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Visiting Cuba as a Tourist
(hexbear.net)
I was looking into visiting Cuba in 2024 but there seems to be a lot of conflicting information. Does anybody have good resources on how best to visit without being put onto a watch list or whatever?
Hot tip, don't stay at a hotel, stay at a casa. Exchange your money at the casa, don't exchange it on the street. Bring all your money in cash, the feds won't let you use your cards in Cuba so make sure you bring enough cash to not worry. If you need more tips DM me directly, I have some reccs for stuff but they're semi-doxxing
How safe is it to fly with such a large amount of cash? In terms of sketchy TSA/DEA assholes stealing your cash at the airport (I’ve seen reports of them singling out passengers with large amounts of cash and confiscating it as imminent domain).
Cuba seems pretty safe overall, so aside from the typical street con man trying to hustle tourists in every country, were you comfortable walking around with your cash or storing it at the casa?
Do tourists need to worry about the dual currency system that Cuba has?
Don't bring ten thousand dollars on you, there's no reason for that. Bring maybe one thousand spare USD for every week you're there on top of paying for Casas and Airfaire and you'll be fine. Keep it all in your purse or wallet on your person and TSA won't have the ability to take it.
When you're there, most Casas will have safes you can leave the excess of your money in. Things have gotten real hard due to the embargo, and do not underestimate jineteros/as, but if you wanted to keep all your money on you for some reason you'd be fine (just screwed if something did happen)
Also there is no dual currency system in Cuba, CUC was abolished in 2021, use USD for taxis, trinkets, and tour guides, but use CUP for food etc. Denominations of USD in under $5 are useless, so don't tip a dollar, tip the equivalent in CUP instead.