Home » Cuba » Bicycle Touring in Cuba (1996)

During December '95 and January '96, while many Americans were contending with an epoch winter, my wife, ten year-old son, a friend, and I, skulked out of the U.S. and flew to Cuba with our bicycles for a three week self-contained loaded tour of the forbidden (for U.S citizens), and magical Island.

Bicycle Touring in Cuba (1996)

Brh
2004-09-15 10:30:46

Displayed times (last time: )

During December '95 and January '96, while many Americans were contending with an epoch winter, a rebel band skulked out of the U.S. and flew to Cuba with our bicycles for a three week self-contained loaded tour of the forbidden (for U.S citizens), and magical Island.

Cristopher Columbus describing Cuba wrote that he "had never seen anything so beautiful"; the land was the "most lovely that eyes have ever seen, " the "air all night was scented and sweet, an neither cold nor hot." "Everything that I saw was so lovely that my eyes could not weary of beholding such beauty, nor could I weary of the songs of the birds large and small."

We took no guide book and did not have an itinerary in mind when we arrived in Havana. We just did what felt right, which I think was a good decision. We avoided Varadero, Cuba's principle tourist destination resort, believing that one beach resort town anywhere in the world is much like another (i.e., filled with insipid tourists). We never spent a night in a hotel, so I can't tell you what they are like.

This turned out to be a good plan. To be a successful shoestring traveler in the developing world, one needs to be flexible. My experience traveling in the Third World has been that I often spend much of my time overcoming obstacles. Travel in Cuba was so easy that it needs to be put into a special category.

We have a ten year old son who has been touring with us since he was two, and now stokes on the back of an Ibis tandem. For some reason, people respond in a friendly manner to child stokers. This was especially true in Cuba. We were often treated as though we were celebrities. Bicycle tourists are still a rare sight.

You'll have little trouble in Cuba, especially if you have some Spanish language skills.

The road conditions are generally good, the traffic is light, to extremely light, which certainly enhanced the experience of riding. Cuba ...