so you're thinking of visiting Cuba but you've probably heard some reports coming out of the country and have some questions i recently returned from eight incredible days in Hogin Cuba it was my third trip to the island and I'm already plotting my return but the reality is traveling to Cuba is not like traveling to other destinations in the Caribbean right now there are major shortages of essentials like food fuel uh medicines it's a pretty dire situation right now for the Cuban people at the same time Cuba is open to tourism and about a million Canadians go every single year for vacation in this video I am going to share essential information so that you can go to Cuba with realistic expectations or decide if it's even the right destination for you i am going to cover transportation power outages food accommodations and more importantly I'm also going to talk about how you can travel responsibly in a country like Cuba that's currently under a lot of pressure so let's [Music] talk hi everyone if you're new around here I'm Latoya and welcome to my channel this channel is all about my obsessions with travel locks and designing a life of happiness so if you're interested in any of that go ahead and hit that subscribe button i want to start by acknowledging that there are many thoughts around traveling to Cuba right now this video is not to try to convince you of one way or another i'm not Cuban and I think any conversations about how to fix Cuba's issues should be led by Cubans with their lived experiences and they can choose to include us outsiders if they want to or not this video is observations of a traveler me who took my first solo trip to Cuba 17 years ago when I was 21 I think and fell in love with the country and if you are going to travel to Cuba I just want to share this information so that you can go with realistic expectations and leave more than you take the warm people the beaches the music the vintage cars the architecture there is so much to love about Cuba but the truth is before I went on my last trip I hesitated a bit because I was going to be traveling with my elderly mother and my seven-year-old and while I'm flexible and I can roll with the punches these two people I wanted to make sure were going to be always comfortable the reports coming out of Cuba weren't exactly clear about the situation and I wanted to make sure that my family was always going to be comfortable of course but after weeks of doing research and talking to a friend who goes every year we decided to go and I'm so so glad we went cuba is still such a unique and special place and the people are as warm as ever despite everything that's happening to them this was my first time staying at a resort in Cuba we stayed at Grand Mu um and we absolutely loved the resort i made a full review about it which I will link to in the description if you want to check it out cuba is facing serious problems right now one of those issues is the widespread power outages cuba's power grid is failing on a regular basis and that leaves millions of Cubans in the dark for most of the day on a daily basis now some of the workers that I got to know over the course of the week at the resort you know confided or let me know that they were going back home to no power and that they only had electricity for 5 hours maybe each day and it was always at odd times like in the middle of the night the outages have caused schools to close and non-essential industry to come to a halt there's also fuel shortages and Cuba says that this is a part of why their power grid has gone down on a regular basis right now the fuel shortages have meant long lineups at gas stations that can last for days and also you can see this would have a trickle down effect on taxis and public transportation buses it can be challenging if you choose to rent a car in Cuba to get fuel at times food insecurity is widespread in Cuba the subsidized food that Cubans are supposed to be provided are quite scarce right now and some of these nonsubsidized shops that have been opened recently some of them only accept foreign currency and are just way too much for the average Cuban to be able to afford also medicines are in short supply over 70% of basic medicines needed by the Cuban people are currently unavailable as someone thinking of traveling to the country this may sound pretty scary to you but the thing is you can actually still travel to Cuba and be totally oblivious to the reality that the locals are facing right now tourists and the tourism industry is pretty shielded from the chaos that is happening behind the scenes how is that possible you may ask well many of the hotels and resorts in um tourist hubs like Verado Hin Havana have backup generators so when the power grid goes down you are oblivious to the fact that that's happened out of my eight days at Grand Mutu on the eighth day the power went down for about 15 minutes during dinner service me and my family were actually at the buffet and everyone just continued getting their food um you know the grill workers continued working people came out with flashlights a lot of the workers came out with flashlights um and just continued on there was no panic um and everyone just went about their way and as we continued eating dinner the power came back on i had packed two flashlights and a headlamp mostly for my daughter who of course like most kids is afraid of the dark but the lights were off for such a short period of time I didn't even have the thought to go to the room to get them i had also packed two power banks to charge my devices in case we did lose power but I never had to use them on the whole trip in terms of fuel shortages if you book um your transportation through your hotel or through a reputable tour company doesn't mean it has to be a big name but just a company that has reviews you will likely not have any problems with getting around these you know organizations companies people know and have connections on the black market and they can get the gas they need to get you around to do your tours and other things i didn't see any cars broken down on the side of the road for example or anything like that but again acknowledging that I was in the tourist bubble so that those are not really things that tourists are going to have a lot of um trouble with but it will affect service workers and supplies so you know one day uh one of the waiters that we had gotten to know every day and we would find him and you know sit in his area he was late for work four hours and he said there was a problem with the bus it was either there wasn't enough gas or the one bus driver who drives that bus was ill so these kind of stories you may hear in Cuba now Cuba is not known as a culinary destination but the all-inclusives um have plenty of food and drinks so you don't need to worry about that at our resort we had chicken shrimp pork fish every single day there was plenty of food for breakfast lunch and dinner there was no beef if that matters to you for us it didn't we can go without beef for one week many of the alak cart restaurants on the resort were actually so delicious because I was traveling with my mom and my daughter I did bring a good supply of food with me just in case because again we weren't sure based on the reports but I'm glad to say we didn't actually need to eat anything from there there was so much food on the resort you might want to bring condiments if those matter to you like ketchup and mustard we did have ketchup but I would say it didn't quite taste like the ketchup from back home so if those are things that matter to you bring it hot sauce you might want to bring it if that matters to you for spirits there was always rum white and dark rum we didn't find vodka but there was gin there was sparkling wine red and white you know you couldn't always find every single thing you wanted but there were plenty of options to satisfy almost everyone we didn't experience any issues with food or drink there was plenty as for entertainment it was all there pool parties live entertainment interactive entertainment for kids i was actually just astonished at how friendly and amazing the Cuban workers entertainers were on the resort despite everything happening because of the lack of medicine we brought our own little mini pharmacy with us so Tylenol anti-nausea um treatments like activated charcoal and Pepto i brought rehydration pack different things that I thought we might need and have a hard time finding and then when we were leaving I left them behind with a worker because those things are really hard to find and not so hard to find here in Canada so traveling to Cuba is not for everybody if you are looking for all of your needs to be met at all times with no exceptions then Cuba is not the destination for you if you are not flexible or you're an extremely picky eater then again pay more and go to a different island and get everything you want there are certain islands that of course cater to you and you pay for that to be honest there wasn't much that we lacked you know we were flexible if our first option wasn't available we happily took our second option which was typically available and that's the attitude that you need to have if you want to go to Cuba and have a good time be open if you've considered the full situation and decide to go to Cuba please travel responsibly and go with a generous spirit some things are just so simple and take it for granted in a country struggling with its electrical grid turn off your AC when you're not using it when you're out for the day on the beach turn your AC off save your luxurious long hot showers for when you're back home cuba is also struggling with a water shortage support locals directly whenever you can if you're going to book tours and excursions I would say join the Facebook group of the resort that you plan to travel to or even the city that you plan to travel to join Facebook groups so that you can connect with individuals offering experiences which are typically better anyway than what the airline offers and this way your money goes right back into Cubans's hands also stay at Casa particulars i stayed at these when I traveled to Cuba for the first two times this is basically Airbnb in Cuba it's staying in a local's home and my experiences staying with Cubans are some of the best memories I have of being in Cuba and traveling in general so many grandmas and family members that you know taught me different things about how they live in their house where they go these are some of the best ways that you can actually get to know Cubans and learn about the culture and again you are putting money directly into locals hands which is the best thing you can do also reduce your food waste i mean like I don't do I have to say this you're going to a country that is facing severe food insecurity if you are at the buffet even on the resort where yeah we can say there's plenty of food why take a plate and then dump it all right like let's just be more conscious let's talk tipping shall we while you're on your very affordable vacation to Cuba please tip generously and don't barter if you're not going to tip the Cuban people please don't go just don't go to Cuba the economic disparity between you as a traveler even if you're a budget traveler i know the first time I went to Cuba I was a backpacker the disparity between you and the possibilities that Cubans have economically is so great that it almost feels ethically wrong to go there and not tip i don't want to talk about people's ethics but I'm just saying you can make in a day what most Cubans work a whole month to make so act accordingly tipping makes a huge difference for Cubans obviously there is some information that I gathered on my last trip that I want to share with you to help um make sure that your tips actually help Cubans don't tip in coins canadians I'm talking to you if you give a $1 coin to a Cuban um Cuban banks just like Canadian banks don't accept foreign coins so these dollar coins that you're giving to Cubans or even if you're giving them a tuni become pretty souvenirs for them because they can't do anything with that in Cuba i exchanged a bunch of Canadian coin for bills for Cubans that I met working on the resort who asked me to and I did because they had been holding on to these coins for so long and you know they actually wanted to cash them in canadian and US bills are happily accepted as a Canadian I still brought US with me because there are $1 bills tip as much as you can i will not tell you how much to tip but for me I tipped typically $2 for every drink that I got and for dinner with a party of five we tipped between $5 to $9 for every dinner service lastly consider bringing needed items for locals some basic items like I mentioned are hard to find or really expensive to purchase i'm talking toothbrushes toothpaste deodorant sanitary items and basic medications and pain relievers like Advil and Tylenol my friend let me know that there is an English bookstore in Havana called Cuba Libro and they have a list on their website of all the items that are needed by the way that bookstore looks incredible and I can't wait to go visit it when I'm back in the country but you can refer to that list if you want to find out what are some items that are really needed we packed mini kits um focused on women in them they had sanitary products toothbrushes toothpaste deodorant um hair scrunchies just different things that are really basic for us but in a climate where those are hard to find um people really appreciate it the best way to distribute these items is by connecting with someone who can go out into communities is what I've learned um the people who work at the hotel of course it's great to tip them generously and to give to them but from what I've gathered these workers are the ones who receive the most generosity obviously because they're encountering tourists every day but people who don't have work in in tourism they are not getting the benefits so that's why we asked our server if he could take it to his neighborhood which was uh quite far away from the resort and distribute the items there the Cuban people are so joyful educated and so open to sharing their culture and they deserve so much more than what they face right now if you choose to go there just do your part contribute more than you leave behind or at least attempt to do that that's all for me i hope this information helps you to decide if Cuba is the right destination for you and helps give you some direction if you do choose to go thank you so so much for watching if you enjoyed this video give it a like subscribe for more and see you in the next one [Music]