Travel Requirements for Cuba.
Hello loves! I’m so excited you’re planning to visit the vibrant county of Cuba. Yes, citizens from the United States can travel to Cuba!
My husband and I went from April 13th to the 27th of this year and wow, it was a blast! The first week we took a tour with Cuban Adventures through Havana, Viñales and Trinidad. Going with Cuban Adventures was the best decision we made because we got to visit so many places and do fun activities like visit a tobacco farm in Viñales, explore the colorful town of Trinidad and more! To get the full itinerary, I recommend you check out my blog The Dreamiest Week in Cuba.
Alright lets move on. Below is all the information you’ll need for your travels to run smoothly. Also, I made a checklist to help you stay organized and not forget any paperwork. If you’re traveling with Cuban Adventures, which I HIGHLY recommend, they will help you and guide you through the whole process.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Here are the documents we needed in order to travel to Cuba from the United States. Things do tend to change, so I recommend you constantly check the requirements before you depart. As of April 6th, there is no more PCR requirement, nor do they require a vaccine certificate. Please, make sure you check from time to time. :) Cuba Travel Requirements Updates
Alright let’s get to it! Here are all the requirements to travel to Cuba!
CHECKLIST
✓ Flights (Return Travel Information)
✓ Valid Passport
✓ Tourist Card
✓ Proof of Medical Travel Insurance
✓ Digital Form 48 hours before departure
✓ Money in cash
FLIGHTS
Finding flights from the United States and Mexico (my mom flew from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico), was a bit hard because there were only specific airlines that had flights. We ended up finding flights from Copa Airlines and American Airlines. We flew a Red Eye from Los Angeles, California to Panama City, Panama and then from Panama City, Panama to Havana, Cuba. We only had a layover of an hour in Panama, so it went by quick. I recommend you check out these airlines that Cuban Adventures recommends.
My mom flew from Tijuana, Baja California to Monterrey, Mexico and then to Havana, Cuba. It was a bit harder to find flights for my mom leaving from Mexico because of the whole COVID affect on airlines. The only airlines that had flights available were Volaris and Viva Aerobus. If you’re planning to leave from Mexico, I recommend looking through those airlines. Hopefully by now they have more options. :)
VALID PASSPORT
Please please please make sure your passport is not expired or will be expired. They don’t accept passports that will expire in 6 months. So, please be mindful and plan accordingly. If you do need to renew your passport, I recommend you give yourself enough time because of COVID documents have been taking longer to process.
TOURIST CARD
I was definitely tripping out trying to figure out which Tourist Card to get. Yes, there are 2 colors: Green and Pink. My understanding according to my research, and please don’t quote me on this, people flying from the United States to Cuba, need the Pink colored Tourist Card and people flying from other countries need the Green Tourist Card. I’m not 100% sure this is true, but that’s what worked for us and my mom who traveled from Mexico.
To be safe, we bought our Pink Visas from Cuba Travel Services because they partner with American Airlines. If you’re flying with American Airlines, you are allowed to buy from them! Wohoo! If not, you can get yours through your airline, online through cubavisas.com or at the airport before you leave to Cuba. If you do decide to buy them through this platform, they’re $85 each and shipping is super fast. We got ours in 2 days!
You can also buy it at the airport in Miami before you depart to Cuba. I believe they’re around $25 each. We were flying from Panama, and I was afraid we were going to need the Green one, but since we had our US passport, we had no problems. I felt that it was too risky for us to buy them in Panama City, Panama, so I went ahead and bought them in advance to just to prevent, you know? :)
Reason for travel for Tourist Card***
Very important! When filling out your visa, make sure you choose “Support for the Cuban People.” Tourism is a big part of Cuba’s economy, so in a way you are helping the local people. So, good for you! :)
Other information from the Cuba Travel Services:
Visa price: $50.00 + $35.00 processing fee.
Reserved for American Airlines passengers only.
Visas cannot be shipped outside the continental U.S.
Visas cannot be shipped to Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico
Individuals residing in those locations may purchase their visas at the airport at the Cuba Ready Kiosks located adjacent to the AA check in and departure gate locations
*Please do not detach the two separate sides. Customs in Cuba is responsible for this. We filled ours out as soon as we arrived to Havana, Cuba, so have a pen handy.
For more information regarding Cuba’s Tourist Card, visit Cuban Adventures page: Cuban Tourist Visas.
PROOF OF MEDICAL TRAVEL INSURANCE
You are required to show proof of travel insurance when you arrive to Cuba. No ifs ands or butts. When we arrived, they immediately asked for our travel insurance right away. Thankfully I printed out all our documents to also have a hard copy in hand. Cuban Adventures helped us get ASISTUR S.A medical insurance because they also cover Covid-19 related emergencies. I’m beyond grateful that we didn’t need to use it on our trip, but I’ve had a couple of accidents while traveling and it’s ALWAYS good to be prepared, so yes, I HIGHLY recommend you buy travel insurance whenever you travel.
FILLED OUT DIGITAL FORM | 48 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE
It is required that you fill out this D’Viajeros online form 48 hours before your flight departure. Very important, when filling out the form, you will need all your travel information such as flight details, address of where you’ll be staying, your passport information and more. Make sure you have everything handy. Once filled, you will receive a QR code with all your information that you’ll need to show at customs.
When we arrived, there were a few people that forgot this step or didn’t know about this form, so they had to go at the back of the line to fill it out electronically. Thankfully, Havana International Airport gives you 30 minutes of free Wifi, but please, do yourself a favor and fill it out and print it so you don’t run into trouble. Trust me, be extra and super prepared when traveling to avoid any conflicts.
MONEY IN CASH
Now, Cuba doesn’t have any ATM’s available; therefore, you will need to take cash with you! We took 1,000 Euros each for 2 weeks and that was more than enough for food and whatever extra activities we wanted to do. Now, there is a tricky situation with the currency in Cuba. They accept Euros but their currency is Cuban Peso (CUP). We decided to take Euros because Cuban Adventures recommended it. When we arrived, we were able to exchange our Euros to CUP as time passed by. We got good deals from locals and from restaurants. However, I HIGHLY recommend you know the exchange rate and be aware that you get the exact amount. Cuban people are amazing people, but sometimes, like in every country, there are those that are trying to rip you off. Just be aware and ask how much they’re willing to exchange it for.
The max you can take is 5,000 Euros per person. I doubt you’ll need that amount in Cuba because everything is fairly cheap. Just make sure you take enough because like I said, there are no ATM’s for cards from the United States.
It may seem like a lot of steps to travel to Cuba, but trust me, it’s all worth it at the end! It was by far one of our favorite trips ever! I can’t say this enough, but I’m so glad we booked a tour with Cuban Adventures. They made sure we had everything we needed and our tour guide Karell was super welcoming and made our trip very memorable. Check out their guided tours and if you do decide to take a tour with them, use my code WILDCUBA01 to get 10% off!
If you have any questions for me, please feel free to comment below, email me, or message me through Instagram. I will be more than happy to help you in any way possible. If you want to read about all the awesome things we did in Cuba, please do so by visiting my blog The Dreamiest Week in Cuba.
Also, I made a checklist so you don’t forget any of the travel requirements. Print this free CHECKLIST for your trip!
Love you all and hope you embrace everything Cuba has to offer. Happy traveling!
