There are local restaurants, street pizza and ice cream stands, coffee vendors and an occasional share taxi that will charge you in pesos.
The one you'll be using the vast majority of the time is CUCs, but it's a good idea to get a few pesos – worth just over 4 cents – as well. But most cities have a least one or two hotels that will also change money, and there are usually no lines.Ĭarry both currencies. Yes, Cuba has two currencies. On this same note, there are a limited number of banks in the city center, so exchanging money during the day can be a crowded, sweltering nightmare. Unless you love standing in stagnant lines in oppressive heat right after getting off a plane, just skip the line and ask your taxi driver to stop at a bank on the way to the city. Because nobody flies into Havana with CUCs on hand, there will be a massive line at the one exchange office right outside the airport. Think of it as getting a 13% discount on your trip.Īvoid the lines. Save your money by bringing euros, Canadian dollars, or – if you’re flying from Mexico – Mexican pesos. dollar at a 1:1 ratio, you’ll suffer a 13% fee any time you try to change greenbacks. The Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) is a closed currency, so the only place you get it is in Cuba. Hell, even if you have a card from Stonegate you're still going to need a lot of cash.ĭon't bring U.S. But unless you happen to do your banking at Florida-based Stonegate – the one bank to issue a card that actually works – you’re going to need to bring a lot of cash. You might have heard that you can now get money out of ATMs in Havana.
So whether you want to go now or wait until it's fully legal, you'll want to follow these tips: Moneyīring more cash than you think you'll need. airlines and even cruises have been permitted to take passengers to Cuba, and relations improve every day. hotel to operate in Cuba since 1959, U.S. And not that we recommend doing anything illegal, but if you're set on doing it anyway, nobody is really going to check to make sure your trip was on the up and up.Īnd all signs point to Cuba travel being completely open in the very near future: Starwood just became the first U.S. As of the date of publishing this article, independent travel to Cuba is still technically illegal unless you fit into one of the 12 categories of authorized travel. But it can also be an overwhelming one if you don't know what you're doing, which is why we wrote this handy guide to take all (or at least most) of the hassle out of traveling to Cuba.Ĭheck the current legal situation. But going independently seems like a hassle, because you don't really understand the legality, and somebody told you something about two different currencies, and – does the internet work? It all just seems like kind of a pain.Īn independent trip to Cuba can be an amazing experience. So you want to go to Cuba, but you don't really want to go on one of those group tours.
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