Ask the travellers who keep going year after year, and they’ll likely tell you the same thing: there’s just something about Cuba.
The dazzling beaches. The sense of safety. The warmth — not just the climate, but the people.
“You fall in love,” said Monique Belliveau, 53, of Winnipeg. “It’s not a rich country by any means, but you fall in love.”
Belliveau estimates she’s been to the Caribbean island about 80 times over the past 20 years. First, as a repeat visitor to Varadero with her family. Then, a solo trip following her divorce. Now, she travels back to Cuba four or five times each year with her Cuban husband and their son.
They have a house in Holguín, close to her husband’s extended family. On their most recent visit in January, they all stayed at a resort in Guardalavaca for four weeks.
“There were no shortages, there were no power outages, there were no issues,” Belliveau told CBC News from Winnipeg.
“This travel advisory … all Canada has done is scare everyone.”
The federal government raised its advisory level for travel to Cuba on Tuesday, warning Canadians that worsening shortages of electricity, fuel and basic necessities including food, water and medicine could also affect resorts.
“Exercise a high degree of caution in Cuba,” the advisory says.
Cuba is hit by widespread outages every day, blamed on fuel shortages and crumbling infrastructure. The blackouts have deepened an economic crisis already worsened by a slump in tourism, stepped-up U.S. sanctions and a failed internal financial reform to unify the currency, according to the Associated Press.
Since the federal government’s new warning, CBC News has heard from dozens of travellers who say they’ve either cancelled their trips, are trying to cancel without success or are still going with the understanding that this year’s trip could be challenging.
But some, like Belliveau, think the advisory is “nonsense” and will only further hurt Cubans by harming their struggling tourism industry. Overall, the number of visitors to Cuba has dropped by nearly 70 per cent since 2018, according to the Associated Press.
“Cancelling your trip to Cuba right now is the worst thing you can do because they need us more than ever,” Belliveau said.
Ottawa is warning Canadians visiting Cuba to ‘exercise a high-degree of caution’ as of Wednesday. The federal government says the Caribbean country is facing deteriorating shortages of food, medicine, electricity and fuel and that resorts could be affected.
Fewer Canadians visiting Cuba
For decades, tourism generated up to $3 billion US a year for Cuba. And Canadians have historically been the nation’s most frequent visitors. But data shows this is shifting.
In 2019, Cuba was the second-most popular overseas destination for Canadian travellers from January to March (also known as Q1, or peak bleak Canadian winter).
During that period, Canadians made 410,000 visits to Cuba, just ahead of visits to the Dominican Republic, but behind Mexico, according to Statistics Canada.
The pandemic decimated travel, but by 2024, Canadian visits to Cuba in Q1 climbed back up. Then, in 2025, Canadian Q1 visits to Cuba dropped by 38 per cent, to the fourth-most popular overseas destination for Canadian travellers from January to March, according to Statistics Canada.
Meanwhile, new travel data from Cuba’s national statistical agency released Monday show a 12 per cent drop in Canadian visitors — the country’s most popular tourists — for all of 2025 compared to a year earlier.
Katherine Hill, 40, of Bowmanville, Ont., was supposed to travel to Cayo Santa Maria with her children as part of a larger family group Friday morning. But between the fuel crisis, Canada’s travel advisory and the political tensions, she cancelled her trip.
“Personally, I would be unable to enjoy a holiday knowing that Cuba is on the brink of a humanitarian collapse,” Hill said.
The resort they’d booked was having issues feeding its guests, she said, noting that its buffet was closed and people were being bussed to other locations for meals. In reading recent reviews online, Hill noted that people said transportation was unreliable. CBC reviewed online comments about the resort and found similar complaints.
“Guests were advising to bring kettles, instant noodles and bottled water. It started feeling less like preparing for a holiday and more like preparing for a survivalist challenge,” Hill said.
“We were buying travel appliances like kettles and rice cookers, and grocery shopping. Then we thought, ‘what are we even doing?'”
‘We are terrified’
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.
On Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the situation there as “complex” as he called the U.S. stance “aggressive and criminal,” saying it’s affecting things like transportation, hospitals, schools, tourism and the production of food.
But, according to the Cuba Tourist Board in Toronto, all resort operations are functioning “normally and securely for the 2025/2026 winter season.”
Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism “took proactive measures throughout the fall to ensure a seamless winter peak,” the board said in a statement Tuesday. Supplies of fuel, food and essential goods had been secured in advance, they said.
Still, it might be one thing to willingly travel there if you’re young and healthy. But if you’re older, or have health issues, the idea is actually quite frightening, says Zelia Saliu, 60, who is booked to travel from Toronto to Cayo Coco on Feb. 24.
She and a friend booked their week-long trip through Sunwing Vacations in January, according to the itinerary viewed by CBC News. After the federal government upgraded its Cuba travel advice on Tuesday, Saliu says she tried to cancel.
But she says Sunwing is refusing to give them a travel credit or safe alternative, assuring her that the destination and resort are “fine,” Saliu said.
Cuba’s electrical grid suffered a partial collapse early Wednesday, leaving the capital Havana and much of western Cuba in the dark. Amid an energy crisis, many parts of the country have been experiencing daily blackouts that last 20 hours or more. ‘The power situation is complicated, it’s bad right now,’ one resident said.
In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for Sunwing said they’re following their regular change and cancel policies right now. “[We are] closely monitoring the situation in Cuba and will continue to follow the direction of the Canadian government.”
Those who purchase a “Worry Free” plan from Sunwing can cancel or make changes up to three hours before departure. Saliu didn’t, and her options with less than 20 days before her departure are to lose 100 per cent of the costs, or to go on her trip.
“We are terrified of travelling under these conditions,” Saliu said.
But Belliveau, of Winnipeg, says she hopes people will keep their vacation plans. Canadians can pack items to make their trips more comfortable, she said, and that’s true of any country you might visit in the Caribbean.
In fact, Belliveau is going back in March. This time, to Varadero.
“There’s no safer place than Cuba,” she said.
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