Cuba Itinerary

As promised here is our day-by-day itinerary of our time in Cuba:

DAY 1 & 2 - CAYO COCO:

We took a flight to Toronto from Calgary the first afternoon and spent the night in a hotel prior to our flight to Cuba the next day. Our daughter was really into checking out the hotel features, as it had been a while since she had stayed in one. She pointed out everything, like "Look Mommy and Daddy, there's a TV in the bedroom" or "There's airplane pillows."

Both flights were about 3 hours long each and she did well on both of them with some iPad games/shows and some games that we played. When we arrived at Cayo Coco airport we had to wait in line at immigration for a bit. I was curious to see if they would stamp my US passport now with the open US/Cuban relations.  With Cayo Coco still not having a ton of US tourists they didn't stamp my passport, but they did stamp the three Canadian passports. I'd be curious if we flew into Havana, where all the US flights are coming in, if they would have stamped it there.

We took a taxi to the resort, as it was just more convenient with two kids - it was about 30 CUC from the airport to our resort, the Melia Del Rey. We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening checking out the pool, getting dinner and the kids program that night.

DAY 3 - CAYO COCO:

Our first full day we played at the pool and then went to check out the beach. The beach was one of the most beautiful I had been to with the white sand and turquoise water. For ease of convenience with kids, we just ate at the buffet there, but they had really good selection of food.  The pastries/desserts weren't the greatest, but I think that's because most countries don't use as much sugar that most North Americans are accustomed to.

The highlights for our daughter was the ice cream hut (she spotted it from a long ways away), the beach ("the waves tickle my feet") and the kids program.  Normally she is somewhat reserved, but when we mentioned it was a kids program - she marched right up on stage herself to partake in the activities of singing and dancing to the songs. I wouldn't say she actually danced, but she mostly just observed and then at the end she started to sway back and forth.  Daddy even got involved in the last song!

DAY 4 - CAYO COCO to TRINIDAD:

We spent the morning at the beach at the resort; then it was a travel day to Trinidad.  Our taxi driver spoke pretty good English, so it was interesting to talk to him and learn more about Cuba.  As we were leaving the island of Cayo Coco, we saw the police doing checks on people trying to drive on man-made pennisula to the island.  This is because Cayo Coco is basically just a tourist destination and locals only come to it if they have job there.

We stopped at a local paladar and provided lunch to our taxi driver as a tip.  It was one of the more expensive meals we had - 15 CUC per person - but it was good and one of the selections was lobster. We asked our taxi driver what is sourced locally and what is sourced abroad, and if we understood correctly, sugar cane (major Cuban crop) and all fruit comes from the island - however, its all tropical fruit, we never saw anything like apples there. However, chicken came from the US or Europe, as well as Europe was a main trade partner with other meats, like lobster, and items like butter.

Our taxi driver actually had a son who moved to Las Vegas, and as we started to talk to many Cubans it seemed like most of them had an immediate family member who lived abroad, especially in Europe. We asked him about the US/Cuban relations and he said while Obama was in office things were good, but now with Trump being president he felt that the relationship was so-so and it just depended on the day.  He said that most of the American tourists were up near Havana, which is where all the U.S. airlines were flying into.  However, we did see some American tourists at the beach in Trinidad, but I think they were on an organized tour.

Trinidad was a very cool town and was one of the highlights of the trip.  It provided picturesque views with multi-colored houses with classic cars. However, there was definitely the tourist area of town. Our first night we explored Trinidad in the Old Town Centre and then found a paladar for dinner that had a rooftop patio.  It was very nice way enjoying the sunset on the rooftop with some live Cuban music playing.  Our daughter loved it too - she joined in with the musicians in playing the maracas with her baby brother's rattle.

DAY 5 - TRINIDAD:

We explored more of Trinidad this morning, including going up to the bell tower, which was a museum of Trinidad as well.  However, all the museum displays were in Spanish, so we weren't able to understand most of it.

In the afternoon, we took a classic car taxi to Playa Ancon - just 15-20 minutes away - and enjoyed the afternoon at the beach by 'feeding the waves' with sand and going for little rides on the inter tube we had brought from home. :-)

This was the day that truly stood out as Cuba being kid friendly!  At our breakfast at the casa, our baby boy was a bit fussy, so through her broken English, the lady who made breakfast for us offered to take and hold him! Then this was the evening that our daughter made friends with the wait staff at the restaurant.

Watching her new friend play some Cuban music at the paladar

DAY 6 - TRINIDAD:

We decided to do one of the horseback rides to the waterfalls in Topes de Collantes Natural Park, located just outside of Trinidad.  Because we had two little ones, we opted for the horse drawn cart to take our family to the Falls. We were picked up in the morning and taken to the spot just on the edge of town to meet our driver and horse who would take us to the falls. Our driver was Yosandry and he spoke pretty decent English - it was really good considering he had taught himself!  He was 18-years old and he shared with us that his wife was 17 years old, as there were no laws in Cuba about the age in which you can get married. It was interesting to learn little bits and pieces from him and to learn that his mom had immigrated to Norway (where he had been to visit) and then he had a trip to Daytona, Florida planned in the next month or so as well.

The cart didn't have any cover over it, so it was a little hot and we had to cover up the kids with a light sheet to prevent the sun being on them too strong, but it was a very authentic tour. And because we were in the cart, we were able to go at our own pace which was nice with the kids - we could stop when we needed, etc. The waterfall was nice, but because it was the dry season, the fall wasn't as spectacular as I'm sure it normally is. However, the pool was nice - I didn't get a chance to go in but Alex did and said it was nice. My chuckle for the day was that they had a little wooden wall in the corner near the falls area with a sign on it that said 'bano' but really it was just rocks behind a wall. :-)

For lunch we were taken to his family's place - it seemed that each guide took their guests to different places - where we had lunch.  The lunch was one of the most delicious lunches we had while in Cuba.  We had some salad, drumsticks, yucca and beans and rice - all while the chickens roamed throughout the place.  Again here one of the older women took the baby and held him while we were busy eating our lunch. He got lots of love in Cuba.

We got back from the outing around 3 p.m. and had the kids nap for the afternoon before going back to the paladar from the previous night for dinner. Our daughter got some playing time in with the little girl at our casa as well - which she enjoyed.  Every time we would be out and we would ask her what she wanted to do, she would say "Go back home and play with my friend." It was such good perspective to see how kids don't even care if they can't speak the same language - they just want to play and be friends. Good lessons for us all!

DAY 7 - TRINIDAD to HAVANA:

To be honest, this was one of our more exhausting days.  The casa owner had arranged a taxi for us, but when it arrived it had air conditioning, but no seat belts. To get another one took a little while, so we got started a little later than we originally thought. The drive to Havana was about 3.5 hours, but there weren't a lot of places to stop along the way for food, etc. Plus our taxi driver didn't really speak much English, so it was hard to communicate with him what exactly we were looking for or needing. We basically had some buns and cookies that we got at a rest station for lunch, which wasn't a good way to fuel a toddler.

When we arrived in Havana, we met our casa owner and then went out to the Old Town. We saw the capitol and then tried to exchange some of our money into the local currency, which took a little more time than we hoped. However, when there is just one place to exchange money there tends to be line ups. We found a place for dinner, but soon realized that the portions in Havana weren't nearly as large as what we had in Trinidad, and the grilled chicken wasn't as tasty as the other food we had so far.  We called it an early night because everyone was exhausted from the day of traveling.

Arriving in the Capital - Havana

DAY 8 - HAVANA:

We termed this day our 'Budget/Backpacker Day.' This was the day we were afraid that we wouldn't have enough money for the rest of the trip. We were allocating out our funds to make sure that we would have enough to pay for the casa and then transportation to the airport.  If we got really desperate, we figured we could put the kids out with a hat next to some Cuban music so they could dance with a sign saying 'Money needed for bus to airport."  Ha ha!

We explored the Old Town while looking for ATMs to try and it was amazing to see all the European architecture - you felt like you were somewhere in Europe so many times in each of the different squares. We explored the Fort (which all the info was also all in Spanish) that was on the edge of the Old Town, but it did offer some good views of the river and the fort on the other side, as well as it was fun to climb the bell tower again.  Afterwards we found a Coco Taxi for a ride along the Malecon, which we paid about 20 CUC for the ride to the end and back. On the way back we had to pull over so that the driver could fill the coco taxi up with gas...luckily her gas tank was just under our seats so we weren't stranded. :-)

Refueling our Coco Taxi on the Malecon

Our daughter fell asleep in the stroller, so the kids and I went to hang out in Central Parque, while Alex went to the hotel to use the Internet for some things that afternoon - like booking our stand-by flight back. I found a 'chip man' who sold some tasty sweet/salty chips and our daughter recognized other 'chip mans' for the remainder of our time in Havana.  We also got in some good 'ole fashion pigeon chasing at some of the beautiful plazas in the Old Town. 

DAY 9 - HAVANA:

After resolving the freeze on our ATM card the night before, we tried it out first thing in the morning and were able to get some money out of the ATM - we had a little bit of a pad again. :-)  We were thinking of going across to some of the sites on the other side of the river and they had some of the open-top tourist buses that would take you there for 10 CUC per person. However, after standing in a line in Central Parque for about 45 minutes and not having any success with the right bus coming, we abandoned that idea and set out exploring in the Old Town once again.

We stumbled upon a little kids park along the river and thought we would check it out to see if there was anything our daughter could do there.  It was basically a kids amusement park and admission for each of us was only 3 Cuban pesos per person (about 15 cents) and then they divided your ticket into 6 ride tickets, so basically each ride was only 2.5 cents!! We called it the peso park.  They had some swings, a little train and some other playground equipment that you could explore and on the other side of the park were bouncy structures for kids. Our daughter loved going between the swings and the train.  Originally we weren't sure exactly how it worked with getting the tickets so we paid the operators 1 peso per ride, but then we figured out that we needed to redeem the ticket we got at the entrance for the ride tickets, so we 'overpaid' for a couple of the rides - but for 5 cents a ride, we really couldn't complain. She really loved this part and it was a good break for her to have something age appropriate!  It was the best thing we stumbled upon!

We had some lunch at a really good restaurant and then continued to explore the Old Town and look for some souvenirs. While in one of the shops, our baby was a hit with all the people working in them and one of the shop attendants gave him his own maraca keychain. We had a dinner and then headed back to the casa for some showers and then some Cristal beer after the kids went to bed to celebrate our last night in Cuba.

DAY 10 - HAVANA to VERADERO to CALGARY:

Our final meal in Cuba - Breakfast of fried plantains, veggies and eggs!

This was a huge travel day for us! We caught a taxi from Havana to Veradero, which was about 2.5 hours away for 80 CUC, and then proceeded onto the two flights.  When it was all said and done we basically traveled for about 18 hours that day. The previous morning, Alex had gone to try to get bus tickets to Veradero Airport, but the 8 a.m. bus was sold out and the next flights would put us a little too close to the time we needed to be there, as the airlines recommended us being there 2-3 hours in advance of our flight. So when he couldn't get bus tickets, he looked for a taxi driver at the bus station to make arrangements with for the next morning. He was looking for something newer once again and the vehicle he found was one of the more modern cars we saw/rode in while in Cuba - it was only 4 years old.

Needless to say by the time we arrived back in Calgary that night around midnight, we were all pretty tired and ready for bed!  However, Cuba was a great trip and we're so happy that we made it there!

Viva Cuba!

It has been a while since we have traveled, but after some time at home and a new family member - a baby boy who arrived in October 2016 - we ventured off on our first trip as a family of four at the end of February.  We had been planning to travel to Cuba in February 2016, but after finding out I was pregnant at the beginning of February and with the Zika virus happening in the Caribbean, we decided to postpone our trip to Cuba. Ultimately we wanted to keep our baby safe, but our motive was to go to Cuba before it completely opened up to the U.S. after the embargo/travel restrictions were lifted.  Since flights from the U.S. to Cuba started up last summer, it was definitely at the top of our list of travel destinations. We really wanted to see Cuba before the big hotel chains and other big chain restaurants made their appearance there. Cuba was a completely unique travel destination and it is true that you do feel like you step back a little bit in time.  We've been to some developing travel destinations like Southeast Asia and India, but Cuba definitely was unique in its own regard!

Our 1st International Travel adventure as a Family of Four!  [Riding the Coco Taxi in Havana]

Going into the trip we had been told that things like the food and wifi weren't good.  There were certain things we were unsure about, so since we were traveling with a picky 3-year old, we prepared by bringing a bottle of Ketchup and a sense of adventure knowing that there may be some things that pop up unexpectedly.  However, we were pleasantly surprised with how good the food was and how well it went with traveling with two kids under 3 years old.  When we arrived in Cuba we spent 2 nights at a resort in Cayo Coco, 3 nights at a casa particular (which is basically the Cuban version of AirBnB) in Trinidad and 3 nights at a casa particular in Havana.

FOOD & PRICES:

I think one of the biggest comments we consistly heard about Cuba prior to going was that the food wasn't good. However, we found it quite the opposite. In the past 5-10 years the Cuban government 'relaxed' (at least in this aspect) and allowed for some private enterprises, which many people took advantage of to open their own restaurants - or Paladars. If you would go to a government restaurant, then yes, the food wouldn't be good, but the Paladars had great food. In fact, one of the best meals we had was in a place you least expected it - on a farm!  The food was flavor-able. It wasn't spicy, but was very tasty. In fact, we didn't use the Ketchup at all - even our daughter, who is a Ketchup connoisseur!  The Paladars had meals catered toward tourists, and their prices reflected that - most of the meals were around 8.50-15 CUC, which converted to about $8.50-15 per plate.  For the average Cuban this wouldn't be affordable, as the average monthly income is only about $25 per month.  But even the local Cuban food was pretty good, and it cost any where from about 5-10 Local Pesos, which is about 25-50 cents. We found sandwiches/pizza for about 40 cents each and treats like ice cream cones were about 5 cents each.  The craziest part was that there would be these places right next to each other! When traveling to 2nd & 3rd World Countries we have discovered that there is often a local price and a tourist price, so we weren't surprised that Cuba was the same. However, the price disparity between what the locals paid for things as to what tourists were charged was one of the biggest we have seen.

Normally when we travel we always hit up the grocery store for some small snacks and food.  However, we went into a couple of grocery stores throughout our trip and left with very little.  One of the small grocery stores we went to in Trinidad had many empty shelves and the largest selection was the liquor selection with Cuban rum making up the majority of it, as well as other beverages and packaged pasta. In Havana, it was a larger grocery store, but still the same type of situation with the selection.  We purchased some milk for our daughter at the grocery store, but it was the full fat version and she didn't like it.  Our Havana casa host said that you can't find the skimmed milk version in the grocery stores, you have to go to other vendors to get specialty products like that, which it seemed was the case for many of the other items, like fruit and veggies.

TRAVELING WITH CHILDREN:

The other thing we were unsure about was how it would be traveling with kids there - mostly because of the lack of conveniences. However, if you're flexible and plan ahead, it's completely do-able! We knew that the resort would be good with kids, but even when we ventured off the resort, we found Cuba to be a very kid-friendly destination. In fact, I would say that it quite possibly is one of the MOST kid appreciative places we have been - even more than places in Canada or the United States. The Cubans really respected and appreciated kids, and showed respect for parents.  My first encounter was when we arrived at the airport in Cayo Coco.  Right off our flight, I took my daughter to the bathroom while my son was in his carrier on my front.  After helping her to the bathroom, we were trying to wash her hands at the sink, which was a little hard holding her up to the sink with my son on my front.  However, the bathroom attendant came over and helped finish washing my daughter's hands!!

Each and every single day there was some type of interaction with Cubans who helped us with the kids and showed their admiration for them. I dropped my son's burp rag in Havana and someone chased me down to give it back to me; my baby got a free keychain that rattled from a souvenir shop; and at another bathroom in Havana, the bathroom attendant came to help me hold my daughter on the toilet while she was going to the bathroom and I had my son on the front again!  There were a couple of truly unique and memorable experiences that I will always treasure.  The first was that in Trinidad, we went to one of the paladars and the waitress carried Clara around the first night and befriended her, as well as the lady who was singing later. When we left to go home that night, they both came to the entry way of the restaurant to say 'goodnight' and give her a kiss. Because of such a great experience that night, we went back the next night; that time she held our son while we enjoyed our dinner. The second was our owner at our casa particular in Havana was extremely helpful as well.  She went out of her way to give our daughter some special milk that we couldn't find in the grocery store each morning at breakfast and then cuddled with our son so we could enjoy our breakfast a bit more.

The only negative experience was in Havana - I was trying to put the carrier back on and a local Cuban woman came over to help me, but after helping she started talking to me and pointing to her baby who was in a stroller a few feet away and seemed to be asking for a tip for her helping me. I can't say with 100% certainty that is what she was saying, as it was in Spanish, but that is what it seemed she was implying.  However, I was in complete awe with how kind many Cubans were and how much they loved kids!  They would be walking away and if our son caught their gaze they would stop and make baby noises to him.  I felt super safe and comfortable with our kids because of how they treated us.

We brought along our own children's and infant Tylenol and other possible medication, which I'm glad we did because it was impossible to find even basic things in Cuba.  Things are different there, but overall I think kids are pretty versatile and can adjust.  Because the food isn't super spicy, our 3-year-old daughter actually ate the food without any issue, and she liked doing these fun new things.  There were days where she got tired or crabby, especially on some of our long travel days between cities where we took taxis, but I couldn't blame her for that.  The issues that we did have with her, would have been the same type of issues we would have had with her at home. Our 4-month old son was a great traveler!  It helped that he was still 100% breastfed so we didn't have to worry about food with him. He loved to watch all the activity from his carrier and he would basically sleep when he got tired - although probably not as much as he should have, but he's always been a cat-napper any way.

In our non-kid travel days we would have taken the local bus or something cheap to get between places, but with kids, this was one area that we decided to spend the extra money on, which was well worth it. We decided to take a taxi from Cayo Coco to Trinidad and Trinidad to Havana (both trips were about 3-3.5 hours long) and then from Havana to Veradero to catch our flight home (about 2.5 hours). The taxis were more expensive, about 120 CUC (or equivalent to $120 USD), but offered the flexibility for us to stop whenever we needed.  The hardest part about taxi was that you couldn't take whatever taxi showed up - we had to try to pre-arrange a taxi for all 3 trips because we needed to make sure that the taxi had seat belts and air conditioning, which does take a little bit of effort in a country known for its classic cars.  [We did bring along our own car seat, as there aren't many regulations in Cuba regarding this.]

ACCOMMODATION:

The resort we stayed at in Cayo Coco was nice; although it doesn't really measure up to some of the same standards of resorts in Mexico; however, this is one of the main things you'll read about prior to traveling to Cuba is that their 5-stars are actually more like a 3-star elsewhere.  The resort provided us with everything that we needed though - the beach was absolutely gorgeous and we enjoyed the food they had.  One night they even served lobster at the buffet!  The swimming pools were good, and our daughter loved the ice cream hut!  The rooms were pretty basic and because there seemed to be some marshland near the resort we had some issues with mosquitoes in room at night.  I swear there wouldn't be any during the day, but at night they would appear out of nowhere, which made us think that they were coming in from vents or plumbing.  Luckily we had brought along an outdoor playpen piece for our baby so we used the bug net at night to protect him and then sprayed the rest of us with some natural bug spray prior to bed, as well as did a mosquito 'search and attack' prior to bed both nights. However, in Trinidad and Havana we didn't even see one mosquito because it was the dry season.

In both Trinidad and Havana, we stayed in casa particulars.  Like I mentioned above, these are like the Cuban version of AirBnB.  The local people are able to open their homes and host people in them to supplement their income.  In fact, this is probably their main source of income as they get about 35 CUC per NIGHT for a room, which is more than the average Cuban salary of 25 CUC per MONTH.  At our casa in Trinidad, Casa Barcelo, was basically a full family operation, including the grandfather and grandmother getting involved by offering clothes washing services for a price. They had three different rooms within their house that they rented out nightly.  Two of their rooms were on the upper level, which had an outdoor patio where they offered an optional breakfast daily for a minimal price of 5 CUC. [We decided to do breakfast each morning at each of the casas we stayed at, and we're glad we did, as I think it would have taken some effort to find some decent breakfast food otherwise.]

Our breakfast view at Casa Barcelo

Our room was on the lower level of their house and was more immersed in their living area. We did have to walk through their living area each time, we came and went, but it did provide a cool opportunity to get an idea of what local life was like - like a home stay.  It was a great experience though because they had a daughter who was 5 years old and a 1 month old son, so our daughter quickly befriended the other little girl - despite the language barrier - and each day she would look forward to when we would go 'back home' to see 'her friend.'  They bonded by playing games together and their love for Frozen.  They would play in the morning together before breakfast and when we would come home.  It was so refreshing to see how little kids don't care that they can't understand each other - they just want to be friends!

New Friends! They show friendship has no barriers...including language!

In Havana, we stayed at Casita Longina, which was located about a 10-15 minute walk away from the Old Town.  This casa had 2 rooms in this particular place and then a main room area where you could hang out if you wanted as well.  Both casas had their own private bathrooms within each of the rooms.  We had breakfast at this casa as well, and it was some of the best food we had in Cuba - eggs, fried plantains, bread, fruit, coffee and juice were on the menu and fueled us well for the days of exploring we had in Havana.  The casa owner here spoke English well and we would have several conversations with her while having breakfast in the morning, and she provided a lot of unique perspective to Cuba. One of the things I found most interesting is that she was a doctor by profession, but she owned two different casas in Havana, because I'm assuming that she got better money doing this than she did as a doctor (that is just my assumption though). However, she was quite talented in that she spoke Spanish, French, Italian and English.  She shared that she has a son in Italy, and she was going to be going to visit him and her new grandson in the next little while, but couldn't stay longer for 3 months because of Cuban government restrictions on how long you can be out of the country. I found our conversations with her very interesting and insightful.

In both casas, they went above and beyond to make sure that we were comfortable and taken care of!  They were an affordable option (where as some of the hotels in the main tourist areas would cost you about $150-$500 per a night) and were a great cultural experience simultaneously.

CLASSIC CARS:

It is true that you feel like you're transported back in time when you get to Cuba.  Originally I thought it might just be a few cars here and there that are classics, but there are tons! It's amazing to see so many classic cars still functioning in good working order.  On the roads you would probably see about 80% older cars, which is quite large!  However, I would say that in most tourist areas, the really classic cars are mostly taxis - although they may not be identified as taxis and they sure don't use meters.

Classic Cars lined up in Havana to take tourists for a cruise of the Old Town & Malecon

Gasoline isn't cheap though. We asked one of our taxi drivers what the cost of gasoline was (because it wasn't posted on large signs at gas stations like it is here) and he said it was about 1.65 CUC per litre (or $1.65 USD). That would be pretty costly to fill up some of those gas guzzling classic cars I'm sure!

But the other amazing part is that horse and wagon are still used quite a bit for local Cuban transportation.  The cars and the horses and carts share the roads together! We would be driving along in our taxi and pass a horse and cart with several people on board on their National highway.

View of the road ahead from our taxi on our ride from Trinidad to Havana

WIFI:

It really is true that Wifi is not good. We have traveled in Southeast Asia and India in some places that were more behind in times than Cuba, and they had much better wifi access than we had in Cuba.  Alex bought a wifi access card in Trinidad and was able to hook up to the wifi at our casa there; however, the connection was still spotty and unreliable. There were supposedly some hotspots throughout Havana, and our casa owner said that if you saw a bunch of people in one particular area of a park that likely it was a hotspot.  Alex had to use the Internet for some things while we were in Havana and even at a top-end hotel the internet connection was spotty.  He was on one particular computer and he said that it took about 20 minutes for one webpage to load!!

MONEY:

One of the biggest stresses we had of the trip was getting money toward the end of the trip.  The more expensive meals put us a little over our daily budget, so we needed to withdraw some money.  However, when we tried to use the ATM with our bank card, it was denied. We tried several more and it was denied too.  Eventually we got a cash advance on our credit card, but when we tried to call our bank to find out what was going on, we struggled to get a phone. A call on the phone at one of the hotels was about $2 per minute or you could stand in line for probably an hour (there was always a huge line-up) at the communications company. Luckily our casa host let us make a collect call on her phone and we were quickly able to resolve the money issue. [A couple years ago we had called to let them know we would be traveling in Croatia and they said they didn't need to know ahead of time, but I guess Cuba is one of the countries that they do need to know or they freeze your account.]

However, we would highly recommend bringing all the money you need to Cuba ahead of time, as it is a bit of a headache and other than Havana we didn't really see many ATMs. You can only get Cuban currency in Cuba, so you have to bring your own currency and exchange it there. There are two different types of currency in Cuba as well - The Convertible Currency (CUC) which is basically just for tourist areas and tourists and then the local Cuban peso, which is what all the locals use.  The conversion rate is 1 CUC=1 USD and 1 Local Cuban Peso = $.05.  Some places wouldn't accept the CUC at all, so we had to convert some of our money to the local currency once we got to Havana.

These are just some of our main tips & highlights of the trip - stay tuned for our day-to-day itinerary in the next post!

Croatia Trip Itinerary

As promised from my last post, here are a few day-to-day highlights. Unfortunately, our camera was lost/stolen on our very last evening in the Croatia-Montenegro region, and we lost all our photos, so I don't have as many photos as I would like to share, but there are a few from my husband's phone and a few that I got from a photo CD that we purchased at the airport - so hopefully that will suffice instead.

Day 1 - Zagreb:

We spent most of the day checking out the city center of Zagreb. We first checked out the town square and our daughter immediately went for the pigeons! She loved them! She thought it was pretty cool to get pretty close to them and then see them fly away!  We explored the Dolac market, which is an open air market with colorful red vendor tents, and explored more of the streets surrounding the area. Our walk took us by several churches (although we should have read our guidebook better as we both wore shorts and weren't able to enter the churches because of our attire) and then through these very quaint streets. At one point we walked through this little church chapel that was built right into the road/sidewalk. We also saw this cute older couple with their dog playing traditional Croatian music. Our daughter just stopped and listened to them for the longest time.

St. Mark's Church

One of the highlights of Zagreb is St. Mark's church, which we went to visit on our walk as well. The design on the roof is pretty spectacular and colorful. There were small narrow stone streets that led us through one area lined with restaurants with lots of outdoor seating. Our daughter loved to be independent and walk on her own as we explored the area. We also headed down to the main street to grab some croissant and coffee. The trams in Zagreb are pretty amazing - they actually share the same road as the vehicle traffic, so as we were driving around we had to make sure that we weren't in an oncoming tram lane.

Although we could have probably spent a little more time in Zagreb, we felt like we saw the majority of it in the 3/4 of the day we spent there. In the late afternoon we headed out toward Plitvice National Park for our adventure there the next day. We stayed at our first airbnb place at Branka's house. Her father cared for the guest house and he loved our daughter, but she liked him as well. Most of the time she doesn't like strangers, but when he held her she didn't make a peep and she later referred to him as "papa."

Day 2 - Plitvice National Park:

A small portion of Plitvice National Park

I pretty much touched on our day at Plitvice National Park earlier in this post - but it was definitely a highlight of the trip, even with the less than ideal weather.  We started with the C loop trail and then took the boat ride and when we got to the first stop, we decided to get off and do the F loop as well - it really filtered out the large tourist groups. After we completed the F loop, we took the boat again across the lake and at the top of the hill there was a bus (that looked like a train - I originally thought we were going to go on a train when I read the material about the park!) to take you back to the other entrance of the National Park. However, we were enjoying our time so much that we thought it might be nice to walk back (it was on the opposite side of the lake from which we came from). To be honest, we probably didn't need to walk back and we really didn't see too much, but on that section I think we only ran into about 5 other people, so it was pretty peaceful with just our family.

We spent 5 hours within the National Park and I think we pretty much saw everything. That afternoon we drove to Zadar to spend a night there. Zadar has an unique Old Town, it is on an island with a bridge connecting it to the rest of the city. That evening we went into the Old Town for a dinner of pizza and gelato. There were a few pizza and gelato places we saw in Zagreb, but once you hit the coastline you're more in Dalamatian territory, which has more of a Venetian feel. Both were equally delicious and we enjoyed our evening walking through the narrow stone streets of the Zadar Old Town. The little gelato shop in Zadar that we stopped at had one of the coolest displays of gelato that I have ever seen.

Day 3 - Zadar/Sibenik:

Zadar Old Town

In the morning, we head back over to the Zadar Old Town to explore it more. We stopped to visit various sites like St. Donat Church, ruins and museum. One of the things I enjoy most about Europe is how their culture today still revolves around the past. As part of the ruins there was a little sidewalk cafe as part of it. One of the most unique places in Zadar were the steps built along the pier that ran into the ocean, which were constructed to be a sea organ. As you stood above the stairs you could hear the different notes being played and it really did sound like an organ.

Late that morning we drove 90 minutes to our next stop along the Dalamatia Coast - Sibenik. We were going to stop at Krka National Park on our way there, but when we stopped to inquiry about parking were told that we would need more time than we had. So we postponed our visit to Krka and continued onto to Sibenik. When we arrived, we enjoyed a picnic lunch along the Promenade, which provided a view of very expensive yachts and settled into our place for that evening. Our place that evening was right in the middle of the Old Town, so we had to transport our bags a little ways (although not far) from our car to our place. We were tucked away in this little square in the corner of the Old Town, and it was very authentic to stay there for the evening.  When we met the airbnb owner that afternoon she was surprised to find that we were from Canada and visiting Sibenik - she said typically most visitors here are from within Europe; however, we really enjoyed our stay in Sibenik.

While our daughter enjoyed a nap that afternoon, I went on a run through the Old Town of Sibenik. There were so many stairs there!  Almost like a stair workout in a stadium back home!  That evening we went for a seafood dinner at the Admiral's. We tried a squid dish with swiss chard and potatoes. It was actually really good, but it took a while to get our food so it ended up being a late night for our daughter and it took lots of entertaining at the table and some walks on the small Old Town street right below the patio. Our daughter's theme for our whole trip was to run! She loved it....I would say "1, 2, 3, Go!" so then anytime she wanted to run she would start backing up and say "two, two" and that would be my cue to say "go".

Exploring the Sibenik Old Town Streets

Day 4 - Sibenik & Krka National Park: 

St. Michael's Fortress at the top of Sibenik's Old Town

The next morning, Alex went to go grab us some fresh bread for breakfast and some coffee. It was so cool that he could just wander out to the streets and get us everything we needed for breakfast in about 10-15 minutes. We explored more of Sibenik in the morning. We made the climb up to St. Michael's Fortress, which sits at the highest point of Old Town Sibenik, and toured there. (Thank goodness we didn't try to take the stroller with us that day - lots of stairs!) St. Michael's Fortress is basically a castle, but what's cool about it is that they actually use it as a performing arts space today. How cool would it be to see a show in a castle?  We also stopped to get some gelato in an old monastery garden (although there are still some active monasteries and nunneries in Croatia). We also visited St. James Cathedral, which was beautiful from the outside and inside.

Our daughter graduated to her own ice cream cone this day - we sat next to St. James Cathedral and watched the people passing by and the children rollerskating around the town square. She was quite good at handling the cone and impressively didn't make a mess, although we made sure to bring a bib along in our day bag. :-)

Krka National Park

After lunch we drove back to Krka National Park. Once we parked we took a bus to Skradinski Buk falls. These were pretty magnificent waterfalls as they extended across quite a bit of area and there were a few different levels of the falls. At the bottom there was a place that you could swim. We didn't end up swimming because it was a little cool and Clara was sleeping, but there were quite a few people who were. Like Plivice, there were some wooden boardwalks that you could take all the way around the back side of the falls, which is where there were more little falls. On that walk, we also saw a wild fox, although he wasn't too wild because we probably got within 10 ft. of him! They also had a nice display on how the waterfalls were used to help with power, mills, washing, etc. in history.  After exploring there for about 1 1/2 hours we took the bus back up to the parking lot - although we almost got taken out on the bus ride - 1 big bus against oncoming traffic on the narrow road.

Krka National Park actually expands quite a bit of area, and you could pay for a boat ticket to take you to the other areas. However, there is also a road that will take you to the other areas of the park, so we took our car and drove to Roski Slap. The falls at this location weren't quite as impressive, and we ran out of time to hike up the pathway that takes you up to some caves, but the drive there was nice. We saw some cool, quaint small villages with the locals just hanging out and chatting with each other.

We drove the rest of the way to Split that afternoon and arrived in Split before dinner. We settled into our new airbnb location (we would stay here 2 nights) and it had a homey feel to it, especially since I had to do some laundry and hang the clothes out of dry on our little clothes line next to the balcony (on the 5th floor...luckily I didn't drop anything!) Being on the 5th floor we also got a good workout in with carrying our daughter up the stairs, as well as our bag and stroller! We headed into Old Town Split, which was walking distance away from our place, and explored there for a bit and had our staple meal of pizza and gelato, as well as stopped at the grocery store for some groceries. The city of Split has a cool feel and the Old Town & Diocletian's Palace made it one of the more interesting Old Towns we visited.

Day 5 - Split:  

Klis Castle

 We started out the day by driving out to Klis Castle/Fortress, which is where some of the filming takes place for Game of Thrones. Parts of the fortress were built in the B.C. time era, which is pretty spectacular when you think about it still being here and the amount of work it must have been to build it on the huge hill on which it stands overlooking Split.

After exploring the fortress and having lunch, we went to Bacvice Beach, which is supposedly one of the most popular beaches in Dalamatia. However, because it was not technically summer (although still nice temperatures) it wasn't as crowded as it could have been, and it was a little sad to see all the cigarette buds in the sand. We played for a bit in the sand and my husband and daughter ventured out into the water a few times.

While my daughter napped that afternoon, I took off for a run along the Split Promenade and then followed a path along the ocean which lead to Marjan Park. There were some great pebble beaches and green space along the path and I really enjoyed my run that afternoon.  After my run and some dinner back at the apartment, we headed back to the Old Town to try some new flavors of gelato and to explore it a bit more.

Day 6 - Split to Brac Island:  

We rented bikes in the morning (they even had a child's seat on the back) and rode them to Marjan Forest Park, which is a park on the peninsula of the city.  The bike path took us along the harbour and it was amazing some of the large yachts that were there. We stopped for a pastry and coffee along the way and even stopped to play at the Croatian playground for our daughter.

Marjan Park Bike Ride with little churches built in the rocks

We started the rest of the bike ride up to the top of the hill within Marjan Park, and it was a steep ascent. Our daughter did really well on the bike ride and seemed to enjoy the seat and the view she got, but like anything after a while got a little restless. The part where she got the most restless was as we were ascending the steepest part to the top. So it was a workout to try to sing songs with her to keep her entertained and ride the bike up to the top at the same time. Along our ascent we saw some of the older little churches that were built directly into the rock faces - they were adorable. The steep climb to the top was definitely worth it and the views over Split and the coast were amazing.

After our bike ride we rode our bikes down to the oceanside path and tried to have lunch at one of the beachside cafes; however, it was Monday and we quickly found out that the cafes are closed and don't serve food on Mondays, only drinks. We threw rocks from the rocky beach into the ocean for a bit - our daughter really liked doing that and then went back to the Promenade to get some lunch and return our bikes.

Diocletian's Palace

The remainder of the day we explored the upper parts of Diocletian's Palace as well as visited the cellars/basement. The cellars were interesting because it has some of the most well preserved areas as most changes to the area occurred above ground. Part of the cellars were used as a market/vendor space and then the hisotrical elements of the cellar are in a preserved area where you pay admission. Diocletian's Palace was built as a retirement home, and at the time it was constructed basically the back door was directly to the ocean - talk about oceanside access.

Later in the afternoon we caught the car ferry to Brac Island - just in the group of islands off the coastline from Split. The ferry ride was 50 minutes and then we had another 45 minute drive to the opposite side of the island to the town of Bol that we would stay in for 2 nights.  The drive was scenic with the little towns, the fields of olive trees and the vineyards. Our first night in Bol we enjoyed a night of take out pizza and some vino! :-) The wind was really strong on the island and it got cold quickly in the evening, so it was nice to stay inside that night.

Day 7 - Brac Island:  

A view from the top of Vidova Gora

We hiked up Vidova Gora in the morning. Vidova Gora is the tallest mountain on the island and we basically went from sea level tot 778 meters high. It was pretty steep and rocky at times, and it was quite the workout when carrying the hiking backpack with our daughter in it as well. It took us an hour and 45 minutes to get to the top, but when we did, you could see for miles and even across the bay to Split. We didn't actually go to the summit, but supposedly there was a restaurant up that that we missed. However, we decided to head down and on the way down it took us about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

After the hike we walked around the streets close to the harbour and grabbed some lunch at a pastry shop and enjoyed some gelato, before heading to the beach Zlatni Rat. This was another rocky beach but there were tons of activity going on - there were kite surfers and many of the yachts would anchor near the beach and then swim to shore. We enjoyed our time there mostly by throwing rocks into the water. Near the water the rocks actually created a little bit of a slope down to the water, so we sat on the edge of the slope. However, there were so many rocks that sometimes you lost your footing, as they acted like quick sand.

Zlatni Beach

For dinner that evening, we headed to quaint seaside town along the bay and enjoyed dinner at a seafood restaurant on their outdoor seating area. The outdoor seating areas were perfect with our daughter and we always liked it when we could get our table next to an empty table or two. We had a delicious seafood risotto and some seafood spaghetti.

Day 8 - Brac Island to Markarska:  

Our second morning on Brac Island we took the 10:30 a.m. ferry back to Split and then went for lunch and did a little shopping for souvenirs before heading to our next destination Markarska. The drive there was very scenic with the oceans and the mountains meeting each other along the coastline. We arrived at our Airbnb destination and met our host Marin and our daughter particularly enjoyed meeting his cat.

After dropping our items off we we went down to the beach as it felt warm - even though it was September 30th! The views of Markarska were awesome with the little beach town at the base of the mountains. The beach was nice, but a rocky beach, but our daughter again liked playing in the rocks and throwing her tube back and forth like a frisbee. However, you could tell that Markarska is mostly a summer destination spot as the beach was not busy and many of the beachside shops were closed for winter already.

Markarska

We walked around the Old Town for a bit (although it was smaller than the previous ones we had been to) and enjoyed an authentic Croatian meal that was chicken and a rice blend; and of course, gelato - only 5 kuna here! On our way back to our airbnb we stopped in the town square area (with a little church behind it) and played a little ring-a-round the rosie with our daughter. She also enjoyed watching the other children that were playing tag in the square as well.

One of the best things about Markarska was our airbnb host, Marin. He invited us out to his outdoor kitchen in the evening to chat. He provided lots of insight about Croatia, such as unemployment, as well as pay, was bad. He told us that the average pay per month was 800 Euro/month, and gave us a little insight to the intense soccer rivalries within Croatia and how dangerous it can be.

Day 9 - Markarska to Dubrovnik:

Before heading to Dubrovnik (we tried to plan most of the long driving trips in the afternoon with the idea that our daughter could nap in the car....that didn't always work), we went down to the Markarska oceanfront for a pastry breakfast and coffee and a walk around the park at the front of the bay. The park was nice as it had a little church at the top, as well as some statues overlooking the bay. It also provided some great views back at the town with the mountains in the background.

Markarska

We had one more coffee with Marin before the 3 hour drive to Dubrovnik. To get from Markarska to Dubrovnik, we had to drive through Bosnia. In this part of Europe there were still border crossings between countries. When we arrived at the Bosnian border crossing, they basically just looked at the cover of our passports, saw that we were from Canada and the US and handed them back to us to pass through the border (they didn't even open them to verify that it was us). So that we could say that we stepped on Bosnian soil, we stopped for a coffee and some photo ops. I didn't get to go into the shop to get the coffee, but my husband said that they seemed to have a slightly different accent than the people in Croatia. Although we didn't see any war damage, etc. through the part that we drove through, there were parts of it that looked a little more industrial than where we had been in Croatia - but it also wasn't a tourist spot. In total we were only in Bosnia for about 10-15 km.

Once we arrived in Dubrovnik and checked into our new airbnb - this one had to be my daughter's favorite as they had toys for her to play with - we headed to the marquee Dubrovnik Old Town for the evening. There was a charge to walk around the Old Town Wall, but it was definitely worth the fee. We got some awesome views and perspective of the Old Town below, as well as the ocean on the other side of the wall. It took us a little over an hour to walk around and in parts it reminded us of the Great Wall of China as there were some stairs or steep sections in parts.

Dubrovnik Old Town Wall

After our hike we had dinner at a restaurant in one of the alleys of the Old Town, which had a quaint location. The Dubrovnik Old Town was very well preserved and parts of it even reminded us of Edinburgh because of the stairs to get from the entrance of the Old Town (from modern day Dubrovnik) down to the centre of the Old Town. At the centre streets of the Old Town, they had these little gutters that lined the streets and our daughter loved to follow these down the street - it made it easier to keep her focused and going in one straight direction.

Day 10 - Dubrovnik to Montenegro:  

In the morning, we went back to the Old Town to explore it more during the daytime. We checked out some of the churches and alleys and walked along the side of the Old Town that meets the bay. There was also a nice little market happening in some of the sections of the Old Town, so that was fun to see as well. One of the most unique places we came across was a "Kitty Hotel". Within all of Croatia there are lots of stray cats; however, they seem to be well treated and this one little area we came upon was set up as a little haven for cats - there was food, water and some areas for the cats to lay down in. There was also a little sign that asked for people to donate to help supply food for the cats.

In the early afternoon we drove to Montenegro as it was only about a 90 minute drive from Dubrovnik. Again between Croatia and Montenegro we had to stop at the border crossing and get our passports reviewed. They reviewed ours quickly, but it seems like some other vehicles spent much more time at the border crossing. Shortly after crossing the border we came upon a police officer standing on the side of the road next to his vehicle and he motioned over to Alex to pull over. He told him that he was going 72 km in a 50 km speed zone. At that point Alex got out of the car and went to talk to the officers, and he explained that he was from Canada and was just here for the hike up Kotor. They actually let him go without the ticket, thank goodness, as they said the fine was a range of 50-250 Euro.

As we drove into Kotor the view was pretty spectacular with the bay in the middle of the mountains. We checked into our place and then headed to the Old Town of Kotor. We immediately did the hike up to the Kotor Fortress. The trail was steep in places and there was a combination of stairs with basically a trail of gravel/stones to the side of that. I found that going on the stairs was better, and felt safer, especially with the hiking carrier on my back. We really enjoyed the hike up to the top and there were some really scenic spots, especially as you turned back to view the Bay of Kotor below you. There was one little spot where there was a window in one of the structures and in the little valley below you could see this tiny little church - it was very cute. The hike probably took us about an hour to get up to the top - but we were taking lots of pictures - and then we headed back down.

Kotor Fortress Hike

We headed back to our place on the opposite side of the bay and went to a local restaurant that was at the bottom of our street. We sat out in the patio area and it had a great view of the Old Town with the old city walls lit up at night. The waiter couldn't speak English well and the menu wasn't in very descriptive English, so we were exactly sure what we were getting. We tried to ask if a couple of the items had sides with them, but our waiter didn't understand. But the price seemed too cheap to have sides, so we ordered a bunch of different items, like risotto, seafood skewers, spaghetti and a couple of salads. Wow! We definitely ordered way too much food!  However, we could definitely tell that we were off the tourist path based on these prices. (Montenegro uses the Euro as their currency) We ended up having them package up the food for us to take home because there was so much leftover that we thought we might be able to eat for lunch the next day.

Unfortunately, this was also the place where we accidentally left our camera. It was dark out on the patio when we left (we were basically just using candlelight) and we must have been distracted with the other items and our daughter that it somehow got forgotten or we thought we had placed it in our backpack. Unfortunately, when we realized it, the camera was already gone.

Day 11 - Kotor, Montenegro:

Unfortunately, this was one of the worst days on our trip, due to losing the camera and the memory card on it. We waited for the restaurant to open and then talked with the owners and waited for the waiter to come to work to see if they perhaps picked it up the night before. Unfortunately, none of them recalled seeing it. We ended up putting up reward posters, but we were never contacted.

In the afternoon, we HAD to go back to Dubrovnik to catch our flight back to Germany, so we drove back and then flew to Frankfurt. We stayed in an airport hotel that night.

Day 12 - Trier, Germany & Luxembourg:

As we were flying standby the availability on the flights back to Canada weren't looking good until the following day, so we made the decision to stay in mainland Europe. We rented a car and then decided to drive to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg - to add a new country to both of our country lists. :-)  Even on the autobahn, it was about a 3 hour drive, so along the way we stopped in Trier, Germany for lunch. 

The Trier square was a very iconic European square. There was some water fountains, the cute multi-colored buildings surrounding the square and lots of activity, especially since it was a Sunday. Considering none of the shops were open, it was mainly just people out and about for the day or out enjoying lunch at one of the outdoor seating areas of the patios. There were groups of individuals playing music as well - at one point we had a whole band dressed in pink sitting next to our table at the restaurant.

My daughter and I exploring the main square in Trier, Germany

We sat outside and enjoyed a traditional German meal of schitzel, bratwurst and some pretzels. Our daughter seemed to enjoy the pretzels, as well as the french fries like she did in Croatia. I really enjoyed all the outdoor seating in Europe because while we waited for food, we could go walking around with our daughter as she has a low attention span for sitting in one place for a long period of time.

After our lunch in Trier, we headed to Luxembourg City. We headed to the older part of the city here to explore. Luxembourg City was unique in that there were higher parts of the city, but then there were also parts of the city in the valleys below - which also meant a lot of climbing stairs and walking up steep hills again. :-)

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get exploring as soon as we would have liked because we were completely out of diapers for our daughter and we needed to get some. We tried to find some in Trier but everyone said the stores were closed on Sundays. We eventually asked a girl at a bus stop where we might be able to find a store on a Sunday afternoon that was open and she suggested that we go to a grocery store near the train station. So we loaded back in the car and headed there. Thank goodness they had some there because I don't know what we would have done otherwise - our poor daughter was in the previous diaper for way too long because it took us so long to find a place. So needless to say we quickly realized that shopping isn't something you do in Luxembourg or Germany on a Sunday.

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

 We went back to the main area to explore and walked around the ruins (for lack of better term) and then into the Old Town streets along the canal. It was a very unique city and when you were down in the Old Town, when you looked up it was amazing how high the walls were along the edges of it. We didn't end up having a whole lot of time in Luxembourg, but I think we got the gist of it, and we can now add to our list of countries that we have been to.

Day 13 - Back Home:

This was our travel day back home. That morning we woke up early (but I was still able to fit in a run that morning, which was a nice way to explore the area of Luxembourg by our hotel) and drove back to Frankfurt. We thought we would just stop at McDonalds on the way out of Luxembourg for breakfast, but when we drove up to the drive-in we realized they were closed! They didn't open until 10:30 or 11 a.m. - and they didn't have a breakfast menu - interesting learning for us! (By the way, we amazingly NEVER say really any North American fast food restaurants during our stay in Croatia, nor any North American big box stores! - I was really impressed with that!)

Our flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver was very full (this flight was really long - about 10-11 hours). Originally Alex and I were sitting apart from each other, but we were able to ask the single guy next to me if he'd be interested in taking Alex's seat. Luckily he obliged and I'm sure it was a good decision for him to do so, as he would have been sitting right in between a couple with a small baby and then me with my daughter in my lap squirming around. For this flight we unfortunately didn't get a spare seat so our daughter had to sit on someone's nap the whole time. Luckily though we were in one of the bulkhead seats so there was a little room at our feet for her to play at, as well as the flight attendants brought out the bassinets that attached to the bulkhead. Unfortunately, I think our daughter only slept about 50 minutes of that 11 hour flight, but at least we could sit her in the bassinet for her to play her games so that our legs could get a rest from her sitting on them. She did really well on the flight again, but of the over 20+ flights that she has ever been on, this one on the descent seemed to bother her ears. However, she was starting to get a cold, so I'm sure that's the main reason why.

The Lufthansa flight attendants were very helpful and friendly too. Our daughter got a little stuffed duck from them as a boarding gift and she still carries around that duck with her even 2 months later.  You could definitely tell that Lufthansa was a family friendly airline; when we went to check in for our flight earlier that day they had a special line for families with young children and then a step so that the kids could step up and see what the agent was doing over the counter.

When we arrived in Vancouver we had a couple hour layover and then caught our flight back to Calgary. By that point we had all been awake for almost 24 hours straight, so it was an early night to bed for all of us!

Overall, we really enjoyed our trip to Croatia and we would definitely consider going back sometime. It had a lot of culture and history, but it was nice that is wasn't overpriced either. However, like we always say there are so many other first-time places to explore before making a 2nd trip back! :-)