Transportation in Cuba. Bus, car, taxi, airplane, railroad

Transportation

Cuba has a good infrastructure of transport, so much by road as by air and by rail that facilitates the connection among all the points of the country in term of hours. It's necessary to do distinction among the transportation that are paid in dollars (of very good quality) and those that are paid in Cuban pesos (the national currency) that are in general of mediocre quality, most tourist, obviously, will use services of transport paid in dollars.

Air: advisable to move between extremes point on the island or keys like Cayo Largo del Sur (Long Key of the South) that don't have access for earth. All the destinations tourist and main cities have airport and air connection with Havana. It is also available the service of air taxi in almost the whole country.

Marine: basically in the transfers to the Island of Pines, there is ferrys service (it includes transfer of cars) and of quick boats, a pleasant trip without doubts.

Bus: it is the more used in Cuba, there are several bus lines but more advisable it is Via Azul (the terminal is in 26 street, Nuevo Vedado, City of Havana) that connects all the tourist destinations with the capital with exact schedules, acceptable comfort and economic prices. There also exist other companies of trips for bus and minibuses like Veracuba or Astros. Astros are the main company of national bus and gives service so much to Cuban as to foreign tourists, it is but economic but with less execution in the itineraries (the terminal of Astros is the National Terminal of Bus and it is in Ave Rancho Boyeros, near the Square of the Revolution)

Via Azul, schedules, tariffs___ Astros, schedules

Cars: there are several companies rent cars to tourists to prices that begin in 30 dollars the day, without including the fuel (the price of the fuel is of around 1.00 dollar the liter of gasoline and 0.80 dollars the liter of diesel). The companies of rent a cars but acquaintances are: Havanautos, Transautos, Panautos, Micar, Veracuba, Cubacar, Transtur, etc that generally have agencies in all the tourist destinations, airports and hotels of the country. With the exception of some keys like Long Key of the South, the Queen's Gardens and Cayo Levisa all the other places of tourist interest of the island have access by road. This is a good way to know the island and their people because in general Cuba has a network of highways asphalted in acceptable state and that it communicates all the main cities, towns and tourist destinations to each other and with the capital, however in the rural highways it is necessary to have much care with the cyclists that even circulate at night and many times without lights, it is also necessary to carry to an extreme cautions with domestic animals (mainly bovine livestock and horses) that possibly are loose in the surroundings of highways and roads.

But information...

Taxis: a good service of taxis exists in all tourist destinations and main cities to quite economic prices, the rates begin in 0.50 dollars per km in dependence of the company (Panataxi is maybe the but economic) but in long trips can remember deal the price previously with the chauffeur to achieve a reduction of the cost. They also exist private taxis that possibly can be but economic in exchange for sacrificing the comfort a little, but it is generally necessary to agree the price previously. Against the majority opinion I don't find that in short trips inside a city are more economic that the taxis of state companies, but it's more uncomfortable almost always.

Railroad: Although the country has a wide railroad network in general the equipment have not been modernized and don't respond to the European or Americans standards, the trains have little comfort and it is frequent the nonfulfilment of the itineraries. With everything it is mainly a good means of transport in the long distances, the but advisable it is the special train Havana-Santiago de Cuba (51 dollars the passage), the other ones alone they are recommended tourists that possess adventure spirit and good patience (good, it is necessary to point out that lately has improved enough the execution of the schedules and itineraries). In Cuba all trains have only seats, they don't have cars beds neither cars restaurants.