My daughter's dream!
Our daughter dreamed about the cube, it was her blue dream, but when our plane arrived in St. Petersburg, our joy knew no bounds, we never wanted to go home so much as from this trip. I'll start everything in order. We flew through Teztur. We did not take transfers and therefore saved a lot of money. We got either a taxi or took a transfer from Havana Tour, they are cheaper, agreed on the spot.
1. We flew through Paris, we were very lucky with seats on the plane - there on the upper deck in a Boeing 747, just like in business class, from there to 777, but near the emergency exit, there was also where to stretch your legs. Therefore, we were not tired at all, and I don’t consider 3 hours to Paris and back as a flight.
2. At first we were in Havana for 3 days, there was nothing more to do there. We lived in the Plaza Hotel, a normal hotel with a very good location in the center of old Havana. We took a survey, a cannon ceremony and the Parisel cabaret at the National Hotel. I liked everything very much, but it’s better to take a survey from Teztour, then we discussed it with the guys and their tour turned out to be more interesting for the same money. The second day we wandered on our own, but there is nothing special to see and beggars get very tired.
3. In Varadero we lived in "Aquaazul". There were few people, not in season, but it only made us happy. The hotel is so-so, the rooms are not very good, the food is normal, but little varied. The canteen is dirty, the staff is friendly, all requests are fulfilled. Cubans are not very quick, so if we needed a napkin or cutlery, we just took them ourselves from nearby empty tables. But this is all nonsense compared to the fact that the smell of hydrogen sulfide spreads throughout Varadero if the wind blows from the side of the oil refinery, which stands nearby. And if they tell you that they didn’t smell this smell, then this is a lie, either people drank alcohol heavily, or they were very lucky and the wind was from the ocean. We traveled all over Varadero specifically for this subject, I asked people and many confirmed that it smells . The guys who were there in February also lived in our hotel. And they claimed that there was no smell then, and then it turned out that they simply did not dry out. The smell does not happen only when the wind blows from the ocean, but we had it only 5 days out of 12. This hotel has only one luxurious room number 9 in the bungalow, it is two-room with a huge terrace and ocean views. When we found out about it. quickly handed out gifts to everyone at the reception and the room became ours. It was already a completely different vacation, we woke up and immediately saw the ocean, and fell asleep to the sound of the waves. Also, the room had double-glazed windows and the smell did not particularly penetrate.
Take a fumigator with you, or even better, some bottle of mosquito repellent, there are a lot of them in Cuba. In general, it is better to take the hotel "Barlovento", it is located nearby, but all rooms are with double-glazed windows. I really liked the fact that we lived in the city center and not in the hotel area. We could observe the life of the Cubans, because. their houses were nearby. In the evenings, we walked around the center and talked with them, they invited us to their house. It's very interesting, much more interesting than sitting in a hotel zone with drunken tourists or moving from one restaurant to another. Real life, its color is felt. Most importantly, Varadero is very calm and not dangerous. Take plenty of presents with you: soap, chocolate, tea, felt-tip pens, pens, chewing gum, sweets, some well-worn but tidy things, you can shoes. This can be distributed and given, they are very happy, especially children's things. Before leaving, leaving the beach, we threw a beach towel into the bin (we took it with us at home), some grandfather took it out, having previously rolled it right in the bin and carried it as his own. I watched this while swimming in the ocean, got out, turned the second one, caught up with him and asked him to accept a gift, he graciously agreed and profusely thanked me.
3. Don't take tours from Cubans. This is money thrown away. Our neighbors fell for their bait, rented a car for 100 kuk, a Cuban, on some kind of shabby pepelaps, took them to a crocodile farm, then to the Caribbean Sea for a couple of hours on a wild beach, and then brought them, like, to have a cheap lunch with their friends. As a result, they were bred there for 42 cookies, a huge table was laid at their expense and they all ate, since ours could not eat everything, and there was nowhere to take it with us, because. there is no fridge in the room. A total of 142 cookies for two, i. e. 71 per brother. We took an excursion from Tez "Guama - Indian Village" for 69 cookies, we were put in a small bus with all amenities, first we were brought to have breakfast, and then the tour began. We visited five places: we went up the river on motorboats to the source, walked through the jungle to the spring, were at the ranch and the crocodile. farm, where we were fed lunch, then on motorboats to the treasure lake with a rite of purification, and then swim with masks and flippers in the Caribbean. After that, we, as people, washed ourselves with fresh water, received drinks and were taken home. Just a super tour. When we told the neighbors, they had to fork out again and take this tour.
They also took Gipsafari, but unfortunately not from Tez. It was cool, but when we later discussed it with those who traveled from Teza, it turned out to be more interesting again.
Summary: you need to take excursions from tour operators, or rent a car yourself. But we had quite enough and excursions.
4. Be prepared for the fact that everyone wants to cheat you, when buying something, if you feel cheated, do not hesitate to swear and threaten to call the police, they are very afraid of this and will fall behind. They constantly pretend to be fools, like you didn’t understand him, and he agreed with you for a different amount. The police are everywhere, and they are always on the side of tourists, of course, if they themselves do not create chaos. Everything is like in the USSR, a foreigner is always right. In general, Cubans are very similar to our gypsies, with the difference that they do not steal. We had cell phones and a wallet on the bedside table in our room, nothing was missing. I even managed to forget my bag in the restaurant, they caught up with me and handed it to me.
5. It is most profitable to change money at the airport. The hotel takes a commission for both the euro and the dollar.
6. Try to sunbathe from 8 to 11 and from 16. Then do not burn and peel off, the tan is even and beautiful.
All in all, you should visit Cuba. I have visited many countries, but after this trip I came to the conclusion that I want to rest only in European countries. These are just my opinions and desires, but my daughter shares them....