We believe travelling should be about exploring, and in order to do that, a means of transport is what requires most attention. As you can see in the attached map, our schedule was challenging, and the only way to cover it, was to rent a car. We needed to keep in mind that trains and buses are fairly unreliable there, and since our travel was meant to be low cost, hiring a taxi wasn't our prefered option.
Right after making our very first Littlefootrpints in Cuba we had to deal with our first and ultimate (that's what we thought then) obstacle - finding an available car, which would fit at least 5 people and lots of luggage, preferably alowing all 5 of us to sleep in it... a van that is. By all means we did not end up without an arranged car because we are scatterbrained or something, we did try to book one from our country of residence before travelling, but that turned out to be impossible...
You need to know that March is the best month to visit Cuba. Firstly because when, us, wretches, who need to wrap themselves in layers of clothes just to go through winter time, can scoop up a bit of the Cuban winter, which is pretty much a summer, only without hurricanes, rains or too high humidity. Secondly, March is the month for nature lovers, as it is the perfect time for bird watching. We were also lucky enough to visit Cuba, when The Rolling Stones performed there first concert there, being a cherry on the top of their Latin America Tour. All of that, as wondeful as it sounds, had one side effect - tourists invaded Cuba, and it seemed like every single person booked a car of their own.It is known that Cuba's political system is socialism - this means that mostly everything is public or needs to be registered - car rentals included. Renting private cars is banded and penalized with confiscation of illegaly rented cars - no wonder that no body takes their chances.
In addition to that, internet is unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) not widly available in Cuba, thus renting cars from abroad is possible only through European/American etc. offices and websites. Let's have no illusions, this means that these offices add a premium to the actual costs of car rental, and of course do not allow bargaining, unlike car rentals in Cuba. If you can't handle uncertainties, the little premium shouldn't be a priority, go ahead and book your car asap, before everybody else outstrips you, since as much as we would love to, we cannot guarantee that you will be as lucky as we were and get the last available van in the whole Habana. The main car rentals in Cuba, available through internet are: Havanautos, Rex, and Transtur - we used Transgaviota, which we highly recommend; not only didn't we have any unpleasant issues with them, but also when our car broke due to mechanical reasons, they brought us a different one, in better conditions, without any request for explanation (admittedly it took them about 7 hours to do so, but to make up for that, they agreed to give us an additional rental day free of charge).
Most car rental companies are available at the airport (most of them have offices in main cities, but why worry about the ride from the airport, if you can have all in one).
When receiving the car, make sure to take pictures of all its scratches, dents, mileage... Despite our rough route through semi-offroad roads we didn't have any issues while handing over our van, but you never know...
Your local driving license will do - you will receive two copies of the rental agreement (make sure to check what mileage limits you received - anything above 3000km is satisyfing) and receive instructions which of them is to be handed to the police in case of breaching of traffic regulations.
Now, there is a good way to avoid driving tickets in Cuba - the driver should be a woman. You must know that it is highly unlikely for women to drive in Cuba, even riding bicycles or any other vehicles is mostly left for men. Adding that to Cuban men's soft hearts for women, they kinda seem more understanding and forgiving to us, which I guarantee, as being the only driver in our LFP team, I managed not only to wriggle out of 2 tickets, but also receive help and guidance instead
Here are some useful driving tips:
- you will encounter control points on speed ways in Cuba - make sure to stop if asked to, and not move until allowed - if not, they will get you anyway, and they will be suspicious.
- do not brake common driving regulations (like turning back on a high way, on double continuous line, stopping the traffic... who would do that you wonder...;)) - the police seems to see everything.
As for gasoline. As you can imagine, gasoline is a particularly regulated good, and an important bit of making money on tourists, who cannot buy any other type of fuel than "especial", which supposedly has a higher amount of octanes than the one available for locals, and of course costs a hundred times more (still, less than 2 CUC per liter - check our attached infographic for exchange rates). Always have a fair reserve of fuel in the car - finding a gas station doesn't necessary mean fuel is available.
When reading blogs about Cuba you will often encounter advice about not driving in Cuba after it gets dark. This is not groundless.
Regardless the fairly small traffic, Cuban roads are a challenge even in the daylight. With all the cattle, horses, donkeys, turkeys, chicken (with little chicks), vultures and other birds (which surprisingly are not afraid of cars), children, people in rikshaws, horse carriages, scooters, bikes, cars... basically anything you could imagine, that can jump out in front of your hood, at any time.
Now add darkness to that... I guess nothing more is needed to convince you that driving in the dark isn't very wise. I must admit that we had to brake this rule at least twice, looking for a place to crash, we drove about 30km/h praying for a close end.
Despite exotic driving conditions, they are faaar better than, for example in India, where I would probably not decide to hold the wheel, so don't get discouraged.
For faint-hearted, however, there is a commonly available option to hire a car with a driver, who in addition to saving you the trouble of traversing Cuba, can show you many curiosities.
It is up to you, what you choose, after all it's still about exploring.
I am sure many of you is wondering "so what about all these classic cars, can we rent one of those?" Unfortunately car rentals offer modern cars in quite good conditions, but on the other hand - driving an old car increases the risk of inconvenience, after all would you really want to risk having a breakdown in the middle of nowhere (finding yourself there is pretty easy in Cuba)?
Isn't it better to just enjoy the view of these beauties, and to live in your photograph inclinations?:) You can always hire a nice classic taxi, which price will depend on the conditions of the car - by all means: bargain away!
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