TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

Cuba has a unique "system" for hitchhiking around the country. It's called "el Amarillo" in reference to the yellow-uniforms of the stop attendants. These attendants will flag down cars and actually require them to take you as a hitch-hiker. You pay a few pesos for this privilege, though it is not paid to the driver but to the attendant.

Some Amarillo stops have washrooms and other services. If you use a designated Amarillo stop at night after the attendant has left, you would still be expected to pay the driver instead.

So it's not free, but it can be more interesting than taking the bus. And it will be much cheaper.

Politics and US relations aside, Cuba is still a popular tourist destination (usually to the designated tourist beach resorts). Since tourists and related services are kept separate from regular Cuban life, there are actually 2 currencies in Cuba. Convertable pesos (CUC) are for tourists, and local pesos (CUP) are what the regular Cubans use for shopping.

Its unlikely you'll need many CUP, unless you are shopping for small items in a local market. So don't worry about doing too much money changing. You'll just confuse yourself.

Also, it used to be common practice to simply use US dollars in Cuba. This is no longer permitted and American currency is not generally accepted.