OK, here we go. Dealing with money as an US citizen is such a pain in the ass. Before we go into all the details here are some important things to know

• USA banks don’t work in Cuba. No debit, no credit, no nothing
• There is at 10% fee on top of commission on currency exchange with US dollar
• Because US banks don’t work in Cuba whatever money you bring with you is all the money you’ll have for your trip— plan carefully.

I was really concerned about money while planning my trip to Cuba. I was only going for four days, but I had this vision of getting stuck without enough money to pay for the taxi to the airport. I had done my research, but wasn’t really able to find information about how much money could plan on spending per day. So after much heming and hawing I decided to bring about $400 USD to cuba. $300 was in Mexican Pesos and I had and “emergency” $100 bill in USD. This turned out to be exactly the amount of money I needed for my trip (not using the USD). In the hopes of helping someone in the future I’m going to share my budget breakdown for my Cuba trip.

Length: Arrived Friday night, left Tuesday morning, 5 nights 3 days.

BY CATEGORY

Transport:  55 CUC

(30 CUC from, 25 CUC to airport) I didn’t take any other taxi’s choosing to walk everywhere instead.

Accommodation: 55 CUC

for 5 nights ( about 10 was paid online and the rest on my first night there)

Food: 55 CUC

Now this is really subjective you could potentially spend a lot less money on food than I did. Most of my meals were in the old district where prices are 5x most other areas. I ate breakfast at the hostel for free and then ate out for my other 2 meals.

Activities: 20 CUC

TBH I didn’t really do that many activities. I did the hop-on, hop-off, and went to two different museums.

Souvenirs: 107 CUC

This is where most my money went. Art is SO cheap in Cuba and so even on my budget I knew I needed to save enough to buy some art and some other things for my people back home.

Misc: 15 CUC

I spent 3 CUC on internet. in 2019 it was 1 CUC for an hour of internet. There was also a 6 CUC tax on any artwork so I had to pay 12 CUC upon going through security.

BY DAY

Friday: 89 CUC

Saturday: 16 CUC

Sunday: 22 CUC

Monday:150 CUC

Tuesday: 41 CUC

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask!