This is a first-person travel vlog by Nate Buchanan (with Kara) documenting travel from Cuba to St. Martin via Miami. Key events: early-morning departure from Cuba, a ~55-minute flight into Miami for transit, uncertainty about bag transfer, lounge time, booking an Airbnb last-minute while airborne, arriving to an unsuitable Airbnb in St. Martin, contacting Airbnb support, cancelling the reservation, receiving a refund and a $100 Airbnb credit, and finding alternate lodging (taxi to initial Airbnb quoted at about $20). The video captures airport procedures, local transport, and frustrations/lessons about last-minute bookings.
Questions this video answers
About 55 minutes.
About $20.
A $100 credit.
Chapters
Usually people go to Mexico to sneak into Cuba and not do it legally.
We weren't sneaking.
We were there as full time journalists and we have hours and hours of video footage to prove it.
They don't even want to see all the videos that we do.
Sit down. Let me show you all my home movies.
It's a ride in the old Russian car.
And we are at the airport. At the airport.
It's freezing in this airport. I almost didn't even pack my jacket because we're going from Cuba to another island.
I haven't had coffee yet. It's too early for this.
Our week in Cuba is already over and we woke up way too early this morning to get to the airport and didn't have coffee until just now.
Today we are flying from Cuba to St. Martin. It should be a very non eventful travel day, except for the fact that we have to transit back through the US Coming directly from Cuba. We've been here completely legally. There shouldn't be any issues. However, I'm just really interested to see how like we as Americans are treated flying directly back from. From Cuba.
We'll see. There's a bird in here.
Sorry.
Adios, Cuba. Vamos a Estados Unidos.
This is what happens when you don't have Internet to check in and choose your seats. We're not sitting next to each other, but somehow we both got placed with extra leg room.
Okay, 55 short minutes later, we have landed in Miami and we will see how this goes.
And we made it out again.
So nice to be reconnected.
We told him we were coming back from Cuban. He didn't even ask any questions. He just said, where are you going next? Do you live there? Are you island hopping?
Continuing your vacation after three years of travel, you would think we would have figured out how it works when you're checking your bag and you're connecting through the US to another foreign country.
It's never the same. Like, that's what's annoying is they always say anytime you get through the US you have to recheck your bags. So most of the time we do. But everybody saw the last travel day we had when we didn't recheck our bags because the lady at EVA Air was like, they're going all the way to the Dominican Republic.
And we were like, perfect, we won't pick them up.
So this time we were like, we're picking up our bags.
So we sit there and we wait. All the bags come around. Ours don't show up. So we go over to the information desk. And she's like, oh, we changed that, like, two years ago. They're going straight to St. Martin, so we'll see if the bags show up. We now have 15 minutes until our next flight. We're going to head to the lounge.
Oh, cool.
Now we have about 15 minutes till our flight boards. We're going to head to the lounge. Unfortunately, I don't have any time to relax because I kind of forgot we weren't gonna have Internet in Cuba. And I haven't booked where we're staying tonight.
Classic today. We're in 13.
Let us in, let us in.
Come on, come on, come on. So happy we get to eat. I feel like we're never in the Miami Centurion Lounge during lunch hours. I think I've only ever had eggs and breakfast potatoes in this lounge. The lunch is AM.
Cookie for the road. I'm working on my beach pot.
Well, I ate instead of booking a place. So we still have nowhere to stay tonight. Worth it. Our plan is, like, get to the airport, hope they have Wi Fi, and I'll be able to do a little more research. I just didn't want to book a place for an entire week after only being able to look for five minutes.
We're very torn between two different places, and we felt like we had a cool valley. We could think clearer. I'm pretty sure they were the last ones on the plane, but the people at the gate were very friendly and asked if we were together and changed our seats. Now we have a whole row to ourselves for the next 3 hours.
No tvs though. Can't have everything.
Yay. Very important safety message about our Boeing 757. Okay, your attention, please.
Welcome aboard. Before we depart, here are some important safety instructions.
I requested to book an Airbnb right as the plane was taking off, but just because you've requested it doesn't mean it's guaranteed. So just have to see what happens when it lands. Hopefully we have a place to stay. The bike.
It is.
We made it. Hopefully we're back to it too.
Love getting out on the Runway.
Transfer bag OUTSIDE USA DO NOT RESTORE TO PASSENGER WITHIN USA Even if they would have told me that at the gate, I still would have waited at the carousel to see if it came, because they told us that last time and it didn't come.
So while we were on the plane, our Airbnb host did accept our request. We booked a place that's pretty close to the airport. You'll see why tomorrow. And a taxi was about $20 year.
One, Karen, Nate would definitely be walking down to our place. Year four, Karen, eight, can afford a taxi, but we're choosing to walk because this island is so beautiful and it feels amazing.
It's the more adventurous and economical option. Year four, Nate still doesn't like to pay for expensive taxis when he can walk.
Kenal? Kenal?
Yes?
My name is Kara.
Oh, yeah.
Well, we gave up on walking because we quickly ran out of sidewalk and we were on a highway, and a very nice man named Kinol picked us up and is taking us to our place. We're not in a real taxi. I think it's gonna be fine.
Is this from rain? Yeah. From doing today? Yeah.
Wow.
I think we passed it. I passed it. I think so. I think it's right back there. Very close. One more back. One more back. Yeah.
Yeah, we can just. We can get out here. We're close. We don't know exactly where. Let me see. Ask somebody. Okay. Thank you. Because, you know. Oh.
Nice job.
Bye, my friend.
He was so nice. I don't know if it's very wise to just get in the car with strangers on the side of the road, but it worked out that time.
How is it?
Oh, there's no ac. Oh, this is the bedroom.
Oh, thank goodness.
This is our porch.
This is what happens when I have five minutes to book an Airbnb in a lounge. This. This is not the room.
Really? Why don't you check your listing first?
Yeah, I do need.
Thank you for accommodating us at the last minute, but the rest.
We'D like to please cancel our reservation. So should we just go.
And hope.
For the best, or should we stay here until we hear back? I feel like the longer we're here, the more it seems like, like, we're here, you know?
We were wondering if we could cancel our stay.
So this might be a first for us. We are currently attempting to cancel this Airbnb and move somewhere else. We're not exactly sure yet, but the reason that we booked this place is because we just need to spend a few days working before we jump on our cruise, because we've been in Cuba without any Internet for a week, and this place is not conducive to just sitting around and working on your computer. There's no AC in the room where we would be working, and there's only, like, a semicircle, like, half table, so there's nowhere to put our laptops. I feel like a huge diva trying to get out of this Airbnb right now, but we'll just be much more productive if we can get somewhere a little bit more comfortable.
I'm distracting myself on social media because it's been a week. I'm very uncomfortable with this, but.
This is. Nate.
Yeah. If it's okay with you, we're not going to leave a bad review or anything, but we'd just like to cancel this day and move somewhere else.
Hey, this is Nate, this is Kara's.
Husband.
And we are finally out of this place turned into a lot bigger ordeal than I thought it was going to be. But in the end, we got the place cancelled, we got our money back, and now we just have to find a new place to stay. And Kara had to do all of it. They wouldn't talk to me since it's under her account.
I can't say enough good things about the support team at Airbnb. This is the second time that we've had to do this, which is pretty good. We've been living in Airbnbs for like, four years, and each time I'm like, do you want to, like, be friends on Instagram? Like, let's keep in contact.
I want to get out of here. I want to get out of here before it gets awkward.
I'm not even, like, mad right now. It's. I don't know. It's always fun learning something new. This is the first time we've ever gotten somewhere and showed up and it just have been not at all what the pictures showed. Anyway, we learned that Airbnb is very helpful. They even gave us a hundred dollar credit for the trouble, which I thought was extremely nice because I do still kind of feel like part of this is my fault for looking so last minute. Well, I've booked a hotel. Standing on the side of the road somewhere in the dark. It's like a mile from here. So I guess we'll start walking out to where there's more life.
We see a taxi.
What is this?
There's a lake.
I feel like we found ourselves having to cross the puddles a lot lately.
Please don't splash us. Please don't splash us.
This has turned into much more of an adventure than I expected. I can't see where I'm putting my feet.
We're gonna make it. We're almost free.
How you doing? Okay.
Okay. She's gonna make it.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
You better?
This is such an upgrade. I'm so much happier here. I feel bad about what happened, but it was for the best. Look at this place.
I feel like before we end this video. I'm still feeling like a big diva for having to move places. Normally, we don't care, but it's just the fact that, like, we're gonna be in the place that we're staying the entire time. We're not going out. We're not traveling around. And the thing that we didn't show on the video was, like, the stains on the couch and on the pillows. There were just, like, a lot of little things that added up to just make that not a very nice place.
