Number #2 Public Transport / timetables

• Transport in Cuba

• Train Timetable

• VIAZUL / Bus Timetable

Timetable (and price) of VIAZUL (update June 2012)

!Timetables are always in a changing process. I try to publish always the current timetable. Althought I suggest after you arrival to Cuba to check the timetable with Viazul's office. Be aware that the Website of Viazul does NOT show the actual timetable...

• Habana - Varadero - Habana

  

• Habana - (Las Terrazas) - Viñales - Habana

• Habana - Trinidad - Habana

• Habana - Holguin - Habana

• Habana - Santiago de Cuba - Habana

• Varadero - Trinidad - Varadero

• Varadero - Santiago de Cuba - Varadero

• Trinidad - Santiago de Cuba - Trinidad

• Santiago de Cuba - Baracoa - Santiago de Cuba

• Viñales - Trinidad

 

• Directions and phone numbers of the Viazul offices

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Train Timetable 2013

Further down I will give you the most actual schedule. It includes all long-distance-trains. It's important to know that not every train is operating daily. Because on track-works there are a lot of changes on the timetable, so I recomend to inform you before your journey at the local train station about the actual departures.

In Habana you have to buy your tickets in CUC (like almost everywhere). They sell them for you at the train station "La Coubre". This station is located between the Central station (Estación Central) an the Harbor. You will find it easily because of its yellow color. When you buy your ticket you need to inform you where you have to catch the train. Some trains are leaving at "La Coubre" other trains are leaving at "Estación central".

At other train stations I recomend to ask first where you need to buy your CUC-tickets. If you don't do that you maybe make a queue at the wrong place... Very rarely you will get a ticket in Pesos. Sometimes you will get it at small stations and for local trains.

I suggest you to buy your ticket a soon as possible. At the moment you can buy the ticket 15 days in advance. At each train there are only 6 tickets available for tourists. Also you can buy at the moment only tickets on the following trains: La Habana - Santiago de Cuba - La Habana / La Habana - Guantánamo - La Habana / La Habana - Sancti Spiritus - La Habana.

National trains (update 14.10.2012)

National and local trains leaving from Santiago de Cuba (timetable may 2013)

National trains leaving from Camagüey (timetable may 2013)

National trains (with intermediate stops) (old timetable - 2010)

(Información de YahooGroupe Cubanrailways, June 2010)

Local trains

Hershey: Havana (Casablanca) - Hershey - Matanzas (update 14.10.2012)

Local trains from/to Santa Clara

Local trains : From/to Sancti Spiritus

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Public Transport in Cuba

Public Transport in Habana

• Cubataxi. The oficial taxi for CUC-paying people. Actually the driver should always drive with a working taxi-meter, but this is normally not the case so you should always ask before the journey how much it will cost. You will find the taxis waiting near the usual places (stations, hotels, restaurants and so on). You also call the Cubataxi so they send you a driver. For important journey like to the airport you avoid problems by catching a oficial taxi like Cubataxi.

• Habana Bus Tour. The hopp on hopp off concept is well known from cities all over the world. For Havana it's actually a good way to go. Specially because of two reasons: rather cheap (3-5 CUC for a day) and because there's no reliable public transport in Havana. There are three lines in Habana: Line T1 circulates between Parque Central (opposite Hotel Inglaterra) and Plaza de la Revolucion and is conecting Vedado, Centro Habana and Habana vieja. Line T2 is conecting Plaza de la Revolución with Vedado and Miramar to Marina Hemingway. Line T3 circulate between Parque Central and Playas del Este. For one day you pay about 5 CUC. Buses has an timetable. Have a look at the promotion!
  Same transport system you will also find at Viñales, Trinidad and Varadero/Matanzas.

• Colectivos (Kollektivtaxis). Taxis which drives a fixed ride. You pay 10 Pesos for a short and 20 Pesos for a long distance. Don't pay more because you're a tourist, actually it would be good to have Pesos Cubanos (CUP) for paying them exact. In front of the Capitolio and Parque Fraternidad they leave in every direction. You can always stop them and ask them to where there are driving. A good place for catch a colectivo is always near the oficial bus stop.

• Taxi Rutero. Grey minbuses with a fixed ride. You pay 5 CUP per way. Tourists normally can get on.

• Guaguas (normal bus). A ride cost between 40 Centavos and one Peso (CUP). You need go on in front and pay the ride, you don't receive change. At the final stop are two queues, one for people which like to have a seat and the other for people which will stand. If you don´t travel to the final station go to the "stand-queue", you don´t have to wait as long here. Now, after you´ve found your queue you have to ask for the last in the queue (Quién es el ultimo?) and when you know who´s the last ask him after who he´s in the queue (y atras de quién usted va?), he will show you another person. You have to remember this two faces, because when the bus is arriving the people will form the queue. You ask for two persons because if the one before you leaves there´s another face you will remember...
  Be prepared for giving the answer to the next who´s asking for the last. Afterwards look for a nice place to wait, like the others. Have a look at the map with the actual lines.
  

• Particulares. There are also private drivers ofering a ride, although this is forbidden by law. If you catch one of these cars you need to know the normal price of the journey because the drivers normally want you buying more than in an official taxi! Don't catch a private taxi for an important journey, for example to the airport. For your own safety I recomend a taxi with licence.

National public Transport

• VIAZUL (coach company). Only for CUC paying passangers. So there are travelling a lot of tourists and Cubans living outside Cuba. With Viazul you can easily travel between the main cities and tourist places. Please be aware that the aircondition is very strong so you need to have warm clothes to go on the buses, specially if you're travelling a long distance. Normally Viazul-buses are very reliable and don't suffer cancelation or delay. Your bags should not be weight more than 20kg, if it's more you have to pay aditionaly. In high travel season it's strongly recomended to buy the viazul ticket as much in advance as posible because the buses are often sold out, specially on the route Havana - Santiago de Cuba. Service at Viazul's office is very poor, so be prepared, that nobody will answer your phone call, so best is to go directly to the Viazul office to buy the tickets. Actually I don't like to travel by Viazul, it's like travelling by bus in other countries. If possible I always try to travel at least once by train, but sometimes it's not possible to avoid Viazul... Check the timetable for more information!

• ASTRO is the national bus company for Cubans. There are buses between cities and small towns but foreigner at present can't travel by Astro...

• CAMIONES. Because of the difficult situation of the public transport, trucks are very important for the peoples´transport. Most of the trucks, which are only for passengers, are privat. You can travel by truck in the whole country, between cities as well as between small villages. They don´t have a timetable or something like that, be prepared for waiting a lot. You pay in Pesos, a ride costs between 5 and 20 Pesos.
  If you have time, and if you don´t travel with much baggage, you have to travel by CAMIONES, it´s something special.
  Because there are many trucks without a top, don´t travel in rainy weather, there aren´t many trucks because also Cubans don´tlike to stand one or two hours in the rain!
  Look out for camiones at local bus-stations, or go to the street leading to your destination. Ask there for the "punto", it´s the place where the people are waiting for the CAMIONES. Normally this place is just out of the city.
  And one thing more. Don´t travel between Guantanamo and Baracoa by CAMIONES, there aren´t many because of the fuel shortage. It´s really hard, you have to wait several hours and if one arrives it´s a battle not for a seat but for any place... (photo)

Railways

• The only Carribean Island with passenger transport by railway!
  The trains are rather slow, they aren´t very punctual and, except the main routes, they aren´t very reliable but I recomend them... You normally have to pay with CUCs
  
  

• Some hints for your train journey:
  
  - Normally you can buy some drink and food (very basic) in the train. But it's always better if you don't rely on this service. Always keep some crackers and water with you.
  - When you need to go to the trains' bathroom I strongly recomend to go with a pocket light because there's no light there but rather a lot of dirt.
  - If you like to sleep calm, I recomend to secure your bagage, so that nobody can steal it.
  - The special train between Habana and Santiago de Cuba (train #1 y #2) is also specially cold. You need a lot of clothes, because it's like a winter night in Toronto ( :-) ). Note that this train only needs one hour less than the normal one but the journey costs 8 CUC more. If you ask me, go with the regular one so you not only pay 8 CUC less for the train, you also don't catch a cold.
  - Between Pinar del Río and Habana you normally can buy the tickets in Pesos but you need to buy it at least one day before the journey.
  
  Finally, I strongly recomend you a journey by train. It's an adventure. At an other website about Cuba I've read "Driving car in Cuba, one of the last adventures in this world!" - I think going by train is much more fascinating than driving a car!!!

• Also have a look at the timetable I´ve published and the description of a journey through Cuba by train.

Airplane

• CUBANA flies from Habana to all larger cities.The prices are rather cheap, but the service in the air nearly doesn´t exist. You will receive a candy or, if you´re lucky a coffee...
  To fly is a good way to save some time. For exemple you travel by train, bus, camiones from Habana to Baracoa and afterwards you fly back to Habana.
  Price exemples. Habana - Santiago de Cuba/ Baracoa (120 CUC), Habana - Nueva Gerona (55 CUC).
  Book your flights in Habana (the best choice) or in Santiago de Cuba. The smaller officies haven´t got the computered booking system and because of that aren´t flexible. But there's also an other problem. The employees don't want to sell to you a ticket because you certainly don't think that you need to buy a littlebit more than 120 CUC for getting a ticket. Cubans do this, they pay about 5 - 10 CUC more than the oficial price, so they get a ticket...
  The Cubanas' main office where you can buy ticket is CUC you will find in Habana at Calle 23 between P and Infanta. Telf. 33-4949, 33-4446 to 33-4450. You will have to make a long queue so it's better to buy the tickets at a tourist office, for example in a Hotel. In Habana you can get you ticket easily by Havanatour, they have an office in the hotel Habana Libre.

• AEROCARRIBEAN. It is a sister company from Cubana which operates also the domestic flights inside Cuba. A choice of airports are: Habana, Varadero, Cayo Largo de Sur, Cayo Coco, Manzanillo, Bayamo, Holguin, Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa. The prices are a little bit higher than those of Cubana. And the european tour operaters often prefer to sell Aero Caribean instead of Cubana. But my personal experiences with this airline do not count to the best ones. The major reason are the massive delays and the airplane's standard does not convince me to use it regulary - if possible I avoid Aerocarribean.
  

• AEROGAVIOTA. It is the youngest airline of Cuba which does not mean that the airplanes can be counted to the newest ones. Aerogaviota, as a quite small airline, belongs to the tourism company Gaviota, who's owner the Cuban military is. The airline flies to the destinations as Baracoa, Holguin, Cayo Coco, Cayo Las Brujas (nexto to Cayo Santa Maria) and Cayo Largo, where you can find also the hotels of Gaviota. The airline has its own small airport situated in Western Habana - ''Playa Baracoa'' - not to be.... with the town Baracoa at the Eastern end of Cuba. All in all it is a good airline with easy handling at its little airport. They have a wide choice of various destinations and accommodation options. For example, you can take a flight from Habana to Cayo Las Brujas, spend a couple of days in a small hotel or in a bigger ressort on the neighbour island Cayo Santa Maria and then travel back to Habana via Caibarien, Remedios, Santa Clara and eventually also visit Trinidad and/or Cienfuegos. So in this case Aerogaviota can be an alternative to Cubana. You can buy the tickets in a Cuban travel agency in Cuba. Most of the time the tickets are available, because Aerogaviota will be used mostly by tourists and people who pay in CUC. Passengers with CUP can rarely fly with Aerogaviota. The ticket sale through the internet does actually not work (May 2013). As soon as it will be possible, I will inform you here on my website and via Twitter.

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