1.88/5
272 reviews
Photo by Spencer Everett via Unsplash

Cost of Living in Havana

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food

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Havana is a unique and culturally rich destination, best suited for short vacations rather than extended remote work stays. The city offers incredible historical value, vibrant street life with live music and colorful architecture, and an atmosphere that feels like stepping back into the 1950s. Many travelers appreciate the friendliness of the people, the affordability, and the lack of typical commercialization—though some feel locals often seek tips or compensation during interactions.

However, there are several practical challenges. Internet access is unreliable and expensive, making remote work difficult. Food quality is inconsistent, with even upscale-looking restaurants serving underwhelming meals. Several visitors reported regular power outages, water shortages, and a lack of basic goods at markets or restaurants. Most transactions require cash, particularly for Americans, as U.S. cards don't work. The city is generally clean and safe, but air pollution from vintage vehicles can be unpleasant.

Havana is ideal for those interested in art, history, and music, but likely not a good fit for digital nomads or travelers with expectations for modern amenities. A stay of 3–4 days is usually enough to enjoy the highlights without becoming overwhelmed by its limitations.

AI-generated summary of reviews

I’ve been to 14 countries across 4 continents and travelled most of the US and I must say Havana is probably the most incredible city I have ever been to but is probably better suited for a vacation than for nomading. It’s not difficult to find wifi as most airbnbs and restaurants have it but it’s not reliable if you have important video conferencing calls or need to constantly stream something.

Since most industries are publicly owned by the government, there’s a deep lack of commercialization that makes this place look so different from what you see in most other countries. Instead of large advertisements and billboards at every turn, there’s rich and beautiful art culture that makes just walking around and exploring this place the streets so enjoyable. Many people say that Havana feels like it’s stuck in the 1950’s which is definitely true since the classic city architecture and the vintage American muscle cars are all so well preserved.

If you admire live music then you are definitely in for a treat as there is usually so many talented musicians and performers at every corner and in most bars/restaurants.

The food is mostly seafood but it’s underwhelming as it lacks flavor. Cuban coffee & rum on the other hand definitely do not disappoint nor do the famous Cuban cigars if you’re into that.

Another huge highlight is the Cuban people. They are truly the warmest and most welcoming of any country that I have been to. Such a diverse community and everyone always a bright smile on their face and are so excited to welcome you to their beautiful country. Knowing Spanish definitely helps but there is usually someone around that speaks English pretty well and can help you if you need.

Yes there are definitely struggles with a lack of certain supplies and some infrastructure challenges but I honestly felt like it made for a more unique experience that I very much enjoyed.

Overall i’d say pros/cons

Pros:
Beautiful city to explore
Perfect weather
Amazing people
VERY safe (and not with cops at every corner)
Quite affordable

Cons:
Unreliable Wifi
Underwhelming food
Limited resources
Need cash for all transactions

It’s probably not up to everyone but it offers a very unique culture and has such an amazing history to learn about. If you like good art, live music, and carribean weather, this is a great vacation spot.

1 year ago

Is this a joke? Havana shouldn't even be on this list at all. I lived there for 2 months on a mission and it's the most poorest city I have ever seen from my so far 40 countries travelled and lived on this planet. At the time being 2022, there was no electricity for several hours every day, our food in the fridge was always tossed to the trash because no electricity daily. There was no bottled water anywhere to buy, if you walk in the center, there is simply no water. Restaurants were without food, there is no bread unless you pay like 10$ for one slice. Buying food in the supermarket for foreigners? Not possible, no electricity. Card payment not working, no electricity. The old cabs are nice to take pics, but smell like gasoline inside, you get a headake at least. Tourism is communist style resorts that bring frozen fish from spain to serve to dumb package tourists. There is no fishing industry either. There is nothing, it's in fact like a prision with most people 40+, all the younger people are fleeing this hell. Be aware, if you read anyhting positive about Cuba, it's just propaganda written by Cubans that mostly live in Miami and get paid by the Cuban goverment, because Tourism is Cubas only industry. I feel sorry for the Cubans, and unfortunately they're not nice either because they are fighting for survival, you only get a smile if you pay for it basically.

1 year ago

Havana is great for a vacation, not for remote work. One of the best thing here is the atmosphere - it means people, music, fun, nightlife. BUT the situation with food is very complicated, is hard to find literally anything, there are queues everywhere. The internet is expensive (2.5 GB of LTE for 8 dollars) and very unstable. If you don't need so much internet to your work and if you are patient enough, you can enjoy Havana as it is really interesting and unique city.

4 years ago

I visited Havana during Thanksgiving in 2019, and I loved it! It has an amazing energy, and it's one of my favorite places ever to buy art (you can buy amazing paintings in the street for a great price!). It's also super interesting to learn about the culture and the history. My main tip is make sure you invest in a good tour guide (especially if not local - the foreigners feel more comfortable to talk about the local reality).

Having said that, it's a terrible place to work from if you need internet (like most people, right!?). Regardless where you are staying (hotels or "casa de familia", which is kind of an airbnb w/ a family, a great option to live the local culture), you need to buy a "pre-paid" internet card and find places where the internet connection actually works. It's usually better in hotels, but if you are in a different place, you will need to find a park or another public space with a strong reception. I was working on a project while there, and thankfully most of what I did was offline. Every time I needed to send an update of my project, I had to walk to a nearby park with my computer to get an "ok" reception (depending on the time of the day; in the evening, you see a lot of people in the park with their phones - forget about using the internet!)

Food is also a problem. Most of restaurants that look nice have a terrible food, and googling for options while you are walking around is impossible (internet is hard to connect, remember?). Do your homework beforehand, and always have a good map pinpointing restaurants and places to visit.

Still worth visiting. The history there is unique - I agree there are better cities in Latin America, but none is that singular. Also, the locals will try to get your money - but this is also the case in many other places in the world (and Havana is not worse than Bangkok, I promise!) You don't need to stay long, just a few days (3-4) is more than enough. Also, don't bother visiting the all inclusive resorts in the country - go somewhere else in the Caribbean (the views will as amazing as in Cuba + the food and drinks will be better)

5 years ago

I can't comprehend why Havana is rated so well here. I couldn't walk anywhere near the center of the city without being constantly hounded to buy something, go to a restaurant, or take a "taxi" in some random car or bicycle cab. The reason is that Cubans have no disposable income because they receive everything from the government, so they are desperate for money to travel or buy something unusual. I never interacted with a single local who wasn't hustling me for cash.

Definitely avoid this place if you're American. Your smartphone's internet and Google Maps don't work here, and Uber etc is nonexistent. American debit and credit cards are forbidden. Air pollution is quite bad due to all of the old cars and vehicles. It really is like stepping back to the 1950's, except in a developing country.

There are far better cities in Latin America. I liked even Santo Domingo far better than Havana. It at least had one or two clean neighborhoods with modern amenities, with far less people hassling you for money.

5 years ago

✅ Very safe

✅ Warm all year

✅ Friendly people

✅ Very affordable

✅ Great art and live music

✅ Affordable to live

✅ Pretty safe

✅ Warm now

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Spacious and not crowded

✅ High quality of education

✅ Roads are very safe

✅ Safe for women

✅ Very friendly to LGBTQ+

❌ Unreliable internet

❌ Poor food quality

❌ Infrastructure issues

❌ Persistent hustling

❌ No freedom of speech

❌ No democracy

❌ Very slow internet

❌ Not much to do

❌ Very sweaty and humid now

❌ Nomads.com members really didn't like going here

❌ Not many Nomads.com members right now

❌ Hospitals are bad

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Not family friendly

❌ Many people smoke tobacco

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

24°C / 75°F warm

30°C / 86°F warm

31°C / 88°F hot

34°C / 93°F hot

36°C / 97°F hot

39°C / 102°F hot

38°C / 100°F hot

35°C / 95°F hot

28°C / 82°F warm

31°C / 88°F hot

Real (median)

24°C / 75°F
warm

27°C / 80°F
warm

28°C / 82°F
very warm

29°C / 84°F
very warm

30°C / 86°F
very warm

29°C / 84°F
very warm

26°C / 79°F
warm

27°C / 81°F
warm

Humidity

nice
79%

sweaty
81%

sweaty
77%

sweaty
79%

sweaty
86%

sweaty
83%

nice
76%

sweaty
79%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

Rain

dry
42mm

dry
35mm

dry
23mm

dry
32mm

rainy
88mm

rainy
123mm

rainy
72mm

rainy
94mm

rainy
142mm

rainy
112mm

dry
49mm

dry
34mm

Cloud

pockets
33%

pockets
18%

pockets
13%

pockets
24%

pockets
23%

pockets
39%

pockets
25%

pockets
28%

pockets
29%

pockets
26%

pockets
32%

pockets
17%

Sun

seek shade
5 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
10 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
10 UVI

avoid sun
9 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

Remote workers

471 people

436 people

431 people

644 people

600 people

486 people

460 people

475 people

286 people

418 people

636 people

494 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on Havana's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

	Frontend Software Engineer @ Bitwise Asset Management
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	Paid Media Designer @ Flex
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	Staff Mobile Engineer React Native ... @ Hostaway
	Graphic Designer Fully Position @ Meeting Tomorrow
	People Analytics Business Partner @ H1
	Full Stack Engineer @ MediaLab
	Frontend Software Engineer @ Bitwise Asset Management
	Job 23799 SÃªnior Java Developer ... @ CI&T
	Software Engineer @ Titan

Help pick the best photos for Havana and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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$1,532 / mo

🌇 Also went here136 people

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Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	1.88/5 (Rank #1271) 272 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍1 liked it 👎4 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Bad
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $1,823 / mo
📡 Internet	🤬 Unusably slow: 4Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Okay
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥵 Too hot: 31°C88°F (feels 39°C102°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	🥵 Sweaty: 76%
👌 Safety	Good
🤮 Food safety*	Good
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Good
🤝 Lack of racism*	Okay
🎓 Education level*	High
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Okay
💰 Income level*	Very low: $651 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
🚶 Walkability	Bad
🚦 Traffic safety*	Okay
✈️ Airline scores*	Okay
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
🍸 Nightlife	Good
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Okay
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Good
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Bad
👩 Female friendly	Okay
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Great
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Latin America
🚩 Country	Cuba
🗓️ Average trip length	7 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	4 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌦 31°C 88°F + 🥵 Sweaty (76%) = feels 39°C 102°F
🔌 Power	115V 60Hz
💸 0 CUC in USD	USD 0.00
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	CUC 100 = USD 100
☕️ Best coffee place	Cafe El Escorial
🏪 Best 24/7 coffee place	Cafe O'Reilly
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
♻️ Return rate	👍11% of visitors return
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	2,200,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$7,815 / year
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 80% 👱‍♀️ 20%
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
🏠 Apartment listings	Cubaccomidation
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Cuba Jet
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Cubana
🏥 Best hospital	Hospital Clínico Quirúrgico Hermanos Ameijeiras

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$1,823 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,222 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$2,496 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$713 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$576 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,348 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$548 / month
🏠 Median home price	$50,000
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$27 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$44 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$176 / month
🍛 Dinner	$9
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$1
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$2
👩‍🏫 International school	$15,167 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$26 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$3 / trip