Cuba - last minute itinerary tweeks.
 

We fly into Havana on Monday, and have 4 nights there before we plan to set off to explore the rest of the island, for which we have 17 more nights. This is our first trip to Cuba, hopefully not our last but there's a lot of the world to see so we want to make the most of it.

We have considered flying straight down to Santiago de Cuba, but can't get flights until the following Tuesday, which leaves us with the problem of what to do with the intervening days, and splits up the trip too much. We have also considered not trying to get down to Santiago at all, and just restrict ourselves to using Viazul buses and taxis to explore the western half of the island but that seems a waste when we have [I think] long enough to get to Santiago and back.

Though I would prefer to go to Santiago straight after we leave Havana, I've found flights back a couple of days before we are due to fly out, which I think gives us enough time if things go wrong so make alternative arrangements. This would give us 15 nights to get from Havana to Santiago. does this sound worthwhile? or are we attempting too much?

Any suggestions?

I loved Santiago. The problem is that it's way off on its own to the east and not on the standard tourist route. It's a lot of time on the road unless you fly.

thanks, Jeff. That's the dilemma really; ideally we would have flown there immediately after our 4 nights in Havana, but by the time I managed to negotiate the on-line booking system [i think that I tried to book too early, and then when I tried again, it was too late] all of the tickets at the time we would want to go were sold out. There are still seats on flights back from Santiago and Baracoa to Havana at the end of our stay, but perhaps wrongly we're a bit concerned that if our flight were cancelled, we'd be stuck at the wrong end of Cuba and miss our flight home.

do you know how reliable internal flights are?

So are inclining to wait now till we get there; presumably we'll be able to find a tourist office that will be able see if there are any tickets for when we want to go?

Annhig, are you in Cuba?

I think you arrived there a week ago. How was Havana and the place you stayed in? Hope it was okay. As you know, we did not stay in our original place and were lucky to find another place that was perfect for us.

Hope you are enjoying the trip. We found it to be quite an eye-opener and very interesting. Husband and son are going back in April, I think.

Marianna - we got back yesterday. As you say the place is quite an eye-opener and we too had to relocate in a hurry but not in Havana, where the place we stayed was fine. There were a couple of other places where we weren't thrilled with the accommodation but it was just about ok and moving was too much of a hassle.

Overall we had a good trip and you can't deny that it's an interesting experience.