Getting Around Cuba
For Cubans, transportation is one of the major hassles of daily like. Cubans spend hour hitchhiking and waiting for buses, tractors, and trucks, whether it’s to get to work, to shop, to visit hospitals and family.
For the tourists, however, getting around the island is relatively easy. A visitor may travel by air, train, bus, or rental car.
Domestic Cubana Airline planes are old Soviet-era flying machines, and like the national buses and trains, are hot and undependable. Do you want, however, to fly in a chancy old airplane?
Cuba has an antiquated but extensive train system. It is said to be the largest stream-powered train system outside of China. Reservations are necessary, and getting one can take a from a couple of hours to most of a day. The trains are said to be even less reliable than the buses.
Getting to Viñales is about the easiest transport in Cuba. There are two bus lines, each with one bus a day, seats on demand for CUC, and lots of taxis. Renting a car is expensive and is not necessary. Within the town of Viñales everything can be reached on foot.
The two bus lines are VíaAzul and ASTRO, and the fare to Viñales is 12 and 8 CUC respectively. VíaAzul is an excellent deluxe carrier with limited service to tourist areas. It leaves from two terminals in Havana. The VíaAzul terminal is in Nuevo Vedado, across from the zoo, Casa Matriz, ave. 26 y Zoológico. 81 14 13, 81 56 52, and from ASTRO bus terminal on Ranco Boyeros, e/ Ave. 19 de Mayo y Bruzón, which is more convenient. Reservations can be booked, even by phone.
ASTRO is the national bus line. It buses are always full, hot, and unreliable. Also smoky from exhaust fumes and everyone smoking, including the driver sitting under the “no fumar” sign. Paying in CUC gets the tourists on any outgoing bus – immediately and usually ahead of Cubans who have bought their tickets in pesos. But, as a foreigner, you can not pay the extremely cheap peso rate. In 2008, ASTRO began acquiring Chinese manufactured Yutong buses. The Chinese buses are still priced in pesos for Cubans, but at a much higher rates than the usual ASTRO buses. Before the endemic poor maintenance brings the Yutongs down to the rundown level of the old Soviet buses, they are a good option if you see them on the Viñales-Havana line.
There are many private and government taxis outside the ASTRO terminal eager to negotiate a private ride. The “come on” is always that the taxi will take you to your destination for the same price as the bus. Charges can vary widely.
Car rental is easy, available (except during Christmas holidays), hassle-free, and expensive. Regardless of what any guidebook says, dollar-CUC gas stations are now plentiful.: When you rent, the agency carefully goes over each dent and verifies spare, jack, radio, etc. It is because these get stolen and are often missing. If you rent, you must find a secure garage or hire a guard for the night.
A few pointers for drivers. Driving in daylight is no problem, because there is little traffic. At night, the roads include bikes, horses and horse-drawn carts, tractors, and, during the sugar harvest, huge tractors of sugar cane. Almost none will have lights. There are few road signs, and many badly deteriorated roads. Plan on picking up hitch-hiking Cubans for company and directions.
Driving rules have few surprises, except that all drivers must stop at railroad crossings, and these are favorite haunts of cops and hitch-hikers. Also, cyclists are so unaccustomed to encountering vehicles that they casually wander along and across highways. When driving, give them a warning with a blast of the horn. The cyclists’ reactions will not be anger, but a wave of acknowledgment.
