Internal Transport

Apparently one of the first uses Cuba has made of its dollar profits from increased tourism was to band-aid its transportation system, which doesn’t suffer nearly the delays and cancellations it did only a couple years ago. All the major cities’ bus and train stations have special dollar offices for foreigners where you can buy tickets quickly and painlessly for any route any time (a.j.otten@wxs.nl reports that this is not true in Las Tunas, where you have to pay in pesos and wait like everyone else). The drawback is that if a Cuban is paying 6 pesos you’ll pay $6, but even at the dollar prices transport is reasonably cheap. And the benefit to paying in dollars is that you get priority and never have a problem getting a seat on a bus, or train even at the last minute. Smoking is permitted and heavily engaged in on all public transport. The various forms of transport available in Cuba are as follows:

Plane
Planes go to all the major cities and resort towns from Havana or Santiago, whichever is closer. Tickets are available but aren’t cheap ($90 from Havana to Santiago). About the only one worth considering is to/from Isla de la Joventud because the boat is so expensive. The plane costs $20 to/from Pinar del Rio (3 days a week) and $18 to/from Havana (daily).

Train
The especial train goes between Havana and Santiago de Cuba, stopping in Matanzas, Santa Clara, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, Las Tunas, and Cacocum (10-20 km south of Holguin). It’s daily in either direction, leaving from both between 4:30 and 5 pm and arriving around 9 or 9:30 the next morning. It costs $43 for the whole trip, relatively less for shorter segments. They have special cars for foreigners, with comfortable, reclining seats; air conditioning that can be near-arctic; and plenty of legroom. Those seats not taken up by dollar-payers are filled in with Cubans (the majority). One of the especial trains has a bar area that sells food and drinks for dollars, but buy early or the food runs out. All trains have a little pushcart that comes through selling bocadillos and refrescos for pesos.

The especial train is top priority and goes every day. There is also a Havana/Camaguey daily train that is high priority and is never canceled, though it doesn’t have the extra little pluses geared towards foreigners. There are other trains as well, but they have a lower priority and if there’s no fuel that day or week they’re cancelled.

The shorter-haul routes, which cover cities like Bayamo, Manzanillo, Guantanamo, Baracoa, Holguin, Antilla, Cienfuegos, and Pinar del Rio, are often second-class (crowded, no air/con, slow), and may go every day for a week, may not go at all for a week, or may go sporadically. One good tip-off that a cancellation is imminent is if they won’t sell you a ticket in advance, and instead tell you just to show up an hour before the scheduled departure.

Sample train fares:

Havana-Santa Clara $13 (regular)

Santiago-Santa Clara $32 (especial), $20.50 (regular)

Cienfuegos-Havana $9.50 (regular)

Bus ("guagua")
Buses go everywhere trains don’t (and most everywhere they do) and usually get there faster than trains, though with more stops along the way. They vary in type, from those with somewhat comfortable reclining seats to the massive, standing-room-only metal traps hauled by semi cabs. The only time I got away with paying in pesos was when I was traveling with a Cuban who bought it for me, and on the next leg I had to pay in dollars.

Generally there are several buses a day between any 2 points, leaving between about 6 am and 10 pm, though some go in the wee hours of the morning as well, especially the longer-haul buses. I never had a problem buying tickets even on popular routes at the last minute.

Buses are subject to fuel or breakdown cancellations as well, though I rode buses 6 times and without fail they went on time and without incident. I met an Italian, though, who had the opposite luck and hit a couple multiple-hour delays. He also managed to buy tickets in pesos, though I doubt there’s a connection. Again, if they won’t sell you a ticket in advance, that’s a tip-off to the probability (though not certainty) of cancelation.

Sample bus fares and travel times:
Ciego de Avila-Sancti Spiritus $3/2 hours
Sancti Spiritus-Trinidad $3/under 2 hours
Trinidad-Cienfuegos $3/2 hours
Cienfuegos-Havana $14/4 hours
Havana-Pinar del Rio $7/3.5 hours
Havana-Batabano $2/1.5 hours
Havana-Matanzas $4

Tourist Bus
There is a bus line called Viazul that connects main cities with comfortable, air-conditioned buses. The bus station in Havana is in Vedado near the zoo at Casa Matriz, Ave 26 y Zoologici, and their phone number is 81-1413 or 81-5652 or 81-1108. (info from pbclt@intergate.bc.ca & a.j.otten@wxs.nl & steven.buvens@village.uunet.be)

Sample bus fares and travel times:
Havana-Santiago $51
Havana-Trinidad $25/5 hrs
Havana-Veradero $8
Havana-Viñales $12/3.5 hrs
Havana-Santa Clara $18
Havana-Sancti Spiritus $23
Havana-Ciego de Avila $27
Havana-Camaguey $33

Havana-Cienfuegos $20
Havana-Las Tunas $39
Havana-Holguin $44
Havana-Bayamo $44

Havana-Pinar del Rio $11
They also run an express bus from Santiago (the Calle 9 bus station) to Guantanamo and Baracoa for $13 each way, but most locals don’t know about it. (from matt@total.net)

Private Car/Taxi
In a group this can actually be cheaper than everyone paying the bus or train fare in dollars. Fares are generally 2-3 times the dollar bus/train price (can vary because sometimes bus prices aren’t real logical) and are always negotiable. If you aren’t traveling with a group, you can just go to the bus station and talk to the taxi drivers who congregate out front. Insist on waiting for other passengers to fill up the car, as they’ll share the cost and pay the same as you, whether they’re Cuban or foreigners. Private taxis abound, but are illegal, so if you do take one around town, you should ride in the front, act like friends, and if asked, say the driver is a friend of the family.

Havana’s about the only city that you need to consider taking taxis to get around. They generally ask for $3 for a trip around town, but you should be able to find transport for 20 pesos. Cars will find you, honk, and offer to take you. Just tell them "I’ll pay 20 pesos to ______ (destination)" and, if they turn you down, try the next taxi until someone accepts. Cubans pay much less. (info from kcfoster@hotmail.com)


Sample taxi prices:
Havana-Pinar del Rio: $15
Havana-Cienfuegos: $40, or $14 per person
Santiago-Holguin: offer dropped from $40 to $25 without my even trying
Havana-Santa Clara: $10
Havana-Sancti Spiritus: $15
Havana-Jovellanos (in Matanzas province): $45 for the 3 1/2 hour trip

Santa Clara-Trinidad $25

Local Bus
Local buses are less reliable than long-distance buses, depending on the route, but big cities all have them. They usually cost less than a peso. Those on Isla de la Joventud are very reliable.

Trucks ("camiones")
To fill in the gaps in the local transport system, private trucks do a lot of the transport on short-distance, between-city routes. They’re quite a bit more expensive for a Cuban (e.g., 5 pesos instead of 50 centavos), but dirt cheap for foreigners because you don’t have to pay in dollars. For trips from cities to the nearby beach, sites outside the city, etc., they’re the best option. Some of the trucks are covered and have benches down the side, others are just the open-topped, crowd-em-in-standing-up variety. They usually leave from bus stations or from the outskirts of a city on the main road to the destination.

Horse-and-carriage
In most all cities except Havana and Santiago, private horse owners run set routes around town, serving as "buses," picking up and dropping off passengers along the way. They usually cost one peso.

Hitchhiking ("autostop")
Hitching is very common and safe, and because of the transport shortages in Cuba, vehicles are expected to stop and help out the transport-less. You can flag down the guaguas or camiones that come by, in which case you’ll pay, or a private vehicle, in which case you probably won’t. Claus Fischer (clausfi@aol.com), who hitched a lot, recommends patience and some knowledge of Spanish, and says you should always pay something.

Boat
To get to/from Isla de la Joventud, there’s a twice-daily hydrofoil that goes from the island at 6 am and noon and to the island at 9 am and 3 pm. $11/2 hours, air/con. There are buses from Havana to Batabano (the port city) at 6 am and noon, timed to meet with the hydrofoil. There’s also a slow boat that goes Tues, Friday, Sunday only, from the island at 8 am and to the island at 5:30 pm. $8/5.5 hours.

Bicycling
According to several travellers, biking around Cuba is a very viable option. For info on bicycling in Cuba, check out these web sites:
Biking report #1
Narrative of a family biking trip around Cuba.
(from blogan@chipotle.org)
Biking report #2
The scoop on biking around Santiago de Cuba.
(from brian.hedney@eagle.ca)
Biking report #3
A Canadian woman’s trip report of the ups and downs of cycling around alone.
(from jlucas@istar.ca)
Biking report #4
Good details on how to get around by bike, solid general travel info, and a few leftist political rants.
(from ste)

Misc. Transport Specifics
Around Havana: A Vaiven tourist bus travels between Miramar and the fortresses of Havana Este continuously throughout the day and the 23 bus stops are clearly marked. For $4 you can get on and off the bus as many times as you want, or just sit there and enjoy the ride. The ticket collector gives a bit of drive-by commentary in whatever language you want. The bus runs until 9:00 p.m. Buy tickets from Rumbos agents who work in most hotel lobbies.

Playa Santa Lucia: There’s a bus that leaves the Camaguey bus station 3 times a day. It used to costs $1 for everyone, but now they charge foreigners a rapacious $10, and it takes 2 hours. Hop off at any hotel and use their beach. It leaves Santa Lucia from the snack bar El Rapido opposite Hotel Tararaco. A day trip is plenty as there’s nothing else to do.

Vinales/Caves: Take a truck from the Pinar del Rio bus station or the hospital north of town to Vinales. 5 pesos/45 minutes. You can hop off along the way at the Hotel Jasmines to get the view of the valley, then catch the next truck the rest of the way into town. When you get to Vinales, walk to the other end of town and take another truck to Las Cuevas.

Around Isla de la Joventud: The bus terminal in Nuevo Gerona is on Calle 39A just past the hospital. It has a schedule of buses that go all over the island (including the airport) painted on a wall. Buses are regular and reliable if not frequent.

To/from Havana airport: A taxi costs around $10 from the airport to the city center, but there’s a lot of competition, so you should be able to easily negotiate to $8, and, with more persistence, to $6 (info from kcfoster@hotmail.com). You can also take an autobus turistica from the airport to any hotel in Havana for $5. Talk to the guy behind the tourist info window before you pass through immigration. I’m not sure how to schedule a return trip, but I’d suggest asking the guy on the way in or checking at the tour desk of a couple hotels.

I also lucked into an idea that worked well: My last stop was Isla de la Joventud, and instead of returning to Havana by boat and bus ($13) I flew ($18) to Havana the morning of my afternoon flight back to Mexico. That saved me the hassle and expense of getting to the airport from Havana. Do be aware, if you try this, that the domestic and international terminals are a couple km apart (they share runways but are on opposite sides of them). But the road between is well-autoed and easy to hitch.

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