TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

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.