The first thing that put me at ease about making plans for a trip to Cuba was understanding and following the steps to securing a visa. The second step, getting health insurance, turned out to be easy for us as we flew Southwest and they cover their passengers for their insurance. The last thing that was driving us crazy was how much cash we would need for daily expenditures. Cuba is strictly a cash economy. It was a bit nebulous how much we would need each day for food and transportation.

Check out below the scenes of art that pop up all over Havana. Hope this relaxes you enough to go on to more serious business that follows: visas, health insurance, budgets. After that check out some ideas for making fun plans for Havana and Cuba. You’ll find them here on my first post about our trip to Cuba: http://www.roadtosuchness.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=2818&action=edit .

Havana…………Art Appears

PLANNING A TRIP TO CUBA

Visa:

U.S. citizens need, beside a passport, a visa. You can buy this on line through Southwest. It cost us $50.00 for one visa. There was no processing cost at the time we bought our visa. Also, we were traveling from Ft. Lauderdale to Havana so were able to pick up the visa at the Cuba Kiosk at the departure gate for Southwest. Keep your visa with you at all times. I wore it in a waist pack with passport and money. You will need to show it with your passport when leaving Cuba.

For all others see: /www.worldtravelguide.net/guides/caribbean/cuba/passport-visa

Visa Category:

You will need to claim the purpose of your trip to Cuba. We traveled with Support for Cuban People. This means that all your activities and what you plan to spend your money on will help the Cuban people. Example, we stayed in an Airbnb apartment owned by a Cuban couple. We ate in restaurants (paladores) owned by locals. Also did some of the local activities. My favorite was a cooking class I took. I found some great activities on the Airbnb site.. Save all your receipts.

Budget:

Budget well. In the end, Cuba is not inexpensive, especially if you are not prepared ….We paid everything in case as they do not accept credit cards So you pretty much have to estimate how much you will spend each day as cards are not accepted. Before going I paid as much as I could with credit card. This included our Airbnb rental and a class I was taking.

We changed our dollars to Euros before going to Cuba for a better exchange. When we arrived at the airport, we exchanged our Euros for CUCS, local currency used by visitors.. Our goal was not to have any CUCS in hand when we left Cuba. But we had not anticipated the cost of transportation by taxi in Havana. Our last day there I spent an hour in line at a bank. I came out with just enough money to last until our departure the next day. The last seventeen CUCS we spent on two additional cigars for my son and some water at the airport

Health Insurance…it’s required! The Cuban government requires all visitors to have a health plan that will cover any expenses in Cuba. You are automatically covered if traveling with Southwest Airlines. Here is a site I was looking at before making our Southwest reservation: https://www.visitorscoverage.com/travel-insurance/cuba/travel-insurance-for-cuba/