Traveler Resources for Cuba

Cuban Language

The more Spanish you know before you come to Cuba, the more you will enjoy your trip. On a Cuban Adventures tour, essentially you don’t need to know any Spanish, because we take care of all the travel arrangements, and your tour guide is there if you need an instant translation. However, any Spanish you learn will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the trip. Because our Cuba tours are focused on contact with the Cubans and their culture, there will be ample opportunity to use, and benefit from, whatever Spanish you have. Our experience is that every traveller that comes to Cuba wishes they new more Spanish. You can start now!

To start with, you can download our list of basic Spanish phrases that are most common in Cuba (as Spanish, particularly the spoken form does vary significantly from country to country).

Plugs

This is a picture of the type of wall plugs you can encounter in Cuba. Most places have only 110V (60Hz), and some have both 110V and 220V (60Hz)

Guidebooks for Cuba such as these below, provide some good summaries about the country’s history and culture which can enhance your travel experience in Cuba.

  • Lonely Planet
  • Rough Guides
  • Moon Guidebook by Christopher P. Baker

For further reading on Cuba, we can recommend the following books.

  • The Cuba Reader - History, Culture, Politics by Chomsky, Carr and Smorkaloff
  • Cuba - A new History by Richard Gott gives a balanced view of Cuba’s history
  • Conversations with Cuba by C. Peter Ripley and Bob Shacochis is a good read for anyone interested in the views and opinions of the people of Cuba.
  • Castro’s Daughter - An exile’s memoir of Cuba by Alina Fernandez is the story of the other side of Cuba’s enigmatic President.
  • Cuba: from Columbus to Castro and Beyond by Jaime Suchticki offers a good overview of and insight into the history of the nation.
  • Blessed by Thunder - Memoir of a Cuban Girlhood. This story revolves around a young girl growing up in Cuba during the Communist Revolution.
  • Cuba Libre by Elmore Besnard, the author of Get Shorty and Jackie Brown. This is a novel about a cowboy who robs banks and find himself in hot water while in Cuba.
  • Living Inside the Revolution by Karen McCartney is a fascinating portrayal of life as an expat resident from 99 to 2005.
  • Cuba Confidential by Ann Bardach details the political issues and personalities behind America`s dealings with Cuba over the past 50 years.
  • Havana Red by Leonardo Padura
  • Vital Signs by Pedro de Jesús
  • The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  • History of Havana by Dick Cluster and Rafael Hernandez
  • Havana Nocturne - How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution

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