Cuba money · Money in Cuba
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Money in Cuba
Money in Cuba
For information specific to U.S. citizens see Americans in Cuba
There are two currencies circulating in Cuba, Cuban Pesos (CUP) and Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC). Prior to November 2004 US dollars were in wide circulation on par with the CUC, but the government discontinued that and they are no longer used.
CUC is the currency most tourists will use in Cuba. It is how you will pay for hotels, official taxis, entry into museums, meals at restaurants, cigars, rum, etc. Conversion into CUC can be done at exchange houses (casa de cambio, or cadeca). These are located in many hotels and in other places throughout the cities. CUC are valued at 25 times the value of CUP. Tourists are permitted to import or export a maxiumum of CUP 100 or CUC 200 at any one time. Locals refer the currency colloquialy as "kook" or "kooks"
CUP are also known as local Pesos and are referred to in Spanish as "Moneda Nacional" (National money). As of Jan 2011, 1 CUC buys 24 CUP and 25 CUP buys 1 CUC. There is a limited range of goods that can be bought for local pesos, and these are transactions carried out in agricultural markets or from street vendors. Fruits, vegetables, fresh juices and snacks from street vendors are among the things CUP can buy. CUP's also buys the local cigars 'tabacos' or 'Nacionales' in local shops. These taste fair, and you get one for 1 CUP, far cheaper than what you have to pay for the exportation brands. Try them, they are OK. If you plan on staying in Havana there are plenty of locations that offer goods in CUP and they are worth checking out. There are even sit down restaurants with food priced in CUP. The food is cheaper and you will be eating with actual Cubans. However the quality of cuisine can be very hit or miss.
Because the products that can be purchased with CUP are limited, it is a good idea to change only about CUC 5-10 into CUP at a time,
If you are on a budget, finding food vendors in CUP is the best way to go. These will not be aimed at tourists and therefore much cheaper. A street vendor selling donuts for 5 CUP will bump up the price to 1 CUC (roughly five times more) though, so make sure you always have some CUPs on you.
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Cuba Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.