drive a note for 20 CUC, what should your change be? 

The answer is 10 CUC or 250 CUP. Understand? 

Internet Access Will Be Hard To Find 

If you ask me, you should pretty much plan on not being able to access the Internet while you are in Cuba. It's not impossible, but it's a huge pain in the ass. Here's how it works... 

The only Internet access for civilians in Cuba is in the lobbies of the biggest, most luxurious hotels in Cuba, or in ETECSA telecommunication centers. In these places, you will find tiny Internet cafés where 10 worried-looking white people are standing in line to use 2 computers. You will need to pay to use these computers, and once you are using them, you should expect the Internet to be painfully slow. Oh, and keep in mind that the government will be monitoring what you are doing online. 

In order to access the Internet once you are on these computers, you will need to purchase a card from one of these hotels or ETECSA telecommunication centers. It should cost 1.50 CUC (which is roughly the same as $1.50) for 1 hour of Internet access. 

In the past couple of years more and more WiFi hotspots have been popping up around Cuba, but you will still need the card to use them. Here's a long list of all the hotspots in Cuba as of now. So if you NEED to get on the Internet, it's possible, but it's a pain in the ass. My suggestion is that you take Cuba for what it is: a step back in time. However, that doesn't mean you can't find a work-around for the Internet problem... 

Do yourself a favor:

Download off-line map, guide & translation apps!

With no Internet, it's much harder to figure things out "on-the-go," so I would suggest that you download the following 3 applications to your smart phone or tablet... 

Very Few Cubans Speak English

During my time in Cuba, I only met a handful of people who knew more than 2 words of English. We booked our trip mostly through Airbnb (which I'll get to soon), and in our booking process, we made a point only to book rooms in places where the hosts had stated that they spoke English. Of the 4 places that we stayed, only 1 of ours hosts turned out to actually be able to speak English. The other 3 were all wonderful people anyway, but be warned! 

Thankfully, I speak decent Spanish, which enabled me to get around Cuba and communicate relatively easily. But, without a working knowledge of the language, Cuba would have been much more difficult to travel through. If you don't speak Spanish, I'd still encourage you to travel to Cuba, but I want you to be aware of what you're getting yourself into. Be ready to play some charades.  

Cubans Hold No Ill-Will Against Americans

Before my trip, I had a couple people suggest that I lie and tell everybody in Cuba I'm Canadian. It's not the first time I've been told this, and it won't be the last. It's not an unfounded suggestion either; Cuba and the United States do still have some bad blood. But America has had issues with just about everybody at some point in history, so I hear this sort of thing all the time. 

Well, you should be happy to know that, regardless of what the old-guard of Cuba's government have to say, no actual Cuban people have issues with American people, just like no actual American people have issues with Cuban people. (And if they do, fuck 'em.) 

During my time in Cuba, people often asked me where I was from, and I always told the truth. I was met with nothing but smiles and kindness. Cuban people really seemed to be enamored with the concept of America! They pretty much all hate Trump, but even our bigoted president doesn't seem to have dissuaded them from liking America. I'd wager a guess that 8 out of 10 taxi drivers in Havana have American flags hanging from their rearview mirror. These, I'm told, are a sign of goodwill towards the flood of incoming American tourists. 

SO DON'T WORRY!

Cuba Is Extremely Safe

"You went to CUBA?? Is that, like, safe?" 

Since returning from Cuba, I've gotten this question a lot. The answer is a strong, resounding YES! Cuba is a very safe country. It's true that Latin America has a well-deserved reputation for being a dangerous part of the world. Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela—these are countries that are going through some problems right now (and those are just the outliers), but Cuba is an entirely different story. It's hard to envision a safer travel experience than Cuba. Even in Havana, a city that is both massive and impoverished, stories involving even petty theft are few and far between. Even if you are a single, blonde female, you should have no hesitation about visiting Cuba. 

So, Cuba is super safe, but it goes beyond just that. There are lots of safe countries where you'll be harassed by beggars and street merchants for money non-stop just because you are a westerner—in fact, most places are like that—but not Cuba. To my surprise, this happened very few times, and when it did happen, the person asking for money always seemed a little bit ashamed to be asking at all. Furthermore, I needed to do very little haggling to get fair prices for things around Cuba. I've gotten pretty heated and vicious with taxi drivers and street merchants who have tried to rip me off in other parts of the world—*cough* India *cough*—but this was never an issue in Cuba. The Cubans are a proud, dignified, friendly, and honest people.