Aaaaand we’re back! Please excuse us for our brief hiatus while we were in Cuba. Internet is scarce and expensive, so we couldn’t update as often as we’d liked. But we are back in action and have been collecting so many fun stories and photos to share. Cuba was truly indescribable. But this is a travel site and that’s kind of what we do, so I should probably give it a shot.
Before we left we struggled to find any decent information on Cuba. Much of what we found was contradictory and confusing. Almost everything we read warned us of shockingly high prices, the bland food and the difficulty moving around the country (all myths we’ve debunked in this informative article). We were pretty unsure of what to expect when we flew over from Cancun, but we braced ourselves for two weeks of serious haggling.
It only took one day of walking around Havana for us to fall in love and decide to extend our trip by a week. It only took a few more days for Havana to shoot to the top of our list of favorite cities. The next 3 weeks were spent staying with local families, drinking some dangerously cheap (and delicious!) rum, learning how to smoke cigars without having coughing fits, stepping all over each others’ feet while attempting to salsa, eating 20 cent street pizza and basically falling in love with Cuba. I won’t give too much away here because we have lots of exciting Cuba photos and posts to come. Hope you enjoy the photos!
Also, this week we decided to make our gallery a bit more personal by adding more photos of ourselves. What do you think? Do you want to see more photos of us? Or should we keep our ugly mugs out of the picture? Let us know!
Hi there,
Love your website! It’s a gem!
I’m off to Cuba again tomorrow and was just planning a trip from Puerto Escondido Mexico to Nicaragua for after Christmas when I came upon your site. I had thought I might fly, but the flights are horrible, so it looks like I’ll be going overland but I will have to go quickly or miss my girlfriend in San Juan del Sur. Is it realistic to do that trip in 3 days? I have heard mixed reports. I love local buses if I’ve got time to play with. I’ll have lots when I get there but getting there will be a bit of a rush. Any suggestions?
Thanks a lot,
Pat
P.S. If you didn’t make it to Trinidad de Cuba, make sure you put it on your next trip list. Music galore, a night club deep inside a cave, and beautiful beaches too. I love everywhere in Cuba but Trinidad is my favourite.
Hey Pat thanks for the comment and encouraging words! Although glad to be back home now, it still makes us a little jealous to hear you’re off to Cuba. We had such an incredible time there, and over the next couple of months will be updating with HEAPS of photos and stories from our trip. Trinidad was a particular favorite of ours with the cobblestone streets, old architecture and friendly hospitality.
So Puerto to Nicaragua… in three days! You’re in for some fun haha. Definitely do-able, and if you’re on a budget, definitely recommended. A lot of travel though. From PE you can follow the coast down by local buses, or take an ADO (a little more expensive) to Tapachula. If you can get yourself to Xela by day 1, then day 2 and day 3 you could follow our Road Routes section that explain Guatemala to El Salvador to Nicaragua across 2 days.
Hope you find your way, enjoy Cuba and be sure to stay in touch with your travels. Stay safe!
Great post guys – Cuba is great and easy to travel (except for the whole money exchange thing..). Like you, we loved the people and staying in Casas was a great way to connect. Trinidad was also our favorite place! Our own post on Trinidad:
And people pics always great, leave them in 🙂
Frank (bbqboy)
Thanks for commenting Frank! Your Trinidad photos are gorgeous! We absolutely loved the cobblestone streets and the super colorful houses. We spent hours just roaming around the backstreets, watching people play dominos and drink homemade beer. So fun!
Hey guys,
Really the best travel blog I have read, and I am not just blowing smoke. So much pertinent information, and very well written.
I wanted to ask how you found prices once you arrived. I have been reading Thorn Tree posts that say “expect a $100 daily budget”. Is that realistic? Also, I am guessing you left out of mexico or central america, and not the US or Canada. Where did you get Canadian Dollars before leaving?
Cheers!
Hey Leah thank so much for the kind words! We’re super happy to hear you’re enjoying it 😀
So Cuba is a bit of a tricky one. It is by far the most expensive and also the cheapest tourist country we have visited. For tourists, only using the CUC it’s expensive. If you can tap into the Cuban Peso then you’ll find things are extremely cheap (50c meals, 20c transport). $100 a day is an outrageously high budget for Cuba. When we were there we were spending about $75 EACH A WEEK! Although we’re budget backpackers and that’s what this site is about haha.
The best, and most difficult, thing about Cuba is you rely on the network on people to work things out. There is no internet and barely any cell phones. Bring your people skills and be prepared to haggle for prices. They’re clearly advertised, but very negotiable. We actually brought over Mexican Pesos when we flew from Cancun, they had a relatively decent exchange rate, but Canadian dollars, Euros or Pounds are better.
Keep watching the site, we’re planning on getting some Cuba posts up very soon. Happy travels and stay in touch. Would love to hear how the trip goes.
Cuba is a great place to visit. Especially, if you get to spend some time with the locals. We went two years ago to visit my family who I hadn’t seen in 44 years. It was a great experience and an eye opener for the kids. American money goes a long way for them. Most professional (doctors) make $20 american dollars a month. It’s not a lot of money considering what some items cost. Great post I enjoyed reading all your updates.
Yeah we had such an amazing time, and really got involved with typical Cuban life. It’s the only way to travel 🙂 Thanks for following and we hope you enjoy the rest of the posts.
Hey there! We are a Cuban American couple in our early 30’s and recently came back from our tulum-san ignacio – tikal trip and somewhere during the trip (probably san ignacio) stumbled upon ur sticker and loved it – Now we are back home and checking out the blog.
I just want to thank you for taking the time to do this and specially for the beautiful job that you did in Cuba. My name is Rudxandra. I’m 100% cuban born and raised in Santa Clara a few steps from the Che plaza-museum. I played there while they were building the statue.
Because in Cuba things dont always make sense… I never even knew there was a cigar factory in my city!!!! – At Age 6 I moved to Varadero – Aren’t I lucky ?!?
Now I live in Ct, US and travel the world as much as I can. Not able to go back to Cuba yet – Love every time I find people like you who appreciate it and show us all its different colors… I know…I’ve learned more about Cuba since I moved to America than during my 24 yrs in it… As difficult to love and understand as it can be, My country is a beautiful and powerful one. Oh! forgot to say – I’m a doctor and migrated for economical reasons…
Hey Rudxandra! How incredible that you found our sticker, our blog and the we connected like this. We absolutely loved Cuba and really enjoyed writing about our time there. Santa Clara was a particular favorite for us and the Che plaza is a touching tribute to a telling history.
Perhaps the cigar factory is new, i’m not sure, it was very interesting to go for a tour.
We would love to chat to you more and hear your story, maybe we can feature part of it on our next blog post about Cuba. Could you email us at dontforgettomove@gmail.com
Great to hear from you 🙂