It's time for Cuba! Can a girl travel alone?
- katja106
- Dec 23, 2016
- 8 min read
YES! Definitely possible. Totally safe. Completely awesome!
As I was packing for Cuba, I didn't know what to expect. Was I really going to do this, go to Cuba alone? Not only was I unsure about whether or not it was safe, I was also worried about being bored, with no one to talk to, no one to go out with and share this experience with. Boy, was I up for a surprise!
10 things I learned from my time in Cuba:
1. Meeting people is easy
When you are traveling solo, you will most likely meet a lot more people than you otherwise would. Being alone, you'll probably seem more approachable and people tend to be interested in why and how you decided to travel alone. Cuba is a hot holiday destination right now, so there are tonns of tourists and travellers everywhere. I was invited to join for a dinner, go out clubbing and the beach the next day. I shared most of my travel experiences with other foreigners. Although, I wish I had met more locals, I was lucky enough to get to know a few. I also had the best night out in Havana thanks to some amazing locals who showed me how to salsa! I found Cubans to be very happy and positive and extremely helpful when it came to helping me with finding directions or places I was looking for and teaching me about their culture!
2. Be safe but don't be afraid
Based on my recent experience, I consider Cuba one of the safer places to travel to. The streets of Havana certainly felt much safer than say, the streets of Paris. Yes, you'll hear bunch of "Hola"s, you'll be complimented on your looks, and you might even get a tiny confidence boost as a result. But I never felt harassed, followed or threatened. I did receive a marriage proposal, which I kindly declined. There's nearly no gun crime in Cuba and according to my guide in Havana, sexual crime is also quite rare. She had the funniest explanation for it, though. She said that Cubans are such a sexual nation, they start young and there's no lack of consent, so really, I have no reason to worry, since these guys are all extremely satisfied and if they can't get it from me, they'll easily get it from somebody else! I found this really funny. I have no way to tell if this is true or not, but this was her solid opinion. She had lived in Cuba for 33 years so she must know something about it!
3. Stay at a Casa Particulares
Instead of a hotel, I stayed in a Casa Particulares, as did every single other traveller I met in Cuba. It's basically people renting out rooms in their own houses/apartments. It's comfortable, relatively affordable and also offers a fairly authentic experience of a Cuban home. You'll see these blue signs on nearly every second door in Havana and also in other cities, indicating that these places have rooms for rent. For a solo traveller, accommodation is always a bit more expensive as you will pay for a room irrespective of whether you're alone or in a group of three, which seemed to be the standard number of people that a room could accommodate. A typical price for a room in a Casa Particulares is 25-30CUC. However, I met a German solo traveller who swore he negotiated a room for 10CUC in Havana.
4. All inclusive resorts aren't my things
In Cuba, these hotels are located in tourist zones, that have nothing to do with the real Cuba and will not let you see the true colours of the island. The resort I stayed at could have been in Turkey, Egypt or Greece. Honestly, there is no way to tell which country you are in when you're inside the resort. Prior to my trip to Cuba, I booked two first nights at an all inclusive resort in Varadero, as I thought it could be a nice way to start my holiday since I knew I'd be extremely jet lagged. Indeed I was, but one day would have been enough. Here's how my all inclusive experience went: 8am - Breakfast, 9am - Beach, 12pm - Drinks at the Beach, 1pm - swimming, 2pm - lunch, 3pm - beach, drinks, swimming, 4:30pm - ok, it's getting a bit windy... what should I do now, the dinner starts only at 7pm ..., 5pm - ok I'll switch to the pool, 6pm - I'm soooo bored but there's still 1h till dinner, 7pm - I'm not even hungry yet!, 7:30pm - I have to get out of here.. what can I do? Is there somewhere I can go? A place I can visit?, 8pm - Dinner, 9pm - drinks, drunk people watching..... Day 2 - REPEAT!
5. Use taxi collectivos NOT tourist busses
Taxi collectivos are a safe way to travel long distance in Cuba and a great way to meet other travellers. It's also a great way to save time, since you'll be driving a lot faster and won't be making all the stops that the busses do. You'll find drivers standing next to the bus station gathering people for various destinations. They will usually pick you up at your hotel/casa particulares and drop you off exactly where you need to go. Taxi collectivos are usually about 5CUC more expensive than the same stretch with the bus, but it's definitely worth it.
6. Bring cash!
European credit cards should theoretically work in Cuba. However, there aren't many places where you can actually pay with it or withdraw cash, and if you have a master card, it's a gamble even in places where you should be able to use it. You can withdraw money only in banks if you have a master card. So despite this "good news", BRING CASH and exchange it at the airport where you will get a much better exchange rate than at the hotel. Regardless of the exchange rate, the hotel will exchange euros 1 to 1 with CUC.
7. Don't stress about planning too much
Personally, I like to be spontaneous and make decisions on the spot depending on how I feel at each specific moment. However, when traveling, this might sometimes be difficult and a lot of planning is required. Not in Cuba!! I'm not saying don't plan at all, I'm just saying that it's not necessary if you'd rather go with the flow, because it's totally possible in Cuba! I only had my first two nights booked at a hotel in Varadero. After that, it was all a mystery. There are more than enough rooms for rent in Cuba to not stress about booking them in advance, at least not in a city as big as Havana. The "tourist" bus system is very reliable and taxi collectivos are very flexible, they pick you up from your place and take you exactly where you want to go. In case you don't have an accommodation in the place of your destination, the driver will probably take you to a Casa Particulares of someone he knows and you won't even have to think about looking for one yourself. E.g. in Trinidad, I stayed with the mom of my taxi driver. Everything happened through a simple phone call. Everybody would know somebody who is organising a tour, driving from A to B exactly at the time that you want or has a free room available. Each Casa Particulares also serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, so really, you're all taken care of!
8. Prepare to pay more than the locals do but don't be "naive"
Ok, most of the time, you'll be struggling with prices. While 1 CUC is 25 CUPs, CUC and CUP prices often don't match up and for some things there's only one price stated with a dollar sign $, so go figure. The way I understood it, there are three options:
1) CUC prices for all: This means that locals and tourists pay the same, no matter the currency. If you want to pay in CUP, you'll have to pay at the exchange rate. These include restaurants, clubs (e.g. tropicana and other bards) as well as internet cards among other things.
2) 1CUC-1CUP: These places include fast food places and other street food as well as some local stores. These places have only one prices stated with a dollar sign, e.g. 5 $. This means you'll pay 5 CUC for your sandwich while a local will pay 5 CUPs for his. Don't try to fight it, it won't work. Unless, you have a local friend who can pay in CUP.
3) Random prices for all: This option prevails at market places and certain stores where as a tourist you'll pay 25CUCs for the same thing a local will pay 4CUCs for or 100CUPs, the currency isn't relevant. With this option, you really need to step up your game and put your bargaining skills to test!!
9. Buy several hours of internet at once
Wifi isn't readily available in Cuba, so you won't be able to get online while chilling in your room, even at a fancy hotel. You'll most probably have to go to the lobby to check your emails and social media updates. There are two things you need in oder to use internet in Cuba: 1) wifi zone 2) wifi card. While it's really not that hard to spot a "wifi zone" - all you need to do is search for an area packed with people staring down at their phones, it's a bit more difficult to run after the cards. Therefore, I recommend not to buy 1h cards each time if you're actually planning to use wifi while in Cuba as you'll waste a lot of time trying to locate your next card and it's just too much of a hassle. Just buy a 5h card when you arrive. In theory, you can purchase wifi cards at the ETECSA telecom center, at your hotel lobby or at a random souvenir shop. 1h of wifi is 2CUC at ETECSA, 4CUC at city hotels and 3CUC- "whatever they can get from you" at souvenir shops. I certainly wasn't going to pay 4CUC/h to check what my friends were up to back home, and I never managed to get a wifi card at ETECSA, since they run out of them by noon and tell you to try your luck the next day. Therefore, I was forced to enjoy my life without much internet and it was awesome!
10. ENJOYYYYY the detox from the frenetic modern life!
Before I left fo Cuba, I read some blogs, which warned of it getting slightly boring at times with limited internet access and inability to use phones as it's insanely expensive. To me though, this sounded like a perfect detox for the soul from the overwhelming modern life back home. In fact, there's also no real shopping or marketing in Cuba, and while traditional Cuban cuisine is very delicious, it's also very expensive so unless you'll dine in a fancy restaurant, you choices for food remain between a sandwich with cheese, ham, or ham and cheese. Instantly, there are a thousand things fewer to worry about and you are suddenly free from constant decision-making, choices and stimulus of information. I found this very calming and liberating, and truly relaxing! I definitely enjoyed my detox!
- THE END -
Hasta la Victoria, Siempre!
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