Havana Trip Report May 2018

rabidraccoon

By rabidraccoon
in Cuba Travel Forum

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rabidraccoon Marevas

rabidraccoon

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Just a brief summary of my trip. Yalls tips and info here on the forum were very helpful for planning my weekend trip to Havana and making optimal purchases so thank you.

I flew in to Havana on a Friday evening and headed straight for the LCDH at 5th and 16th in Miramar. I wanted to get there before it closed at 8 pm since I had brought no cigars with me. They had massive inventory of boxes, 3 packs and 5 packs. I mostly saw regular production stuff along with the common LCDH exclusives like Epicure De Luxe, RA Superiores, H. Upmann Royal Robustos etc. I picked up a box of 10 RA Superiores, a HdM Petit Robusto and a BBF. I insisted on a factura but the lady there said it was only for 20+ boxes and wouldn’t give me one. Then I headed to Habana Vieja, checked in to my airbnb and headed to NAO bar for dinner. Had the HdM Petit Robusto with dinner - exceptional cigar. The food was quite good at NAO. Traditional cuban dishes like black beans and quimbombo were great. Just avoid the cuban sandwiches - theyre on white grocery store bread and the ham is like one of those processed Oscar Mayer slices. Went back to my airbnb balcony and smoked the BBF. Great flavors but it was pretty moist and burn wasn’t great. 

The next day I walked around town and stopped by Conde de Villanueva. Reynaldo was a great host. Cool guy to talk to. He rolled me a cigar for free and then I picked up some of his custom churchills. I smoked one of the claro wrapper robustos they had at the cash register counter. It was constructed perfectly. Gorgeous burn but a little light for my taste. He said the other ones he had in the chest of drawers were stronger so those are what I bought. I then walked over to Vedado for a cooking class with a family that runs a B&B. That was a fun experience and fresh homemade Cuban food can’t be beat. I walked over to Habana Libre and they had a huge selection of singles including harder to find ones. I got some Montecristo EL Dantes, Trinidad fundies, Genios, and other random singles. Not sure if the more limited edition singles were real or not based on what I’ve read here about them having fake Behike singles. I was just so excited to see so many singles on offer that I just decided to take the risk. After that I walked over to the Hotel Nacional. Milagro was the torceadora outside of the LCDH there. A wonderfully nice lady who was very fun to talk to. I bought one of her torpedoes to smoke out on the terrace. Loved the cigar and the smoking location was incredible - right above the Malecon with nice outdoor seating and bar service. I went back and bought a pack of her Churchills. I felt like the tobacco she was working with was of exceptional quality. That torpedo was one of the best cigars of my trip.

For my last day I headed back to Conde de Villanueva and smoked one of Reynaldo’s fuller bodied robustos. Definitely a notch above the one I had had the previous day. Wonderfully serene courtyard smoking experience with that cigar. I bought about 10 more customs of various sizes including some of the ridiculously fat vitolas. I walked around and bought some Partagas maduro and Upmann Añejado singles from the LCDH on Mercaderes right by Conde de Villanueva. I then headed to the airport. The duty free had most of the better selling marcas and vitolas in tubes and 3-5 packs. Seems more geared towards people looking for a souvenier to take home. Not sure what kind of quality considerations are in place so I didn’t risk it. The duty free had a large humidor with boxes and I asked to buy a 10 box of RA Superiores but the lady said they are not for sale (they had like 50 boxes of them). I asked why they weren’t for sale and she said “because they’re not for sale”. I don’t know what is up with that. That was about it. A very nice little weekend trip. 

Takeaways:

- Customs are the way to go (for the experience of buying direct from the torceador and the uniqueness)

- RA Superiores were an exceptional buy and widely available at all the LCDH’s ($58 box of 10) - a beautifully rich smoke

- Trinidad Fundies, H Upmann Añejados, and Partagas Maduro boxes were available at most of the LCDH’s. Didn’t see any Trovas or QdO.

 

 

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n0s4atu Marevas

n0s4atu

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Thanks for the report and the pics.  It sounds like you just went for a weekend, which is sort of what I've been thinking of doing for our anniversary this year.  Do you feel like a weekend in Havana was enough time?

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nick2021 Marevas

nick2021

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I just left Havana today—-really surprised at the quality cigars still on shelves like RA Gigantes, Espys, and Sir Winnies....even found some bonus Reynaldo Custom Lanceros in stock which I thought he had stopped rolling.....

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n0s4atu Marevas

n0s4atu

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Sounds like a great short trip actually.  I'm going to have to look at other threads and see how it is getting visas and all that now for travel. I think I may just pull the trigger for late July early August.

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nick2021 Marevas

nick2021

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On 5/31/2018 at 9:58 AM, n0s4atu said:

Thanks for the report and the pics.  It sounds like you just went for a weekend, which is sort of what I've been thinking of doing for our anniversary this year.  Do you feel like a weekend in Havana was enough time?

It’s not as complicated as you think....matter of fact, shop owners said more people are going through cruises because they don’t think they can fly in.  My driver said the same thing....it’s probably not a bad thing at the end of the day.  Just don’t push your luck....Cuban Customs Agents are serious when it comes to certain things like fracturas and unbanded cigars.  Today they even opened my check in luggage and called me down to the basement over intercom while I was in the terminal.  Never had that happen before....

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rabidraccoon Marevas

rabidraccoon

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On 5/31/2018 at 9:58 AM, n0s4atu said:

Thanks for the report and the pics.  It sounds like you just went for a weekend, which is sort of what I've been thinking of doing for our anniversary this year.  Do you feel like a weekend in Havana was enough time?

Yeah it was enough for me but my agenda was basically to visit some of the shops and walk around. If you have a list of things to do you might want more time. Also I didn’t have much travel time because I flew from Miami. Either way you can’t go wrong, it will be a great time there.

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n0s4atu Marevas

n0s4atu

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On 6/1/2018 at 5:10 PM, Derboesekoenig said:

Before you board your flight for Cuba, you fill out the information for the visa and pay the fee. Very simple as stated previously. 

Wait, that's it? And out of curiosity can this be done ahead of time? We're not that far from our starting airport here in Maryland and could easily take an afternoon on the weekend and get it done early.

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Derboesekoenig Campanas

Derboesekoenig

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It is that easy, but you have to pick one of the 12 categories of travel, and I believe there are only 2 feasible options--"Support for Cuban people", and "People to People exchange". For the former, it works excellent for individual travel, but you need to stay in either AirBnb or casa particular and you need to keep all receipts/facturas as well as have a documented itinerary for 6 hrs per day, every day (business day). For the latter, it is more geared towards group travel, but is essentially the same thing.

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n0s4atu Marevas

n0s4atu

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Thanks guys, I appreciate the responses.  
Does the itinerary have to be written ahead of time to be presented at the time of acquiring the visa?  And how detailed must it be? Can it be as simply stated as breakfast with X discussing life in cuba 1.5 hrs, trip to Museum 3.5 hrs, etc?


And forgive the many questions, never having done it I just want to make sure it's a great trip for the wife. I tend to just wing things often, but she's a details kind of gal and so the unknown here is freaking her out a bit. lol

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luv2fly Campanas

luv2fly

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People to People exchange for individuals is no longer allowed.  That is for licensed tour groups or going on OFAC shore excursions from a cruise ship.

Support for the Cuban People is what I have been told people are using when traveling solo.

As for your itinerary, you keep records in the off chance the government audits you to make sure you followed the rules for going.  I think 7 years but I could be wrong.  

You don't have to show an itinerary beforehand.

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/cuba_faqs_new.pdf

 

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n0s4atu Marevas

n0s4atu

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Thanks Luv2Fly.

We've now booked our flights and our casa for the trip. Our particular place is just a couple blocks away from Conde de Villanueva.  

Now the proper planning of how to spend our 3 days there. I'm thinking the day we arrive will be all about cigars and grabbing dinner. Then the following 2 days we can focus on seeing the sights of Havana. 

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JY0 Campanas

JY0

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19 hours ago, luv2fly said:

People to People exchange for individuals is no longer allowed.  That is for licensed tour groups or going on OFAC shore excursions from a cruise ship.

Support for the Cuban People is what I have been told people are using when traveling solo.

As for your itinerary, you keep records in the off chance the government audits you to make sure you followed the rules for going.  I think 7 years but I could be wrong.  

You don't have to show an itinerary beforehand.

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/cuba_faqs_new.pdf

 

19 hours ago, luv2fly said:

 

Five years, according to an OFAC officer that was traveling with our cruise ship last week. He presence on the ship surprised me a bit. Our ship was the first ship to come directly from the US to Santiago De Cuba, hence the OFAC agent on board. 

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stogieluver

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On 6/4/2018 at 6:08 AM, JY0 said:

 

Five years, according to an OFAC officer that was traveling with our cruise ship last week. He presence on the ship surprised me a bit. Our ship was the first ship to come directly from the US to Santiago De Cuba, hence the OFAC agent on board. 

Jeff, we also had the OFAC officer on board. They didn’t ask or seem to give a rip about our plans for the island. 

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