Cuba's free travel strategy

When you have had enough travel in China, you might as well visit Cuba. The scenery here is unique and the people here are simple. The mode of traveling on the road allows you to play wherever you want. Let me share my own experience with you.

Many years ago, I saw a brochure introducing Cuba. Since then, I have been branded in my heart. I want to punch in Cuba and have a look at this country forgotten by time. This punch-in task was finally realized during the spring break in March, 20 17, and I came to this socialist country with expectation.

Above! Cuba! Here ~ here ~ here ~

Before I came to Cuba, my impression of this country was that it had extremely European architectural style, shabby but colorful old cars, ancient narrow streets, colorful music, simple socialist people, the hero Castro, and of course, Hemingway, a great writer who lived here for more than ten or twenty years and created the work The Old Man and the Sea.

And his favorite mojito.

There are old cars everywhere, all antiques, and cars made in China.

As one of the few socialist countries in the world, after years of economic sanctions by the United States, we finally opened the door to the big American imperialists, and direct flights and cruise ships gradually increased. Although there are many restrictions for American citizens to go to Cuba, as good friends of Cuba, we can enter and leave Cuba unimpeded with China passports without a visa.

Air ticket: I checked a lot of information before I left. Due to the subtle relationship between the United States and Cuba, Americans have a 13 restriction on visiting Cuba. Only 13 people can go. Although this restriction only restricts American passports (it seems that there is no problem now), there are still many people who report that boarding is not allowed at the airport, so to be on the safe side, we decided to fly from the United States to Mexico City first (this will be introduced later, which is also good). It seems that China will also transfer from North America. If it's American.

Airline tickets, about a month before departure, may receive their phone calls to tell you the precautions.

America can fly! No problem!

A leisurely afternoon in the corner of Valadero Hotel.

Visa: Cuba doesn't need an embassy to apply for a visa, but it can't be regarded as landing visa (is it puzzling? So let's focus on it!

This country needs something called a tourist card, which is equivalent to a visa. You can buy one at the airport where you leave. If the tourist card from the United States to Cuba is $50 per person, the two people we bought at the Mexican airport add up to 500 pesos (25 /2 people). Later, I heard that American imperialists can buy two tickets online in advance, about $85. Before, many people reported that they had to pay $25 to leave the country, but now there is no more!

Besides, who said that if you go to Cuba, you will disappear from the earth? Obviously there is an entry stamp ~ ~ rumor: there is a stamp on the passport! Not just engraved on tourist cards.

Valadero-a walk on the beach

Network: Why write network? Because Cuba has no 3g network! No 3g network! No 3g network! There is no 4 g.

LTE, so! Make all preparations before you go, and remember to try to make an offline map. We use maps.me, an offline map with a green logo. The user experience is not bad, you can use it without network, because the route planning is done in advance, so there is no big accident.

You must want to ask, is there wifi? The answer is: no! Oliez?

Ordinary hotels or homestays don't have their own wifi, but there are some places where you can surf the Internet, which we affectionately call Internet Little Square. This requires buying an Internet card at the same place in the post office, about1.5 cuc per hour (what is cuc? We will talk about money). If you buy a ticket at the hotel, it may be 2cuc/ ticket per hour, and you will be given an account number and password. Then you need to find the kind of wifi that can log in to Little Square. As for where to surf the internet, you can ask the local people and they will tell you, or you suddenly see a place where many people are squatting to play with their mobile phones, and it is there without accident! (as follows)

We were surfing the Internet at night 10, but because the network was extremely unstable, we finally failed to log in and had to wait until the next day. For us low-headed people, this is still a collapse. When we finally log in, we all focus on ensuring the safety of our families, and then say, "No, the card is out of money, so let's cancel it first."

And then disappeared.

Coin: Speaking of this, let me sigh first. Although the Cuban people are simple, their currency is relatively complicated. There are two kinds of currency in circulation, one is called cuc and the other is called cup. You can exchange this when you leave the airport. Remember to change it with your passport!

CUC: The local name of this cuc is: Cook (pronouncing his own brain). This is for foreign tourists (innocent). The exchange rate with the US dollar is around 1: 1, which means that 1 US dollar can be exchanged for 1 Cucs. However! However! However! (The important thing is said three times) It's not that simple. If we get to the airport,

If you exchange dollars for cuc, you will charge an extra handling fee of 10%, which means you will lose some money. But there's no way, let's change it to other currencies ~ ~

Cup: This cup is called Cooper locally, and this one is for local people's own use. Converted to cuc, about 1 CUCs equals 25 cups. You can use cuc in most parts of the capital and give it to you when you exchange money, but there are still some towns and small shops. If you give them cuc, he will give it to you at the converted exchange rate (we have never seen it).

In shopping, it is much cheaper for local people to buy a cup (cry again), so friends (although we don't need it, let's complain), if some local brands say that a hamburger costs $65,438 +08,

Don't panic, it's probably that cups don't cost $ 18cuc, so please be clear ~ ~ Also, most souvenir places can be bargained! Dear friends in China, I understand.

Ah! I almost forgot that UnionPay can be used in many places here! Brush unionpay! Brush unionpay! And you can withdraw money! ! It sounds _ _.

Transportation: We chose go on road trip, rented a car from Havana International Airport and drove all the way to the resort-Baraduro. Google Maps showed two and a half hours, but it actually took nearly three and a half to four hours. Of course, we can also choose to take a bus and get on from downtown Havana.

Take the road trip route

You can't book a trip to Cuba on the American website expedia or priceline, so don't waste your time looking for a car rental here ~ We have completed all the travel reservations from a European website! I was worried at that time, too, but it turned out to be ok!

Rent a car from Havana airport, and then go back to the car rental point in the city. At that time, I paid a deposit of about 150 yuan when renting a car. No problem, I returned it, and then I paid 70 yuan's miscellaneous expenses, saying that it included a box of oil, insurance and road rescue. The man told us that this was the full cost. When we first asked, we told us that we could change trains in the urban area without extra off-site payment, but when we returned the car later, we felt slaughtered, so we had to pay 30 yuan for off-site payment, which was deducted from the previous 150 US dollars. Unknown so didn't know what to do, but the deposit was finally returned to us at 120.

. Besides, there is a little hint when renting a car. Because we didn't know the language and the local conditions, we recorded every original scratch on the car when we rented it, for fear of being slaughtered when we returned it. Fortunately, we didn't deduct the money.

Attached is the scarred car we ordered. I didn't book the automatic transmission originally, but I got a little surprise when I got the car.

If you want to go downtown from Havana airport, you can take a taxi from the airport, which costs about 30-40 dollars. When you come out of the airport, you can directly see many taxis parked there waiting for everyone to arrive.

Aside from the topic, as soon as we drove out of the airport, we might have taken the wrong road (because there was no network, see the network introduction for details), and drove almost like a national highway (as shown below), and then we saw various means of transportation-cars and bicycles-on this "high-speed", which were nothing, even carriages and pulleys. Aha, hahaha.

That's interesting. Look at the picture first and let me laugh for a while.

I was so excited to see the first old car.

In fact, although it is wrong, it is still a beautiful and emotional road.

Ahem, this is beside the point.

Accommodation: CASA (homestay) prices range from $20 to $80.

In fact, there are not many hotels in Havana, and the prices are much higher than folk customs. Many people will have a blue hook sign like an anchor at the door. This is a folk custom certified by the government. If there is no place to live, you can push the door and ask how much it costs for one night. No problem, the people here are still very enthusiastic and safe!

Insurance: Travel in Cuba requires insurance, but customs inspection at the airport. Fortunately, I bought it without being asked. But all my fellow travelers asked, so I went to the small room next door and bought one (probably 17 yuan).

Because it was a photo taken by a mobile phone, that magnificent feeling is not easy to take. In fact, the color is still very nice. With a freelance singer along the street, it looks full of vitality.

Language (HOLA! )

If you can speak Spanish, that would be great! Speaking of English, we are really surprised at the education level in this country. Although the materials are extremely scarce, the education level is very high. Almost everyone can speak some English to some extent, even vagrants and street vendors can speak it! Then it is no problem for most people to communicate in English. Of course, you should also add some body language to let them know what you really want. When we left the airport, a customs official "accosted" us in Chinese.

The simple and industrious Cuban people-after watching the whole super funny process, they missed several calls in a row, fell to the ground and broke them, and then several people laughed at each other-felt so cute.