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?
Some guy once hijacked a plane to go to Cuba, and all the passengers were freaked out about what would happen to them when they got there. When they landed the were told Castro himself was at the airport and was coming on the plane, and they started really freaking out.
Then he got on the plane, and just asked to be shown around because he had never seen such a new aircraft before, and the pilots gave him a little tour. And then he just said "bye!" and let them all leave.
I had to check this out myself, and it's Pan Am Flight 229. The aircraft Castro toured, Clipper Victor, was one of the aircraft destroyed in the Tenerife disaster.
Castro looked at a plane and it was in a crash 7 years later? Add another 583 to the victims of communism tally.
Don't forget many millions of dollars worth of equipment, the equivalent of many additional statistical human lives
Very fascinated by this, is there anywhere I can read more about it? I found one but its a wix site 😭
I heard a story about how many criminals in the US hijacked planes to Cuba to escape the law that the US just offered to buy them tickets instead, and Castro angrily rejected it because they never consulted him and he didn’t want random criminals in the country lol
The thought of Castro just going "Aw sweet a new kind of plane!" and rushing over to check it out is so fucking hilarious
Wild to me that Americans are concerned about being put on a watchlist meanwhile it's literally just considered a regular Caribbean vacation destination here.
Yeah going to Cuba is like, pretty normal teen to early 20s white girl holiday here in the UK. People love those shots standing in crystal clear transparent water being able to see their feet since the water on british beaches is green and opaque. Used to see them on social media all the time when I still used fb.
It's genuinely only americans who hold this view of Cuba.
Lol, you're on this site, you're already on a watch list.
yeah, the list of people they watch when they wanna have a laugh
So my understanding, which is untested and may be out of date, is that Cuba doesn't care if Americans go there. America cares if Americans go there.
The last I heard, you could fly there from a 3rd country (usually Mexico), and they'd stamp a piece of paper to keep in your passport and not the passport itself. You have to carry all the cash you are going to need with you, though, because any card transaction will bring the wrath of the feds down on you when you get home. It's spending money in Cuba that violates the terms of the embargo, not so much the physical presence, so you can't do anything electronically traceable.
Doesn't the US have this "Support the People" (support the budding capitalists) visa thing where it's ok to go as long as you don't sponsor government owned businesses and you keep your recipients? Although I'd be tempted just to do the fly from Mexico thing and hope I don't get caught.
I hadn't heard about that but a few people have mentioned it so I guess it's a thing. Better not fuck up the paperwork though
Traveling to Cuba is real easy, Miami Cubans do it all the time. Just go, book a flight to Havana, and there's a $100 or so process to get your visa at the airport. All you have to do is sign a form from the federal government that lists some reasons for going, just check the box that says "Support for the Cuban People". Ezpz, watch list be damned, tons of people go back and forth constantly.
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.
fuck yeah i love communist propaganda*
*fresh pineapple **
**and also communist propaganda
“You are living in the free world, in the free world you must stay” - Phil Ochs
I’m not sure if countries other than the US have travel restrictions to cuba. Here people usually travel to Mexico then Cuba. Maybe in your country you can fly directly to it.
If you’re American, do not use your credit card in Cuba. I don’t know if it’ll even process. But it’s technically illegal for you to give any USD to Cuba.
Is that real? A federally demanded boycott? And then a federally demanded not boycott of Isfictional? They don't give a fuck about free enterprise
Unless you work for an NGO or are a journalist or something then getting a citizenship from a different country might be easier.
Looks like I may have been corrected within this thread and it's pretty easy if you just only use cash and semi lie. If I were American I dunno if I'd fuck with it to be a tourist. If you don't have any contacts in a place you're visiting who live there, you're never really seeing the place. You'll be spending your tourist dollars well, better to give your money to Cuba than most places, though I'm pretty sure American money won't really get you anywhere, this is from people I know going in the past. Canadian money is very readily accepted, or was, most of my Intel is pretty old.
One of my friends went while he was homeless, it was around Christmas so he made like a grand in a couple days (dude is amazing at panhandling) and since he was trying to get clean off heroin, he looked into other ways to spend the money and just prior to 9/11 he spent about $600 on the round trip flight and $400 to stay at a resort. He couldn't be a recovering addicted and homeless with $1000 so that was his move. Cuba is a super super common vacation place for Canadians, I don't know if I've ever met someone who's done the typical Carribean vacation thing anywhere else. Mostly cause it's cheap as hell.
I am not an authority on US customs and travel regulations, don't take my word as guaranteed to keep you out of trouble.
That said, everything I see has told me that you can check a box saying you are going for "Support for the Cuban People", and that and a visa (which Cuba is willing to do their part for) will get you in. You are not supposed to spend money at certain state owned enterprises and you are supposed to document what you do so that it is in-line with your reason for going, but it's not like anyone actually checks that shit anyways, so realistically you are probably not going to get called out if you "support the Cuban people" with tourism money. It seems that the people who actually get fined for doing this are people making documentaries and shit, so you're probably safe as long as you contain any latent instagram influencer urges. Tens of thousands of Americans visit every year and it seems only a couple dozen at most might get caught.
It's fine and good. Give them your burger bucks and dont sweat it too much.
People are generally mildly annoyed at the government (as they are everywhere) but very supportive of the Socialist system. Food is a bit shit outside the resorts unless you go really rural.
You will almost certainly be put on a watchlist, but there's a good chance you're already on one anyway (and a watchlist is not a no-fly list, except in cases that don't apply here short of you posting about blowing up Guantanamo Bay), so go for it!
I'm actually going there in a couple days with my wife. We're going through Mexico to get there. Are you American, by any chance? I'm Guatemalan and she's Taiwanese. The Taiwanese government is making a big deal about some guy allegedly being denied entry when it's more likely he was missing documentation and doesn't want to own up to it. I guess we'll find out if it's true and she's denied over the One-China policy. It hasn't been an issue with other Taiwanese for some time now.
Not sure what to do for Americans. I heard you guys go through Canada to get there.
Yes I mean North Americans, specifically those living in the United States. It's really the only country in the continent that has this much of an issue with their citizens traveling there as far as I'm aware.
My bougie liberal friend used to go there every summer to stock up on rum and cigars stating "Its only country in the Caribbean where you can just walk to the beach" which is sad because she was of Jamaican descent where thats basically becoming less and less of a possibility for the locals.
From what I have heard, Yanks are not allowed to stay at hotels that give money to the Cuban government, which is most of them (I think the Cuban military is somehow involved in the tourism sector).
So you need to stay in an AirBnB or some non-official residence that is not linked to the gov't. But as other people have pointed out here you can fly in through Mexico.
If you get cash you can stay anywhere you want and it's easy enough to book on arrival. The issue with the b&b thing is that you get the experience of the Cuban PB who are by far the only segment of cuba who support the USA.
