Cuba Twin Centre

bingo_bango

I've booked through the holidayplace to do the twin centre holiday too. Fly out in March to get married on the beach at the Blau Varadero. First 3 nights in Havana at the Raquel, then up to Varadero for 10(?) nights. Not looking forward to sitting on a beach for 10 days, so intend to travel about a bit.
Hadn't planned on hiring a car (looking forward to the rum!), but if it's been recommended, I'd certainly consider it. MIL, FIL, and BIL are coming out for the second week, so it would be good to escape.
Anyone know of travel times to Santiago de Cuba? And any other sites of interest.

BTW, getting maried on St Patrick's Day (not missing out on a session just 'cos I'm away!), so if any of you are there at the same time, you're welcome to come and commiserate with me :rolleyes:

blindman

Party_Animal wrote: »

Cheers Trev. I didn't fancy Varadero. It was just its proximity to Havana. If we do hire a car, which now seems favourite, I won't be doing the AI thing.
Has anyone hired a car in Cuba? All the guides seem to recommend it.

Did you get anywhere with the hire car?

I'm just about to start looking.

pboae

We went to Cuba earlier this year. We did it independetly and mostly stayed in Casa's, didn't go to any resorts. We flew to Havana, then down to Holguin, hired a car and drove to Baracoa via Cayo Saetia, then flew back to Havana.

Hiring a car there was straight forward and fairly cheap, although we weren't able to get a 4x4 which we wanted. Driving was kind of fun but mainly just scary. I guess it depends where you are, and I believe the roads in the areas around Havana are in better condition, but the ones we were on were almost impassable in places. You'd be driving for a few miles with no problems, then the road surface would disintegrate with ruts caused by the lorry buses that could be a foot or more deep, too deep for a car to drive in. You couldn't drive at night, because you couldn't see the pot holes and if your wheel dropped into one it would snap your axle and bridges with big holes that you have to skirt around. Rules of the road were non existent, everyone drove on the 'best' side of the road, so if the other side was in a really bad way you could come around a corner to find a lorry bus or an ox and cart heading straight for you on your side of the road.

If we hadn't driven we wouldn't have been able to get to Cayo Saetia, so it was worth it for that, and I loved Baracoa more than anywhere else we saw. But I wouldn't be in a hurry to drive over there again.

blindman

pboae wrote: »

We went to Cuba earlier this year. We did it independetly and mostly stayed in Casa's, didn't go to any resorts. We flew to Havana, then down to Holguin, hired a car and drove to Baracoa via Cayo Saetia, then flew back to Havana.

Hiring a car there was straight forward and fairly cheap, although we weren't able to get a 4x4 which we wanted. Driving was kind of fun but mainly just scary. I guess it depends where you are, and I believe the roads in the areas around Havana are in better condition, but the ones we were on were almost impassable in places. You'd be driving for a few miles with no problems, then the road surface would disintegrate with ruts caused by the lorry buses that could be a foot or more deep, too deep for a car to drive in. You couldn't drive at night, because you couldn't see the pot holes and if your wheel dropped into one it would snap your axle and bridges with big holes that you have to skirt around. Rules of the road were non existent, everyone drove on the 'best' side of the road, so if the other side was in a really bad way you could come around a corner to find a lorry bus or an ox and cart heading straight for you on your side of the road.

If we hadn't driven we wouldn't have been able to get to Cayo Saetia, so it was worth it for that, and I loved Baracoa more than anywhere else we saw. But I wouldn't be in a hurry to drive over there again.

Did you hire before you got to Holguin or once you were there?

How did you pay for the car?

Who did you go with?

Ta

pboae

We hired it from the hotel in Holguin when we arrived. (Hiring the car was easier than getting the internal flights, as they get booked up quickly). We used a credit card for deposit, and paid cash for the rental. We booked through Havanautos I think, and as far as I can remember there is only really Transtur/Cubacar and Havanautos, the others were mainly rebranded sub companies of them.

poe.tuesday

I did a 2 centre to Cuba with the holiday place back in 2001, they were excellent, the only issue I had is that the havana stay was split into two, we had 2 days in havana, then went to Huilguin for 10 days and then back to havana for 2 days, I would have prefered to have stayed in havana for 4 days and then do 10 at the beach, not sure if they still split it like that any more, I also think that they do it tailormades too

blindman

Just got back from the 8 day trip to Havana.

If anyone wants any info on staying in the real Cuba (Not the AI places) then reply.

kotka4

blindman, any info on your trip will be most appreciated! I just came back from an AI in Mexico and I would rather not do that in Cuba - I want to see the island for what it is, not just stay in another fancy hotel and see teh beach only. Thanks in advance, PM if you like or post a reply, please?

blindman

KotKa4 you have a PM