Travel within the United States, as well as most other economically stable countries if you will, is a funny thing. You forget your toothbrush…your underwear…your important medications…midnight snack? No problem. There is likely a drug store or big box store within a mile or two of your location to pick up whatever you forgot.
Thanks to fifty plus years of being cut off from the United States means none of our big box or chain stores exist there. Cuba has had to import goods from China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and a few other countries in South America and Europe, which means supplies can be scarce and expensive.
You almost have to operate under a “bring everything but the kitchen sink” approach…but also maybe bring the kitchen sink or at the very least an ample supply of hand sanitizer wipes! Trust me on this. I took the Noro-Virus home as a souvenir!
Passport
Aside from my actual passport, which is of course required to enter and exit the country, I also usually take a photo or scan of the page containing my photo and important information and email it to myself. This way I can easily access a copy if my actual passport or phone are lost/stolen. If you will be somewhere that you don’t think you will have easy access to a computer and email (ie: Cuba) you can make a printed copy and hide that in whatever bag you are leaving at your hotel as an extra backup.
Money
Be sure to bring enough cash to cover spending for your entire trip…plus a little extra just in case. Your credit/debit cards will not work there, so you will be reliant on the cash you take with you. The American Dollar and Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC: The tourist currency) are usually 1:1, but there will be fees to exchange your money, so you will get back less than you handed over.
If you are travelling with a group, you may want to consider combining your money to exchange, then splitting the fee between everyone, versus each person doing their own separate exchange and paying their own fee.
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- We spent roughly $5-10 CUC’s per meal which almost always included an alcoholic beverage or two, after all we were on vacation! One night we splurged on a nice dinner and spent closer to $25-35 per person, but the food ended up being awful. More expensive doesn’t always mean better!
- Taxi rides depending on how far you are going can range from $5-10 CUC around town to $20 CUC for a one-way hour ride out to see the beach on a super-hot day.
- Museums ranged from $3 CUC for the Museo de Arts Colonial to $8 CUC for the Museum of the Revolution.
- We booked a Cuba Tur day trip out to the Vinales Valley for $67 CUC each (plus a tip for the driver and tour guide).
- A night at the Cabaret Le Parisien ran us $40 CUC a piece and included a free drink. The more famous Tropicana show will likely cost you a bit more.
- Don’t forget extra money for street art, souvenirs and of course cigars!
Toiletries & First Aid
Prescription Medications – If you have medications you must take every day, double and triple check that you have packed them. You will not be able to have a prescription filled there. I usually bring enough for every day I will be away, plus a few extra days’ worth, just in case I get stranded somewhere and am gone longer than expected. Also, no need to bring the entire medicine bottle as they are usually large and take up a lot of space. Instead, I use these GoTubb’s! You can count out your dosage for each day and drop them in here, which takes up a lot less space in your bag. Just be careful if you have pills that look similar. Keep them in separate containers, or in a snack baggie within the container, and label what’s what, so you aren’t accidentally taking too much of something.
Over the Counter Pain Reliever (ie: Advil, Tylenol, Excedrin etc) for headaches. Most Cuban cars run off diesel fuel and the level of exhaust is overwhelming, especially if you have asthma or allergies! I had a headache for the first 2-3 days there until I got used to it.
Intestinal Medications – As someone with above average digestive issues, I always bring some Pepto Tablets, Imodium Tablets and some Zantac with me when I travel. Even if you don’t have regular tummy issues, you are really rolling the dice there, especially if you use the water to brush your teeth, drink anything with ice (aka the aforementioned daiquiris with every meal) and the lack of proper hand washing facilities in restaurants (more about that later, but seriously trust me on this one!). You are better off having them and not needing them vs the other way around.
Band-Aids and antiseptic cream such as Neosporin – Unless you are planning to shell out for a taxi daily, you will be doing a lot of walking in hot sweaty conditions, which will likely result in some blisters. Also, as expected, things are a bit old and run down there, so you will want to disinfect any cuts or scrapes you get from a building or vehicle somewhat quickly to avoid infection.
Hand Sanitizer Wipes – Okay, if you only listen to one thing I say on this post, PLEASE, PLEASE make it be this one! Bring hand sanitizer wipes. Like a LOT of them! We encountered more than one bathroom within Havana, at restaurants mind you, that did not have running water in the bathroom. You are going to want to be able to clean your hands on your own before eating and after using the bathroom, and just generally throughout the day if you want to avoid germs. Also, I recommend the wipes over the gel, as the wipes do not count as a liquid for TSA purposes and can be packed anywhere in your suitcase, versus needing to fit in your quart sized liquids bag.
Enough shampoo/conditioner/body soap/toothpaste etc. for your entire trip. Again, you will not come across these products easily in the local corner stores. They had some giant family size bottles of various items, but they were very expensive and would long outlast your 30-day Tourist Visa!
Sunscreen – Even if you are planning to carry your luggage on, find a way to fit even a small travel size bottle of sunscreen in your bag! This sunscreen should ideally be water or sweatproof. Cuba as you well know is an island in the Caribbean. It is VERY hot and VERY sunny there! My friends non-sweatproof face sunscreen melted and ran down her chest day one, leaving a very interesting sunburn/tan line situation on her chest.
Bug Spray – Though this one may be seasonal. I have seen many posts from other bloggers that they were eaten alive by mosquitoes while in Cuba. We were there in early January though and had no issues.
Clothing & Shoes
The majority of the year the weather is warm, even downright hot and muggy there. Our first few days we were sweating through shorts and tank tops within minutes of stepping out into the sun. Later in the week we hit what was their official first day of winter and it was like someone flipped a switch. It was still warm compared to our winter weather in Pennsylvania, but the temperatures dropped about 30F and the wind picked up. We were actually wishing we had brought a lightweight sweatshirt or jacket. Locals were actually coming up to us very confused by our shorts and tee shirts asking if we were freezing. They had all switched to full length pants and borderline winter jackets by that point. So, pack 95% for the predicted weather but come prepared with one warmer layer just in case.
More specifically wear light colored, lightweight fabrics to keep cool in the sun! Bring a hat with a brim and sunglasses for sure!
The style of dress is fairly casual however, if you plan to go to one of the cabarets or nice restaurants, you will want something a bit dressier than shorts and a tee shirt. The ladies in our group wore a sundress and Philip wore dark pants with a casual button down and we fit in comfortably.
I strongly recommend comfortable shoes that you have worn before, walking for long distances. We opted to walk the majority of the trip, only taking a taxi a couple of times, when the walk was far too long, even for us. I made the poor decision to wear sandals day one. These were well broken in, worn all over major cities, comfy sandals. Until they weren’t. I didn’t account for the sheer amount of sweat and how my feet would rub against the leather. My feet were completely blistered and in a decent amount of pain. Seriously, just wear cute sneakers! Your feet will thank me later!
Other Items
Snacks – If you are like me and find yourself hungry pretty much ALL THE TIME, do yourself a favor and pack some snacks in your suitcase. We made many trips to a variety of stores in the week we were there, and while we found an abundance of frozen hotdogs, some pasta and other random foods, we didn’t find much that could be easily packed in a backpack and carried around town.
Camera, Memory Cards & Battery – Even if you aren’t a professional photographer, you will likely still want to take some photos while in Cuba. If you plan to use your phone for this, awesome, just make sure you have plenty of memory before you leave! You won’t be able to access the cloud to transfer or back up images as you go.
If you plan to use a camera that takes separate memory cards and batteries though, be sure you pack memory cards that have enough space on them. If you are taking cards you already own and use, I suggest backing up your cards and clearing them off for a fresh start before you go. If you are one of those people who just can’t fathom deleting images, then buy a couple new ones for the trip and bring more memory than you think you will use. We did actually manage to find an electronic store that sold camera equipment and memory cards, but they were not cheap.
That’s about it! If you have any travel tips for Cuba or in general you would like to share, feel free to add them in the comments section below!
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