Havana

[El Grande]

Is it cheaper to purchase Havana Club Rum at the stores in the airport or somewhere else in Havana? If somewhere else, suggestions?

Everything is cheaper elsewhere. Look in local stores, supermarkets, casa del ron or at hotel shops. In this order.

[GrownMan1]

I don't think you can put a sim card in a iPhone, at least I'm not aware of it. Your iPhone will work in Cuba, just get ready to get screwed real good when you phone bill comes in the mail.

The best option is to buy a cheap unlocked droid phone from Best Buy or Amazon, I've been using unlocked J3 Samsung's. They work well with the Cuban sim cards.

Finding sim cards is no problem, no questions asked. Sometimes they even hand them out at the airport upon arrival, no charge...well, the card is free but you will have to buy one of those scratch off credit/recharge cards from ETECSA

TY I've use my unlocked iPhone Several times in Cuba. All I had to do was just pop in the Cuban Sim card. I've sold maybe about 4 unlocked phones to people I purchased from the US no problems. The iPhone SE is the number one requested. I've use my normal cell phone with international minutes at it while I was in Santiago Cuba. I didn't use it much however my bill went up maybe $75 to $125.

[Rodeo9112]

Is it cheaper to purchase Havana Club Rum at the stores in the airport or somewhere else in Havana? If somewhere else, suggestions?

[Mondo707]

Thanks Mondo!

I go to Cuba about 2 times a year now so I think I may invest in a line just to make things easier.

Can I just walk into the ECSTESA office and get a lien and sim card as a foreign national? I am willing to pay the 40 CUCs and the propina to get it done.

Hey Uncle,

No, you first need to have a local purchase the linea for you. In other words, they have to go to Etecsa and buy such line with their Cuban ID. That's how I did this. Once this was done on my next trip down I went to the Etecsa office with and told the lady in charge that I wanted to transfer la linea to my name since my friend had left the country. She did some paperwork and transfered la linea to my name, albeit with the propina. LOL.

So, now all I need is to make sure I recharge such linea once a year.

Mondo.

[The Tall Man]

Just a heads up report on a bar with a light up sign on the front that says: Casa Club 24 h. The last a of casa is turned upside down. The bar is at 258 Neptuno. I went there with co-worker buddies. We had been walking around the city and I recommended to them that we go to the Malecon and La Rampa, but they wouldn't listen to me and thought they knew everything. A local we talked to said we should come to a bar he knows about, and brought us to Casa Club. There were some fairly hot girls there who were aggressive, which is okay by me. But the guy who brought us asked what kind of drinks we wanted as we sat at some tables and he also got drinks for the girls sitting there. We never were asked if we wanted to buy drinks for the girls or not. We asked about the drink prices, asked about if we must pay for drinks as they come or start a tab. The con artists working there never would give a straight answer to these questions and they acted as if we should just have a good time and not worry about all that. I started to become concerned and I told my friends we should demand to see the bar bill. I told the friends about a similar experience I had in Egypt once that turned out very bad. We got the casa club bill. They charged us for the girls' drinks as well as ours and each mojito was equal to around 5 US dollars. So the bill was very quickly 30 US. Maybe we could have refused to cover chica beverages since we were never asked about them, but we didn't know how that might go down. One friend did later go off into the night with a working girl there, and he said he was able to talk her price down to 30 CUC including house fee. I saw her and she was pretty cute. So yes there are girls there but the people running the bar are out to scam you.

Happy hobbying out there.

This story reminds me of one of the worst and dangerous scams I was ever played on, although this is a bit embarrassing to admit but know this was 20 years ago and I was a newbie, now 20 years of experience I learned.

So this was 1998 in the Czech Republic, in central Prague at a bar / disco with 2 hot czech women I met on the street early morning, after about 2 hours of maybe 4 rounds of drinks max I was presented with the bill of about $460. They had 2 different menu prices and I was presented with the second one when it came time to pay the bar, I had a choice to pay or my legs would be broken, no shit, I was escorted to an ATM by armed body guards. I paid and was released to go.

Live and learn and that I did that night.

TTM.

[Uncle Volodya]

Hey,

Reading some of the posts below and just wanted to let you know how this works.


Mondo.

Thanks Mondo!

I go to Cuba about 2 times a year now so I think I may invest in a line just to make things easier.

Can I just walk into the ECSTESA office and get a lien and sim card as a foreign national? I am willing to pay the 40 CUCs and the propina to get it done.

[Mondo707]

Hey,

Reading some of the posts below and just wanted to let you know how this works.

If you are Cubano / a living abroad you can get a line (meaning a tele number) no big deal there.

If you are not a national then getting a Sim card your best bet is to rent one out, usually a couple of CUC a day + you need to purchase air time from Etecsa, since whoever rents you the Sim card will want the same amount of air time as when they rented it out for you to begin with. In other words it's $2 daily rent + air time which you have to purchase.

If you go often enough (in my case) I opted to have my own linea (tele #) It cost me $40 for the linea (comes with $10 air time included) which makes its actual cost $30 CUC. One caveat, if you have a linea in Cuba you have to activate it at least once a year, meaning you need to recharge such linea otherwise you lose your tele #.

After my last trip this past March I went to the Etecsa office and transfered such linea to my name, (someone I know had bought the linea for me) no questions asked, I handed the boss lady there a $5 CUC for her troubles so she can buy herself a merienda (snack), LOL.

As far as phones go, I have a Moto G4 which is unlocked and when I land in Cuba I switch Sim cards (Verizon is my service provider) and like someone said DO NOT use your service in Cuba since it'll cost you plenty.

Heads up, you can call the States using your Cuba Sim card by dialing 119 along with 1 + the area code and the number. I've done that several times and it's not that expensive. It's prolly the same for any other country in the world since each country has its own area code. Cuba's area code is 53, so if I were to call Cuba from the states I'd need to first put 53 and then the rest of the numbers.
If you want to get online then you need to purchase the cards to do that. They cost a couple of CUC for an hour's worth of on air time.

Here are the instructions for dialing the States from Cuba;.

Dial 119 (the international line access code), then 1 (the USA Country code).

Enter the ten-digit area code and phone number you wish to call, followed by the hash key.

Hope this helps.

Mondo.

[Chris H]

How are you guys going here still? I went last year but I thought trump changed the rules.

What is the current best way to go there? I want to go back. Need some more cubanas.

Just get on a plane and go, no problems at all.

[HumanBeing1]

How are you guys going here still? I went last year but I thought trump changed the rules.

What is the current best way to go there? I want to go back. Need some more cubanas.

[Ty Down]

Yeah, I didn't know what I was talking about. Cuba is different. "The purchase of SIM cards is reserved to permanent residents of Cuba and not allowed for short-time visitors. " Although you may have "bought" a local SIM, it looks to me that you were still roaming.

http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Cuba

Let me clarify,. Again. That was my first trip to Cuba, the following 7 (seven) trips to Cuba I didn't use my US iPhone, I bought a cheap unlocked Samsung Galaxy at Best Buy, got on a plane and flew to Cuba where one of two things happened when I arrived in Cuba.

1) A sim card was given to me by the Cubans at the airport, they were handing them out like candy, OR.

2) I had a taxi driver find me one, zero problem.

[John Clayton]

On my first trip to Havana a couple years ago, I came home to a $3000.00 phone bill from AT&T, for about 1 hour of usage.

AT&T, SPRINT and a few other American companies offer service in Cuba, without a local sim card, but they will ream your ass really, REALLY good!

Again, the best option is to buy an international, unlocked phone from Best Buy or Amazon such as the Samsung Galaxy J3.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...?skuId=5923406

Yeah, I didn't know what I was talking about. Cuba is different. "The purchase of SIM cards is reserved to permanent residents of Cuba and not allowed for short-time visitors. " Although you may have "bought" a local SIM, it looks to me that you were still roaming.

http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Cuba

[Ty Down]

I'm pretty sure that after about iphone 3 all are dual band CDMA GSM, but it may depend on the exact model (I'm definitely not an phone expert). Most important is that your phone is unlocked, which your carrier might not do if you're still under contract.

On my first trip to Havana a couple years ago, I came home to a $3000.00 phone bill from AT&T, for about 1 hour of usage.

AT&T, SPRINT and a few other American companies offer service in Cuba, without a local sim card, but they will ream your ass really, REALLY good!

Again, the best option is to buy an international, unlocked phone from Best Buy or Amazon such as the Samsung Galaxy J3.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...?skuId=5923406

[John Clayton]

I don't think you can put a sim card in a iPhone, at least I'm not aware of it. Your iPhone will work in Cuba, just get ready to get screwed real good when you phone bill comes in the mail.

The best option is to buy a cheap unlocked droid phone from Best Buy or Amazon, I've been using unlocked J3 Samsung's. They work well with the Cuban sim cards.

Finding sim cards is no problem, no questions asked. Sometimes they even hand them out at the airport upon arrival, no charge.

I'm pretty sure that after about iphone 3 all are dual band CDMA GSM, but it may depend on the exact model (I'm definitely not an phone expert). Most important is that your phone is unlocked, which your carrier might not do if you're still under contract.

[Ty Down]

Can I just put a Cuban SIM card in my US-purchases iPhone and use it for calls in Cuba? How about calls to the US? Is it difficult to get a Cuban SIM card. I know in Colombia and Brazil there's a bit of drama in needing to have an ID registered in order to buy a SIM (I'm simplifying here).

Thanks!

I don't think you can put a sim card in a iPhone, at least I'm not aware of it. Your iPhone will work in Cuba, just get ready to get screwed real good when you phone bill comes in the mail.

The best option is to buy a cheap unlocked droid phone from Best Buy or Amazon, I've been using unlocked J3 Samsung's. They work well with the Cuban sim cards.

Finding sim cards is no problem, no questions asked. Sometimes they even hand them out at the airport upon arrival, no charge...well, the card is free but you will have to buy one of those scratch off credit/recharge cards from ETECSA

[Rodeo9112]

Can I just put a Cuban SIM card in my US-purchases iPhone and use it for calls in Cuba? How about calls to the US? Is it difficult to get a Cuban SIM card. I know in Colombia and Brazil there's a bit of drama in needing to have an ID registered in order to buy a SIM (I'm simplifying here).

Thanks!