Hi, the quick answer to your question is, yes, it will be difficult for you to get accommodations during these busy times.
- These are busy times and the best apartments will be snapped up quickly.
- You are staying 3 weeks. It’s relatively easy to find an apartment for a few days, but to take one for a week or more at a time it is more difficult.
My advice to you is to start trying to book a place now. And be aware that even if you do book a place and everything seems to be confirmed and set, sometimes problems still come up and your reservation can be moved to another apartment or changed in some way. This is Cuba and it happens often. It happens to me and I have a deep web of contacts and have friends there. You will never find yourself without shelter. But it can happen sometimes that the dream place that you reserved for 5 nights will only take you for 3 nights, and the landlords have independently made arrangements for you to say at a neighbor for the balance. It happens often. In Cuba it’s just a thing you must be willing to deal with.
Now, to summarize. If you are staying in Havana 1 week, start looking for your place and if you can, book one. If you arrive without a place to stay, yes, you can always find shelter, but you might end up staying at a sub par place. Or, if you find a nice place, maybe it is only available for 2 days, so they you have to switch places a few times during your stay. Some people like that. Some people don’t.
For Vinales, the casa supply is tight. Tourism is high there and you should definitely book ahead. It is very common for your reservations to get switched up a bit (as described above) but it is usually not a major issue. You won’t be spending much time in your room anyway. If you just arrive there and start looking for a place you might waste half a day looking.. dragging your luggage all around Vinales. It won’t be fun. Book ahead, and save time and energy.
Trinidad.. same as Vinales. There are more places for rent, but tourism is even higher.
Bay of Pigs – The casa supply is tight. Book ahead. Also, read up on bay of pigs and look at some photos. Honestly, it’s probably not as good as you think. You might want to reconsider spending too much time in this destination, unless you are going for a specific reason.
Cienfuegos. Similar to Bay of Pigs. But there is a high housing supply. I don’t think you will have much problems getting a place here even if you don’t book ahead.
The main rule is, you can always find a place for a night or two. Even during peak season you can find a good place if you look hard enough. But it is much more difficult to find a casa that is available for 5 or 6 or 7 days. The landlords lose money when they are vacant, so they try to book long stays far in advance, and if they can’t, they take many shorter stays and try to fill the schedule, leaving only 1 or 2 day vacancies in between.
Anyway, I am sure you will have a great trip,
take care,
Mario
