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Internet in Cuba

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Using the Internet and your mobile in Cuba

How to stay in touch with family and friends when you’re in Cuba

Using the internet in Cuba is now a lot easier, thanks to the underseafibre optic cable from Venezuela, although it is still nowhere near the speeds that we are used to in Europe.

Apart from being slow, it is also expensive, but if you are determined to use the internet while you’re in Cuba and you’ve got the money to spend on it and the patience to wait for the pages to load, here’s how to go about it:

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Nauta Rooms

These are the official internet rooms of Cuba’s telecommunications company, ETECSA. They are a bit like internet cafes, only they don’t sell any food or drink, it is basically an office space with computers, which is open to the public. They are open from 8.30 in the morning until 7pm in the evening, 7 days a week. There are 2 in Miramar district and 2 in Vedado, one of them in the Focsa building, which is the highest residential building in Havana.

Where else you can use the Internet in Cuba

There are hotels that have the internet and tourists can use the facilities, although they are more expensive than the Nauta rooms. Expect to pay between 6 and 12 CUC for an hour on the internet.

Both the Nauta rooms and the hotels will give you a scratch card, which has a code, you use the code to connect to the internet. The cards are valid for 30 days, so if you don’t use your one hour, you can go back and use it again another day.

Some hotels in Havana with Wifi where you can use the internet in Cuba are;

  • The Parque Central – Neptuno e/Prado y Zulueta, Habana Vieja
  • The Hotel Vedado – Calle O, Vedado
  • The Hotel Sevilla – Prado, Habana Vieja
  • The Hotel Presidente – Calzada, Vedado

UPDATE JULY 2015: Now one hour of internet card costs 2CUC. Also more public WIFI points are available around Cuba. For example in Havana, Vinales, Trinidad, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, Holguin and more.

Skype is unreliable, mainly because of the slow internet speeds, if you want to try and use it, then pay the extra to use the internet in a hotel, which is slightly faster than in the Nauto rooms.

Using Your Mobile Phone in Cuba

Unless you manage to get a special package with your service provider, roaming charges will make the cost of phone calls very expensive. Sending texts is much cheaper, although they will still cost between 40p and 60p, again,depending on your service provider. Receiving a text is free, so advise your family and friends back home to use texts, rather than phoning.

Public Phones

There are public phones in Havana and you can buy phone cards, which make them cheaper to use. The cost is about 4 CUC per minute to phone the UK, so that’s about £2.36 – which means you need to talk fast! Cards can be purchased for 10 or 25 CUC.

So, now you know that you can keep in touch with the folks back home, if you need to – Vamos Cuba…

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