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[Jessica_CDN]

I'm thinking of heading to Cuba for a couple of weeks this spring. I was wondering if anyone's been to Cuba recently and backpacked. I'm thinking of staying in some posada / b&b type-places. Are there any hostels ?? What kind of accomodations will likely be available? Should I rent a car to tour the island? Is that even possible?

So many questions.....

[lucky]

I was there 2 years ago... great people and place.

Very safe, a car would be ideal. We took the busses.

We stayed in posada's, essentially, local's homes.

Make sure to visit Vinales ( north ), Triniday and of course, Havana.

Enjoy!

[rbisset]

I'm definitely thinking of going on holiday to Cuba for a couple of weeks next year. When I was travelling C.America every traveller I met wanted to visit before Castro died. I missed out because I ran out of money but will visit in the next couple of years. Would be a good place to learn Spanish, although I've heard the accent is pretty difficult.

[andrea]

DEFINITELY do it! Backpacking Cuba was great! I would never chose Cuba for an all-inclusive destination, but it was ideal for backpacking. Very safe, and the people were very friendly. People are allowed to rent out one extra room in their homes, and they advertise by putting a blue triangle on their door. We didn't have problems finding a nice place to stay. At one point, we didn't have somewhere to stay so a lady who rented out her room called every person she knew to find us a room!

Happy trails!

Andrea

[Jessica_CDN]

The only thing right now is that the all-inclusives are so darn cheap....less than a flight to Cuba! I know if we wait it'll be cheaper later, but my partner is on a bit of a timeline for when he can take time off work......so that sucks. So we're still tossing ideas around.

But thanks for the recommendation - it's great to hear that it wasn't difficult to get accomodations!!

[andrea]

We spent three days in an all inclusive... and I must say I think the backpacking bit was better! If you are going all inclusive, I wouldn't recomment Cuba. Dominican can be really inexpensive too and I think you would get more bang for your buck!

Andrea

[Jessica_CDN]

well, we were mostly considering all-inclusive because we could get a cheaper flight down...but I spoke to my spanish teacher (whose husband is from Cuba) and it turns out that we'll likely be able to get a great deal in May when we want to go. Yay!

So that solves that problem. Now it's just a matter of my partner getting the time off!

[oboemapraha]

I'm thinking of heading to Cuba for a couple of weeks this spring. I was wondering if anyone's been to Cuba recently and backpacked. I'm thinking of staying in some posada / b&b type-places. Are there any hostels ?? What kind of accomodations will likely be available? Should I rent a car to tour the island? Is that even possible?

So many questions.....

I just came back from Cuba and it is great! You can stay at the Casa Particulars, rooms in peoples houses but set up like hotelrooms. There is really only one hostel in Cuba and that is Hostel Casa Caribe in Havana. Small but nice. Their site is www.backpackershostelcuba.com Have good travels!!
Alex