Traveling to Cuba from USA
I travelled from Miami, USA to Havana, Cuba in april 2019. I must admit I had no idea how this would turn out. I had read so many places that it would not be possible to enter Cuba from the US due to political tension between the two counties. I was truly exciting if I would make it to Havana, Cuba.
Traveling to Cuba
If traveling to Cuba from the U.S., you need to be traveling under one of the following categories:
- Family visits
- Official business of the U.S. government, foreign governments, and certain intergovernmental organizations
- Journalistic activity
- Professional research and professional meetings
- Educational activities
- Religious activities
- Public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions
- Support for the Cuban people
- Humanitarian projects
- Activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes
- Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials
- Certain export transactions that may be considered for authorization under existing regulations and guidelines.
Number 8 “Support for the Cuban people” is the category most people travel under and this is also the category I traveled under. I was not sure if I should change my trip and depart from another country but I did find one person that said it would be possible as long as you’re a bit prepared. So that is what I did. In case anyone would have asked me, I made a list of what I was going to do in Cuba, such as staying with the locals in a casa particular, eating at privately owned restaurants etc. This was just a precaution, just to make sure I would actually make it to Cuba.
While preparing for my trip, I saw a couple of places where they charge you to write this itinerary for you. It seems like people are taking advantage of the situation and make a business out of it. I would not recommend paying for this, based on how easy our trip went, but as mentioned earlier, I would recommend being aware and just write one your self. I don’t know the quality required, but since I haven’t seen a place where it says anything about the quality of this itinerary I would think writing one your self should be good enough.
Visa
I’m from Scandinavia and I read before going that it wouldn’t matter if I had a visa before going, I would have to buy a visa in the U.S either way. I didn’t bother checking if this was true, so I dropped getting a visa before going and bought one at the airport in Miami. After printing my boarding ticket at a kiosk I went to bag drop and bought my visa in line. They gave me some forms, I paid, dropped off my luggage and proceeded to security. It was an easy procedure, no questions asked.
Boarding
Arriving at the gate, I was still a little anxious. Maybe this was the place we had to turn around and try to get to Cuba in another way, but no, boarding went fine, everything went fine. I can’t say it’s like this every time, but we had no problems anywhere. We didn’t get any questions at the gate; we boarded the plain without any problems at all.
