http://www.followtheroad.com/en/letters.php?i=39

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The cheapest public transport in Cuba are trucks. The trailers of the trucks have 2-4 rows of benches for passengers. During the trip a lot of people are standing. Inside the trailer fit about 50-70 people. A trip with this mean of transport costs, roughly saying, 5 Cuban pesos (0.20 USD) for 50 km. In the towns, search for the "terminal de camyones" (terminal of trucks). The best is to come very early, around 6am, in the morning. To get a local price for a ride in a terminal will be difficult. The driver either will ask for 4-5 time higher price (instead of 10 pesos he might ask for 2 dollars) or will not be willing to take you onboard at all. The problem is that officially they are not allowed to have foreigners on board and police might give them a big fine.

From our experience, in some situations you have to be rough. It might end up in pushing yourself through a crazy crowd of people, all aiming to get inside the truck. If you have lots of luggage, you might face a really hard time. Fighting for being taken - that is what everybody does. If the driver refuses you because of the police checkpoints - offer to pay twice the usual price or a bit more, mention that you have never had problems while travelling with trucks, and at the same time try to get inside the trailer. Cheering the driver with praising his great country helps a lot. If the driver gets impertinent, even though he received already good money from you, try to ignore him and simply get on the truck.

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In the back of the tourist card, which is given to travellers upon entry of the country, is written:
"In order to stay outside hotels, or in other non-authorized accommodation, request authorization from immigration."

So, following this rule, camping is supposed to be illegal. We have done wild-camping for several times in Cuba. Of course, sometimes we had to walk out of the town or the village more than 5 km in order to find bushy place where we could hide during the night. Often there are people on the road passing by with bicycles or horses, but it is possible to wait for the moment when nobody is around and run behind the trees. When it is about to be dark - build the tent and make sure that next morning you are back on the road short after the sunrise.

Once we camped in the middle of nowhere near the sea between Trinidad and Cienfuegos. There was a small track for cars, but we did not expect that anybody will come there that day. We walked on the rocks near the sea and noticed a few days old fireplace with an old needle from syringe in it. It made us to be worried - what if these drug addicts will come here tonight? Anyway, we did not really have time to move anywhere else as the daylight was finishing soon.

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If not camping, you will have to stay in so called casas particulares - private houses that rent rooms for tourists. Rooms are always prepared to host two people. All houses offering rooms have a blue logo sign with the words "arrendador divisas" (leasehold in currency). Cubans that decide to start this business first have to get a licence from the government. Each month they have to pay taxes which vary from 130 to 350 USD, depending on the location of the house (touristy or non-touristy place, located in the city center or at the end of a town) and the size of the room offered. Even during the low season they are forced to pay the same taxes. To cancel the licence temporally is not possible, as the permission to have this business is given only once in a lifetime. If they want to offer food service to guests, they have to get a separate licence additionally. Also for this they have to pay a monthly tax, if food is sold or not.

During the high season (December-May) the standard prices for a room in private houses is 20-25 USD, depending on the location of the house. It is quite easy to negotiate a price of 15 USD per night. Moreover, in February we also managed to get a room for 10 USD. Go far outside the town center and try your luck in the afternoon - this will bring more chances to get a room for a lower price. If you cook for yourselves, it will complicate the search of cheap rooms, as the house owners will not make any additional money by feeding you.

In Trinidad in February we had 3 offers for 10 USD. All of them were houses without licences. Finally, we stayed in one of them. According to the book "ROUGH GUIDE to Cuba" by staying in illegal houses foreigners do not risk to be punished, but the owner of the house risks that his or her house will be confiscated. In Cienfuegos we managed to get a legal room for 10 USD. It was a HospitalityClub.org member offering cheaper prices for the travellers from this website.

During the low season of tourism, a lot of houses offer rooms for 10 USD. So during this period you might try to negotiate for the prices of 7 or even 5 dollars.

Oh, there is another interesting thing worth to mention. If you have a friend in Cuba, you can stay up to three months with him. In this case, your Cuban friend will have to get a permission from the immigration office, which costs 40 USD. This permission is only given once a year.

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Conclusion

In the end two low-budget backpackers might survive in Cuba for 15 USD a day, considering that they will not use much Internet, will sometimes sleep in a tent and will be travelling by the cheapest means of transport - trucks and "amarillos".

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