I messed up a bit in continuing an other topic about Cuba but I did not realise it was in the German section so here it it:
I will write a short review of my recent 15 day trip to Cuba. First of all the place is mental! The population is brain washed. I flew to Havana on the 31th of December 2016 with American Airlines from Miami, I just missed Beyonces new years concert by hours :(. When I arrived I was met with a dark, smelly and warm airport and an extremely long line for immigration. I got a shock when walking out of the airport and seeing all LADAs or cars from the fifties. My friend who is a Cuban living in Sweden booked me a "Casa Particulara" which was 10 meters from Malecon and was considered "luxury" I had to manually lighten a gas burner from the fifties to get warm water and the bed madrases where filled with paper.
After a quick shower I went to celebrate new years with my friends family. Her uncle was a high ranking military doctor who considered himself very fortunate as "El Comandante" had given him a brand new house made out of something similar to cardboard and a luxurious Ferrari for Cuban standards (Hyundai i10). At 00:00 three full days of Propaganda remembering Fidel Castro began airing on all channels. I quickly learned that communism is not a good discussion topic as some of my friends family started crying from the chants on the TV.
The next day I had enough of my "luxurious" living conditions and as I did not have internet I called my Father (in Sweden) to go to TripAdvisor and text me the top 5 hotels in Cuba. He did and I went and looked at them and in my opinion the Melia Cohiba was clearly the best beating Natcional and Habana Libre (Fidels previous HQ). By this time my driver (let´s call him Joe as I dont want to add his real name in a bad review). He was beautifully dressed with polished shoes and tie and he had a completely yellow Taxi Car, he was employed by the government (like everyone else). Joe took me on Adventures all over western Cuba and did a fantastic job showing me the beautiful nature and advising me. I rode a bull, fed and ate crocodiles and generally enjoyed the trip.
The Melia Cohiba is probably the most expensive hotel I have ever lived in €400 per night with breakfast. Though it had everything and there was no need to go out. It had 100kb/s heavily censored internet (Booking.com and TripAdvisor where censored), fife restaurants, three bars, two cafes, two pools, beauty centre and even a night club which everyday had a fantastic show. Even thought the rooms them selves where old fashioned and worn out and it was very hard getting the housekeeper when she was needed. I was in Cuba all three cold days they have in a year and the hotel has no heating equipment whatsoever so I threatened with leaving for Florida so they upgraded me to an Executive Suite as they had more window area and probably would be warmer, this made me a VIP guest with everyone asking me if i need anything. The hotel has the best breakfast I have ever seen and remember that I am a Swede where every motel have fife star breakfasts.
The most surreal thing about Cuba is that at hotels, attractions and restaurants there are only foreigners. The population themselves receive very low salaries and cant afford it, I saw nobody begging for money but there where many begging for soap and candy. I cant understand how they survive. They dont want you to interact with the locals. The locals also want to avoid these "luxurious" places for example i invited my driver to join me for dinner at my hotel and he refused saying "these places are not for me.". The one attraction where locals go is the ice cream place "Coppelia" and there foreigners will be escorted to a special area and are not allowed to interact with the locals. The good thing about communism is that Cuba is completely safe due to the fear of the secret police. Nobody will ever touch a foreigner and walking on the dark, tight and muddy streets of Havana at night wont be a problem. I went to these "communist attractions" but nothing caught my eye. The other different thing is that some Museums have some sections closed off for example Cubas first flag and Jose Martis glasses and hat but a museum guard can easy be bribed and one will be granted private access to these priceless Cuban artefacts. I also saw some female museum guards trading bras behind a sculpture.
After Joe left me I went two days to Varadero where I believed I would relax. I had to find an other driver for the three hour journey and I found a guy with a 1952 Chewy. Sitting three hours in that thing on bumpy roads is an experience only lived in Cuba. Sadly a storm came when I was on my way to Varadero so the beach was closed for the two coming days. Even though being on the top 10 for Varadero my hotel offered a horrible all inclusive service even though I was a privilege guest and I had to wear those dreadful bands (at Intercontinental one only needs to sign). At least I meet a previous head of marketing for IBM and Nokia and had some interesting talks. The bed sheets where also very dirty and my hotel the Ocean Varadero El Patriarcha was overall the worst five start hotel I have ever stayed at. I went back to the Melia Cohiba and was greeted with big smiles. Overall Cuba is a waste of money and it is not that good. Go to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale instead. I flew back on Spirit´s third ever flight from Cuba and it was the best flight in my life, both for escaping Cuba and for the fantastic atmosphere on board.