Public transport in Cuba

I've read the key posts and I'm very interested in the independent travel posts .. however, neither of us have full licenses so I'm interested if anyone knows of any air-conditioned coach services that do trips between say Havana and Trinidad or Santiago, etc .. Someone mentioned Toursis on one of the threads but I wasn't able to find anything.

Jazzie

My advice is unless you are going on an organised tour, avoid the public transport. Buses and trains take for ever and are frequently delayed and/or cancelled.

Your other option is to fly. There are internal flights e.g. Cubana; I can't comment on their reliability though.

If you can't drive then I would say it is a good idea to join a tour e.g. GAP with whom I travelled in the past (in Peru, not Cuba) and I have found to be excellent. It is obviously not independant then but there are small groups of 12 maximum and the tour leaders have an excellent knowledge of the country involved; prices are quite reasonable as well; you would not save much over this option by independant travel and you would have the hassle of organising all your itinerary yourself.

I just bought the lonley planet for Cuba yesterday- there is a company called Viazul that does buses and also a company called Astro that send buses all over the island. Taking public transport enhances the experience!!