Accommodation, Money and Food in Cuba

We had no accomodation arranged in Cuba so our first task in Havana was to find somewhere to stay for the night. There are no hostels in Cuba and there are not many hotels. The hotels that do exist are quite expensive. The most popular option is a casa particular, similar to a B&B in Ireland. Well except the government tightly controls who can have a casa particular plus they are only allowed to rent two rooms. Prices range from 15 to 35 CuCs per night depending on the location, quality, facilities, commission and if you are willing to haggle. All official casas display a blue sign in their window or on their door so its always easy to find somewhere to stay. The first place we tried was full but they took us to their "friends" place nearby.

Generally when traveling I withdraw cash from my credit card but that wouldn't work in Cuba. Any credit cards that have a connection with USA will not work so my MBNA card would not work. Another backup when traveling is USD but in Cuba the exchange of USD is subject to a 10% government tax. Luckily we knew all of this in advance so we had Mexican Pesos. Cuba has two currencies, one for locals (CUPs) and one for tourists (CUCs). 1 CUC is worth 25 CUPs. For all tourist related activities you pay in CUCs but if you want to take a local bus or if you want to buy something on the street or eat where locals do then you need CUPs. It can be confusing and it doesn't help that they have 1 CUC coins, 1 CUC notes, 1 CUP coins and 1 CUP notes!


At times finding decent food in Cuba can be a struggle. The options (as far as I could see) are tourist restaurants, government restaurants, street food (restaurants run out of someones kitchen) or meals cooked by the owners of your casa particular. On our first night in Havana we ended up in a tourist restaurant as our casa owners didn't provide the option of food and there was nothing else available. I had fish and seamus had chicken both were frozen, deep fried and not very good.


The next option is government restaurants. We had difficult finding these but I did eat in one of them near the end of my trip. The food was very cheap, I paid 6 pesos for a big plate of rice and pork but it wasn't exactly tasty, fresh or well prepared. Also when it was time to pay the guy tried to charge me 3CuCs which is 75 pesos, I said no 8 pesos, he said OK, I gave him 10 and he gave me my change. At this stage I was used to it, the constant attemps at overcharing and short changing tourists. I suppose you can't blame him for trying after all 1 CUC is 25 pesos.


Next is street food and we ate a lot of street food. Its very cheap and its what the locals eat. Unlike Asia or Mexico the food isn't cooked on the street but I call it street food as that is where you eat it. I'm not sure if these places are legal or not but I assuming they must be as there are so many of them, bascially you'll see a sign outside someones window or door with a menu and prices. They cook the food in their kitchen and hand it out to you through the window or door.

Typical Street Restaurant in Cuba

Generally the choice is bread with something (butter, cheese or mayonaise) or pizza (known as peso pizza) or spagetti or rice with beans. Bread costs 2 pesos, a pizza 5, spagetti 10 and a rice dish around 20. Remember 25 pesos is about 1 euro so its very cheap. Also the people were always friendly, talkative and never attempted to overcharge you or short change you.

Reuse, reduce, recycle. 

Finally you have food from casa particulars. In my experience this is where the best food was. I didn't have a bad meal in any of the casa's in fact most of them were very good. They'd ask you in the morning what you'd like fish, pork, chicken, beef or prawns and at what time. Prices ranged between 5 and 8 CuCs depending on what you wanted to eat.

Dinner for one at a casa particular