Cuba Travel Diary, Part 2 - Everything We Did in Cuba
In this series I’ll cover everything you need to know before traveling to Cuba. Today’s post is an inside look at our itinerary. I’m talking Airbnb experiences, the best sights, and some adventures with food poisoning.
If you haven’t taken a look at last week’s post be sure to give that a quick read! There is lots of great information there about booking flights, travel restrictions and taxi services. For this post, I’m going to lay out everything we did while we were in Cuba. I’ll go over how much we spent at each spot, what we’d do again, and what we didn’t love as much.
Day 1:
We started Cuba trip started on New Years Eve. Last year, Chaz spent New Years Eve in Italy and it was a fun way to experience a difficult culture’s holidays. Also, just a cool way to start a fresh year! So we decided to do the same things this year and start out the new decade on a high note. Our flight into Cuba landed around 8 pm after a few delays. We quickly got our bags, exchanged our money at the airport, and then found our Taxi driver. By the time we checked into our Airbnb, took a shower and got ready to go out it was round 10:30/11:00PM. The new year was quickly approaching!
For our first night we had planned to eat dinner at a restaurant that was doing a set menu for the holiday. Unfortunately, we missed our reservations because of the flight delays so skipped the sit down dinner and instead headed out to a highly recommended club, La Fábrica de Arte. La Fábrica de Arte is an old factory building in Vedado that was converted into a club/art gallery/resturant collaborative. It sounds just as crazy as it is. There are multiple stages throughout the building each with different DJs and bands playing all night. Plus, there are multiple bars so if one is too crowded you can just move onto the next! This was a really fun place to spend our first night out. It felt very Cuban with all the live music and all the Cuban cocktail offerings! However, there were a lot of tourists at this spot. While I’m sure there are many Cubans who frequent this club, when we were there it was mainly tourists from around the world.
New Year’s Eve is celebrated a bit differently in Cuba so there was no big count down at midnight and no big celebration on New Years Eve. Instead, it was just like another night out. Most Cubans spend new years eve at home with their families which I think is probably why we saw very few locals at La Fábrica. If your curious to get an inside look at La Fábrica before you get to Cuba watch the Cuba episode of Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain. In this episode he goes to multiple spots around Cuba but he sits down with the owners of La Fábrica to chat!
A couple things to know before you go. La Fábrica charges a small cover fee (I’m not sure if this cover fee is charged every night but it was for New Years Eve!) of 2 CUC per person. Also bring our ID, they card at the door! It’s also worth mentioning that because there are so many tourists at this location there are a lot of taxi drivers waiting outside. This is nice if you’re stumbling out of the club at 2 am but they’re going to charge top dollar! Try finding a cab a block or so away to avoid scams.
At the end of the night we spent $21 in total at La Fábrica. This bought us each two mojitos and a frozen pina colada!
Day 2:
Since our first day in Cuba was New Years Eve naturally our second day was New Years Day! In our original itinerary for this day I had a bunch of things planned that we ulitmately had to move to other days of our trip because most restaurants and stores were closed for the holiday. Cubans spend New Years Day at home with their families so there was hardly anyone out and about.
Our Airbnb was extremely close to Revolutionary Square so we took a walk over to see Cuba’s most famous landmark. There are two people depicted on these walls, Cienfuegos and Che. You’ve probably seen this iconic depiction of Che before on a t-shirt or tote bag in the US. Both Cienfuegos and Che took part in the revolution that ultimately brought Fidel Castro to power. Fun fact, Che is actually not a Cuban native but is recognized as a citizen for the work he did during the revolution.
The memorial on the other side of the square honors Jose Marti, one of Cuba’s greatest heros. If you remember our history lesson from last week’s post, Cuba was one a colony of Spain. Jose Marti was one of the first people to suggest that breaking away from Spain would benefit the Cuban people. This memorial is huge! Plus it’s a landmark that we’ve seen in documentaries and videos for months leading up to our trip so it was really cool to see it in real life. If you’re feeling adventurous, there are some taxi services that depart from this square. These cabs will drive you around the city on a tour of Cuba’s landmarks. Personally, we did not do one of these rides but I think it would have been fun if we had some extra time on our hands! However, just seeing the cars in revolutionary square was fun! I also saw a lot of these tours on the Airbnb Experiences for Havana. They’re definitely more expensive than just finding someone on the street but if you like to have things planned out ahead of time it’s worth it!
A couple of things to know before you visit the square- Avoid taking pictures too close the classic cars unless you want to get roped into paying for a taxi ride! On a more serious note I would avoid taking pictures of guards or military officials that are around the square. I’m also not sure about the exact regulations around this but just air on the side of being safe and respectful by refraining from photographs!
The best part about revolutionary square is that it’s always open and it’s always free! Definitely on our must see list!
From the square we hopped into a Taxi ($5) and made our way to Old Havana. Like I mentioned before, a lot of places we wanted to go were closed. We walked to more than a few closed restaurants before finding our way to El Dandy. This was a great spot if you’re looking for a small casual meal. I would recommend this spot, it was one of the best restaurants we ate at during our trip. We ended up spending $27 in total including the tip. We had two beers, some bottled water, and tacos. This is a great time to mention that In Cuba you’ll need to drink bottled water only! You’ll probably have to pay a dollar for water at a restaurant but you have to stay hydrated in the heat!
After resting up a bit at our Airbnb, we headed out to the Malecon. The people who lived next door to our Airbnb were very friendly and let us know that there was a party happening on the Malecon just outside the National Hotel to celebrate the New Year. The Malecon is a sort of boardwalk where Cuba meets the Ocean. I think a Malecon is actually a Spanish word that means stone wall. Its essentially a really big cement sidewalk, but it’s lovely to walk along because you get to feel the ocean breeze! My favorite thing in the entire world! The party was a really cool experience. They had a stage set up with live music and there were tons of street food booths to grab a snack at. We ended up trying this pork and rice dish which ran us a couple of bucks. We also became kind of obsessed with Cuban cola while we were on our trip so we had a few sodas as well. Just sitting and watching everyone dance to the music was amazing. It was a really beautiful night.
Day 3:
Before we went to Cuba we wanted to figure out a way to give back a little bit to the community. I want to make it clear that Cuba definitely doesn’t need our help, they’re a self sustaining nation, they’re making things work for them. However, because of the embargo that the US has placed there are some items that are hard for Cubans to get. The embargo makes the price of things like feminine products, books, and condoms really high and hard to get. That being said, I’ve read some travel forums about people who decide to bring these basic necessities as gifts for their hosts or servers. While I understand the well intent behind these gifts, it’s important to remember that the best way you can show your gratitude to anyone is through proper payment and tipping. Can you imagine going to the UK and tipping your server with a tube of toothpaste instead of money? You would never! The same goes for Cuba, unless someone asks for a donation specifically don’t give them one.
With that all in mind, while I was doing some research for our trip I found Cuba Libro. This little coffee shop/library of sorts. Its a really sweet nook of the city that provides locals with english literature. Since toourisim is huge in Cuba there is a large english speaking community. Having english literature is a way for adults to continue their education and practice their english skills which in turn allows them to participate in a larger sector of tourism. Cuba Libro also works with schools in the community to provide english literature as a way to enhance education for young people. This organization’s messaging really spoke to Chaz and I so we sent them and email and collected some books to donate to them! We ended up taking an entire carry on of books to donate. The first thing we did today was walk over to Cuba Libro to drop them off. Unfortunately, because of the holiday they were closed so we had to leave them by the door but none the less a great part of our trip to be able to give back in a meaningful way!
From there we took a cab ride into Old Havana to take a look around. Old Havana is pretty small so you can hit a lot of tourist sights in just a few hours of walking about. We ended up walking to the edge of Old Havana to see the Museum of the Revolution which was on our list of things to do. This museum was a great run down of the revolution that brough Fidel Castro into power. It was in this old building where they had meetings and such. There are two indoor floors to this museum and theres a nice outside area that has some of the vehicles that were used in the revolution, including the Gramma which was a yacht that Fidel Castro bought to lead a raid. This museum will run you $8 a person but it was worth it!
For dinner we kept things close to our Airbnb and stopped into Topoloy, an Iranian restaurant . We actually ended up going back to this spot multiple times in our trip because it was food that was easy and familiar to us. There were a lot of vegetarian options on this menu as well if you have dietary restrictions! While the food here is great this is also one of the higher priced restaurants we stopped at. Our meal for two we ended up running $41 with tip. This also included a nice alcoholic beverage and an appetizer to share! I would highly recommend this spot. They also allowed us to pay in USD which is a plus if you’re ever out of CUC and can’t find an open exchange spot.
Day 4:
When I was researching things to do in Cuba I watched a lot of Vlogs on Youtube just to get a feel for the city. If you search Cuba on Youtube you’ll probably find a bunch of blogs by Kara and Nate. I don’t necessarily think they’re the best travel Vlogs out there but it did give me a pretty good idea of things to checkout. One of the tours that they mention in their Vlogs was hosted by a company called Strawberry Tours. I’ve never heard of this company before but they give free guided tours in major cities around the world. So I thought, heck it, why not book a tour! They’re free, so if it wasn’t what I was expecting then we could just leave early. The tour we ended up booking was the Historical Centre Tour of Havana. They also offer these tours in both english and spanish! The tour we went on was about three hours long and it took us all over Old Havana. Personally, I like having guided tours because I love fun facts and stories!
Our tour guide, Nelson, was very informative and friendly! After the tour ended Nelson gave us a restaurant recommendation and even came in with us to explain the menu and help us order. While Nelson was a very good tour guide, he was not the best judge when it came to food. I don’t remember the name of this resturant we went to and I won’t recommend it because we got food poisoning! This is obviouslly, very common when traveling and we definitely should have been smarter about what we ordered. As a rule of thumb, never order seafood in a foreign country, and be careful about eating raw vegetables. Theres different food standards all over the world, it’s better to be safe than sorry!
Day 5:
Since we spent almost all of the night before sick with food poisoning neither of us were feeling great on day 5. We spent most of the day at our Airbnb enjoying the air conditioning. While food poisoning does suck it was kind of nice to have this day of rest in the middle of our trip. We really caught up on sleep that we lost and refueled for the days to come. On all the other international trips that I’ve been on I distinctly remember being so tried all the time from jet lag and lack of giant Starbucks coffees (don’t judge me). I rarely schedule in a day of rest on trips because I just want to make the most of every second we have in a new city, but this day of rest was really really nice. Plus, since there is no wifi in Cuba we spent the day unpluged just reading the books we brought and hanging out. I gotta say, this was one of my favorite days of the entire vacation.
By the night we were feeling much better so we ventured out to see The Cuban National Ballet! Before we got to Cuba we had talked about seeing the ballet because it’s world renown! Plus, they were performing The Nutcracker the week we were there which seemed like a great choice for people who don’t really see ballets. Unfortunately, you can’t book tickets for the ballet over the internet so I messaged our Airbnb host to ask her if she was able to help us book some tickets. When we arrived she gave us a reserved pass and explained that the director of the ballet is an old teacher of her’s and she had him over for dinner in order to schmooze him into giving us tickets! Our Airbnb host’s generosity was just amazing to me! The ballet was lovely, I would highly recommend going!
Day 6:
This was a unique day on our itinerary because we didn’t have anything planned. It was actually perfect because we lost a day due to food poisioning so we had time to make up on things we had missed. It was also nice because there wasn’t any pressure to do anything in particular. One of the best things about our Havana trip was that we booked more time than we needed. In my opinion you only really need about three days to fully experience Havana. But having more time meant that we didn’t really feel it necessary to do a ton of touristy things and instead we just took time to take in the city. The best example that I can think of to explain this was El Floridita. This was the bar that Hemingway was a regular at and it’s the home of the Daquiri. Obviously, it’s always packed to the brim with tourists paying double the price for a classic Cuban cocktail. While it would have been fun to stop in here for a drink it wasn’t that high on our to do list. Instead we saw it and took a photo but then we moved on.
Our first stop of the day was The National Hotel of Cuba. This is a spot that we went to more than once because, like I mentioned in last weeks post, they have wifi and they have a currency exchange counter. While in Cuba, we tried to exchange our money in small incriments. That way on our way back home to the states we didn’t have to spend time in the airport line to exchange our CUC back to USD. While we were at the National Hotel we hopped on the wifi for a bit to catch up with our families. In the meantime we ordered a drink from the bar and relaxed. The National Hotel has some great outdoor bars that are perfect for taking in the view. We went in the afternoon and it was really lovely because you can see the ocean. They have live music here almost all the time. Plus, its busy but not packed or annoying. After our drinks and wifi we walked around the little garden area they have and took in the ocean breeze. It was a really lovely afternoon.
For lunch we went to El Cafe, a great little spot for breakfast or brunch. Its a short taxi ride away from The National Hotel, however your taxi probably won’t take you right to this spot, ask them to drive you to Old Havana and then do a bit of walking. This spot was recommended to us by our good friends Sam and Michaela (if you’re reading this hi!) who studied in Havana for a bit. They gave us a whole list of recommendations but they told us that El Cafe was a must. I’m glad we listened! This spot had really great sandwhiches, coffee, and even “american” pancakes which are one of my favorite foods. They also serve breakfast all day which is one of my markers of a great resturant. In addition to being delicious this was one of the cheapest places we ate! We got two coffee drinks, two sandwiches, and a plate of pancakes all for $19. Plus there is a sweet orange cat that lives in the cafe which makes it 100% worth a visit.
After walking around the city for a bit we made our way back to our Airbnb and took a nap. All good vacations should have a nap hour.
We then headed out for dinner. If you remember from night one we went to La Fábrica, connected to La Fábrica is a great restaurant owned by the same people. El Cocinero was a nice upscale spot to have dinner. Since we went on a Sunday, La Fábrica was closed which was good because it meant that El Cocinero wasn’t so busy. The restaurant is on the rooftop so you can enjoy the warm weather. On the night we went it was 70 degrees outside and everyone was wearing coats and blankets to stay warm! Writing this post now as it snows outside, the thought of wearing a blanket in 70 degree weather makes me laugh.
I have to say something that may be an unpopular opinion but is worth noting if you’re going to travel to Cuba. The food is not the best. We definitely were not in it for the restaurants so if that’s something that is essential for your vacation be sure to plan accordingly! At El Cocinero we had tacos and a grilled chicken dish. Both were fine but nothing as flavorful or exciting as the food we have back here in the states! We also both got a beer and our total after top was $37. Not bad for one of the nicer restaurants we visited! I would highly recommend adding this to your itinerary, however if you go on a weekend night I suggest making a reservation. Being next to La Fábrica on a Friday night, this restaurant definetly books up fast. You can make reservations in advance via their website.
Day 7:
For one of our days in Cuba we wanted to make a day trip out to the country side. Cuba is a big country but also very small at the same time. Often when people visit they’ll head to Trinidad, or Varadero and split up their trips amongst the surrounding cities. We wanted to visit the Vinales Valley as part of our stay. After reading some blogs about how to travel out to Vinales we decided it seemed a little complicated. You can take a bus from Havana but you’ll have to book your tickets well in advance. We didn’t want to get catch up in the stress of trying to book trip out there so we opted to book an Airbnb experience that included travel. I think this was the best move for us. We had a tour guide for the day and they picked us up from our Airbnb so it was really seamless getting to and from Vinales. Vinales is about two hours outside of Havana.
On our tour we visited a cave that has a river running through it, and got to ride in a boat amongst the stalactites! We also got to ride horses for about 45 minutes with a Cuban cowboy named Peachy. And, the highlight of this experience was visiting a tobacco farm. The man who owned the farm showed us how to roll cigars and gave us a run down on what the cigar process looks like. He also gave us a shot of coffee and a shot of rum as a thank you. After our tour of his home we looked around his little farm that him and his family live off of. They had an avocado tree, some hens, and a cocoa tree. I love the idea of being able to live off of your own little plot of land. It just warms my heart thinking about it. From the farm we headed to lunch. Our tour guide picked out this restaurant with the most amazing view over looking the valley.
I loved this day because it was nice to have a day of doing activities that wasn’t stressful for either me or Chaz. We didn’t have to figure out our maps or try to find a cab driver because everything was all planned out. If you’re looking for a day trip, this is the one to go for. Our tour guide was the nicest guy and answered all our questions about Cuba. He had great insight about everything we did and was obviously very close with the people who he introduced us to. Here is the link to the experience if you want to read over on of the 251 pages of reviews! In total this day ran us about $100 a person. It was by far the most expensive day of our trip but it was well worth the price. We got breakfast, lunch, a package of hand rolled cigars, and a really cool experience!
Day 8:
This was our last full day in Havana! For our final day we went back to Old Havana to walk around a bit and pick up some last minute souviners. This day was unique because we walked all the way from our Airbnb to the city center which took us about 40 minutes. We stopped on the way to take pictures on the Malecon and we walked through the Callejon de Hamal which is like a painted strip for muralist and artists. Along the way we also tried some street food that I had been eyeing for days, including $1 ice cream cones, some tres leeches in a cup and a churro!
As far as souvenirs go we wanted to keep things simple. We picked up some magnets for our moms and a couple of cute little espresso cuts to put out on our shelf at home. There was a sweet little souvenir market that we passed by a few times that I would recommend going to on the corner of Augacate and Obispo. Nothing was more than a dollar!
We also stopped into cigar shop to buy some special presents for our families. On our tour with Nelson he showed us a government run cigar shop that also sold cuban made rum. It is very important that you avoid anyone on the street trying to sell you cigars. They’re all trying to scam you, I guarantee it. The only place you should purchase cigars from is a state run cigar shop. Their prices are legitimate. The one that we went to was on the corner of Plaza de Armas. You might also hear something about the Cuban cigar festival that just happens to be going on the exact days that you’re visiting Cuba. There is no such thing as the Cuban cigar festival. This is a con tactic to get you somewhere at a certain time and for you to spend money on tickets for something that doesn’t exist. Use your common sense! Cuba is a really safe country but like anywhere you travel, people know a tourist when they see one!
All that being said, at the Cuban cigar store we spent a big chunk of our vacation budget. Cuban cigars cannot be imported into the US which is why they’re a hot commodity, however they can be brought back as gifts. You are not allowed to bring back more than 50 cigars per person, keep that in mind when purchasing them. The high end cigars will run you around $6 to $8 a pop to give you and estimate of how much to budget.
Day 9:
On our very last day in Cuba we packed up our suitcases, took a final walk around our neighborhood and headed to the airport. It was so bittersweet to leave this little island behind. It will always hold a special place in our hearts. This was Chaz and I’s first international trip together!
I hope that this post was informative and interesting for you! I am planning on making one more post about Cuba to kind of wrap up all the loose ends! As always, if you have any questions about our trip or just want to chat about Cuba please feel free to send me a message