Cuban Beaches Where You Should Watch Your Wallet

Hey Tourist! Cuba is one of the hottest vacation destinations in the world thanks to its lush beaches and charming ambiance. But behind the pleasures of this romantic island is a real concern about theft—pickpockets, muggings, and other more elaborate heists.Anyone who’s ever visited the island paradise knows its beaches are its main attraction. However, these sandy shores are usually hotbeds for tourists, who are easy prey for thieves. Foreigners book vacations in the hopes of living life to the fullest, but this large enthusiasm and their deep wallets make them particularly vulnerable.

In the following slides, we’ll discuss the Cuban beaches to look out for. All locations are full of beauty but also have a shady underbelly.

Jibacoa

Cuba depends so heavily on tourism to boost its economy that the government invests many resources in keeping tourist areas safe. Despite this, Jibacoa has become the site of many malicious thefts. Two of the crimes you should keep an eye out for include pickpocketing and purse thefts. Collectively, these threats are not a statistically high likelihood, but they do occur. Nonetheless, you may quickly realize that the region is full questionable people and activities. Hustlers and beggers may hound you down at street corners, roughly “asking” you to buy one of their products. The majority of crimes occur at night and near busier city areas in the region—contrary to certain intuitions that isolated regions are a greater risk. Inherent to the region is the capacity for such crimes to go unnoticed and even unpunished, as uniformed security patrolling the island’s many tourist areas can only provide so much safety. Crimes are often random, sporadic, and difficult to trace, thus rarely resulting in returned personal belongings. Unfortunately, these risks are generally unavoidable, given the location.

Continue reading to learn about the next risky destination, Varadero.