{"id":3135,"date":"2017-03-24T08:55:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T08:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2017-07-02T11:35:34","modified_gmt":"2017-07-02T11:35:34","slug":"the-cuban-currency-public-transport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/?p=3135","title":{"rendered":"The Cuban Currency &#038; Public Transport."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u00a0There are two types of currency in Cuba &#8211; CUC and CUP.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) = 1 US Dollar = \u00a30.78 GBP.<\/p>\n<p>25 National Pesos (CUP) = 1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC).<\/p>\n<p><strong>The National Peso (CUP).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This currency is what most of the\u00a0local people are paid their salary in. Using the National Peso, you can purchase\u00a0smaller items, and the \u201cbasics\u201d that one needs. It\u2019s important to realize that this isn\u2019t the \u201cCuban people\u2019s currency\u201d, foreigners can use this money as well, and buy the following items with CUP:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rides in the local inter-city buses (jam-packed full, no room to breathe)<\/li>\n<li>Fruit and vegetables from the markets and side-of-the-road stands<\/li>\n<li>Street snacks such as popcorn and fried plantains<\/li>\n<li>Rides in a collectivo\u00a0(shared) taxi<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This currency is used for \u201cluxury\u201d items and is the money you\u2019ll mostly find yourself spending during your travels in Cuba. Locals\u00a0who earn this currency rather than the National Peso are typically those\u00a0in tourism (casa owners, tour guides, taxi drivers, hotel staff, etc.).<\/p>\n<p>With CUC, you can pay for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Meals at a sit-down restaurant<\/li>\n<li>Cocktails and beer<\/li>\n<li>Bottled water<\/li>\n<li>Tourist bus (Viazul) tickets<\/li>\n<li>Internet<\/li>\n<li>Hotels and casa particulares<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The two currencies actually look quite similar &#8211; meaning you need to check your change when you get it. Both for the right currency, CUC when you might get CUP, and the correct amount of change. I lost count the number of times when people tried to short change me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Public Transport.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>City Bus: (\u00a30.03) $0.04 (yes, 3 pence).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This transportation is very cheap, but the buses are packed to the brim with people. If you can imagine &#8216;rush hour&#8217; tube travel in London and double it, you will get some idea of how crowded the buses are.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cuba_Barb_pic5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3137\" src=\"http:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cuba_Barb_pic5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cuba_Barb_pic5.jpg 640w, https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Cuba_Barb_pic5-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shared Taxis (Collectivos): (\u00a30.39) $0.50 \/ ride in the city (paid with 10 CUP.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Havana, very old classic cars run up and down various streets, on a set route. They will pull over and pick up people who are going in their direction, but you must flag them down. This ended up being my prefered option for travel in Havana.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3136\" style=\"width: 730px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07482.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3136\" class=\"wp-image-3136 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07482.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07482.jpg 720w, https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/DSC07482-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3136\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taxi Collectivo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Next stage: My final day in Havana.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0There are two types of currency in Cuba &#8211; CUC and CUP. 1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) = 1 US Dollar = \u00a30.78 GBP. 25 National Pesos (CUP) = 1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC). The National Peso (CUP). This currency &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/?p=3135\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[155,150],"class_list":["post-3135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cuba","tag-cuba","tag-havana"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3247,"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/3247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldoftravelling.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}