Las Vegas, Mexico, Cuba or Dominican Republic?
I’m thinking about planning some trips in the upcoming 2 years and I wanted to know everyone’s opinion on these four places.
Las Vegas
Mexico
Cuba
Dominican Republic
What would be a good first vacation if I’m going to be leaving from Vancouver, Canada?
Has anyone been to any of these places?
Never been to any, Vegas is on my ‘to do before I die list’
You are going to spend the most money in Vegas,
I have not been to Cuba, of DR. I have hit up numerous places in Mexico. It all depends on what type of trip you want. If you want to be waited on hand and foot for fairly cheap go to Mexico or DR. If you want to just go have a good cheap holiday hit Cuba. and if you dont want to sleep go totally crazy and spend all your money have fun in Vegas lol.
If you do goto Mexico I recommend Acapulco, its cheap, and really amazing the locals from Mexico city go hear for there holidays. So its not a big tourist trap style resort city.
What ever you do have a blast!!!
Never been to either place… but I would have to do some online research and see what I was more interested in.
Being from the states, myself, I’d rather leave and see other things than Vegas. So I’d be into Mexico Cuba or DR. maybe one of the latter two, just because I have heard how poor of a country Mexico is and though it would be interesting, I have heard that the bigger cities are really sad. But Mexico is a big place and it all depends on where you go, I am sure.
I have been to Dominican Republic and Vegas. When I was in Vegas I was only 20 which sucked since I was a year too young to drink but I know that Jeremy really wants to go and it is pretty cheap.
I loved the Dominican Republic but I only visited there by boat.
I love the thought of Cuba or Mexico. I have heard different rumours about Cuba being cheaper than Mexico.
I think I’ll do Vegas when I only have like 3 days to go instead of like a week.
I would love to go back to the Dominican Republic, I guess I need to do a lot more research.
Darb, where is Acapulco in Mexico and do they have all-inclusive? I heard that it’s never a good idea to leave the resort in Mexico.
Who will keep the dog while you travel?
I just randomly found this thread.
I went to Cuba last July for 10 days so if you are still thinking about heading there let me know and I can provide you with some more info.
Done Vegas and Mexico
A road trip incorporating both is fun.
Would love to go to Cuba!
Wow, this is an old thread. 
How was it, Tobi? We’d be interested to hear for sure!
I’d love to go to Cuba. Mexico is pretty cool, if you go there definately check out Mexico City and go to the Chichen Itza ruins to see the Temple of the Sun. There are other ruins smaller scale pretty close to Cancun for little trips, the 
would most likely get good fun outta Senior Frogs… Otherwise the top left corner of the counrty has good resorty-dos, and TJ (not the stalker) for you dirty peeps 
Vegas is…well Vegas!
I loved the place and will return (prob many times) i still haven’t done all i wanted to do/see there in 10 days.
Shows are cool, nightlife is off tap, i haven’t experienced the pool parties yet, but i promise you i will!
Wow, this is an old thread.
How was it, Tobi? We’d be interested to hear for sure!
Yeah I randomly found it yesterday.
Cuba was nothing short of amazing. 12 months later I still struggle to put into words the experience I had.
The practical stuff;
- We booked everything ourselves via the net and stayed in casa particulars which are home stays the whole time.
- We spent 10 days in total, 3 in Havana, 2 in Vinales, 1 in Havana, 3 in Veradero & then 1 in Havana before flying out.
- You can’t get in to Cuba from the states, the easiest ways are from Mexico, Bahamas, Canada & Europe.
- We flew from Miami to the Bahamas spent a couple of days in the Bahamas relaxing by the pool then flew in to Havana. On what was probably the most interesting flight I’ve ever taken. It was a tiny little dash 8 plane and someone had bought a bottle of rum duty free which was then passed up and down the plane for whoever to drink from. A guy in the front of the plane, a lady in the middle & a guy at the back had a conversation with each other the whole way. As we flew from the Bahamas we flew in and out of ‘the locals’ airport and not the main international one further down the road which flights from Canada and Europe fly into.
Here’s my boarding pass;
As you can see I was the 5th person to check in to the flight, hence the 5.
Havana;
Was really cool, we just kind of walked around for a couple of days taking in the place. We’d wake up in the morning find one of the suggested walks in Lonely Planet and walk that, it was fairly hot so whenever we’d get hot or tired we’d jump into one of the big western hotels, have a beer and something to eat, then head on our way again.
Vinales;
Was nothing short of amazing, it’s the main tobacco growing region of the country and full of these amazing lime stone mountains.
We spent one day horse riding and visiting a UN development organic farm to drink mojitos at the end of the day we went into this little hut where a tobacco farmed pulled out some tobacco leaves and rolled us fresh cigars. Words really can’t describe this day.
Veradero;
Is the all inclusive package holiday designation for Europeans & Canadians. It was ok I guess, lovely beaches but not really like the rest of Cuba we experienced. One day we went out on a boat to one of the islands on a all you can drink tour with all the package holiday makers in town, was a little random but the beaches/islands were great. The snorkelling not so much, if you’ve ever done the reef here you’ll probably be disappointed.
Tips if you want to go -
- If you guys are based in Vancouver you should be easily able to find flights, I saw a travel agent in Toronto advertising Cuba recently.
- I’d suggest not heading to Veradero, I mean it’s nice however it’s a 20km stretch of beach which is full of western hotels and all inclusive package holiday makers from Canada and Europe. It’s not really Cuba and has this strange feeling to it.
- Whatever you do, DO NOT buy cigars off someone you meet on the street.
- Whatever you do, DO NOT exchange money with someone you meet on the street, only ever do it inside one of the banks. There’s two currencies in Cuba, the paso & the CUC. The CUC is the currency for foreigners. You can’t get CUC anywhere besides in Cuba and they won’t exchange USD. I took about $1200 CAD in cash with me and just exchanged it as needed and I was fine, I think I ended up spending just under $800 for the 10 days if not less.
- People will want to stop you on the street and talk to you all the time, most of them are friendly enough however some will try to scam you or ask you for money but it’s like this everywhere, just be a smart traveller.
Here’s some pics;
More pics for your viewing pleasure!
Where we stayed;
I booked everything online before hand by doing some research and stuff and we ended up meeting some really great people and staying in some lovely accommodation along the way.
Havana - http://casahabana.net/ - The guy who owns this place Luis is one of the most proud people I’ve ever met. His place is full of nicknacks and photos from before the revolution and he’ll more then happily show you everything. Like all casa particulars you can arrange breakfast & dinner for a small oct on top of your room rate. The food that Gilberto the chef cooked up was some of the best food I’ve ever eaten, lobster most nights was great. This place is going to be listed as the number 1 casa in the next version of lonely planet so it’s going to get more popular than it already is. Luis however is a many with many connections if for some reason you can’t stay in his place he will make sure he finds you something as good somewhere else, he did this for us our last night in Havana.
Vinales - http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Hotel_Review-g616288-d1821272-Reviews-Casa_Colonial_Mercedes-Vinales_Pinar_del_Rio_Province_Cuba.html - This place was super, super cute and the hosts amazingly friendly. Mercedes is this little older woman who speaks nothing but spanish but will go out of her way to do anything to make sure you feel comfortable the whole time you are there. He son Michael works at one of the two western hotels in town, speaks very good English and can arrane any type of tour you may want to do while in town. I’d highly recommend going horse riding. We spent two nights here, 2 breakfasts, 1 dinner & did some washing and I think we paid about $70 CUC for 2 of us or about $35 CUC each. When getting off the bus in Vinales you’ll be swarmed with people trying to get you to stay in their casa so if you head this way sort your accom out beforehand and Mercedes will meet you at the bus stop.
Veradero - http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g147275-d2078012-Reviews-Beny_s_House-Varadero_Matanzas_Province_Cuba.html - Casa’s are a fairly new thing to Veradero as the haven’t been allowed due to the western hotels in town until recently. This place was lovely however I wasn’t overall a fan of the town.
Getting around -
There’s a great bus network for tourist which is really easy to use and tickets can be obtained from any western hotel. We just went to the one near our casa in Havana and booked tickets, the bus would then meet us at the same hotel in the morning and pick us up. You need to book tickets the day before.
Otherwise we missed the bus from the main bus station from Havana to Veradero so we bartered with a taxi driver, Carlos who drove us down there at a really good rate. He ended up being our driver of choice, came back down a couple of days later to pick us up and take us back to Havana and again he dropped us off at the airport before we flew home. I’ve got his business card on my desk if you want it.
Thanks for all the great information, Tobi. I will show this thread to Michelle so she can have a read through as well. We are based in Sydney for now, although we are currently in Vancouver for a few weeks. Cuba looks amazing and we will probably go through The Bahamas when we do travel there. Michelle’s family has a house on Grand Bahama (Freeport). Michelle actually spent five years living in the Bahamas when she was younger. So it’s always easy to visit when we are in the part of the world. Thanks again for the info and photos - awesome!