What To Bring For Locals & How Much

[brenderlou]

We are doing a private tour with Blexie and he mentioned toiletries are good items to bring.  How much should we bring (I'm thinking travel size).

I'm also concerned about items being confiscated when we get off the boat.  Any recommendations?  Also, who do we give the items to?

[OCruisers]

Small repair items ... for garden hose, etc.  

[sammiedawg]

Oceania emphatically tells passengers not to take handouts off the ship.  Items were definitely confiscated  by Cuban officials.  They X Ray everything in the terminal. 

Edited November 9, 2018 by sammiedawg

[crilski]

Just got back from Cuba - I took the following:  6 large tubes of toothpaste, 2 baseball caps, and 6 horse bits.  And a couple of key chains for the classic cars.  Nothing got confiscated - not even looked at.  From what I understand, a pack or suitcase full of items will get taken.   I know Blexie likes Lindt chocolate - but we didn't have any.  I didn't hand out to the public - but to our guides and drivers.  The horse bits went to the horses we rode in Vinales. 

[jamscckmc]

Ball point pens were something everyone asked us for.

[petsgalore]

look into the SPANKY PROJECT. It helps cubans with their pets. While health care is free for people, vet care or pet related items are incredibly expensive. A dog collar is half a month’s salary. I brought dog collars, cat treats and flea treatments and dropped them off at the project’s caretakers. I had no problem bringing this off the ship, besides spanky operates with the full support of the cuban authorities. 

I understand individual handouts, like pens, soap etc encourages begging, especially around the cruise port and this is something the authorities want to discourage. There are other projects visitors can contribute to, you will find more info on the web.

[mljatsea]

There is lengthy post on TripAdvisor that offers much food for thought. After reading a good portion of it, I'm inclined not to bring handouts.  I tried to copy the link to there post but it didn't work. You can find it if you look for "Small items to bring as gifts?" on the Cuba Forum on TripAdvisor.

 

Edited November 24, 2018 by mljatsea
typo

[ebslcc]

4 hours ago, mljatsea said:

There is lengthy post on TripAdvisor that offers much food for thought. After reading a good portion of it, I'm inclined not to bring handouts.  I tried to copy the link to there post but it didn't work. You can find it if you look for "Small items to bring as gifts?" on the Cuba Forum on TripAdvisor.

 

Here it is... I agree. No handouts. However I think snacks to share that they normally don't have in Cuba  for private tour guides would be good.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g147270-i91-k10265331-Small_Items_to_bring_as_gifts-Cuba.html