Hi Jennifer
From my experiences and depending where you’re coming from the first thing to ensure is that you have an entry visa. They are normally sourced either through your travel agent or directly from the cuban embassy in the country from which you are departing from.
You will most likely need to provide an address where you are staying in Havana when applying for your visa. Your visa is £25.00 or the dollar equivalent, don’t worry, they normally issue this straight away on submission of passport, flight ticket information and Havana based address whether hotel or Casa Particular (goverment licenced private accomodation). You don’t need to be permanently based at that address throughout your stay. However when cashing in travellers cheques at the bank in Havana for example they ask for your Havana based address, you will need this as part of any banking transaction with the teller.
Remember that travellers cheques of the american express kind and any american based currency is not accepted in Cuba. This is due to america’s trading embargo.
If going from the UK I would normally use pound sterling travellers cheques. Debit cards can be used at Cuban ATM’s or cash machines, as long as (you guessed it, they’re not american based). The currency for tourists is the Cuban Convertible Peso…see below;
The convertible peso (sometimes given as CUC$) (informally called a chavito), is one of two official currencies in Cuba, the other being the peso. It has been in limited use since 1994, when it was treated as equivalent to the U.S. dollar. On November 8, 2004, the U.S. dollar ceased to be accepted in Cuban retail outlets leaving the convertible peso as the only currency in circulation in many Cuban businesses. Officially only exchangeable within the country, its value is currently pegged to $1.08 USD. [1] The convertible peso is, by the pegged rate, the tenth highest valued currency unit in the world and the highest valued “peso” unit. (courtesy of Wikipedia)
On arrival at Jose Marti airport be prepared for an appx one hour clearance through passport control. The officials will be scrutinizing passports and looking for any signs of anti-revolutionary agitators. As long as you are not in this category and meet with other standard passport and custom requiremnts you will be fine.
A taxi from Jose Marti airport to Havana should be no more than 20 CUC and will take appx 40 minutes. Once in Havana and you have settled into your accomodation you are free to acclimatise and explore. Just a quick bit of info here regarding hustlers. If you are alone and female, you will get a lot of attention from the men. Even if you are a guy or guys or there are only a couple of you for example the cubans are very charming and experts at seducement. I’m not talking for just romantic ends either. Be on your guard against bootleg cigar sellars and bicycle taxi guys who will want to shephard you around Havana, they will want to steer you into restaurants or that they have a commission arrangement with.
Other than this you will have a fantastic experience if all goes well, just stay street savvy.
Enjoy.
Ed