Cuba is a wonderful travel destination. But due to different regime that the one in your country, there are some more than usual prerequisites you have to fulfill on your trip to Cuba.
At your arrival to Cuba you will be asked by border officials to show these:
- A passport that is valid at least 6 more months after arriving to Cuba
- Visa or Tourist card validated by a Cuban embassy.
- Tourist health insurance.
- Your destination address.
1. A valid passport
Check immediately if your passport will still be valid for 6 months after you arrive to Cuba. If you are out of luck, go to your country’s passport department and fill in a request for a new passport. There will usually be a facility to make your new portrait photo. Normally you will have to pay extra for a priority treatment. Thus you can expect a new passport in 2 or 3 days.
be sure to make a photo of your passport and send it to your gmail or cloud. In case of lost passport it will be very handy to have a copy of it.
2. Visa or Tourist Card
Depends on your resident country, a visa or tourist card will be required to enter Cuba. Only if you are a Russian, Serbia, Bosnian or Macedonian resident, you will be able to enter without a special authorization. Otherwise citizens from US, Europer and other countries will have to obtain visa or tourist card written on their name. In EU countries Cuban embassies have made it possible for some tourist agencies to sell the tourist cards and fill them on behalf of the embassy. The cost is around 30 EUR or 33 USD and you get your visa issued immediately. there have also been some stories that when traveling with Air Canada a visa could be purchased on the plane. But do not count on that.
In no case do not tear or damage the visa. It will become invalid if damaged.
3. Health insurance for your trip to Cuba
You must have health insurance policy with you on entering Cuba. The policy should protect you with at least 30.000 USD for covering medical charges. Of course in the case if anything happens to you and you must use Cuban healthcare system which is by the way one of the best ones in the region.
4. Destination address
You must prove to border officials that you are heading to a defined address. They will not allow people to wander around the country with no specified destination. It can be either your hotel address or the address of the casa particular you booked for your first couple of nights.
Your trip to Cuba will be stress free if you take care of these little things that can be provided in a short time just before your flight.