Interesting

Temperatures are very similar to the ones in Italy during summer, ranging between 20° and 35°C and seldom temperature drops to 10°C: this situation might occur in the months of November and January and however it never occurs in tourist resorts. The average lowest temperature is reached in the months of January and February (20.7°C) while the highest temperature value is reached in July and August (27°C), to gradually decrease up to 21.5°C in December. As a result of the high degree of humidity, usually reaching 80-100%, the sensation of warmth is much more intense than the real temperature, hence the following intense sweating is normal.
With more than 300 sunny day yearly, it might happen that sometimes the sky unexpectedly becomes cloudy and in a few minutes you can be in the middle of a storm. For people interested in the island’s beaches, these have a very fine sand, not very deep and clear waters and the mean temperature of water is over 25°C. It is possible that in a wonderful sunny day a sudden downpour comes, but don’t be frightened, it lasts only a few minutes.
Due to its geographic position, Cuba has its hurricanes’ season between June 1^st and November 30^th, but the most dangerous month is October. Some of these typhoons can involve the island in form of hurricanes, with winds at a maximum speed of 200 km/hr and violent storms. This typhoons’ season partly takes place at the same time as rainy season (May-October), opposite to the dry period (November-April).
To experience a cyclone ("emergencia cyclonica") is really interesting, but even dangerous. Of course, there is no danger in the hotels. Cars equipped with loudspeakers continuously pass through the roads giving instructions about behaving and asking for going out just in case of real need. In blocks of flats, administrators hang notices in the entrance-halls with instructions for all tenants; all glasses of doors and windows are strengthened by adhesive-tape crosses. It is like living in a surreal world, at least for us Europeans unused to this kind of phenomena. Television programmes, exceptionally, go on all day long and at established hours transmissions with weather forecasts are broadcast. An extraordinary sight is also represented by the Havana dam (Malecon) covered by the sea waves extending not only to the next roads, but even to the ground floor of some houses flooding them.
Now, there are some sites where you can be made aware with temperatures and degree of humidity in many places of the island, see a satellite photo of the atmospherical situation (cyclones and cloud front) or be informed about the temperature of the coastal waters and the position of hurricanes, if any.

Mean monthly temperatures in Havana (°C)

As already mentioned, it is recommended to take with you fresh cotton clothes to be worn by day and night (many short-sleeved shirts, light dresses, skirts, short pants, etc...). Linen jackets, or thin pulls can be useful from November to March or when one goes by aeroplane, bus or air-conditioned wagons by train. Do not forget a raincoat and an umbrella and some dresses for special occasions (dinner at restaurants or performances, etc...)

Commonly for Cubans, telephone represents a limited means since a few people own it, but it is cheap for local calls. On the contrary, calls made by tourists to their countries are very expensive: from the hotels calls cost 6 $ approx. per minute. If you need to call your country for some minutes and you know some Cubans having the telephone, you might spare some dollars using their telephone. Since calls are only to be charged to the receiver - call is paid to the called country and at its own price; there is the inconvenient that, since these calls are made through the operator, this additional service must be paid: however, this is sure the most convenient way.
Today in all cities and not only in Havana, there are public telecard telephones. For these telephones you must buy a 10$ telecard (tarjeta). Obviously, with this telecard, you can call your country (for Italy a 3-minute call is allowed) and of course you can make calls in Cuba or in the same city. The service is not excellent, also due to the fact that the cuban telephone system is not one of the best, but it is improving every year. Another system, but only in the towns, is a public telephone consisting in a metal kiosk; generally it is white and laid on a stall. This system is the most commonly used by Cubans, it is paid in pesos: usually there are also long queues of people waiting for and Cubans’ calls are never short!
To call Cuba the international code is 0053. A table with the codes of various provinces is reported below.

From the day 30 September of 2001 many numbers of telephone of Havana have suffered a modification, inside the Plan of National Numeration made by the Cuban phone company ETECSA that the number of the subscriber's digits increases at seven. The numbers that begin with 21 are added the 7 after the first 2, being the beginning of the new number in 271; to the numbers that begin with 22, 23, 24, 25, 28 and 29, they are inserted the 0 after the first 2, with what the first three numbers are in the case of beginning with 22 in 202, for the 23 in 203, and so forth. The number is prefixed 8 to the numbers that begin for: 30, 31, 32, 60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 70, 73, 74, 77, 78, 89, 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, corresponding to the subscribers from Old Havana, Center Havana, Square of the Revolution, leaves of the Cerro and the town of Casablanca. Also, those subscribers of Vedado whose number was of only five digits and it began with 3 it will be prefixed the 83, so that the number complete raisin to have the seven digits. A similar upgrade will be carried out starting from March 10 2002 in the county of Matanzas, of which I will give bill in its moment. 
In your trip to Cuba can have the services of mobile telephony and of Internet that offers the companies Cubacel. Among them to mention you that you will be able to rent a cellular telephone to be communicated during their stay, they offer you diverse possibilities from their option Temporary Contracts, where you will see the conditions and prices, they also have alliances with phone companies of other countries, what will allow you to make use of the system roaming. In a same way, you will also be able to hire temporary services for access to Internet, as well as of electronic mail (to see remote ISP Cubacel of this page). 

In any case if you have the number of the place and of the local called party Directorio de Cuba, gives you the opportunity to know all the numbers to be dialled.

From the day 30 September of 2001 many numbers of telephone of Havana have suffered a modification, inside the Plan of National Numeration made by the Cuban phone company ETECSA that the number of the subscriber's digits increases at seven. The numbers that begin with 21 are added the 7 after the first 2, being the beginning of the new number in 271; to the numbers that begin with 22, 23, 24, 25, 28 and 29, they are inserted the 0 after the first 2, with what the first three numbers are in the case of beginning with 22 in 202, for the 23 in 203, and so forth. The number is prefixed 8 to the numbers that begin for: 30, 31, 32, 60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 70, 73, 74, 77, 78, 89, 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85, corresponding to the subscribers from Old Havana, Center Havana, Square of the Revolution, leaves of the Cerro and the town of Casablanca. Also, those subscribers of Vedado whose number was of only five digits and it began with 3 it will be prefixed the 83, so that the number complete raisin to have the seven digits. A similar upgrade will be carried out starting from March 10 2002 in the county of Matanzas, of which I will give bill in its moment. 
In your trip to Cuba can have the services of mobile telephony and of Internet that offers the companies Cubacel. Among them to mention you that you will be able to rent a cellular telephone to be communicated during their stay, they offer you diverse possibilities from their option Temporary Contracts, where you will see the conditions and prices, they also have alliances with phone companies of other countries, what will allow you to make use of the system roaming. In a same way, you will also be able to hire temporary services for access to Internet, as well as of electronic mail (to see remote ISP Cubacel of this page). 

In Cuba there are two economies with the following monetary systems. The cuban one in pesos with centesimal system consisting of notes of 1, 3 (bearing Che Guevara’s image), 5, 10, 20 50 and 100 pesos, coins of 1 and 3 pesos (this latter with Che Guevara’s image) and coins of 1, 2, 5 and 20 centavos (cents). This currency is not convertible out of the country.

The other system is represented by the USA dollars (USD, $), fully convertible in the country and currently used by tourists and Cubans who have them, since up to the first 90s all Cubans owning dollars were punished. Today the conversion of this currency is of 1$ Þ 20-23 cuban pesos, according to the market. There is also a convertible dollar, commonly used among the Cuban people as "chavito", with its corresponding notes of 1, 5, 10 etc. dollars and fractional coins issued by INTUR (Instituto Nacional de Turismo) of 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavos, with the same value as the USA dollar. This convertible money parallel to the USA dollar, has no value out of Cuba: therefore, it must be exchanged before leaving the country. To summarise, Cubans have their own economy in cuban pesos and tourists have their own either in American dollars ("el verde") or in "chavitos" with the same value as the USA dollar but valid for Cuba only.
In some tourist resorts (hotels or restaurants) you can pay with traveller cheques or credit cards, except for those issued for the USA banks. You can pay by VISA cards. In these places also different currencies are accepted, such as Spanish pesetas, Canadian dollars, French - Swiss and Belgian francs, pound sterling, German and Finnish marks, Japanese yen, Mexican pesos, Italian liras; Swedish - Danish and Norwegian crones, Austrian shillings, Dutch guilders and Portuguese escudos.
If you want, you can get money by your credit card, such as VISA, in banks or in the Exchange Houses (Cadeca). These last belong to a State body and began to supply their services in 1995 and at the end of 1998 they globally included 66 institutes These are little exchange offices, working both in the morning and afternoon and for which both pass and credit card are necessary to get dollars (here you can also exchange dollars with cuban pesos). These offices are placed near shops where products are sold in dollars, fruit and vegetable markets and tourist resorts. Of the 39 offices existing in Havana, I have used the one near the Plaza Hotel or the other in front of the Produce Exchange.

Besides the typical cuban dishes I have already told about in the gastronomy-dedicated chapter, in Cuba you can also taste, among other specialities: lobster, shrimps (called "camarones"), horse ("palomilla)- calf and chicken undercut. Besides the hotel restaurants, there is a large and wide choice of restaurants in the streets and "paladares" and kiosks should be also mentioned.
"Paladares" are little homely restaurants (practically a room of a house or flat is used as a restaurant): they began to spring up since 1993 and to be regulated two years later. Their main characteristics are the following: high taxes they have to pay to the State, a limit of 12 chairs, the help they can get for the service can be just lent by family persons since they cannot have servants and their prices in dollars are lower than those of the other restaurants.

Among things you can buy, do not forget some of the most typical ones, such as: rum, handicrafts and cigars (habanos). In case of rum, I recommend to buy brands that are poorly marketed out of Cuba, such as: Santiago, Puerto Principe, Paticruzado, or Legendario. Their prices range between 4.5 and 7$. You must taste Guayabita del Pinar, a sort of matured rum with a very characteristic taste due to the steeping of guayabita (a type of myrtle). It is very good and you can find it as dry or as spirit (3-4$).
If you are interested in buying handicrafts in Habana, you can get it at the great Market just in front of the San Carlo seminary, very close to the Cathedral square, or at La Rampa Market, under the Habana Libre Hotel. In both these markets you will find lots of objects made of black coral (a pair of earrings costs 2$, a necklace from 12$ on), wood-carving, typical musical instruments, pottery, leather objects and oil paintings. Do not forget that paintings must be legalised and an official certificate for exporting must be provided. Some craftsmen will give you it immediately, others are not authorised and you shall take the purchased paintings to the Vedado offices where you can get it cheaply (10$ for five paintings), but you have to wait for its issue a few days. It is advisable not to take paintings or old books without documents with you where they can be easily seen; books published throughout the 40s decade or previously are declared as public property and cannot leave the country without being duly provided with a proper documentation.
In case of cigars or habanos, as the Cubans call them, you must ask the shop for the purchase invoice of Habanos SA if you are buying more than 50 (2 cases). Do not buy them along the street because you might have a nasty surprise since they could sell you grass tied up in a tobacco leaf or good-looking but poor-quality cigars. Depending on quality and size, one case of good habanos costs from 30 to 40$, even though you can find them at a lower price.
If you wish to buy a typical little Cuban relic, I recommend to buy for a few cuban pesos (a bit more than one dollar) an image of the Charity Virgin (Virgen de la Caridad) or one of St. Lazar (San Lazaro). These images are made of chalk or plaster, hand-painted in bright colours and rather naive-styled. You can find them in any market or cuban products shops.
In Cuba you can buy not only presents, spirits or cigars but even medicines developed in the island: the most famous is PPG (pronounce: Pai-Pai-Ghe) and melaginine. You should always buy them in chemist’s shops for foreigners, in dollars, because you might really get swindled. PPG is registered neither in Italy nor in other European Countries and is indicated for delaying or recovering those diseases bound to arteriosclerosis, therapy against high cholesterol concentrations or hypertension, as well as a stimulator of sexual vigour: this latter is the mean reason why it is always unceasingly sought for by tourists. Its price in chemists’ shops is of about 25$ (less than 50,000 italian liras) and in the doubtful black market between 15 and 20$ (but remember my recommendation anyway!). The other medicinal product, melaginine, is used for the treatment of vitiligo and diseases due to loss of skin pigmentation. It is produced since 1980 and, according to its discoverers, it is effective in 80% of cases. The white spots caused by this disease, especially involving face, limbs and the genital area, are not only treated in Cuba but there are physicians who, duly instructed in the island, develop their work in other countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Spain and Russia.
More recently, at the end of 1998, one of the discoverers of melaginine obtained choriondermine to be registered in Cuba: this product is a human placental derivative that can be applied in the therapy of psoriasis. Its effectiveness is of almost 80%, allowing the disease to gradually regress within 2 years and half approx. with the application of this gel.

It is also important to have the address of your own country's Embassy in La Habana.

The normal volts in the country are 110-115V with 60 cycles, but in some tourist resorts there are also 220V. Plugs are flat, thus it is advisable to take with you small bitension electrical apparatuses (razors, etc.) as well as an adapter for flat and small plugs to the normal round shape.
The hour difference vs. Italy, Spain, France and Germany is less than 6 hours and, as in many other countries, summer and winter hour is applied, changing more or less when the same happens in the European Countries.
For people having problems with mosquitoes it is advisable to take a good repellent with.