How much $ to change to CUC?

OK

I realize this IS subjective--yet we have no idea of range..

1- tour with Blexie (hoping he fits us in)

(would need museum fees too, yes?)

2- lunch for 4... would be some place the guide recommends..

3 -we'd pay for the tour guide/driver's lunch I guess as part of the day

4- dinner in Havana

5- drinks in Havana --hopefully someplace with live music-- (don't know if we can arrange to do this with the guide

6- rum purchases and cigars

7- taxi to pier? have no clue

I just booked this cruise yesterday and so am scrambling to get the info...

Can you all chime in and give me an idea on what you spent for the day? I am guessing we need to have newer US bills in small denominations? Yes?

(When we went to St Pete the tour operator required NEW US bills in small denominations because of international banking...)

Tour 130 not inclusive of tip.

Revolucion museum 10 per person.

Lunch 20 per person

Dinner 30 per person

Bar crawl 20 per person (tip)

Drinks 5-10 per person

random cab rides 15 a go

cigars 900 (We went a little nuts)

Straw market 50

Rum 20

We exchanged a combination of $50 US notes and UK 50 pound notes.

I think that covers it, oh an 1 CUC or $US to use the bathrooms.

Tour 130 not inclusive of tip.

Revolucion museum 10 per person.

Lunch 20 per person

Dinner 30 per person

Bar crawl 20 per person (tip)

Drinks 5-10 per person

random cab rides 15 a go

cigars 900 (We went a little nuts)

Straw market 50

Rum 20

 

I think that covers it, oh an 1 CUC or $US to use the bathrooms.

TY this is helpful We had no clue what this would run. And evidently we need to bring our own TP (?)

Is there a large fee for changing $ to CUC back and forth? Is this done at the pier and where do we change back CUC we don't use?

TYIA

We took bathroom wet wipes.you know the sort of thing, comes in small travel packets.

13% to change US to CUC

3% any other currency

Change back and forwards at the pier, pretty easy.

I think you only pay the 13% when you change to CUC

Changing back is just 3%

They will only exchange back into US$ irrespective what you initially gave them.

It's a little shady, unless you speak good Spanish and can ask questions.

You just hand your $$ over and hope they give you the correct amount.

We took bathroom wet wipes.. you know the sort of thing, comes in small travel packets.

13% to change US to CUC

3% any other currency

 

Change back and forwards at the pier, pretty easy.

I think you only pay the 13% when you change to CUC

Changing back is just 3%

 

It's a little shady, unless you speak good Spanish and can ask questions.

You just hand your $$ over and hope they give you the correct amount.

Thanks

Right the money changing fees sound VERY shady. We speak no spanish (italian, some chinese and latin (haha)

Given that the State Dept is advising AGAINST travel to Cuba and now 26 or so State officials have gotten sick/hearing loss/vision loss-- suspected sound wave attack on the embassy... I don't see it improving any time soon.

Thanks

Right the money changing fees sound VERY shady. We speak no spanish (italian, some chinese and latin (haha)

Given that the State Dept is advising AGAINST travel to Cuba and now 26 or so State officials have gotten sick/hearing loss/vision loss-- suspected sound wave attack on the embassy... I don't see it improving any time soon.

We saw that, but don't honestly think it's going to bother you.

Who knows where that noise attack came from, Cubans maybe. But there large Russians and Chinese emabassies there, who knows what they get up to.

It's not shady at all. There is a 3% exchange fee in either direction for any currency. There is an additional 10% fee to change USD to CUC but not to exchange back. The fee is a penalty for the embargo that the US has had in place for the last 60 years.

Hi - in case it wasn’t clearer in the earlier responses, we saw no need to bring small USD bills. All of our cash transactions in Havana were done in CUC, and we were politely refused the few times we offered to pay for something in USD. As others have said, you do want to have a few 1 CUC coins for bathroom stops. Enjoy!

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We are cruising in 2 weeks; can you ask for specific CUC's when exchanging your USD's?

Thanks for posting this!

We're doing an excursion that ends around lunchtime so spending would include:

-tip for tour guide

-possibly lunch

-couple bottles of rum

-misc souvenirs (t-shirts, postcards)

-drink at Floridita

Any thoughts on how much cash (US) we should bring?

Tour 130 not inclusive of tip.

Revolucion museum 10 per person.

Lunch 20 per person

Dinner 30 per person

Bar crawl 20 per person (tip)

Drinks 5-10 per person

random cab rides 15 a go

cigars 900 (We went a little nuts)

Straw market 50

Rum 20

 

We exchanged a combination of $50 US notes and UK 50 pound notes.

I think that covers it, oh an 1 CUC or $US to use the bathrooms.

Fantastic information! We travel next week. Did you do the bar crawl with Strawberry Tours or on your own?

Fantastic information! We travel next week. Did you do the bar crawl with Strawberry Tours or on your own?

Ahh TY for this

Our group wants to see the nightlife (and dinner ashore)

My guess is with the "kickbacks" and the tips, the tour guides do pretty well...

AND its a bit safer for the tourists... rather than walking aimlessly.

We plan to bring $100 USD bills to change. Anyone had problems with large bills at the currency exchange?

Are there any CUC bill denominations higher than 20 CUC?

Ahh TY for this

 

Our group wants to see the nightlife (and dinner ashore)

My guess is with the "kickbacks" and the tips, the tour guides do pretty well...

AND its a bit safer for the tourists... rather than walking aimlessly.

We leave on Monday. I would like to do the nightlife Strawberry Tours but they are not offering one on the nights we are there. We have our own " bar crawl" planned. Others have walked about at night and said they felt perfectly safe. I will give a review when we return next week. Dawn

Please please use Euros you get a better rate. I ate meals out, did a classic car on my own, taxi RT and several drinks. Figure betweenn100 abs 200 Cuc,s. Also got T-shirt’s.

One thing I have not seen a comment on with money....make sure your bills do not have any writing or stamps like "Wheres George" which is a web site to track your dollars. They WILL NOT take them for exchange. They look at front and back of the bills and set them aside and give them back. We even tried the bank across the street with our tour guide Blexie, and they would not take them either. So a trip back to the ship to exchange them for clean dollars. Two trips through the lines and getting checked out plus loosing tour time. So check your money closely, be on the safe side.

One thing I have not seen a comment on with money....make sure your bills do not have any writing or stamps like "Wheres George" which is a web site to track your dollars. They WILL NOT take them for exchange. They look at front and back of the bills and set them aside and give them back. We even tried the bank across the street with our tour guide Blexie, and they would not take them either. So a trip back to the ship to exchange them for clean dollars. Two trips through the lines and getting checked out plus loosing tour time. So check your money closely, be on the safe side.

Makes sense

When in St Petersburg we had to pay for tour etc in cash--NEW bills and small denominations.

We leave in a week; can you ask for CUC's in small demoninations; for the bathrooms etc? Also, if reading correctly, you must have smaller denomination bills, in perfect condition to exchange for CUC's? Thank you!

We leave in a week; can you ask for CUC's in small demoninations; for the bathrooms etc? Also, if reading correctly, you must have smaller denomination bills, in perfect condition to exchange for CUC's? Thank you!

The wife did the exchange, and they gave her a selection of different coins and bills so we had change. We did not ask about anything as far as something small.

Not saying perfect bills at all...just make sure nothing is written on them. You know how people will write a name, or say they put $50 or $100 when counting for bank deposit. We were told no markings on a bill what so ever bay the bank.

Hope that explains it.

Does anyone know if they will exchange $100 USD bills?

Is the 20 CUC The largest denomination Cuban bill?

Does anyone know if they will exchange $100 USD bills?

 

Is the 20 CUC The largest denomination Cuban bill?

I can not answer about $100 US as I never carry them.

But I found this for you on Google..

Banknotes: $100, $20, $3, $10, $500, $50, $5, $200, $1

Coins: $1, 20¢, $3

We exchanged Canadian hundred dollar bills. I'm sure they would have no problem with American hundreds.

Thanks Grumpy!!

Thanks everyone. I had googled for the denominations but found some differences in listed denominations. Some articles switched back and forth between CUC and CUP. A couple articles talked about CUC but showed photos of CUP!

We have a couple tours and my husband wants to buy some cigars. I hoped to be able to exchange some $100 USD bills for 100 CUC instead of a handful of 20 USD and 20 CUC.

We just returned from our second trip to Cuba. Never thought anything about money exchange was shady. We looked at the exchange rate in my conversion app, figured the 10% US fee and that was very close to what the agent quoted us.

We used 20' and 50's with no problem We had to cash in several hundred $$ as we had a private tour, lunch, show tickets, tips etc. We figured exactly what we knew we needed and added $100 for incidentals We were given mostly 10's in Cucs and a few coins. I asked for a few smaller bills or more coins and was told no. This was our second trip and we already had some coins left over and I was able to get small bills and more coins during the day. When returning to the ship, we decided to keep the leftover Cucs for (hopefully) next time.

Enjoy

M