Travelling to cuba alone - advise (hotels, regulations, airplane, airport)
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I'm a 27 year old single guy planning to travel to Cuba sometime in Aug/Sep (since none of my friends can come). First of all, has anyone traveled to Cuba alone and how was the experience?
Any suggestions on good places to stay and where to visit? please provide as much detail as you can.
How are the people and i heard mixed opinions about food. where should i stay away from? i am not a party person but i would like to stay somewhere where there are still some social events...
Today, I drove my daughter to the airport where she took a 5 hour non-stop flight from LAX to Havana. She was hired by a private firm who is conducting a photo shoot with Havana as the backdrop.
First, I had no idea non-stop flights to Havana were possible. The immediate concern for her was the lack of connectivity. From what she's been told by others in her team, WiFi is very limited. She was able to text upon landing, but she might be disconnected until she returns to the airport.
Lastly, my daughter was concerned about having her equipment confiscated by local authorities. She was told not to mention that she was there to conduct work. Instead, she was told to state that she was there for a "cultural experience."
Note that in June 2017 Trump put tougher sanctions on tourist travel to Cuba. I'd strongly suggest educating yourself BEFORE you go. Those regulations do exclude certain hotels as well as other activities.
I'm a 27 year old single guy planning to travel to Cuba sometime in Aug/Sep (since none of my friends can come). First of all, has anyone traveled to Cuba alone and how was the experience?
Any suggestions on good places to stay and where to visit? please provide as much detail as you can.
How are the people and i heard mixed opinions about food. where should i stay away from? i am not a party person but i would like to stay somewhere where there are still some social events...
27 year old single guy, yeah.....
tell us your real reason for wanting to visit Cuba, Thailand too far for you?
I didn't go alone but I did just get back from Cuba last week after 8 days there on an educational/people-to-people individual trip. It was amazing on so many different levels. We loved Havana and wish we had more days there (had 3.5 full days there); we stayed right in Habana Vieja and walked everywhere; tons of restaurants and bars and nightspots within walking distance. We spent one night in a Casa Particular in Vinales, but looking back on it, I wish we had just stayed in Havana another day. Vinales was a long trip and we didn't have time to do anything once we got there. If you had several days there and were really into tobacco, it might be fun. Then, we went to Jibacoa so we could see the famous Cuban beaches and water, and to scuba dive. That was a nice ending to our trip.
The food was delicious as long as you eat in paladares and not government-run restaurants. It was cheap, plentiful, and really good. The beer and mojitos were cheap. My husband preferred Cristal beer over Bucanero.
We flew a direct flight from Houston to Havana on United...2.5 hours and we were there. The Visa process was easy at Houston; buy it at a special counter then check in at a special counter. No waiting whatsoever.
There IS Wifi in the country but you have to buy a special card for a limited time, then you have to be at certain government approved hotspots (ie parks, the steps of the Etesco company where you buy the cards, certain hotels) in order to use it. You'll see people just standing around those hotspots on their phones. Some carriers do have service in Cuba (ATT for one) but it was EXPENSIVE to use data or even text, so my phone stayed on Airplane mode with cellular data turned off the entire time. It was kind of nice to be totally disconnected for 8 days!
The Cuban people were absolutely amazing....so warm and appreciative of we Americans who made the effort to visit their country. We took toys (kids have no toys for the most part), flip flops, toothbrushes, kitchen gadgets, etc and just handed them out randomly. It went over so well and we got so many thank-yous....and kisses and hugs from the kids!
Enjoy Cuba and let me know if you have any other questions!
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