Motorbike rental in Cuba
 

:palm:Next December we (my wife and myself) are plannig for about 10 days in Cuba Island.
We have booked just a flight to Cuba from Italy and back.
We'll make a reservation for two or three day in a hotel in Havana to organize ourseleves and then ride with rented motorbike around the island.
Do you have any advise about a motorbike rent and ride? Cost? where? possible? Police constraints ? licence requirements ? motorbike reliability? roads? place where to go?
Thank everybody

It was a few years back, but when I tried it was impossible to get rental bikes in Cuba. Eventually, I found someone willing to "lend" me a bike for a few days (MZ150) but the clutch cable broke on the way back to our Casa from picking it up and apparently there were no more cables to had in the entire city so that was the end of that. Private citizens are not allowed to have financial dealings with tourists.

Good luck

Nigel in NZ

I was in Cuba in March and November of 2005. On the second trip I rented a 49cc moped for 3 days, out of Trinidad. In Varadero I saw signs for weekly moped rentals for $90. This is of course some time ago and things may have changed. But I've since done a lot of research and simply could not find any larger motorbikes available for rent in Cuba. The moped took me on some pretty neat rides up into the mountains and along some pretty gnarly dirt roads in the hills north of Trinidad.

...Michelle
www.scrabblebiker.com

All I ever saw was little 50cc scooters rentals. I too tried to get my hands on a 150 or 250 MZ ETZ. Can't rent them and borrowing from a private citizen runs the risk of getting that person and yourself into serious trouble.

Would have loved to do that, especially after I had to spend months getting my hands on a ETZ in East Germany in the late 80s because the Cubans bought them all up to ship them back home ;-)

If you find a way be sure to let us know.

Yes, when I visited Cuba I also was only able to rent a 50cc moped from my hotel at Playa Ancon near Trinidad, The bike was very old and quite unreliable - not something you would be able to tour around Cuba on.

Cuba is also quite a large island with poor road infrastructure, and very difficult to find accommodation if you are not booked on a group tour. You would find it quite difficult to see much of the country by bike - better to fly or take a tourist bus between population centres.

I suppose it's like anything else. Some places rent crap, some have newer stuff. The moped I rented (in 2005) was almost brand new and took me right up the 20 percent grades into the hills north of Trinidad. There was a booth in town where the guy had about 6 new mopeds for rent. But I do agree that a moped is a bit small for touring ...but doable in small chunks.

It's too bad you had that experience. I bicycled parts of Cuba for one week each, also rented a car for a week and the moped for 3 days. Finding accommodation was never a problem. The only reservations I made were the first two nights in Varadero. When entering a town I would just ask around for a "Casa Particular". Once in a Casa Particular, the owner can often call ahead to your next destination to hold a room in a house of one of his/her friends in that town. In the more touristed areas, and even some not so touristed areas, I would be mobbed by pesky touts trying to get me to stay at one of the Casas particulares with whom they had connections. Guide books such as Lonely Planet and Moon also list a few of them. Of course things can get a bit tight in the peak seasons around the popular resort areas. My friend bicycled a more remote area by herself and had no issues finding places to stay, including being put up by a local woman in her hut. The smaller non-tourist towns will probably not have any "official" accommodation. The more Spanish you speak the easier it becomes.

Cuba is indeed quite big. 1200 km's from one end to the next. If anyone does find a way to rent a bike there, please post. I'm interested in doing this as well.


...Michelle
www.scrabblebiker.com