My recent visit to Cuba

[whopis01]

28. It was in January of 2017.

On the day Trump was inaugurated to be exact. That was semi-intentional as a bit of a joke, but mostly just because that date aligned well with out plans.

We flew JetBlue out of Orlando. American, Delta, Southwest all have flights.

I think most of them end up going through Orlando, Tampa, or Miami.

The only odd requirement is that you can not just go to Cuba for tourism. Technically it is that you can't spend money in Cuba for tourism. However, there are a list of 12 approved activities that you can go there for. As I understand this changed after we went. At that time "Educational Activities" was a category - I think that has been changed to "Educational Activities by persons at academic institutions". However, you can still go under the "Support for the Cuban People" category.

So here is where it just gets silly really. Supporting the Cuban people can include anything from talking to Cuban people, to staying at Casa Particulars (privately owned rental properties), to going to art shows and buying from independent merchants. Technically what you can not do is stay at a government-owned hotel, or spend money on any government owned/controlled activity. (Most hotels are owned by the government - but there is plenty of private lodging. And the private lodging is much better and a fraction of the price).

It was suggested to use that we keep receipts or records of things in case we have to justify our travel when we came back. The reality was that when I came through customs and immigration, we had several bottles of liquor above the duty-free limit, as well as some cigars and other touristy keepsakes (all of which we declared), and the guy looked at our passports and said "welcome home" and handed them back.

Have a look at Cuban travel guides - this was the best one in my opinion:
https://www.amazon.com/CubaConga-2018-underground-travel-guide-ebook/dp/B01F9KLVB2

https://www.bestcubatravelguide.com/

(It is a bit weird - and the guy is maybe a bit overly dramatic about some things - but it was pretty darn accurate and very helpful).

I have heard from others that there is some antagonism towards Americans in more rural parts of Cuba - but I did not see one bit of that in Havana. They were friendly people. Some are definitely trying to make money off of you - and there is no way of not standing out as a tourist, which means you have a lot more money than most everyone you will interact with - but it is done in a pretty above-board way. I didn't encounter many things I would even consider a rip-off. Partially because of the difference in economies, a few bucks here and there for me meant very little compared to what it meant to them.