Cuba Honeymoon - End Sept/start Oct 11

gerire

Have been given a very good quote and think this is where we are going to go.

Thanks firstly to all who have posted in other threads and would like to hear from those who have been.

We are looking at Hotel Nacional , everyone says to go here for cocktails so i said screw it and lets just stay there, for 3 days in Havana and then head to Varadero for the other 7 nights, staying in Breezes Varadero.

Pretty locked in.
In Havana looking at doing a Cigar tour and hoping to suck up the culture. What else are we to keep an eye out for and not to miss.

Is the hotel Nacional out of the way?
Time of year, has anyone been there for weather prospects?
Currency, am i correct in saying that you can only get it in Cuba.
And to get down to Adelaide Road for the visa, is there anything else i am missing
Spanish, Would it greatly increase enjoyability to have some level of spanish before i go?

All in trip for 2.600 not too bad i reckon.

Looking forward to responses

Simo65

Gerire, did Cuba a couple of years ago though not honeymoon. 6 of us & we had a great time. Did 1 week in Havana in the Saratoga and 1 week in Varadero in Paradisus Princesa del Mar. All in all a fantastic holiday, though not cheap but well worth it. One word of caution: they will not accept credit cards issued by American banks (e.g. MBNA), nearly got caught out by that one!

mikedragon32

The Nacional is well positioned for exploring Havana. Be sure to have a walk along Malecon (the seafront). Las Rampas is an interesting enough area too and the ice cream parlour is an institution.

Have a wander around old Havana and take a look at El Capitolio. It's a very interesting building. There's a massive graveyard in Havana too. Can't think exactly where it is, but it's bound to be covered in tourist guidebooks.

Not much to do in Varadero itself apart from chill out and enjoy the beach, but if you want to give it a go, you can go game fishing. We paired up with another couple and chartered a boat for a day. It was great fun. Picked up Lobster for lunch and caught some barracuda too.

Re Currency, I think it's Euro they take now. They used to take Dollars. Officially you're supposed to get "tourist pesos", but I didn't see a single one when I was there in 2004, due to the fact that 1 dollar = 1 tourist peso, but of course that's probably all changed now. Either way, you can only buy pesos while you're there.

One thing to factor in is that Sept/Oct is the peak of hurricane season. That's not to say you shouldn't go, it wouldn't stop me, but you should be aware of it and prepare!

Enjoy it and best of luck with the wedding!

ncmc

gerire wrote: »

Have been given a very good quote and think this is where we are going to go.

Thanks firstly to all who have posted in other threads and would like to hear from those who have been.

We are looking at Hotel Nacional , everyone says to go here for cocktails so i said screw it and lets just stay there, for 3 days in Havana and then head to Varadero for the other 7 nights, staying in Breezes Varadero.

Pretty locked in.
In Havana looking at doing a Cigar tour and hoping to suck up the culture. What else are we to keep an eye out for and not to miss.

Is the hotel Nacional out of the way?
Time of year, has anyone been there for weather prospects?
Currency, am i correct in saying that you can only get it in Cuba.
And to get down to Adelaide Road for the visa, is there anything else i am missing
Spanish, Would it greatly increase enjoyability to have some level of spanish before i go?

All in trip for 2.600 not too bad i reckon.

Looking forward to responses

That seems like a really good price gerire, though as Mikedragon said, Sept/Oct is peak hurricane season. We went to Cuba for our honeymoon in 2003, the first week in October and all we saw was one day were it rained for a half an hour. The weather was perfect after that. It is a risk though, and worth considering. I remember at the time the Sandals resorts offered a guarantee that if you were hit by hurricane while you were there, they would give you free accomodation to take the holiday again.

We stayed in the Breezes resort, it was lovely with a gorgeous stretch of beach. The buffet gets pretty repetitive after a while, I would recommend you eat the odd meal out of the resort to avoid the monotony. There is an Italian restaurant in the resort and a Cuban restaurant that are also included in the all inclusive, the Italian was lovely and very nice surroundings. You only get one 'token' for these to eat at each one once, we sweet talked the reception though and got a second token! There is a grill down by the beach which was nice for a light lunch and again a change from the buffet. There was also a piano bar which we enjoyed (this info is 8 years old so apologies if it is out of date!). We rented a moped outside the hotel, this is great fun and a lovely way to see the town and surrounding area. Traffic wasn't bad and we felt safe at all times.

I can't comment on your hotel in Havana, but it is an amazing city for just wandering around and people watching. We enjoyed the Museum of the Revolution and the cigar tours are excellent.