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Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
Bumping this thread, as a group of 8 of us are heading to Varadero over the weekend! Last time I was there was about 10 years ago, so will be interesting to see how it has "changed", if at all.
I have been re-reading this thread and taking notes. Wife's first time going to the Caribbean, so she's super stoked. If anyone has been recently and has some good advice, that would be greatly appreciated!
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I was there last Christmas and I'll tell you the biggest change.
Currency.
They do now accept USD and CDN as well as Cuban Peso. The biggest issue we found is that essentially everyone is a currency exchange.
Cubans need certain currencies to buy certain things in certain places, so if they're at a point where they're flush with one they'll give you a great rate to exchange to another, so you're often not changing currencies with the front desk or a currency exchange.
Dont bring anything bigger than a $20 in either CDN or USD. Small bills are your friend.
Dont exchange a whole ton in any particular currency, bring small bills and change them more often, never hold more than $75-$100 in any given currency.
Beyond changing money I found it to be very similar to the last time I went, and I love Cuba, I've been a few times and I'd go back there again in a heartbeat.