You can get a type of Cola which is ok, I don't know if you can get light. The lager you can get is Crystal which is very good and is a light lager then there is bucaneer which is stronger. Maybe is another lager which is also quite light, and yes you can get wine of a decent quality. It is best to take sterling, make sure the notes are clean with no ink marks on them because the cuban banks and exchange kiosks will not convert them into Cuban money. Some places will take credit cards but they have not to be any part of American banks also make sure your health insurance isnt any part of the USA. We went to Havana for a couple of days and it was great. If I was you I would only use your credit card if you are booking any trips, and use cash for tipping, buying bits and bobs and paying for any meals. Tip for good service and not to get good service. Take all your medicines, deet spray, pain killer, plaster suntan lotion, tissues etc., because you will find it hard to buy these items as there are many shortages in the few shops. Always carry some toilet paper with you because this is hard to get hold of outside the resorts and most public toilets do not have any. If you can think of anything else you would like to know I will try and help if I can. We love Cuba and we are going again in April staying in Cayo Guillermo.

Can you use Visa debit card in hole in the wall, or for buying things and is it readily available?

Yes, you can use a visa debit card from a bank with no American connections in some ATMs but only those for the proper banks (eg Credit y Comercio). A lot of what look like banks are more like credit unions and you can only draw cash from their ATMs uf yo ahve an account with them. You'll probably find it easy to find a suitable ATM in Havana, less so in Varadero depending on how far your hotel is from the commercial centre.

You won't be able to use a debit card in the shops or to pay for services etc and whilst it is possible to use a credit card in eg the airport duty frees or some of the hotels, you should only do this in an emergency because you'll end up paying 15/20% more than if you'd used cash. Similarly, you can get a cash advance over the counter against your credit card in the banks or some cadecas but you also pay over the odds for this. It is far less faff and cheaper to take enough cash in Bank of England notes (not scottish or Northern Irish ones).

it is now almost impossible to get anything other than American Express travellers cheques in this country now since they bought out the Thomas Cook brand and they are unusable in Cuba. But even if you could, Cuban cachiers are incredibly pernickety about them - the slightest variation in the two signatures will result in them rejecting them and I found that they were also more trouble than they were worth,e ven when it was possible to Thomas Cook ones.

Cuba is a cash economy and the simplest and cheapest thing is to simply to take enough cash in sterling for your needs and take your cards only for use in emergencies.

SM

PS, you won't get 'diet' or 'light' anything on Cuba - sugar is one of their major cash crops and using sweeteners or sugar substitutes is c lose to treason

And always remember... you need to get CONVERTIBLE (tourist) pesos... NOT the indigenous ones which will be USELESS to you...Also, tipping, one convertible peso note = approx 70p... they don't like coins...

I'm back to Cuba for the third time in november...

ATB,J.

How do you know they are tourist pesos?

As a tourist it's extremely unlikely that you'll be offered anything else at either a bank, a cadeca or your hotel, so I wouldn't worry too much about this. The biggest giveaway will be the quantity you are given - there are usually somewhere in the region of 20 National Pesos to the Convertible Peso/CUC. In other words if you are given way, way over more pesos than you expected then you've been given the wrong ones. As I say this is very unlikely, cashiers will query why you are wanting National pesos if they think that that is what you've asked for because generally, as a tourist, anything that you want to buy, you're going to have to pay for in CUCs. This incidentally is why you won't be able to use ATMs belonging to the savings banks, as I mentioned above, because they usually dispense national Pesos.

As Merseygull says, National pesos are as good as useless to you but depending on where you are staying and how you plan on using your time, a few National Pesos can sometimes come in handy. It's not that it's illegal for you to have or use them (as from memory used to be the case in China with regards to the local and the tourist currency) it's just that you probably won't want to be buying anything other than what you need CUCs to purchase. You'll find little that you need them for in Varadero but when you stay in Havana, for example, you could well come across street sellers selling homegrown fruit etc and newspapers (if you want one as a souvenir) and they usually deal in National pesos. They certainly won't turn up their nose at a CUC, just don't expect any change - they almost certainly won't have enough! Or if they do, won't admit it But they won't bat an eyelid if you do pay them in Nationals. So I usually change a couple of CUCs into Nationals but 40/50 are more than enough!

And I've never had a Cuban take offence when I've given them any I've left over at the end of my trip because they can use them in the National shops which they purchase their 'raciones' from. Generally, you won't be able to use such shops because you won't have the required ration and identity card that are required to purchase most of the things that they stock. But do take a look in one of them if you get the chance so that you can see why locals are so keen to receive CUCs which are what you need for the 'Dollar' shops which only take CUCs.

But the other main reason why you'll be able to tell the difference is that they look very different. If you change some money as you arrive at the Cadeca in the airport, you'll automatically be given CUCs and they look, well, like proper banknotes and coins and are usually in reasonable condition. But Nationals usually look really tatty, well used and frankly not like proper money at all! Even the coins look flimsy and feel very light - that's assuming that you see any at all. National coins are worth more as scrap than at their face value and I've only seen them very occasionally. Once you've seen the two types you'll never confuse the two.

SM

Thank you for all your advice and assistance.