Oye amigo, habla Español ?

Hey friend, do you speak Spanish? It is common to hear this phrase along the island.

Spanish is the main language and locals enjoy chatting with the visitors so take your Spanish phrase book with you on your holidays. However you will commonly find that English is spoken through the island.

Tourist services are priced in CUC ( Cuban Convertible Pesos ) their nominations are 1s,3s, 5s, 10s, and 20s ,50s or 100s.

Effective Nov 08 2004 , all the Cuban institutions, shops, hotels, airports, restaurants and any others who provide services to nationals and foreigners within the Cuban national territory will only accept Cuban Convertible Pesos which can be bought at the airport, hotels shops or banks.

The Cuban Convertible Pesos will be exchanged for US dollars with a 10% tax, which is to say for example, 90.00 Cuban Convertible pesos for 100.00 US.

The rest of the currencies, Euros, Canadian Dollars, Sterling Pounds, and Swiss Francs will not be applied the 10% tax when buying Cuban Convertible Pesos and will be exchanged according to the Bank currency rates considering that in Cuba one Convertible Peso is equivalent to one US dollar.

Also the Euro will continue to be accepted in the Cuban Tourist resorts the currently accept this currency.

For the payments with the credit cards that are accepted in Cuba, the 10% tax applied to the Us dollar is not applicable.

Cuba Destino Caribe suggests to all its costumers and collaborators that from November 08 2004 it will be advisable to travel to Cuba with currencies like Euros, Canadian Dollars, Sterling Pounds, and Swiss Francs rather that US dollars.