For Customs purposes, the term "Tourist" applies to persons not permanently residing in the country, who enter the national territory for purposes of pleasure, business, health, pilgrimage, sports, etc., for a period of over 24 hours and under 6 months.

Persons arriving in Cuba as tourists shall be subject to the same general regulations applicable to the rest of travelers.

Cuba is a signatory country to the Convention on Customs Facilities for Tourism and Cuban national legislation complies with stipulations of the said Convention. Tourists are entitled to import as personal belongings items described as such in the text of the aforementioned Convention on Customs Facilities for Tourism, which will be admitted into the country as a "temporary admission" with total relief of the payment of Customs taxes. These items must be re-exported on departure of the tourist. Among these articles are: video, film and photographic cameras, hair dryers, electric shavers, portable radios and tape recorders. They may also temporally import portable personal computers (laptops) and their cellular telephones.

Tourists are entitled to temporarily import a light motor vehicle for a period of up to 30 days and extendable for another 30 days on request. Temporary admission transactions shall be performed at the Customs house through which the traveler arrives into the country and the tourist shall be in the obligation of re-exporting the vehicle on his departure of the country or on termination of the authorized period.

Tourists are also entitled to definitively import - apart from their personal belongings - new or used articles with an overall value of $250.00 (two hundred and fifty) USD, one time in a natural year. Up to an amount of $50.00 (fifty) USD, the said items shall not be subject to the payment of Customs taxes. The remaining value - up to the established limit of $250.00 (two hundred and fifty) - shall be subject to the payment of Customs taxes equal to 100% (one hundred percent) of their value.

Import and export of the following items is prohibited:

Drugs and Stupefacients; Explosives; Objects, Photographs, Literature and / or any other Pornographic Article or Items Attempting Against Good Manners; Any Item - Including Literature - Attempting Against The Security And Internal Order Of The Country; Animals, Plants And Their Parts Listed In Anex No.1 Of The C.I.T.E.S. Convention (Related To Endangered And Protected Species).
Notwithstanding the administrative measures applicable in each case, persons pretending to import or export any of the above listed articles shall be liable to the corresponding penal responsibilities.

Import by travelers of the following items is prohibited:

Electric power plants (generators); Wireless telephones; Wireless microphones; Video equipment of all types, notwithstanding the country of manufacture or brand, including those produced and sold in the market as built-in accessories for other equipments (VCR, DVD, etc.). Shall be exempted from this prohibition foreign diplomatic personnel, Cuban officials having stayed abroad for over a year, as well as individuals authorized to import household ménage; Freezers of more than seven cubic feet of capacity; Air conditioners; Electric kitchens and furnaces - of all types, models and capacities; Electric ovens - of all types, models and capacities, including microwaves; Electric showers - of all types, models and capacities; Electric fryers - of all types, models and capacities; Electric water heaters; Electric irons without sprinkler consuming over 290 watts/hour or electric irons with sprinkler consuming over 703 watts/hour; Electric bread toasters; Electric resistances for irons, furnaces, water heaters, etc.

Cigars:

It shall be possible to export an amount of up to 23 (twenty three) units of rolled cigars, in individual units, without producing any relevant purchase document.

If you exceed that amount, you will be obliged to claim the official purchase receipt and a copy of it at the shop, and hand a copy in at the Customs Office at the exit point where you'll be leaving with the cigars, which must be contained in the original cases with all official seals, including the new holographic seal

Any failure to abide by the basic requirement of a legal purchase, the product will be seized by Cuba's Customs Office.