Can you travel to Cuba right now?

Can you even get there?

Changes monthly — re-check before booking

The airline collapse is a jet-fuel story more than a hotel story. Cuba warned in February 2026 that Jet A-1 was unavailable at nine international airports. US carriers kept flying because Miami and Tampa are close enough to carry round-trip fuel without refuelling in Cuba. Canadian, European and Russian carriers on longer routes have to refuel on the island, and cannot. That single fact explains the shape of the entire remaining route map.

About 18 carriers still serve six airports: Havana, Varadero, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, Santa Clara and Camagüey. American Airlines is the only carrier serving all six, and the sole scheduled operator at both Varadero and Santa Clara — so if American trims further, those airports lose scheduled international service outright.

Cayo Coco and Cayo Largo have no scheduled international flights whatsoever. A package to either now means a long road transfer from Camagüey, Santa Clara or Havana, assuming the resort is even open.

Money: Cuba is now cash-only, completely

The card shutdown is stable; exchange rates move weekly

This is the most important practical fact on this page, and it invalidates most of what you will find by searching. On June 6, 2026, Visa and Mastercard stopped working across Cuba — not just US-issued cards, but cards from France, Spain, Canada, the UK, Mexico and everywhere else. The foreign bank that processed Cuban card traffic ended its relationship with the Cuban state financial arm to avoid sanctions exposure. American Express never worked in Cuba.

Assume no ATM will work for you, and that there is no fallback if your cash is lost or stolen. Bring your entire trip budget in cash, in US dollars or euros, in small and medium denominations, and in crisp untorn notes — worn bills get refused because staff cannot spend them onward.

Canadians should follow their own government here rather than older resort blogs: Canadian dollars are not widely accepted, and the CAD-friendly infrastructure largely left with the Canadian tour operators.

The blackouts, and why they matter more than comfort

Numbers change weekly; the structural picture is stable

Cuba's grid can serve roughly a third of evening demand. There were at least six full national grid collapses between March and August 2026 — roughly one every six weeks — the longest leaving the island dark for over 29 hours. Havana is deliberately prioritised and still averaged around 15 hours a day without power at the mid-2026 peak. Provinces run worse: Matanzas, Varadero's own province, saw stretches of 85 hours or more in some neighbourhoods in June 2026.

Chinese-funded solar has genuinely changed daytime supply — about 133 solar parks are now installed — but only four have battery storage, so it contributes nothing at the 6pm-to-11pm peak when cuts are worst. Daytime power is meaningfully better than it was in 2024. Evenings are not.

Resorts do run generators, and the tourism ministry prioritises them. But that shield is visibly failing in three ways: at least eight hotels in Varadero and the northern cays closed outright because there was no diesel for their generators; guests have documented backup plants failing under load during total grid collapses; and Canada's advisory now says in writing that fuel shortages may affect generator use.

What the resorts are actually like

Changes monthly

Seven international chains left Cuba in 2026 under US sanctions targeting the military-run conglomerate that owns much of the tourism industry. Meliá went in July, taking all 34 of its hotels. Iberostar and Barceló went the same week. Blue Diamond — the parent of Royalton, Memories and Starfish — abandoned 62 hotels and nearly 13,000 rooms at the end of May, the biggest single loss by room count. Between them those chains ran about half of Cuba's hotel rooms.

Whatever remains open is now run by a Cuban state operator, usually under a new name formed by dropping the foreign brand. Meliá Varadero trades as Los Pétalos Varadero. Sol Palmeras is Palmeras Varadero. Memories Trinidad del Mar is simply Trinidad del Mar. If you booked before the handover, the hotel on your voucher may not be the name on the building.

On the ground the consistent pattern in 2026 guest reports is that beaches, pools, grounds and staff still rate well, and the buffet is the failure point — repetitive, thin, and prone to running out. Cuba normally spends around $369 million a year on poultry to supply its hotels, and that spending has effectively vanished.

For US travelers: a beach resort is not legal right now

Stable — but this is not legal advice

Tourism to Cuba is prohibited by statute, not merely by regulation, so travel has to fall into one of twelve authorized categories. There are four independent reasons a beach all-inclusive fails, and any one of them is sufficient.

First, the property. Cuba's beach resorts are essentially all run by the state tourism entities, and by mid-2026 the military conglomerate GAESA, the armed forces ministry and the tourism ministry itself had all been designated as blocked. Many resorts also sit on the Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List, where lodging is barred outright with no workaround — and that prohibition attaches to you, not to whoever sold you the trip. Booking through a Canadian or European operator changes nothing.

Second, the category. The "support for the Cuban people" general license requires a full-time schedule of activities producing meaningful interaction with Cubans, and expressly does not authorize free time or recreation beyond that. An all-inclusive stay is the textbook example of what it does not cover. The self-directed people-to-people category was eliminated in 2019 and has not returned.

Third, intent is not a defence. Civil liability attaches to violations that were not wilful, and you are required to keep records for five years and produce them to Treasury on demand. The burden of proof sits with you.

Fourth — and this is the myth most worth busting — an airline selling you a ticket proves nothing. Carriers discharge their obligation by making you self-certify a travel category at booking. Nobody is vetting your itinerary. A ticket sold is not a trip authorized.

Entry requirements: what changed

Stable

The paper tourist card is gone. Physical tarjetas were withdrawn in June 2025, and since January 1, 2026 the eVisa is the only valid entry document for nationalities that need a visa. The old "pink card versus green card" rule that still fills search results is obsolete — there is now one electronic document, applied for at the official portal, valid up to 90 days and extendable once. Anyone flying from the United States needs an eVisa issued in the US, whatever their citizenship.

Separately, every passenger must complete the D'Viajeros online form within 72 hours of arrival. It produces a QR code required at check-in and at the border, and carries your customs and cash declaration. Save it as a screenshot or PDF — airport wifi is unreliable.

Medical insurance valid in Cuba is mandatory and is spot-checked on entry. If your policy is not accepted you will not clear immigration until you buy Cuban cover, sold at a desk before immigration for roughly $3 a day. US health insurance is not accepted, and Canadian provincial coverage is explicitly insufficient.

What is still genuinely good

Stable

This page is not an argument that Cuba stopped being worth visiting. Most of what made it extraordinary is intact, and in one respect it is better than it has been in a decade: with arrivals down around 62%, the sites and beaches are as empty as they will ever be.

Cuba also remains one of the safest countries in the Americas for visitors. Violent crime against tourists is rare, though petty theft has risen with the economic crisis. The honest framing is that the risks here are logistical — cash, power, fuel, food, medical care — rather than risks to your personal safety.

The private sector is the resilient part of the economy and it is where the good experiences now are. Casas particulares are better value than hotels, the hosts feed you and solve your problems, and the money goes directly to a Cuban family. Critically for 2026, most good casas and paladares have bought their own solar panels or generators, so they keep functioning while the neighbourhood goes dark. That is the single biggest practical reason independent travel is currently more reliable than a state-run beach resort.

Havana, Viñales and Trinidad are undiminished. A realistic independent budget is about $55 to $80 per person per day covering a private room with breakfast, two meals, local transport and an activity. And every account from 2026, including the bleakest, says the same thing about the people: the warmth is undiminished and Cubans are strikingly candid about the crisis.

Who should still go, and who should not

Common questions

Cuban resorts in our database

We track 69 Cuban all-inclusives. 20 appear to be operating and 49 are closed or have no confirmed availability. Many were renamed in 2026 when the international chains left, so we list the current operating name with the former brand alongside it. Given how fast this is moving, treat every one of these as needing direct confirmation before you pay.

Appear to be operating

Closed or unconfirmed

Sources

• Government of Canada travel advice — Cuba
• UK FCDO foreign travel advice — Cuba
• OFAC Cuba sanctions FAQs
• US State Department — Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List
• Cuba eVisa official portal
• D'Viajeros traveller information form
• AFP — Cuba says three quarters of hotels shuttered (July 30, 2026)
• AP — Meliá leaving Cuba (July 22, 2026)
• France24 — US sanctions interrupt Visa and Mastercard payments in Cuba (June 3, 2026)

Nothing here is legal advice. Sanctions rules, flight schedules and hotel status all change faster than any page can track — check the official sources above, and confirm directly with any property before you book.