Looking for a Casa … ?

When you arrive at a new city you’ll be met by a crowd of people at bus stations, railway stations and airports.

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They all want to guide you to a Casa Particulare - a private house.

The silent arrangement that you’ll be subjected to if you follow one of these “Casa-guides” is that the owner must pay 5 CUC for every day you stay in the Casa. So a casa that normally costs you 25 CUC a day will be 30 CUC if you follow these “guides”.

The same thing is true for some of the taxi-drivers.

In Cienfuegos I showed the taxi-driver my guidebook with the name and address of the casa. Nevertheless he took me to another casa.

He ”thought” that “this was the one” and in any case, this one was “much better”, maybe even the “Best casa in town”.

I had to be quite insistent to get to where I wanted to go.

It’s a very good idea to call the casa ahead and make them take a note of your name and your country. In this way the guides or taxi-drivers can’t claim a bounty.

If you are travelling on your own, the deals at the casa particulares are not quite as attractive as when you’re travelling as a family of 4 or 5 persons.

Typically you pay for the room, whereas you’ll pay for a single room at hotels. So the bottom-line for breakfast, lunch, dinner and lodging at f.eg. Casa Amistad and the All Inclusive beach-hotel Tropicoco was in favour of the Tropicoco.