Country guide
Cuba
Havana's classic cars and crumbling grandeur, tobacco valleys and cayo beaches, best November to April.
Currency
CUP
Language
Spanish
English
Limited
Payment
Cash only
Power
Type A / B
120 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+53
Bring cash. Foreign cards and ATMs are unreliable to unusable here, so plan on carrying what the trip needs and changing money on arrival.
Destinations
Camaguey
Cuba's most bewildering colonial street plan - lanes that fork, bend and dead-end around a church on almost every corner.
✓ best Dec-MarCienfuegos
A French-founded city of neoclassical colonnades on one of the Caribbean's finest bays.
✓ best Nov-AprHavana
A capital caught between centuries - colonial plazas, crumbling grandeur, fifties American cars and live music on the corner, all along one sea wall.
✓ best Dec-MaySanta Clara
The city where the Cuban Revolution was won, and where Che Guevara is buried.
✓ best Nov-AprSantiago de Cuba
Cuba's most Caribbean city - the cradle of son, the revolution and the island's carnival, set on a bay under the Sierra Maestra.
✓ best Jul-Aug, Dec-AprVaradero
Cuba's longest and most famous stretch of white sand, on a peninsula built for doing very little.
✓ best Nov-AprClimate zones, month by month
Cuba has 6 distinct climate zones. The right month depends on where in the country you're going.
Camaguey →
✓ Best Dec-Mar · ✗ Avoid May-Jun
Watch for May-Jun monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Cienfuegos South Coast →
✓ Best Nov-Apr · ✗ Avoid Jun, Sep
Watch for Jun-Nov cyclones & hurricanes risk · Jun, Sep monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Havana →
✓ Best Dec-May
Watch for Jun-Nov cyclones & hurricanes risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Santa Clara →
✓ Best Nov-Apr · ✗ Avoid Jun
Watch for Jun monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Santiago de Cuba Oriente →
✓ Best Jul-Aug, Dec-Apr
Watch for Jun-Nov cyclones & hurricanes risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
Varadero →
✓ Best Nov-Apr · ✗ Avoid Jun
Watch for Jun-Nov cyclones & hurricanes risk · Jun monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions