Currency in Cuba: CUC and CUP

During our coverage of our visit to Cuba, we mentioned more than once the two currencies: CUP and CUC. One local, the other “for tourists.”

Here you will find all about the differences between the two Cuban currencies.

Two currencies: the CUP and the CUC

The first important thing when it comes to shopping is this: in Cuba there are two currencies CUP – the Cuban peso (peso cubano) and CUC – the convertible peso (peso convertible).

The first(CUP), weaker, local, with which you will buy basic products, pay for some services. And the other(CUC), a better one, for paying for “luxury” goods.

Tourists generally pay in CUC (for lodging, food, tourist attractions, etc.), but there are also places where you can pay in CUP (e.g., gas stations, window shops, fruits, vegetables), although this will not always and not in all places.

A CUC is worth about $1 USD, or US dollars.

A CUP is worth about 1/25th of a CUC.

Since the currencies are similar, and often even the $ symbol appears next to both, it is important to learn to distinguish between them. We have heard many times that tourists are given change in CUP instead of CUC because they are simply unaware, so it is easy to make money from such a scam. After all, the difference in odds is 1:25. The easiest way to tell them apart is by the colors of the bills – CUCs are colored, while CUPs are single-colored and generally more tattered, thinner.

They are best compared in this image (source):

Price difference between CUP and CUC

In the windows, prices are quoted in CUP and they are really cheap things, but unfortunately the choice is limited. All in all, we often wondered whether the prices were in CUP or CUC. One must try. How happy we were when we purchased our first ice cream from the window for only 1 CUP, or about 13 cents!

All in all, there were days that we had food for the whole day for 10 zloty, but in the long run this saving does not make sense. The food is of poor quality, greasy and very salty.

Things are different with juices! It’s a salvation when for $2 you can have fresh mango or pineapple juice at every turn. Many times we had situations where we didn’t even want change, because it was some pennies, and yet they always pressed it on us (maybe it’s a control issue?).

Sometimes it is possible to pay the equivalent of CUCs in CUPs, i.e., for example, parking costs $1, or 1 CUC. Since we had a lot of local cash, we wanted to pay in CUP. And sometimes it worked out to pay 25 CUP instead of 1 CUC.

Currency exchange (CUC and CUP)

You can exchange currency for Cuban currency, be it CUC and be it CUP, only locally, i.e., in Cuba. We even tried to exchange EUR for CUC at the Madrid airport, but unfortunately it is not possible. For this in Cuba, you can safely exchange CUC and CUP at the airport or in the city (safest in hotels, never on the street!).

How much cash to replace?

You always have to answer this question for yourself. Consider three things. First of all, in Cuba you only pay with cash. We only managed to pay part of the car payment by credit card.

Second, don’t exchange too much CUP (cheaper currency). We did it too optimistically and later everywhere we could instead of CUC we wanted to pay CUP (the equivalent of course :-)). Even so, we still had to bring a few banknotes as souvenirs, as there was nowhere to exchange them back (at the airport you will only exchange CUC for EUR or USD).

Third, it is better to take EUR with you than USD. There is always (at least while we were still there) an additional fee added to the USD, and there is never a conversion rate equal to 1 USD = 1 CUC. For the EUR, there is simply a better rate.

Do you have any more questions? Go ahead and ask them in the comments :)