Cuba Currency...

[cintascruiser]

Hello everyone! We are going to Cuba next March and I have three questions...

1. Where do I exchange money for the day? Can I do this after arriving in Cuba?

2. How much should I exchange?

3. Will I receive CUC's or CUP's?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Wyoming2010]

17 hours ago, cintascruiser said:

Hello everyone! We are going to Cuba next March and I have three questions...

1. Where do I exchange money for the day? Can I do this after arriving in Cuba?

2. How much should I exchange?

3. Will I receive CUC's or CUP's?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

After reading several articles about the exchange rate on US dollars, we bought Canadian currency to exchange in Cuba as they don't charge a penalty on that money.  You can change your money on the way out of the port at the exchange stations set up inside. 

[EatonDoolittle]

18 hours ago, cintascruiser said:

Hello everyone! We are going to Cuba next March and I have three questions...

 

1. Where do I exchange money for the day? Can I do this after arriving in Cuba?  You can only get Cuban currency in Cuba. There is an exchange office right inside the cruise terminal.

 

2. How much should I exchange? That depends on how much you want to spend - tour? Souvenirs? Rum? Cigars? Lunch? Cocktails? Spend some time reading the posts on this board for ideas and approximate costs. 

 

3. Will I receive CUC's or CUP's?  You will get CUC, which is the tourist currency 1 CUC = .87 USD. Again, read the many posts here on the subject, and you will also get information on your ship on how to tell them apart.  You will probably not even see CUP - that is the currency for the local people. 

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[cintascruiser]

Thank you!

[CarolinaGirl2010]

We were in Havana in April.  We exchanged American dollars for Cuban.  We just decided that by the time we exchanged to Canadian or Euros, and paid the fees for that, we may as well use American dollars and make it easy.  It was extremely easy to exchange our money.  Way easier than I thought it would be.  There is an exchange station (Cadeca) at the cruise terminal before you go down the steps, and one at the bottom of the steps.  There are other Cadeca's in town, but we only saw one while we were out.  I wrote a blog on it and tried to be really detailed about what it was like to come into Havana for the first time.  If you want to read it go to my blog (see below) and click on Port Reviews on top.  

[TravelerThom]

On 6/3/2019 at 2:14 PM, EatonDoolittle said:

1 CUC = .87 USD.

With yesterday’s announcement and today’s enforced cancellation of cruises this is pretty much moot, but you have that exchange rate backwards. Nominally 1 CUC = 1 USD, but after fees and taxes one receives 0.87 CUC for each USD. 

[Wyoming2010]

Yeah, I bought $1,700 in Canadian currency.  Now I gotta figure out how to send it back!  😞

[#1cruiseaholic]

We bought Canadian currency for our now cancelled June 10 Cuban cruise. Luckily only got 500 and will be able to use it on our Snowbird cruise out of Quebec.