The Adventurous Girl’s Guide to Backpacking Across Cuba
Pack lots of sunscreen. (Photo: Getty)
This past summer, I spent two weeks backpacking across the island of Cuba — the largest island in the Caribbean — with a Fodor’s guidebook, a working knowledge of high school Spanish, and $800 in cash stowed away in my Patagonia pack. I took a direct Sun Country charter flight from New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Havana’s José Martí International Airport, where most of my flight companions were Americans on a tour, Cuban Americans visiting families, or artists coming to the Biennial Art Exhibition. As a 24 year old, I don’t remember ever navigating around unfamiliar territories without at least GPS in my car or Google Maps, but in Cuba, my iPhone was a brick. It was in Cuba that I learned to march up to strangers and ask for directions, haggle for an air conditioned car to drive me 100 miles, and knock on random houses in the middle of town squares to ask for spare bedrooms. It was surprisingly easy and cheap, and I met many young people traveling across Cuba in the same way, too. Cuba is a country with a tumultuous history and vibrant people who are fiercely proud to be Cuban, and if you’re interested in taking a trip like I did, here is my advice:
Bug spray, sunscreen, and face wipes are some of the basics you’ll need to bring. (Photo: Yahoo Beauty)
Pack your sunscreen and basic toiletries
You will have a hard time finding basic toiletries like toothpaste or even hand soap, even if you stay in a hotel. Sunscreen is practically non-existent unless you’re in a tourist shop, and even then, your options are limited to one imported brand. Pack as if you are glamping. You might want to wear some makeup if you’re going salsa dancing at night, after all. I highly recommend packing a travel-size bottle of Dr. Bronner’s Castile Liquid Soap ($3), which you can use for face wash and for washing your sweaty clothes.
El Capitolio in Havana. (Photo: Instagram)
Differentiate between two types of Cuban currency
The first type is the convertible peso, the CUC, which has a conversion ratio of 1CUC$ = $1USD. This is primarily used for tourists or at high-end restaurants that foreigners frequent. The second type is the Cuban peso, the MN or moneda nacional, which has a conversion ratio of $25MN = $1USD. Be careful to note what you’re paying with — don’t expect locals to tell you when you’re overpaying, especially when the average monthly salary of a Cuban is a mere $20. For food and drink, always assume you’re paying in monedas nacionales unless you’re in a tourist zone, like a hotel restaurant. It might seem too good to be true that you’re paying $15MN (that’s 60 cents USD) for a meal, but don’t expect Cuban food to amaze you. (More on that next.)
Schoolchildren in Havana, Cuba. (Photo: Instagram)
Pack fiber supplements and eat local fruit
Unfortunately, due to trade restrictions, you won’t find many fresh green vegetables in Cuba, unless you go to an expensive tourist-friendly restaurant. If you ask for a salad at any other place, you’ll be lucky to receive a plate of canned green beans. A typical meal at a Cuban cafeteria is a dough-y pizza with more bread than sauce, or a plate of rice and beans with your choice of protein (but you probably won’t find beef, because cows are all owned by the government for dairy production). Possibly a slice of cucumber at the side. If you’re worried about your fiber intake, I recommend packing some supplements or eating the delicious fruit, like mangoes, frequently.
An everyday meal in Cuba: rice, beans, plantains, fried eggs, and a soda. (Photo: No?l Duan)
Do not visit for the food — but you can dine with Rihanna and Queen Bey
Want to know where you can find the best Cuban food in the world? Miami. Anthony Bourdain once said that the Cuban Revolution got three things right: The preservation of old cars, education, and free healthcare. They got three things wrong: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I had a friend living in Cuba when I visited, and I actually had to bring him chili pepper flakes from Trader Joe’s because spices are so hard to find in Cuba. “There are only two flavors in Cuba: Salty and sweet,” he later told me. If you’re sick of rice and beans and plantains, you can go to a paladar, which is a family-run restaurant, for more expensive, better-quality food. In Havana, I went to La Guarida, which is a paladar featured in the Academy Award-nominated film, Fresa y Chocolate. The prices were comparable to a mid-range restaurant in New York City, and the food tasted like business class airplane food. My waitress told me that Rihanna had been there the week before, and Beyoncé had been there a few months ago.
Heading to the airport in Santiago de Cuba in a vintage convertible. (Photo: Instagram)
Traveling across Cuba is cheap and easy
You have two safe options: 1) Ask for a machina, which is a private hired car to take you to the next town. 2) Take a coach bus. For either choice, you should head to the city or town’s bus stations, where drivers hoping to deter you from buying a bus ticket will definitely accost you. Haggle down your price to at least $20 or less per person per 100 miles (versus $250+ for a New York City taxi), but if you’d rather take a comfortable slow journey, I recommend the coach bus ticket, which has set prices. That said, don’t be surprised if your bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere and you’re forced to sit in the sun for three hours — that happened to me once. Also, forget about seatbelts.
This street might not look like much, but Ernest Hemingway used to frequent it often. (Photo: No?l Duan)
Learn to haggle and walk away
You will undoubtedly be scammed as a foreigner, especially if you don’t speak Spanish. I speak and understand Spanish, and that was how I figured out that I was being scammed — because the drivers were offering Cubans prices that were exponentially lower than what they offered me. You might not even think you’re being scammed because the prices are so low compared to what you’d pay in Western countries. I met three British students who spent $600 total on a hired private driver to travel across Cuba, when they could have spent $100 total. Here’s my rule of thumb: If you’re bargaining for car service, assume $20 for every 100 miles. If you’re bargaining for fruit, assume that one fruit costs around $5MN (20 cents) or less.
A house in the town of Holguín that I stayed in. (Photo: No?l Duan)
Need a room? Knock, knock
Yes, you could stay in some of Cuba’s legendary hotels, like the Hotel Nacional de Cuba (allegedly the scene of some major American mafia deals), but if you’re traveling on a budget and you want to see how Cubans live, you should live in a casa particular, which is a bed and breakfast maintained by Cubans. You’ll be living in a Cuban home for around $10 a night, and you know it’s safe because casa particulares are licensed by the government. You’ll be required to provide your passport and travel visa upon arrival. While you could book on AirBnB, the easiest and most traditional way to get accommodations is to walk around and start knocking on doors with the blue hospitality sign. You can haggle for the price and ask if breakfast is included. When I was backpacking, I would ask the driver to drop me off in the town square, and I would randomly pick a direction and start knocking on doors.
My view at the top of Comandancia de la Plata in Cuba. (Photo: Instagram)
Scale the mountains
Once you arrive to the small town of Bayamo, you should visit the travel agency in the center of town to arrange a day hiking trip to Pico Turquino (the highest peak in Cuba) or the slightly less strenuous Comandancia de la Plata right next to it, which is where Fidel Castro led his rebel troops to camp. These aren’t novice hiking trails — I mean, Castro led his guerilla troops up these mountains precisely because they’re hard to reach, and not much has changed in the past 50 years. Pack hiking boots if you aim to get some eco-tourism done.
Cuban coffee, which is a very sweet espresso, is also worth trying. (Photo: Instagram)
Cheap rum is good rum
On one Sunday morning in Cuba’s second largest city and the former home of the Bacardi family, Santiago de Cuba, I noticed that everyone I walked by was nursing a bottle of rum. You can get a very good bottle of seven-year rum for only $7.60 — and even at the fanciest foreigners-only bars, daiquiris are $3 or less. Havana Club rum is overrated — all the locals recommend buying Santiago brand rum. It’s made in the Barcardi family’s original factories in Santiago, which became nationalized once they fled the country during the Revolution.
Hoard your bottled water
Do not drink tap water unless it has been boiled first, which is what Cubans do. And beware of ice cubes in your drinks, too. But if you’re wary, you should buy bottled water wherever you find some, because you can go miles in a town without finding another store selling bottled water again. I ended up drinking a lot of Ciego Montero lemon-lime sodas (Cuba’s national version of Sprite) to A keep myself hydrated.
A block party outside of the Norwegian Embassy in Havana that I stumbled into. (Photo: Instagram)
Be friendly
Cubans are very nice and friendly — they also stare a lot. As a person of Chinese descent with purple hair, I had hoards of schoolchildren point at me and the occasional old man follow me down the street, desperately begging for my name. If you come from a diverse city like New York, you’re probably not used to being spoken to like this, but you’ll go insane if you think of it as harassment! Yes, some Cubans want to make a quick buck from you, but a lot of Cubans are just curious as to where you’re coming from. Just smile, respond if you want, and keep walking.
Quiet night time in Bayamo, Cuba. (Photo: Instagram)
Live by Cuban time
Just assume that nothing runs on time and everyone will be late. Allow yourself the flexibility to change your schedule at a moment’s notice, whether it’s because you wandered into an Afro-Cuban block party or because the bus broke down in the middle of a 200-mile journey. Coming from New York City, where you’re late if you arrive on time, I was surprised that restaurants in Cuba didn’t open on time and that Cubans didn’t mind waiting for an extra hour or two. While you wait, I recommend bringing a book — or a penchant for conversation with locals.
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