Ola Cuba!!! (волшебное место) Ola Cuba!!! (magical place)

9 months have passed since my husband and I returned from Cuba, and I already want to go there again. )) We went from March 6 to March 18.2011. I want to share my impressions and all the knowledge that I acquired on this trip, I hope my review will help it is better to prepare for the trip and spend time in Cuba, for those who are going there for the first time. I want to say right away that I thoroughly prepared for the trip and literally rummaged through the entire Internet in search of reviews about Cuba and our Villa Cuba 4 * hotel, I found 3 reviews about our hotel, 1 of them already in 2000, in the second there was little information, and the third showed up just before we left. Well, first things first.
MONEY. The country has its own local peso, and there is a convertible peso (CUC) for tourists, they are all welcome. Do not listen to anyone, take only the euro, the most profitable chickens 1 € = 1.3 (СUC) this course was at the time of our stay. Some of the guys we met there took Canadian dollars with them, and so they lost on them, in general, not profitable. I read a lot about advice to change money immediately at the airport and thought that we would do that, but my husband decided to get to the hotel first to recover after the flight, and only then deal with finances, and this was our mistake, now I will explain why. We have a hard time with languages, so when we arrived at the hotel and at the reception we were given some kind of booklet with the hotel data and a room key, so as not to ask too many questions, we decided to take a porter, he, of course, escorted us to the room, showed us how to use the keys (for those who go to our hotel, if there are two of you, one of the keys opens the safe) of course you need to tip usually 1 (CUC), we don’t have them, of course, and the smallest euro denomination was 5 € , in short, the porter got richer that evening. Our second mistake - the next day we decided to take a scooter and go to Varadero airport and see the course, they took a little money and changed it at the reception, in all hotels they charge a commission of 3%. We didn't take euros for reconnaissance, in pocket 3 (СUC) change from a scooter. We are leaving Varadero, we are approaching a place that looks like a checkpoint, we have to pay for vehicle 2 (СUC) for leaving and then for entering, we understand that we have money to leave, but not to enter. )) We turn around, go to the hotel, change money, go to the airport again. The moral of this fable is that as soon as you arrive, change money at the airport, the exchange rate is good and they don’t take a commission. Local banks charge a transaction fee.
HOTEL Villa Cuba 4*. The location of the hotel, in my opinion, is very good, you don’t have to cross any streets, the territory ends with access to the beach, and besides, it is located almost in the middle of all Varadero, so you can get to the souvenir market and the main street of Varadero, as well as to the Plaza shopping center compared to other hotels close. We went to the souvenir market on foot, to be honest, it’s a long walk for km. 5-6, but we wanted to see the city. The fact is that at the beginning of Varadero there are several hotels that are separated from the beach by the central street of Varadero and vacationers have to cross it. I really liked the hotel itself, a very interesting architectural design, who will rest there will understand later. The room was a little shocking, but then I got used to it and realized that all the rooms are the same, so I didn’t mess it up. Apparently, since the hotel was built, no repairs or any updates have been carried out in the rooms. Voltage in sockets 220V adapters are not needed. When we checked into the room, it turned out that we were not provided with a 1.5 liter bottle of water, we went to the reception, where the girl wrote down the application, that was it, only after a repeated reminder on the third day a bottle appeared in our room. The hotel has 3 restaurants. 1 main, where breakfasts, lunches and dinners are held, and 2 by appointment. There are three bars in the building: one purely coffee bar is located near the entrance to the hotel on the 4th floor (when you enter the hotel from the road, you find yourself on the 4th floor), the second lobby bar with alcoholic drinks is on the 3.5 floor, and the third bar is on the 9th floor there is an observation point, you can get there by elevator or stairs. There is also a round bar near the pool, on the back of this bar, hot dogs and hamburgers are served at lunchtime. There is another bar towards the beach and next to it, an open restaurant is open only at lunchtime (musicians often play there). As for the food, you won't go hungry, there is quite a variety even for vegetarians. Desserts are of course amazing and ice cream, and for breakfast fresh fruit juice or freshly squeezed orange juice in any quantity. Of the fruits were pineapple (very tasty), papaya, orange, grapefruit, guava, bananas. Once at lunch they asked for red wine, they were disappointed, apparently we were unlucky, maybe other wines were better, we didn’t even ask what kind of wine, we didn’t order more wine. There were never lobsters, but the king prawns were given 5 times during the entire period of our stay.

HAVANA. To be honest, I thought that we would call a Russian-speaking guide and go to Havana with him, but since my husband is an avid motorist, he wanted to rent a car and feel the beauty of travel, being at home, I was wary of this idea, think for yourself, a foreign country we practically do not speak the language is scary. But everything turned out to be much easier. I did not dissuade my husband, he rented a car for 135 (СUC) days, and if we had gone with a tour, it would have been more expensive for two. Well, we went, many write that there are no identification marks, you can get lost, I can say nothing like that, the only place where we had difficulties was before turning to Havana, the route diverges into two roads, one is straight, the other is to the right and there was no sign in which direction to Havana, but we were not at a loss, my husband stopped at the side of the road and asked the guy where to go, it turned out that we had to move to the right. I can say for sure that you will not experience such a buzz when you go with a general excursion by bus. We stopped where we wanted, after Mantanzas on the road to Havana there is a bridge laid through a huge, deep gorge, the VIEW is just awesome. We drove calmly in Havana because my husband is a very experienced driver and knows the traffic rules well. We ourselves found the Museum of the Revolution, the Capitol (it is not far from the Museum of the Revolution), drove along the Malecon embankment, accidentally drove to the Revolution Square, there is a museum (who I don’t remember) in a high tower, you pay 1 (СUC) you get to the site in front of this museum, there is a ticket office there, you pay some more for climbing up this tower, there is an observation deck, and you can also see the museum by paying separately, but since the Museum of the Revolution was enough for us, we decided not to go to the museum, but to go up to the observation deck . All Havana at a glance, just awesome!! ! So we also rode around Havana, stopped at some street where there were only embassies. In Havana, if you park, prepare money, the fact is that stops are prohibited everywhere, and there is always an uncle in the parking area who takes money for parking, we always said that only for an hour, they took 1 (СUC) from us. Not far from the Capitol, wandering through the small streets, looking into local shops, the feeling was like returning 20 years ago to the USSR. In general, there are more than enough impressions for a lifetime. In order not to get lost, God forbid, we returned before sunset, there are no lights on the highway at all !!!
ISLAND Cayo Largo. Really worth the trip, we did not regret it at all. We flew to the island, from the airport we were taken to the pier, where we were put on a huge catamaran, which sailed across the Caribbean Sea (amazing water) to the island of iguanas, feeding all the local inhabitants there, including fish))) (iguanas eat bread and meat products, and a fluffy animal will not refuse fruit) and after taking a picture we were taken to a small island, where we were given half an hour of time to swim and take a photo, where we found a huge starfish. While we were swimming, the catamaran cook was preparing lobsters 10 (CUC) on order, you will not regret ordering very tasty especially with beer and especially considering that in Varadero restaurants lobster costs 18 (CUC). All the way on the catamaran they poured rum, cola, sprite, water and beer in cans. After swimming on the way to the coral reef, we ate lobster, snorkeled on the coral reef, watched beautiful fish, swam for 45 minutes, after which we were taken to the island itself, where we were given 4 hours of free time on the snow-white beach of the Caribbean Sea. There is a show with dolphins on the pier, you can swim with them and take pictures, it seemed to us a little expensive 90 (СUC). In the evening we returned to the hotel in complete delight!
CIGARS and ROM. I want to warn those who do not know right away that it is impossible to officially export cigars bought from the country from the country, only those bought in stores, and they may require a receipt. At our own peril and risk, we tried to take out 4 boxes of cigars bought from our hands, and, alas, we were not lucky, they were taken away at customs. I venture to guess why this happened, I don't think we were the only ones carrying illegal cigars, there were probably people on our flight who were carrying hand-bought cigars, but the catch is that, we were carrying, as many as 4 boxes of this - 100 pieces. cigars and most quickly decided to check whether they were store-bought or not, of course they were contraband))) to our shame, we didn’t even think of sticking excise stamps, which were quietly lying inside the boxes. As they say, "The greed of the fraer ruined")))). We bought the first box of COHIBA in our hotel from a Cuban cleaner-bartender for 45 CUC, I tried to bargain, but he said that 40 to his friend who got the cigars, and 5 he takes for mediation. We bought the second box of COHIBA by accident, when we were returning from the souvenir market, we went to a shop with all sorts of trinkets, and there young guys, well, they offered us, we looked, decided to take it, began to count the money, it turned out we had only 35 CUC, the guys agreed on this amount . 2 more boxes of cigars were already bought in Havana for 70 €, one COHIBA the other Romeo y Julieta. As I already wrote, we lost all this at customs. (((Rum, we bought it at the Plaza shopping center, so the guide advised us, and we are very happy, in duty free prices are an order of magnitude higher, here you have state stores !! ! And for brands, she said it’s better to take Santiago de Cuba and Caney , we did just that.
TIPS. Everyone loves them there, but there is little sense from this. After reading the reviews, I bought chocolates for the bartenders and nail polish for the maid. It was possible not to do this. If you tip the bartender in the form of 1 CUC or a chocolate bar, the taste of your cocktail will not improve ((, they can pour more alcohol, but that’s all! The fact is that when making cocktails, they use some kind of automatic faucet, depending on the button pressed either cola or syrup flows from it and some other ingredients that are often used in cocktails, no shakers, etc. are used, you understand, if they made cocktails as expected, kilometer-long queues would grow near the bars. a plus from my chocolates is that when they saw me, they shone like the Cuban sun)) and were glad to see me. But the maid, for the entire time of our vacation, despite the fact that we left bottles of nail polish for her every day, did not weave any swans and other figures, ((the only time she depicted something like a heart that day, when she saw us, those who live in this room.

EPILOGUE. Cuba is a very interesting and colorful country, where you really feel like a free person!! ! I would love to go back there again, there are still a lot of places worth visiting. But for us Russians, Cuba is not cheap, unlike the Europeans and Canadians who rest there. Well, in general, what I wanted to write, I wrote everything, I wish those who are going there to have a good rest !! ! If you have questions, write, I will try to answer!