Travelling in Cuba.. (1 Viewer)

[Jay H]

Any adventurous people out there in HTF land have gone to cuba? A friend of mine has got a notion in her head that it is supposedly a very nice place to bike, in that they are trying to promote tourism and stuff. Supposedly they're real friendly too, at least according to one website that I found:

http://www.bicyclingcuba.com/

Besides the obvious polical connotations which are off-limits to this forum, has anybody been there as a tourist, perhaps one can enlighten me on your experiences...

Jay

 

[CharlesD]

I haven't been there, but it's my understanding that "you can't get there from here", US citizins may only travel to Cuba under a very restricted set of circumstances (see this US State Department link for more info.)

However it is legal for everyone else to travel to Cuba, so you can just go to any other country and leave from there. I've heard that Cuban immigration will not stamp your passport if you ask them not to, so you won't get into trouble with the US Government on your return.

 

[Jay H]

- Amateur or semi-professional athletes or teams traveling to Cuba to participate in an athletic competition held under the auspices
of the relevant international sports federation.

heehee, maybe I'll have to say there's some kind of bike race going on...

I've read stories in Outside magazine about cuba, supposedly they have some excellent scuba diving sites and sailing ports.

Jay

 

[RafaelB]

I actually went to Cuba last year with my Dad. If you have relatives over there you are permitted to travel once every 12 months. Apart from the squalor, the touristy areas are renovated and very nice and the beaches are top-notch. They also value American currency more then their own and you get more with it.

I spent the week living with in my aunt's house, so I lived like the people do and it definitely left me appreciating things that we take for granted (plenty of water, electricity, food, etc.).

Good luck if you go and defintiely be careful. I've heard of plenty of people who got in trouble by visiting Cuba through other countries.

Rafael

 

[Mark Dubbelboer]

Us canadians are allowed to go and I hear it's absolutely beautiful.
not to be an ass or anything but the fact you americans can't go makes it more appealing to us. Not because we don't like you, just because it becomes less commercialized because not as many dollars are allowed to flow into the country.
One of my office mates went there for his honeymoon a couple years ago and had a wonderful time. He said everyone was super friendly and the only scary part were the drivers.
Me and my gf were planning a trip but she just went on a cruise with her father so we had to postpone our trip, my office neighbour become jealous of our plans and stole the trip as her own tho. She gets back in 11 days, i'll let you know what she thought.

mark

 

[SteveA]

Hopefully Americans will be allowed to travel to Cuba again someday. That cold-war era rule needs to go away.

 

[Dennis]

No offense Jay, but talking about tourism in Cuba and not talking about the political situation there is like visiting someone's house and not talking about the elephant sitting on the living room couch.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

You can easily get into Cuba as an American. I have a relative who goes every year. You fly to to Mexico City and upon your arrival, you can buy a ticket to Havana on Mexicana Airlines with no questions asked. When going through customs in Havana you simply ask them not to stamp your passport. They will gladly comply as they want you to keep coming back and spending money.

Jeff

 

[MickeS]

I could probably go there, since I'm not a US citizen.

I mean, can you imagine the horror if any US citizen who wanted to could just go to Cuba and ride his bike?

/Mike

 

[Jay H]

not talking about
the elephant sitting on the living room couch.

Indian or African?

I emailed the author of that book but apparently he is in Central America right now. I guess all the magazines and news programs about cuba must be because they can get journalism passes.

Mark, I'd be very interested in how her trip panned out, feel free to email or simply reply in this thread when she gets back.

It's just one of the trips I always have in the back of my mind, including trips to ride cross country, to climb Denali. If I wasn't going to the Tour de France this year, my friend wants to go up to the Brooks range in Alaska since this would be our 3rd annual Alaska trip, so it would have to be next year.

Jay

 

[Grant B]

My Dad took my mom there for their Honeymoon, right before the Bay of Pigs. Interesting place, he pointed out the unmarked prison where Castro took political prisoners and took real neat photos of cannons and soldiers. Mom said it was a fun place, the soldiers were very helpful and everything was very cheap. Dad disappeared most of the time and died a year later in a strange fishing accident. Funny how Social Security says he's not dead.
Santo Domingo is a pretty cool place if you do not want to risk Cuba.
They film there when they want to show Pre-Castro Havana since it look more like it than Havana.

 

[PaulT]

MickeS, under the Helms-Burton Act you can be refused entrance (back) to the US is you have been found to have visited or done business with Cuba. It doesn't matter what your citizenship is. You can go there if you wish, it is a beautiful country. Getting 'home' for you could be difficult for political issues which would lock this thread.

 

[Ryan Peter]

Well if you do cross from Mexico, it shouldn't be too hard to get back since you don't need to show a passport coming back from Mexico, only a birth certificate and a driver's license.