Traveling to a communist country, we expected that the prices for accommodation, transportation and food would be quite low, even for us tourists, but things were not like that at all, on the contrary, we were downright shocked to see that Havana is not exactly a cheap destination for tourists.
In fact, that is exactly the paradox: you can spend a lot of money in a place where you can't buy much. Now, let's be clear from the beginning, we are not saying that Havana cannot be visited on a budget, like any other city, we are just saying that it took us a bit by surprise.
We will talk more about all the costs we had in the 5 days spent in Havana in this article.
Budget for a Vacation in Havana
As I said in my little practical guide to Havana, Cuba uses two currencies: CUP for locals and CUC for tourists. I must admit that when I first heard about this, it seemed crazy to me and I even thought that there would be chaos in our minds, but it wasn't like that. Things are quite simple.
As a tourist, you will use CUC in 99% of cases, because the prices in tourist restaurants or cigar/rum shops are in CUC. Wherever you go and whatever you buy, you will pay in CUC.
It is true that there are places where prices are in Cuban pesos (CUP), especially in places where locals buy pizza, sandwiches or fresh juice, but it is not really relevant for you as a tourist because you will be asked for the value in CUC (most of the time multiplied by 10).
In the article where I talked about my first impressions of Havana, I told you about our little adventure with Cuban pizza.
Where to exchange money?
I think the best option is to set a budget for each day spent in Havana and exchange all your money at the airport. This way you get rid of a worry and you don't have to look for exchange offices (cadeca) around the city.
We exchanged at the currency exchange located outside the airport (from the exit on the right).
Very important!!! Although you might think it's much more advantageous to exchange USD in Cuba, my advice is to leave them at home and take euros with you. Due to the political problems that the two states have had over time, the Cubans charge a 10% exchange fee for dollars (imagine that you want to exchange 400 USD and you lose 40 USD from the start). In this case, the most advantageous would be to exchange euros.
Exchange rate – 1EUR = approx. 1.10 CUC (on the day I published the article); 1 GBP = approx. 1.30 CUC
Extra tip! It's good to have a few CUPs with you (no more than 100) if you want to try street food in Havana or buy fruit at the market, which we recommend. If you want to exchange CUCs for CUPs, I read that you can do it at the airport, where for 1 CUC you will get between 24-26 CUPs.
Our budget for 5 days in Havana
Before we left home, we estimated that we would spend around 300 euros in the five days we spent in Havana. We expected to find cheap prices, not to spend more than 10 dollars on a meal and to buy souvenirs for next to nothing.
Knowing that in Cuba we cannot use a card and we will not find ATMs everywhere, we decided to make a budget of a maximum of 100 euros per day, for food, activities, tours and souvenirs. When you go to an underdeveloped country, it is good to put a little more pennies over the budget limit… just in case…
In total, for Havana we had 500 euros available (we exclude accommodation because it was prepaid), no more, no less.
Accommodation
Regarding accommodation, I told you in the previous article that we turned to casa particular. It is the perfect option if you want to have an authentic Cuban experience and if you are careful with your budget. Regarding houses, you can find options from 10-15 usd per night to 150 usd, it all depends on your preferences and demands. From experience, we recommend House Sara, in Habana Vieja.
Airport Transfer
I could start by saying that it was one of the most expensive airport transfers I have ever paid for. For a taxi ride from the airport to Habana Vieja I paid 30 CUC ($30 USD), an enormous price considering the distance and the fact that a teacher earns an average of 80 cuc/month, and a pension reaches 30-40 cuc/month.
Anyway, we didn’t want to bother with other ways, so we preferred to pay these huge amounts.
Since we needed 4 rides on the Havana Vieja - Airport route, we had to pay 120 cuc out of our pocket for two couples (60 cuc/couple).
Tip! If you negotiate, you can get an even better price. We don’t say this from experience, but we have heard from other travelers that you can negotiate up to 10 dollars/ride.
Food
In Havana you have two options: either you choose to eat where the locals do (pizza, sandwiches) at local prices (those prices are not always respected for tourists), or at restaurants for tourists called paladars.
These appeared following a reform initiated by Raul Castro, the current president, which allowed locals to open small restaurants, provided that they were in their own homes.
In other words, if Sebi and I were Cubans and we both had a property, we could turn one of them into a restaurant.
Well, at a paladar you can eat Cuban specialties based on rice, beans, yuca and plantains, at prices similar to those in Europe. So, don't expect to eat very cheaply or almost for free in these restaurants.
Havana Food Tour
In the previous article, the one where we talked about the Havana Food Tour, we told you that we used Strawberry Tour and that we ate at the restaurants that the local guides recommended to us.
If you want to know more about Cuban food and the restaurants that we recommend, we invite you to read that article.
Some estimated costs for food:
- a portion of Ropa Vieja at Restaurant Sarra – 10 cuc
- a lemonade – 2-3 cuc
- a Cuban coffee – 1-1.5 cuc
- a portion of frittura de malangas at Restaurant Sarra – 3 cuc
- a slice of pizza from locals – normally 15 cuc, but tourists usually have a special price
- a glass of sugarcane juice – 1 cuc
- a coconut – 2 cuc
- a can of Coca Cola (there are very few places where Coca Cola is available) – 2 CUC
- a local carbonated drink bought from neighborhood stores – 1 cuc
- a portion of lobster at Teniente del Rey – 15 cuc
- fruits at the market are in cups (we bought a watermelon, a pineapple and 3-4 bananas and paid 4 cuc)
- a local beer (Cristal) – 2-3 cuc
- breakfast at Hotel Inglattera – 8 cuc
Tours
I took three tours – Free Historical Centre Tour of Havana, Free Cuban Revolution Tour, Free Havana Food Tour – offered by Strawberry Tour. The tours are free, but at the end, if you were satisfied, you can leave a small tip for the guide.
Definitely, if you end up in Havana, we recommend you book these three tours because they will give you information that you won’t find anywhere else and will take you to places that you probably wouldn’t go to without a guide.
Havana Vintage Car Tour
I think the most important activity we did and that we were looking forward to was the vintage car ride. The colorful and shiny 50s cars are the emblem of the city, so a tour of the city in a 50s Chevy is almost mandatory
For the first car tour we opted for a 54 Chevrolet Impalla, a pink one, of course… And because we liked this ride so much, we thought that our vacation in Havana had to have a wow ending, so on the last evening we rented a Chevrolet Bel Air for an hour, the car that the Prince of Bel Air was also driven in, and we enjoyed an unreal beautiful sunset.
It was by far one of the most beautiful moments in Havana!
We also have a nice story about the last car: in Mexico we saw a documentary about Cuba, and one of the first interviews featured a green car, which we fell in love with right away.
When we saw it, we were actually saying that it would be cool if we got a green Bel Air on our last night, just like the one in the video. When we were looking for the car, we tried to get away from the Capitol and look at the side streets, and while we were looking at the cars, one of the drivers asked us if we were interested in a tour.
We told him we wanted a tour, but we would like it to be a green car, and he pointed us towards the beautiful Bel Air. At the moment, we didn't realize that the car we were in was the same one from the documentary we watched in Mexico...we would find out about it a month later when we were going to watch that documentary again :))
What were the chances that in Havana, on the last night, we would come across the car we saw on TV and that we really wanted?!
Ps. The driver was really nice, he told us a lot, and in the price of the tour he also offered us a photo session. I even told him that, judging by the pictures he took of us, he must be a famous undercover photographer.
How much does a vintage car tour cost? – A one-hour tour through Old Havana and New Havana, plus a stop at Revolution Square for photos costs between 40-80 cuc. In the first phase, they might ask you for 80 cuc, but it's negotiable, if you know what I mean… We paid 60 cuc for the two tours.
Souvenirs
In Havana Vieja you will find a lot of souvenir shops arranged in small spaces on the ground floor of buildings. Fridge magnets are generally quite cheap (we bought 7 magnets for 5 cuc), as are other souvenirs (you can find car plates, t-shirts, hats, paintings, coffee cups and a lot of other things representative of Havana).
For souvenirs you can go to any shop in the old center or you can try the market on Obisbo street. In that market you will find a lot of hand-made things, including souvenirs.
However, I can’t say the same about cigars and rum. Cuba is famous for its cigars, and those with more time can take a trip to Vinales, where they can see how cigars are made. So famous, Cuban cigars are among the things that tourists buy regularly, so the prices are also reasonable.
Also, selling and buying cigars also involves many traps that some locals set for tourists. This is also the reason why you need to be extremely careful when you want to buy cigars.
We definitely recommend official stores over Cubans who will approach you on the street and tell you that they work at a cigar factory and can sell you 20 cigars for the price of 5.
Well, although the latter option sounds good, the somewhat friendlier and more honest locals warned us that it's all a big lie and that there are two options: 1) the cigars are not of high quality, meaning they don't have 100% tobacco; 2) in the box of 20 cigars you won't have more than 5-7 cigars, the ones in sight.
So, although they will be more expensive, we recommend buying cigars from official stores, where a cigar costs an average of 6-8 CUC. At Casa del Cafe we bought a set of cigars (6 pieces) for 35 CUC. There you can also find Havana Club and Santiago de Cuba rum, other local alcoholic beverages and coffee.
Other expenses: internet cards (one ETECSA card = 2 cuc).
This was the article where I talked about all the expenses I had in Havana. I hope it will be useful for you as you plan your trip to this unique and exotic destination.