>>1123865
The truth is that if you want an all inclusive beach resort vacation you will find better quality elsewhere in the Caribbean. The all inclusive stuff in Cuba is okay, but mid-tier at best because the food is terrible. Perhaps this is slowly changing since the U.S. lifted the embargo, but I went 4 years ago and with small exceptions the food was disgusting. What I did find incredibly interesting was going to art galleries/shops and leAfing through the prints in boxes out of the main thoroughfare. I found some paintings that were certainly not the government approved sort, like a naked Cuban soldier with clown makeup on with a big fake smile. I asked the curator about the obvious political commentary, and she was not straying from certain party lines. She probably thought that I was some kind of gov agent checking on her establishment. I found it all very interesting to see a society holding onto the last bits of communism while in the process of opening up to the world. I loved witnessing the transition.
And yes, Havana is beautiful.

>>1123865
As a Miami native, but who isn't hispanic, I grew up with enough political asylum citizens back with Batista and with Castro both. I will not give a single dollar to their government (or the men who operated the hotels) as a tourist, and I don't think it's entirely safe either, you're jailed just for being in a vehicle that had a car accident. There isn't going to be a true embassy with true relations to protect travelers who get into any trouble for a long time. Though I won't go yet, I do know quite a few people who have seen family or touristed there. (My grandparents honeymooned there).
I'll explain the mystique generally first and specifically later. Generally, there are few places left in the world that aren't touched by technology in a big way, and this time capsule of a country lets you experience travel in a fashion of all the pre-jet age heydey where only the wealthy were getting in pan am clippers or taking cruises and writing about it for others to armchair experience. Cuba was ridiculously prosperous once (as was Haiti for that matter), where all the second sons from Europe made their fortunes and lived in paradise, a kind of colonial empire of nostalgia befitting a James Bond movie. Cubans are awesome people, always were quite unique with that class background and work ethic, it'd be cool to see the make-do attitude the preserved the Hershey train, not just the cars.
As far as better nature, not sure about that. With Cubans denied access to boats, there's been precious little fishing, or destruction of the natural habitat. Miami Metrzoo's Ron Magill went down there and thinks there might be 150 species of insects, birds, and other wildlife that are unique, kind of a Galapagos effect. They missed out on that era of scientific research that classified and studied all of them.
Architecture is falling down, but was once grand, and a few examples of modern art no-expense-spared public buildings are interesting to the scholarly types.

>>1123865
As far as food goes, it might be better now than >>1123896
experienced 4 years ago, because a recent starvation issue gave a bit of relaxation on some of the restrictions and entreprenuers who supplement their incomes with in-house restaurants from their own gardens have been given some leeway. They were starving afterall. But old fashioned cuban food? Not the really good stuff like you can get in miami, with rice that uses real saffron or platter sized palomilla steaks with mountains of fries. Try Rio Cristal in Miami for a back-in-time menu before flying down there.
For great resorts, in the old style of grand old buildings or surf resort old small and quaint, those are getting harder to find, but the one thing they all have in common is being more remote, and therefore your costs are higher to fly there and get to the location. If the airfare is cheap, go one more town or island away from the airport, and find some of the more amazing beaches or cool properties. Cayman Brac has no one there, but Grand Cayman's hurricane caused the end of some of the oldies that are not Cancun style rebuilt giant all inclusive style Ritz's.
It's a 50/50 you will enjoy the people or be bothered by them. All the disgusting people of the world who travel to abuse sex workers are all there with you, its a hot destination for that since it's a part of black market income for people who have rationed beans and rice, and minimal income. The average Cuban gets 1 pair of shoes a year. Expect women to be walking up and down Varadero for "work" and some not so private displays of affection. You will however hear music that is great, and see baseball kids blow away your mind. If you do some of the more interesting things like talk to the political dudes in the square gabbing, or playing dominoes, you invite trouble from the govt for them and for you. You won't be allowed to bring your relatives/locals into the major hotels to dine or drink with you. It's an odd feeling.

>>1123913
>hasn't been to Cuba
>opinions informed entirely from subjective-as-fuck exiles
>proceeds to write a novel about what Cuba is like anyway

Cuba was only 'prosperous' before because of sugar, tobacco, prostitution and gambling. And that was for a relative few in Havana. Much like your James Bond analogy, America effectively ran the country like a private fiefdom. Casinos and brothels were a huge part of the industry.

Cubans in general, whether because of Communist anti-family ideology or just nigs being nigs, are quite open to sex. That is, with each other. It's not much of a stretch to take a foreign 'boyfriend' for a week and get him to buy you new shoes, books/pens for your kid (you're probably a single mother, after all) and to some nice dinners.

I don't want to turn this into a /pol/ thread but are there any white/European bloods left in Cuba? In documentaries all the people are blacks and mulattos but the census says the country is 65% white

>>1123940
"white" means different things to different people in different places. They may identify themselves as white, because historically their family blood is mostly European, etc. (This may sound silly, but don't forget it's in a hot sunny land, so people do tan and look darker than they might otherwise if living in a Finnish cave all their lives)

Cuba is noticeably mixed, and yes there are light mestizo/creolo people. Even natural blue or green eyes or blonde hair is not exceptionally rare (but less so than a homogenous European, of course). But that said, most people are rather darker, even besides tanning. Blacks and darker mestizos are more the 'typical Cuban' when I think of Cubans. I think Cuba is still, fwiw, more 'white' than the Dominican Republic or other native Caribbean populations.

>>1123865
>"eat pizza at XYZ"
WTF? Who said that? I was in Cuba a few months ago. You do not eat the pizza. Never eat the pizza. It's nasty.

I wish I had taken some pictures of the 'pizzas' that I ate in Cuba. It was quite an experience. But to be honest, I didn't eat most of them because I kept giving ripped off pieces to kids (and their parents) who walked up and asked me for some.

>>1123940
>are there any white/European bloods left in Cuba?
Nope. They left, and deeded their homes, if not seized to their help. Why a census states that number is someone taking liberties. To counter that in the US, questions about race will state "White-non-hispanic" to weed them out in studies.

>>1123865
>why is Cuba so shit
Because it's poor, and has a fucked up economic and political system that encourages people to live as hucksters and scammers, meaning life is rather unpleasant
>the only recommendations I ever see are "walk around Havana" or "eat pizza at XYZ" or "the beaches are nice"
You can also get drunk and smoke cigars, but yes, when even the food is unredeemable, you know the country a shit
>Is there anything salvageable about this dumptruck of a country?
No
>Why go to Cuba when there's a million other beach-like destination islands nearby with better nature, more activities to take part in, and better sights and museums?
Because special snowflake syndrome, there is a widespread misconception that it is inaccessible to Americans and therefore somehow more interesting. Nothing could be further from the truth

Source: visited almost every Latin American country including Cuba, Cuba is a depressing dump with no redeeming value

>>1123933
>Cuba was only 'prosperous' before because of sugar, tobacco, prostitution and gambling.
Just not true. It was just like any European city with a regarded major university, professionals everywhere, entrepreneurs, and from family money that came with them, or hard work. You don't know what you're talking about. Any casino money was never a part of the local economy, but all for the corrupt government no matter who was in power, and nothing to do with the economy of people except that rich people definitely lived there and played there. Every quality mobster or politician, royalty or celebrity actor, came to Miami Beach and to Havana both, but they were at the lavish local country clubs, race tracks, parks, restaurants, fishing boats, shopped, dined, stayed in friend's owned private homes, and the golf courses as much as the casinos. It was the Vegas of the time for vacations that included nightclub acts and music, but it was a real community unlike Vegas with a very very large upper middle class, disproportionately large, much as with Monte Carlo, in the cities at least.
It's a little known fact that Batista was one of the original investors in the beautiful planned city of Coral Gables, and he went into exile before taking residence in his home on Country Club Prado. People went back and forth to Havana for reasons other than brothels. It's ignorant to assume illegal activity could displace an entire populace of normal community or that it was a part of their culture.

>>1123993
First, Cuba is not a European city.

Second, it's a shit analogy. It's a Caribbean island dependent on natural resources (i.e. cash crops). Of course it had a middle class and urban professionals, I never said it didn't, but it was largely rural -- still is.

You might have noted my use of quotes around the word 'prosperous'. This was not a mistake. Cubans were mostly poorfags out in the countryside. How much of the entertainment industry profits trickled down is irrelevant anyway, as they funded the government.

I'll confess, I made this thread to troll people into giving good travel advice, because that's the only way to actually get much help on this board... but it seems Cuba really is shit.

>actually no interesting nature
>cool architecture is mostly falling apart or flat-out wiped the fuck out by hurricanes
>the food is shit
>there is no good pizza on the island
>prostitutes everywhere

whew lad

I thought someone would be able to post at least one good thing about this place. I was planning on travelling there for a week or two, but it sounds like two weeks would be fucking stretching it. I'd probably be better off just booking a fucking resort and getting balls deep into some milf

I was in Cuba last year, just after they opened the American embassy.
I found it a very interesting and unique experience. I went with my girlfriend and we tried to go around and avoid the more touristic areas. Since I'm of soviet origin, Cuba felt like living my parent's stories about the good old Soviet Union. These little things like going to a local supermarket or cloth shop, where you have no music playing in the background, or stopping in the countryside and celebrating birthday of a random Cuban family was really awesome and really diffrent from anything I've ever experienced as I was travelling.
If you ask me, going to Cuba to an all-inclusive resort is a pure waste of time.

>>1124014
>I'll confess, I made this thread to troll people into giving good travel advice, because that's the only way to actually get much help on this board

>post a /r9k/ meets /pol/ shit thread on the most normie board
>get helpful answers
pick one, just one.

Heres how you do it next time:
1. create a new thread, write it like a normal question and include as much infos as possible (where, when, why, interests, etc)
2. you will get answers from /trv/l even from people like me who where recently and a few times before there, as the country is changing so fast that even the latest Lonely Planet is already outdated and mostly obsolete.

>>1123993
Glad to see the Cuban mafia in Miami got to you. You seem to forget the people who left Cuba were part of the corruption that was ousted with Batista. Of course, their propaganda network carried back to the island and people leave because they think they can get a better life... but they go to America, and that dream is not unique. Cuba is poor because it is a small country in the Carribbean, but has much mythology attributed to it by Americans and Cuban-Americans because it is Communist. I don't see Jamaica, the DR, or the Bahamas leading the HDI.

>>1124055

This thread was actually a reference to the last Cuba thread we had (not long ago), in which no actual good information was given apart from what's in OP post (pizza, staying by beach, see Havana).

Is /trv/ so anti-Communist because they haven't really traveled much or because they weren't smart enough to put together a logical worldview from their experiences?

>>1124306
Why dont u go live in one of these communist countries you edgelord fuckface?

>>1124306
it's /pol/ meme spill over.

>>1124289
>Glad to see the Cuban mafia in Miami got to you. You seem to forget the people who left Cuba were part of the corruption that was ousted with Batista

EXACTLY. Ever wonder why the "Cubans" you meet in Miami are so different from the ones you meet actually in Cuba? It is because the ones who had the means also had the most motivation to leave. They got what they had in Cuba because they fucked someone else over royally.

>>1123865
C O M M U N I S M
O O
M M
M M
U U
N N
I I
S S
M M

Not only did it wipe out lots of the culture during the cold war to be more like it's motherland, the economy is shit because it's centralized.
A cab driver makes more than an MD.

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>>1124399
This much damage control

>>1124306
I don't really see any anti-communist here, have you actually been to Cuba? People are complaining about the place being overrun with hookers and buildings that are falling apart, so like, are you saying that those are the essential elements of communism? Or are you saying that not being thrilled with those things makes you anti-Communist?

Maybe you might be happier on /pol/

>>1124669
Not that guy, but...
>overrun with hookers
protip: that's one of the main reasons people go there. It's like a poorer, shabbier Caribbean Thailand.

>>1124484
So, capitalism?

I knew it.

>>1124768
Yeah but Thailand has a lot to attract legitimate tourists as well as sex tourists, Cuba is just a fucking dump with used up leatherface hookers, awful food, hucksters trying to scam everyone they meet, and faded kitschy propaganda murals that are probably only maintained for their touristic value

>>1124863
>with used up leatherface hookers
That's the only part I disagree with. First of all, Cuban women can be pretty damn hot.

Also, there aren't really as many 'professional' hookers as you think. I mean, you can get hookers sent to your hotel, but that's not how the majority of tourists are doing it. Sex tourism works differently there. It's more like you can get a normal girl, any girl off the street if she's single and you know a bit of Spanish. She'll be yours for a few days, she'll fuck your brains out and treat you nicely. But you don't pay her in cash directly (at least not primarily), you buy her meals, new clothes, school shit for her kid (almost every pretty Cuban over 20 has a child), etc.

Like I said, it's not only a small sub-set of women who do this... plenty of 'normal' girls do it too. Sex is not a sacred thing only for married couples in Cuba -- everyone does it with everyone without prejudice, and so it's pretty easy stretch to letting some gringo do the same as José or Juan, except he showers you with gifts, and doesn't punch you in the face when you don't bring him his rice and beans fast enough.

I agree Cuban food is pretty meh though. There are scam artists about, but that's a poor country for you.

>>1124014

You fucking started a shit political discussion that's dominated by mindless drones stating that Cuba is shit because of communism without having any knowledge of the country, people or history of the island.

There's fucking heaps of interesting stuff to do, all it takes is a google search.

Heres some ideas for you:

Vinales (Karsts and caves, Tobacco fields)
Maria La Gorda beaches and coastline.
Hacienda Cortina (I think its getting refurbished, but it was cool when it was abandoned)
Waterfalls (Salto de Soroa, El Nicho ect)
Various diving spots, swimming areas and swimming with dolphins.
Hikes and walks, wildlife too.
Coastal road (cant remember which one, but it was amazing scenery, a bit run down but its super cool)
Hundreds of kms of empty beaches.
Revolutionary and cultural history sites.

There, knock yourself out.

>>1125274
>There are scam artists about, but that's a poor country for you.
It's definitely not because it's a poor country, I'm getting close to having visited 50 countries now, only a few of them first world developed countries. Cuba was uniquely infested with aggressive scammers, I found the people as a whole extremely distasteful. I assume the butthurt cubaboo will now accuse me of being a CIA agent trying to overthrow his terrarium/source of braggable Instagram moments/whatever

Seems like it's not allowed to not like certain countries on this board.

>>1125341
I guess it's all relative. I'd say yes the hustling in Havana could be pretty stifling and annoying as fuck. They're poor, but they're also western and fully aware of how life is in the US for example... they're not naive humble poorfags like you find more often in Asia or Africa. Perhaps they're spoiled by all the obliging naive tourists by the literal (cruise)boatload. In smaller or more out of the way places, I found people generally more straightforward. Maybe it helps I can speak shitty-but-passable Spanish.

I spent one week on a resort because holidays why not. Swam, drank, smoked cigars, slept with some French-Canadian bitches. And then 10 days floating around the country... Seems you're expected to give tips left and right at the resorts (pretty irritating when you come from a country like mine without a tipping culture). Food was also terrible, yea. Like it COULD be better, I did have some nice meals, but overall it's poverty-tier. The gimmicky Asian chef shit at the resort I also found somehow very depressing.

You can dislike countries on this board anon, but not everyone has to agree with you either. I'd definitely agree that Cuba is rather shabby, and it doesn't rank among my favourite places... tourism is a large part of it's economy, and you can definitely see how that's spoiled some things. But I don't regret going.

>>1125523
I don't agree with your analysis. My opinions about Cuba are based on the premise that they ought to have something in common with greater Latin America, but it seems they don't. And my Spanish is pretty good - I can't pass for a local, but I can hold a conversation on any topic without difficulty or asking the person to repeat what they said.

Cuba is the only place where even simple small talk gets dispensed with, almost without exception (the exceptions being cops and shit); it goes straight to asking for stuff or money, or pressuring the person to visit some paladar or brothel or whatever. This isn't a poor country thing, and it's definitely not because it's 90 miles off the coast of Florida. And I've seen this behavior by Cuban athletes in another Latin American country (visiting the university I studied at), so it's not just street people. It's weird to try to chat someone up and they straight up ask for your watch or your jacket like they're asking the time of day.

It's difficult not to draw ugly conclusions about a culture when even "normal" people act grabby and desperate. I've experienced my share of culture shock in Asia and the middle east, seen plenty of beggars, hookers, street hustlers, and the like, but I've never been tempted to just write off an entire people as being bereft of dignity, like with the Cubans.

>>1125577
I don't agree with your analysis either. I'm not going to mount a rising defence of the place, but I IME, it's not that bad. And they are obviously latin americans, come the fuck on.

I think you may be forgetting it's also a communist shithole.

*shrug*

To each his own.