Casa vs. Hotel

Travelling around in Cuba, no hotels, Cuba being communist can also be good, Support for the Cuban People, super breakfasts and local experiences, cheap and expensive

For us, it's never been an option to go to Cuba just to spend our time in those big resorts or hotels for days or weeks on end. We always opted for travelling around, way before we informed ourselves about casas and hotels.

Turned out that we made the right decision. Anyone we asked who's been there said the same: Only go with casas and no hotels! But why?

As Cuba is governed by the Communist Party of Cuba, all resorts are completely or at least partially owned by the state. Which also means that the average wage of the resort employees are very, very low! Coming from the hospitality industry myself, it seems natural to me that the service and food would be low too.

Don't get me wrong, there's also good sides for Cuba to be a communist state. For one, health care is free for everyone and should they have no home, one would be provided by the government. Of course the standards are not as we know them in western Europe but it's better than nothing. Come to think of it, I have not seen one homeless person in Cuba! In my eyes, this is better than in many other countries I've been to.

But back to the topic, for Cuban's to offer their casa for accommodation, they still have to pay a certain fee to the government. However, for them it can be very lucrative as casas are very popular among travellers in Cuba. Accommodation is very cheap, although for Cubans themselves it must be expensive. What I'm trying to say is that if you travel around and stay in casas you actually support the Cuban people.

Okay Sabbu, you speak about Cuba being cheap, but what does cheap actually mean to you? 😄 Coming from Switzerland, basically anything in any other country is cheap. 😉 So, accommodation for two weeks in different locations cost us around 310 USD per person, which adds up to about 23 USD per day. Still to mention that cheaper would definitely have been possible!

On the other hand, my parents stayed one week longer but went to stay in a resort for 9 nights. They each paid about 860 USD for this! Although the location was very beautiful and beaches were just as beautiful as you see them in pictures and movies, the service and food definitely didn't meet their expectations.

By the way, if you book a casa over Airbnb in Cuba, you will need to select a reason why you travel there. Make sure to always select "Support for the Cuban People".

Staying in casas also means you get to interact with locals more. You get a glimpse into their daily lives and are able to connect with them more easily. The breakfasts they offered in every casa we've been to were very good. Through that I actually came to like guava. 😋

The other thing is that you go out all day, eat in local shops or restaurants - which to me is more authentic than those buffets in most resorts - and you see more of the country and its people.

To me, those experiences are so worth it, instead of staying in an overpriced resort and lying on the beach all day...

Sabbu ❤️