This is where I plan to step back and write paragraphs (I'm loath to say 'essays', though it would be nice to graduate to those) about my experiences, providing context and critique, rather than chronology.
In the case of Cuba, planning the trip was such an unusual experience, that I wanted to summarize it and provide tips for other independent travelers, and to this end am putting together a rubric with information on booking a flight, accommodation, and dealing with money.
Cuba Trip Planning
I. Booking My Flight
II. Booking Accommodation
III. Money Matters
CUBA TRIP PLANNING
I. BOOKING MY FLIGHT
To find out how I ended up successfully booking a flight, skip to the 'FLIGHT SUMMARY' heading below; to read about my convoluted process, start here:
Just as undesirable figures have been erased from the history books, so Cuba's existence as a budget travel destination on the internet is ghostly -- not erased, just materializing with difficulty. Try googling, 'Flights from San Francisco to Havana,' and all the usual suspects crop up on the results page: cheapflights.com, farecompare.com, orbitz.com and more; but click through and enter travel dates on a US site and chances are you'll get a message along the lines of 'Fare Not Available' or 'The Web Page You Requested Does Not Exist' or 'No Flights Were Found That Match Your Search.' And if you happen to get routed to a foreign site (eg Despegar.com), chances are you'll be quoted a fare in the thousands of dollars routing you through Canada.
Figuring I could patch together a cheaper itinerary, I looked into carriers that fly directly to Havana from closer-by, like Nassau (The Bahamas), the Caymen Islands, Cancun (Mexico), San Jose (Costa Rica), or Panama City (again, the internet at 'first-hit' returned a fair bit of misleading information, eg about flights from Guatemala City, now discontinued; or airlines no longer in service; or schedules that turned out to be entirely fictitious).
The twice-weekly flights from Nassau were all booked up through the end of the year, so I called the Aeromexico US number to book a flight from Cancun to Havana, only to be told the US office couldn't give me any information about flights to Havana. "You have to call Aeromexico in Mexico City. Do you speak Spanish? They only speak Spanish." Really? So my Spanish-speaking friend called the Mexico City office, only to be told that he couldn't pay for the flight to Havana with a US credit-card. Which reminded me of women veiling themselves in London as they boarded the flight bound for Teheran; the dye of the destination bleeding back to points of contact in The West. Perhaps Aeromexico doesn't want to strain relations with the US by aiding and abetting citizens' travel to an embargoed country, but their approach seemed to me annoyingly obstructionist. My friend, having grown up in South America, said it felt like coming home.
By chance my friend stumbled across FlightNetwork.com, which pronounces itself "Canada's best kept secret for cheap flights and online travel." Miracle of miracles, the site returned a flight on Aeromexico from Cancun to Havana on the requested dates, AND took payment by US credit card. Full relief flooded in once the e-tickets arrived promptly by email. [Caveat: It's possible my friend was using a UK IP address when he contacted the Canadian website; I checked it again and it didn't work for me :( ... ]
FLIGHT INFO SUMMARY
* Flew to Cancun and from there to Havana
* Flight to Cancun:
- Cheap carriers that fly into Cancun from various points in the US include Virgin America and Jet Blue.
- I got my one-way from San Francisco to Cancun on Virgin for $145 + tax.
* Flight from Cancun to Havana
- Booked on the Canadian online booking site FlightNetwork.com
- The round-trip on Aeromexico was $463, which seems a fairly typical fare
FLIGHT FOOTNOTE
In March of 2011, the US government approved direct flights to Cuba from eight airports across the country (including Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth), to be covered by the likes of Delta Airlines via Marazul Charters. However, these are all charter flights, and are geared to Cuban Americans visiting relatives in Cuba, and to 'regular' Americans engaging in 'purposeful' travel, eg for educational or religious or artistic activities, or for medical or agricultural projects. To qualify, you need to sign up with an organization that is licensed for these activities.
II. BOOKING ACCOMMODATION
'Casas Particulares' (rooms or apartments rented out by private individuals) provide the most economical accommodation in Cuba at $10 to $35 per room per night, versus hotels which start at $100/$160 a night for a single/double.
While Lonely Planet lists a handful of Casas in different towns, these are invariably booked full since every other backpacker is calling them too.
Here are a few internet sites useful for booking ahead on the internet and getting info:
- www.hostelsclub.com -- successfully used on my trip; reserved online and got email confirmation (you pay 5% online, the rest in cash once you arrive)
- www.hostelbookers.com -- similarly covers the world (including Cuba)
- www.cuba-junky.com -- Cuba-specific info, including a CP booking service
- www.casaparticularcuba.org -- seems to be an official association of Cuban casa owners
- www.casaparticular.info -- not a booking site, but does provide info
If you are making a next-day reservation, it is wise to call the Casa Particular as well (even if you have your email confirmation in hand from the booking website), since the owner might not be informed for a day or two of your booking and might in fact not have a vacancy. But even if you show up to find the Casa booked full, chances are the owner knows another Casa nearby that does have a room available. (This happened on my trip, and I liked the Casa I was referred to better than the original Casa I'd booked :)
Once on the ground, just look out for places with this special license symbol posted on the wall:
Also, once you've stayed in one Casa Particular, chances are the owner will have contacts in the next place you are going, and can provide you an address and a a number to call.
ACCOMMODATION FOOTNOTE - CASAS PARTICULARES
The 1990s were a particularly tough time economically in Cuba, after the Soviet withdrawal of economic assistance, and in 1997 the Cuban government made it legal for residents to rent rooms in their houses to tourists. The owners have to pay something like USD 150 per month for the licence to rent out their room(s) regardless of their occupancy rate. At USD 20-35 per room per night, they need to have guests for at least one solid week a month to break even; having more rooms for rent under one roof clearly improves their economies of scale. There are also start-up and termination fees, such that if you 'suspend' your license during tourist low-season there is a penalty.
The price per room seems to lie in a regulated band (USD 20-35), and the variation seems based on the location of the casa (in the heart of town or on the outskirts, with or without a view), the room provided (our first casa particular was a separate apartment with kitchen and living room; the second was a bedroom with two beds and a private bathroom; the third was a bedroom with one bed, and we shared a bathroom with a second bedroom rented out to another tourist couple), and the quality of its amenities (water pressure and consistent hot water in the shower were our main preoccupations).
The owners typically provide breakfast for an additional USD 3-4, and dinner for USD 10 (the spread can vary quite dramatically depending on the casa).
III. MONEY MATTERS - DUAL CURRENCY & CASH-ON-HAND
TRIP PLANNING FOOTNOTE:
The alternative to planning one's trip independently is clearly to hire a travel agent to do it all for you. While I tend to recoil at the thought of paying a middle-man to do what I can do myself on the internet easily and often more cheaply (and more to my own taste), in the case of Cuba I could see it making sense -- to counteract the lack of transparency which is not the case when booking a trip in, say, Europe or Southeast Asia. Given the restrictions on internet access in Cuba (making it more difficult to get accurate local information and to book ahead), and the inconvenience of US credit cards not being accepted in Cuba (due to the US embargo), a US-based agent who has their own contacts in Cuba and is in constant contact with them by telephone definitely provides some added value. And there seem to be plenty of agents who specialize in Cuba.
_______________________________________
In the case of Cuba, planning the trip was such an unusual experience, that I wanted to summarize it and provide tips for other independent travelers, and to this end am putting together a rubric with information on booking a flight, accommodation, and dealing with money.
Cuba Trip Planning
I. Booking My Flight
II. Booking Accommodation
III. Money Matters
CUBA TRIP PLANNING
I. BOOKING MY FLIGHT
To find out how I ended up successfully booking a flight, skip to the 'FLIGHT SUMMARY' heading below; to read about my convoluted process, start here:
Just as undesirable figures have been erased from the history books, so Cuba's existence as a budget travel destination on the internet is ghostly -- not erased, just materializing with difficulty. Try googling, 'Flights from San Francisco to Havana,' and all the usual suspects crop up on the results page: cheapflights.com, farecompare.com, orbitz.com and more; but click through and enter travel dates on a US site and chances are you'll get a message along the lines of 'Fare Not Available' or 'The Web Page You Requested Does Not Exist' or 'No Flights Were Found That Match Your Search.' And if you happen to get routed to a foreign site (eg Despegar.com), chances are you'll be quoted a fare in the thousands of dollars routing you through Canada.
Figuring I could patch together a cheaper itinerary, I looked into carriers that fly directly to Havana from closer-by, like Nassau (The Bahamas), the Caymen Islands, Cancun (Mexico), San Jose (Costa Rica), or Panama City (again, the internet at 'first-hit' returned a fair bit of misleading information, eg about flights from Guatemala City, now discontinued; or airlines no longer in service; or schedules that turned out to be entirely fictitious).
The twice-weekly flights from Nassau were all booked up through the end of the year, so I called the Aeromexico US number to book a flight from Cancun to Havana, only to be told the US office couldn't give me any information about flights to Havana. "You have to call Aeromexico in Mexico City. Do you speak Spanish? They only speak Spanish." Really? So my Spanish-speaking friend called the Mexico City office, only to be told that he couldn't pay for the flight to Havana with a US credit-card. Which reminded me of women veiling themselves in London as they boarded the flight bound for Teheran; the dye of the destination bleeding back to points of contact in The West. Perhaps Aeromexico doesn't want to strain relations with the US by aiding and abetting citizens' travel to an embargoed country, but their approach seemed to me annoyingly obstructionist. My friend, having grown up in South America, said it felt like coming home.
By chance my friend stumbled across FlightNetwork.com, which pronounces itself "Canada's best kept secret for cheap flights and online travel." Miracle of miracles, the site returned a flight on Aeromexico from Cancun to Havana on the requested dates, AND took payment by US credit card. Full relief flooded in once the e-tickets arrived promptly by email. [Caveat: It's possible my friend was using a UK IP address when he contacted the Canadian website; I checked it again and it didn't work for me :( ... ]
FLIGHT INFO SUMMARY
* Flew to Cancun and from there to Havana
* Flight to Cancun:
- Cheap carriers that fly into Cancun from various points in the US include Virgin America and Jet Blue.
- I got my one-way from San Francisco to Cancun on Virgin for $145 + tax.
* Flight from Cancun to Havana
- Booked on the Canadian online booking site FlightNetwork.com
- The round-trip on Aeromexico was $463, which seems a fairly typical fare
FLIGHT FOOTNOTE
In March of 2011, the US government approved direct flights to Cuba from eight airports across the country (including Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth), to be covered by the likes of Delta Airlines via Marazul Charters. However, these are all charter flights, and are geared to Cuban Americans visiting relatives in Cuba, and to 'regular' Americans engaging in 'purposeful' travel, eg for educational or religious or artistic activities, or for medical or agricultural projects. To qualify, you need to sign up with an organization that is licensed for these activities.
II. BOOKING ACCOMMODATION
'Casas Particulares' (rooms or apartments rented out by private individuals) provide the most economical accommodation in Cuba at $10 to $35 per room per night, versus hotels which start at $100/$160 a night for a single/double.
While Lonely Planet lists a handful of Casas in different towns, these are invariably booked full since every other backpacker is calling them too.
Here are a few internet sites useful for booking ahead on the internet and getting info:
- www.hostelsclub.com -- successfully used on my trip; reserved online and got email confirmation (you pay 5% online, the rest in cash once you arrive)
- www.hostelbookers.com -- similarly covers the world (including Cuba)
- www.cuba-junky.com -- Cuba-specific info, including a CP booking service
- www.casaparticularcuba.org -- seems to be an official association of Cuban casa owners
- www.casaparticular.info -- not a booking site, but does provide info
If you are making a next-day reservation, it is wise to call the Casa Particular as well (even if you have your email confirmation in hand from the booking website), since the owner might not be informed for a day or two of your booking and might in fact not have a vacancy. But even if you show up to find the Casa booked full, chances are the owner knows another Casa nearby that does have a room available. (This happened on my trip, and I liked the Casa I was referred to better than the original Casa I'd booked :)
Once on the ground, just look out for places with this special license symbol posted on the wall:
 |
ACCOMMODATION FOOTNOTE - CASAS PARTICULARES
The 1990s were a particularly tough time economically in Cuba, after the Soviet withdrawal of economic assistance, and in 1997 the Cuban government made it legal for residents to rent rooms in their houses to tourists. The owners have to pay something like USD 150 per month for the licence to rent out their room(s) regardless of their occupancy rate. At USD 20-35 per room per night, they need to have guests for at least one solid week a month to break even; having more rooms for rent under one roof clearly improves their economies of scale. There are also start-up and termination fees, such that if you 'suspend' your license during tourist low-season there is a penalty.
The price per room seems to lie in a regulated band (USD 20-35), and the variation seems based on the location of the casa (in the heart of town or on the outskirts, with or without a view), the room provided (our first casa particular was a separate apartment with kitchen and living room; the second was a bedroom with two beds and a private bathroom; the third was a bedroom with one bed, and we shared a bathroom with a second bedroom rented out to another tourist couple), and the quality of its amenities (water pressure and consistent hot water in the shower were our main preoccupations).
The owners typically provide breakfast for an additional USD 3-4, and dinner for USD 10 (the spread can vary quite dramatically depending on the casa).
III. MONEY MATTERS - DUAL CURRENCY & CASH-ON-HAND
TRIP PLANNING FOOTNOTE:
The alternative to planning one's trip independently is clearly to hire a travel agent to do it all for you. While I tend to recoil at the thought of paying a middle-man to do what I can do myself on the internet easily and often more cheaply (and more to my own taste), in the case of Cuba I could see it making sense -- to counteract the lack of transparency which is not the case when booking a trip in, say, Europe or Southeast Asia. Given the restrictions on internet access in Cuba (making it more difficult to get accurate local information and to book ahead), and the inconvenience of US credit cards not being accepted in Cuba (due to the US embargo), a US-based agent who has their own contacts in Cuba and is in constant contact with them by telephone definitely provides some added value. And there seem to be plenty of agents who specialize in Cuba.
_______________________________________
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