Holidays and Fiestas
There are no national religious festivals. In Santiago, the artistic Festival del Caribe is followed a fortnight later by Carnival, which takes place from 18-27 July. Carnival is a week of musical celebrations, and coincides with the anniversary of the storming of the Moncada barracks on 26th July. Arts festivals and sporting events take place throughout the year. In Havana in December, the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema is followed biennially by the celebrated International Jazz Plaza Festival.

Currency
From 08 November 2004, Cuba will be imposing a 10% charge on dollar exchange.

We are advised that tourists to Cuba should now carry GB Sterling travellers’ cheques and small denominations of Sterling and/or Euros - both of which are accepted in most banks and some of the larger hotels. Credit cards (not from US banks) are also accepted in some places.

The presumption is that the existing "dollar shops" will now become "Peso Convertible" shops. For years, the Peso Convertible has been a Cuban "dollar" that's pegged 1/1 to the US dollar.

At the time of writing, we don't know what exchange rate will be applied (presumably from sterling or euro to peso convertible)

No official statement has been made about how the airport departure tax should now be paid. It's currently in US dollars, but we guess that this too will soon be Pesos Convertibles (or maybe Euros?).

We don’t know how long this will all take to filter through to remoter parts of Cuba, so it’s probably still worth carrying some US dollars as a back-up. The full text of this decree, dated 26 Oct 04, can be found at:

http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2004/octubre/mart26/44resol-i.html

Visas
British citizens can find up-to-date travel advice on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website. Citizens of other countries can find visa information here.

Vaccinations
See www.MASTA.org for up-to-date health advice for travellers.