Cuba: - You’ll love it or hate it

[matt2matt2002]

Yes, I was checking the fares for June/ July.
Not so cheap. Not £500 anyway.
I'd be interested to know the average daily cost of B& B / Hostel + food.
I did Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan this summer. Great countries/ scenery/ folk.
And extremely cheap to live/ travel there.
Cost is not the deciding factor but is a consideration.
Thinking of returning to the Pamirs but Cuba is tempting me.

[simonhill]

I was looking at Virgin, £850 plus for next March. I went in Jan - Mar 2013 and paid £650, but booked early. Virgin are best as they take bikes for free. Try skyscanner, Canadian airlines are cheap (£500ish), but a long haul and only 1piece of luggage. Also charter flights are an option, but not sure about bikes. Emirates to Perth only £650.

They have a dual currency in Cuba. The local peso and the tourist CUC. There are about 25 local to the CUC. This leads to a crazy dual pricing system with tourists liable to be heavily overcharged for a developing (or whatever we are meant to call them) country. You are sometimes quoted a price in peso, which seems to be a bit of a flexible term with the locals, it then turns out to be CUC when you come to pay.

Edit: a CUC = US$1.

If you go and are happy to pay everything in CUC you will find life easy and prices a bit below UK, Europe, etc. This is how most tourists travel and hence have a good time and enjoy/love the place.

If you are more used to travelling in the local economy you will find it much harder. In peso, things are incredibly cheap, but very low quality and often hard to get or only on ration card. Then you hit a tourist area and prices multiply many times when charged in CUC, eg in Santiago I bought a coffee for .75 of a peso in a local place, in the tourist cafe it was at least a CUC.

All pure tourist things are in CUC. A casa (b&b) cost from 15 CUC, but more typically 20 upwards. A lot wanted 25 from me, but I said I am on my own and offered 20. There seem to be lots more casas now as the Govt have changed their taxation. This is good news for cyclists as I was restricted to a route that had suitably placed casas. There is a bit of recent info on casas and cycling on the Lonely Planet Cuba branch of Thorn Tree.

I used local whenever I could, also as a single traveller I didn't favour meals in more formal restaurants. I found the food pretty boring. The casas have a standard for their meals which meant apart from the meat/fish element, it was always the same. Likewise with breakfast. Dinner was about 7 - 10 CUC, breakfast about 4. I normally had breakfast, but found it more fun to seek out local places for my other meals. This wasn't only to save money, its just not a lot of fun sitting in a casa or a tourist type restaurant eating on your own.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are very limited. They just don't grow much. A lot of stuff is imported.

Some things can be relatively expensive, eg bottled water is 1CUC for a 1.5 litre bottle if you can get it in the dollar store. In your casa it will usually be more (x2). I took a small kettle with me for making tea and ended up using it to boil my drinking water. This probably saved me about 100 CUC over my stay.

I was surprised to find that for 56days I averaged only 35 CUC per day, so its not that expensive unless you compare it to (similar?) places like Central American or SE Asia.

I'd say go as soon as possible. I am glad I went and enjoyed the experience, even if I didnt like many things about the country. I travel a lot and don't consider my trips to be holidays and so don't expect to have 'a good time' on every one of them.

[Linda13]

I will be travelling to Cuba in Feb for 4 weeks, I am particularly interested to know of any cycle routes to the west for Havana, out towards Vinales and Pinar del Rio. I will be taking my own tourer. Will it be possible to catch the bus back from Pinar to Havana with my bike? Can anyone advise me on maps? Also general advice would be helpful.

[stu1102]

General touring tips while Cycling in Cuba: http://travellingtwo.com/13318

[TrevA]

I will be travelling to Cuba in Feb for 4 weeks, I am particularly interested to know of any cycle routes to the west for Havana, out towards Vinales and Pinar del Rio. I will be taking my own tourer. Will it be possible to catch the bus back from Pinar to Havana with my bike? Can anyone advise me on maps? Also general advice would be helpful.

There aren't any dedicated cycle routes, you just use the roads. We even saw people cycling on the motorway. Outside of Havanna, the roads aren't busy and you'll even see ox-pull carts.

Las Terrazas is worth a visit. It's the equivalent of one of our national parks. There are some off-road cycling opportunities around Vinales itself. The coast road via Bahia Honda is also nice. You'll get to see the real Cuba around here. We also spent a day on one of the little coastal islands - Cayo Leviso, though you cant take your bike over on the ferry.

[dandru]

I will be travelling to Cuba in Feb for 4 weeks, I am particularly interested to know of any cycle routes to the west for Havana, out towards Vinales and Pinar del Rio. I will be taking my own tourer. Will it be possible to catch the bus back from Pinar to Havana with my bike? Can anyone advise me on maps? Also general advice would be helpful.

I'm travelling there from mid Feb for six weeks but heading east and making my way back to Havana, there are cycle routes to east and west of Havana that people follow, but I'll leave up to the people on this thread to inform you, If they don't let me know.

[Farawayvisions]

I'm back from 3 weeks cycling in the East. My partner and I loved this trip. Amazing scenery, wonderful people, so many quirks. The OP said the route was doable in two weeks - we took 3 and would have liked longer so we could have enjoyed more time in towns and villages. Food and water was difficult to find and a bit repetitive. We both lost weight (which we were grateful for).

I always felt safe and bumped into several other tourers, some of whom were loving every minute and others who felt like they were in hell. Temperatures hovered around 30C and the humidity was almost at saturation.

We flew from Gatwick to Havana with Virgin( bikes free of charge) in December for £800 each.

Casas Particulares cost between 20 and 30 CUC per night for the room and many rooms could sleep 3. most cost 25CUC. 1 CUC = $1 US.

We budgeted for $50 per day between us. Occasionally we spent $10 on water alone. There was an outbreak of Cholera in Baracoa when we were there so tried to get bottled water as often as we could though we used sterilisation tablets as well.

I'll be writing about our trip shortly so will post pics and words over the next month and happy to answer questions.

We enjoy off-road trips and although this was mostly on roads, their condition was often so poor it was as much fun as riding off-road.

This is the must have book for anyone thinking of cycling in Cuba. Even though it's a few years old, it's packed with useful information and detailed guides and route information. http://www.bicyclingcuba.com/

[mjr]

Will it be possible to catch the bus back from Pinar to Havana with my bike?

On Viazul aka the foreigners' bus, I expect it's possible to catch the bus to Havana but you may well have problems trying to put a bike through the luggage system if you wanted to catch a bus from Havana. The Trinidad-Havana bus I travelled on even picked up and dropped off some cargo along the way - I'm not entirely convinced that was official, though. As usual with Cuba, it probably depends a lot on the staff on at a particular time (and it always helps if you speak Spanish), so if possible, have alternative, contingency and emergency plans ready...

http://wikitravel.org/en/Cuba#By_bike says "You have to arrange a personal agreement with the driver however, who will expect a little bonus in return. It is also possible to take bikes on trains and even to hitch with bikes"

I have no experience of the Astro or local buses.

[Farawayvisions]

I booked the Viazul from Havana to Holguin (12 hours overnight) and back to Havana from Bayamo (14 hours leaving Bayamo at 02:50) Regular stops approximately every 2 hours and ice cold air con) Bring something warm. Two food stops of about 20 mins along the route, other stops are long enough to stretch your legs and have a toilet break. Cost $44 CUC each way per person plus 6CUC per bike. Book several days in advance at Viazul stations anywhere or online before you go. There is no personal arrangement with the driver. You pay for the bike luggage when you check-in which is an hour before the bus is due to leave and pay. You get a luggage tag and a receipt for your bike and you get your bike back off the bus when you show your receipt to the driver when you get off. Very organised indeed. No manic grabbing of luggage by all and sundry.
You must remove your front wheel and seat before the bike gets packed on the bus.

[simonhill]

I used the Viazul foriegners buses 4 times. They took a bike each time with no problem.

You book your bike in at the bus station and pay for it there. I never paid the driver and they just accepted the bikes. Officially, there is a set fee for a bike, it is a % of your ticket. Twice I was charged correctly, once no charge as they didn't have change and from Santiago to Baracoa I was charged a local set fee which was substantially above what it should have been. No doubt the staff pocketed the difference.

A bus with bike from Vinales to Habana should be no problem, I did it. Book your ticket in the office a day or so before and mention your bike.

The west of Cuba around Vinales and Pinar del Rio is very different from the rest of the country. I only spent about 5 days cycling there on an indirect route from Habana. You can go a bit further, but remember you are tied to where there is accomodation. if you have 4 weeks then you will need to research other areas.

[Linda13]

Thanks to all those who have replied to my query so far, the info you have provided has been useful and the forwarding weblinks have provided lots of very helpful guidance, I feel more confident and organised with the trip now.

[DaveGos]

Generally liked it . I went with Exodus. Food generally very bad. Given you are in the Caribbean and most of the Islands have good food , it must be a state thing. Loved the Salsa music which was generally only around the Tourist area. Disliked the Revolutionary exhibits that we seemed to have to attend occasionally . Loved the climate and empty roads and old cars and safe environment. As for the politics, they have not done so bad when you understand there big neighbour has tried to squeeze the life out of them and also compare them with lots of their near neighbours like Haiti

[GrahamBland]

We enjoyed our two-month tour of Cuba. http://awaywandering.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/cycling-cuba-viva-la-bicicleta.html

What makes the island a great destination for cycle touring?
1. The quiet roads, generally sealed, that you share, principally, with horse and carts, other bicycles and those fun 'yank tanks'
2. The scenery, with forested mountains, arid cactus filled pastures, lush valleys and a wonderful coastline with so much blue blue sea!
3. The climate - very little rain, plenty of warm (hmmm, Hot!) sunshine and the consequent minimalist luggage
4. Time out for snorkelling
5. The beautiful colonial buildings and town squares
6. Trying to get your head around the politics, economics and life of the island - a puzzling enigma of contradictions that is fascinating
7. The warm, friendly Cubans and a very safe country to explore
8. The step back in time - it really is!

Negatives? other than the cost, perhaps only one. The principal advantage of cycle touring as a means to explore a country, for me, is the opportunity it provides to get off the 'beaten trail'. This rarely happened on our tour of Cuba. Restricted essentially to staying at Casa Particulares, (designed to accommodate foreigners) and essentially biking around a tourist island meant a complete absence of the sense of 'adventure' that one feels biking in many other parts of the globe.

Enjoyable, easy, fascinating, different - but expensive!!