When you travel to Cuba, prepare to be disconnected from the world. Wifi is controlled and regulated by the government, and it is super hard to find! To get online you will first need to find a place that sells scratch-off Wifi cards (similar to a phone card) and then find a Wifi hotspot in central locations around Cuba. Since internet is so sparse, offline apps are very useful for getting around Cuba. Here are the apps that were a life-saver for me on my recent trip to Cuba:
1. Translation – Google Translate
My friend and I did not know a word of Spanish. Google Translate was a lifesaver for us as we made our way around Cuba trying to communicate with Casa Particular owners, taxi drivers, and people we met along the way. While not always accurate in its translation, the app was good enough to help us in times of need. The app allows you to type in what you want to say in English and translates the phrase into Spanish and vice versa. It also allows you to translate voice and images. The image feature is very useful if you are trying to read menus or signs at a museum – you use your camera, and Google Translate will overlay the translation on top of the image. It’s super neat!
There is an offline feature to this app, so be sure to download the offline Spanish language pack before you leave for Cuba (in the Google Translate app, go to “Offline translation” in the menu and select Spanish to download). To be safe, test the app in Airplane mode to make sure it does work without the internet. When I tested my app out in offline mode, my voice and camera features did not work at first, and I had to troubleshoot it. It looks like for some users you will also need to download the language pack to your main Google account before it would work. If you are having trouble trying to get offline features to work in Google Translate, try the following steps:
- Open up your Google app (this is the icon with the big “G”)
- From the hamburger menu, select “Settings”
- Go to “Voice”
- Go to “Offline speech recognition”
- Make sure you have Spanish installed as your downloaded language. If you do not, go to the “all” tab and find Spanish to download
2. Currency Exchange – XE Currency
When going abroad it is always helpful to have a currency exchange app so you can easily convert from one currency to another. XE Currency is an app that will allow you to customize your own currencies to convert to/from, and it also helps you analyze the conversion fees if you do currency exchange.
In Cuba, cash is king. You can’t get CUC (Cuba’s currency for visitors) outside of the country, so you will need to exchange currency after landing in Cuba. The “analyze fees” feature of this app is pretty useful for understanding the fees charged while exchanging cash. You can enter the amount you are using to buy CUCs and the amount the exchange will give you, and the app will give you the % transaction fee charged based on the latest exchange rates. In Cuba, the exchange fees are typically 3.2% – 3.5% for currencies other than USD. For USD there is the additional 10% fee on top of the 3.2% – 3.5% fee, so if you are coming from the US, it might be helpful to bring in some Euros or CAD instead.
For the most up-to-date exchange rates, be sure to refresh the rates in the app before leaving for Cuba.
3. Navigation/Maps – Galileo Offline Maps
Offline Google Maps didn’t work too well for me in Cuba (the streets didn’t load) so I was glad that I had downloaded Galileo Offline Maps as well. With this app you can download maps for different countries, and it provides very detailed views of the different cities. You can search for points of interest in this app in offline mode, so this came in very handy! You can also track where you’ve in case you want to share with friends. Just in case I downloaded the Galileo Pro app, but I didn’t really see any added benefits for paying the extra $2.99, so the free version will be sufficient. Though there is a navigation feature in the app, it didn’t work in Cuba; however the map itself is good enough to get us by. Very helpful!
4. Food – Ala Mesa Cuba
This app is like an offline version of Yelp. It has a list of restaurants in the different cities of Cuba and provides information like address, price range, menu, and opening hours. Pictures are available for some restaurants. There are no user reviews though, but it’s a good enough offline app to use if you are looking for places to eat while you are on the go.
5. Travel Guide – Triposo Cuba
This is an interactive travel guide that lists out points of interests around Cuba, including Sightseeing, Eat & drink, Nightlife, and Hotels. It also provides background information on the country and includes a map, conversion calculator and weather for the area. The app works offline and comes in very handy when looking for activities or places to stay on the go.
6. Travel Documentation – Google Drive
Without internet connectivity, it is very hard to pull up information from your emails while on the go. If you don’t want to print out all your itinerary information to carry around, you may want to consider storing the information in Google Drive, so you can have access to it offline. My friend and I stored our itinerary information such as addresses, confirmations, and contact numbers in Google Spreadsheets, and when needed we pulled this information up on our phones. Definitely a very handy tool!
7. Messaging – Whatsapp or Wechat
Keep in touch with your friends and family back home with a messaging app like Whatsapp or Wechat. These apps work like SMS/text messages, but you are using data to send/receive messages. Even when I am not traveling these apps are my primary communication apps because they are so much faster than regular texting. There is even a feature for voice and video calls so you can even use it to replace phone calls home. Finding Wifi is hard enough in Cuba…I can’t imagine trying to find a way to call home using regular telephones!
Been to Cuba and have other app suggestions? Leave a message below!