My sister and I booked a group trip to Havana, Cuba in 2019. Due to the pandemic, we were unable to travel there until March 2022. And this was the first international trip we took since the pandemic started.
We spent 5 days in Havana from a Friday to a Tuesday. We were the first group to go to Cuba with this travel company, Friendly Planet, since the pandemic started.
This trip recap is based on my experience, thoughts and feelings as a somewhat privileged African American woman traveling to Cuba for the first time. All of the pictures and videos below were taken by me and my sister during our trip.
Friday (Day 1) – Arrival
Getting There
My sister and I left her house at 2 am for our first flight (to Miami). The airport’s website said that we should arrive there 3 hours early, and our flight was to leave at 5:12 am. However, the ticket counters don’t open until 3 am, so we still had to wait. We were asked for our passports, negative PCR COVID tests, and a form with a QR code specifically required to enter Cuba from one of their travel websites. The flight arrived in Cuba at about 7:45 am, and our flight to Cuba left at about 9:45 am, which was about an hour.
Customs is always fun, right? It seemed disorganized to me, and different from the customs process at the last island we visited in 2019 (Saint Maarten). First, we waited in line to show the form with the QR code to someone sitting at a desk with papers. Once she scanned and verified that code, I went to the next line. That person looked at my passport and took my picture (I had to take my glasses off for the picture). I showed her my Global Entry card (this is a step up from TSA Precheck), but she didn’t know what it was (therefore it wasn’t needed). (In Saint Maarten, we traveled as a group of 7 for a family vacation, and the customs officer took care of all of us as a group, but in Havana, the customs officer said that this “was personal” so she had to check travelers’ information individually.)
Next, I went to a line to place my items on a conveyor belt and walk through a metal detector. I waited for my sister to finish and come through her line, and then, within 20 yards of the exit door, two or three different people came to check our QR codes again (even though that was the first step of Customs).
Just outside the door, I saw two women wearing bright gold shirts and holding signs for Friendly Planet. Their names are Mabel and Monica. Monica was our tour guide. They welcomed us and said that there were 2 more people from our group that they were expecting at any moment. They explained that even though the itinerary only mentioned a welcome dinner at a local paladar (restaurant), but Monica wanted to show us around Havana that day to “give us more,” and she was happy to do so. Funny enough, the 2 people we were waiting for arrived (a mother and adult daughter), and we found out that the mother lives in the same city we do!
We took our bags to the taxi bus (it was small like a taxi but shaped like a bus), and Mabel explained some things to us about what’s been going on in the island, for example:
- They haven’t had many tourists (but would be happy to see Americans despite what we may have heard).
- How to handle currency since Cuba accepts Cuban pesos, Euros and American dollars but in different scenarios. The paperwork we received from the travel agency said that American dollars were useless here. They advised us to bring cash in the form of Euros, and then have some of that exchanged for Cuban pesos. Also, Cuba does not use coins of any kind, only paper money.
- How the government has so many sanctions and tightly controls supplies of everything from imports to food, rationing their food to people each day (people were in long lines each day to get food and medicine).
- Why we were seeing so many people in crowds on the street trying to hitchhike and wave down drivers (all the city buses were overcrowded).
Lunch, WiFi Rules and Getting Settled
The drive from the airport to the casa (our hostel) took about half an hour. It was very hot and humid, about 80 degrees or so. After we checked in it was time for lunch, so the four of us (me, my sister, and the mother and daughter who rode the taxi bus with us) walked to lunch at a place a few blocks away called Michifu (pronounced as me-chee-foo). A portion of the restaurant had no roof, so to avoid the sun, we sat in a covered area near a large fan.
When we paid the bill, it showed the amount in both Cuban pesos and in American dollars. We couldn’t believe how cheap it was: my sister and I each had an alcoholic beverage and a meal, and the total was less than $25! The server said they had to keep their prices low so that the locals could afford to come, and they could stay in business. My sister carried all our money, so she tipped them and others generously everywhere we went, as our privilege was so obvious, and the Cuban people were so gracious to us.
When we returned to the casa after our meal, there were 6 or 7 others standing in the lobby, which was the rest of our group. We introduced ourselves, and Monica made some announcements about what to expect for the rest of the day. The person running the casa said that we could only use the WiFi for 4 hours each day: from 8 to 10 am, and 7 to 9 pm. Unfortunately, we found that this was inconvenient because 1) we weren’t usually in the casa during those hours, and 2) when we were, the WiFi was very slow. (The international plans from both my carrier and my sister’s had outrageous prices to use data, calls and texts, so we didn’t bother.) I brought two phones (one of which doesn’t have data/service) just to make sure I didn’t mistakenly use data.
We had about 2 hours before we were going to leave for a walking tour and dinner together, so my sister and I went back to our room and took a much-needed nap (we left at 2 am, remember?). We were exhausted, but grateful that there was no time zone change in Cuba from where we live.
Because Cuba is an island, and the government owns all of the real estate, homes and buildings are built high, not wide. Our room had a double bed as soon as you walked in, and then to the right was a long flight of stairs to a twin bed. The stairs are only half the size of your feet, so I had to use extreme care every time I used them, including when I had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Thankfully I never fell, and I didn’t stop up the toilet. (For awhile, we weren’t told about the toilets here, which can’t handle toilet paper.) The fan in the main area and a small fan near the twin bed helped us sleep comfortably. We also received new water bottles every day, as Monica told us not to drink the tap water.
Walking Tour and Dinner
Monica is a native of Cuba, and a wealth of information. We left the casa around 4 pm and started at the Christ statue, and went from there. (For the rest of this article, I won’t try to explain or recap every detail, but included pictures and videos to give you some idea of what we saw and heard.) At the end of the walk, we were joined by a member of Friendly Planet’s team, Alison. She had lived in Cuba for 5 years, spoke Spanish fluently, and made many connections. Along with Monica, she participated as part of the group, but added lots of insight and storytelling about the Cuban culture throughout our trip.
We had dinner at El Carbon, and they served very generous portions of appetizers like croquetas (croquettes), yuca, cerdo (pork) and pollo (chicken). They gave us so much food, we insisted Monica take it home. She shared it with her kids and neighbors, who were very grateful.
My sister and I had some mixed feelings about turning food away, because Monica explained how hard it was to get it in Cuba. We certainly didn’t want to offend anyone, especially when they were so sweet and hospitable to us.
Ready for Part 2?
Vlog
Don’t miss the vlog with all the video I captured during this trip.
Vlog Timestamps (the bolded items apply this the blog you just read for Day 1):
- Walking tour 00:41
- Farmer’s market 1:31
- Parade 2:13
- Salsa dancing lesson 3:36
- Ernest Hemingway monument 4:39
- Muraleando and rumba dancing 5:25
- La Hotel Nacionale 13:52
- Taxi ride 14:50
- Fusterlandia 17:57
- Angeles del Futuro 18:39
- Classic car rides 52:39
- Farewell and salsa dancing 1:00:39