Everything You Need to Know About Driving in Cuba

Yes, you might be used to bidding for your rental car on Priceline or booking the best available model with your Hertz Gold card. But that won’t fly in Cuba. Do yourself a favor and book through a service with English-speaking agents and an on-the-ground presence, such as Cuba Travel Network—it will reserve your car with one of the state-run agencies and troubleshoot in the all-too-likely scenarios that your paperwork gets “lost,” the brakes on your Chinese-made Geely CK don’t work, or you run into trouble on the road.

Google may have just gotten clearance to build up Wi-Fi infrastructure in Cuba, but service won’t be reliable for quite a while. There are real challenges to navigating without GPS or cell phone service—but there’s a wild freedom and even nostalgia to it, too.

Invest in a detailed print map before arriving in Cuba, ideally with gas stations clearly marked, as they can be considerable distances apart. This excellent one, by National Geographic, can be ordered online ahead of your travels.

The “T” on a rental car plate designates that you’re a tourist, and your car can be an easy target. With that in mind, you should only park in lots that have attendant supervision; these informal operators will look after your car for a CUC (convertible peso, pegged 1:1 with the US dollar) or two. Cuba is a safe country to travel around, but given its poverty, theft is not uncommon. 

Even for travelers who are comfortable going off the grid, it’s much smarter to stay on Cuba’s major highways. 

Hitting the back roads can mean entire stretches with scratched out signposts, herds of goats obstructing the road, deep potholes, very steep slopes, and washed out bridges. 

Driving in Cuba is an adventure all its own, but it’s a rewarding one if you know where to go and you’re up for a few unexpected bumps in the road. If there’s one thing to always bear in mind, it’s this: no matter what, a mojito will await wherever you arrive.