A Cuban who was visiting the island shared her experience on TikTok after having an incident with the rental car in Cienfuegos: a neighbor hit the vehicle while it was parked in the Punta Gorda neighborhood.
In the video posted on July 5, the user @la_mariachispark recounted that she had rented the car through Transtur, the Cuban state-owned tourist transport company. As she explained, the street where she left the vehicle had an incline, which made it easier for the neighbor to bump into it.
"Well, as everything isn't perfect, I had an accident during my trip to Cuba," he began his story. "I rented a tourist car from Transtur, yes, in Cienfuegos, Cuba, in Punta Gorda, and a neighbor crashed into my car. The car was parked."
In response to the incident, the woman followed the appropriate protocol: she reported the accident to Transtur and called the National Police. According to her statement, the officers arrived at the scene relatively quickly. In the end, the matter had no major consequences for her as the vehicle renter.
"In the end, nothing happened; everything remained as it was, but it was a rather tense moment," he summarized. However, the person who faced a more complicated situation was the neighbor responsible for the collision. "The young man, just imagine, having collided with a rented car, that was a bit tedious for him," he pointed out.
The implications of crashing a rental car in Cuba are particularly serious for the responsible party. These vehicles, identifiable by their special license plates, are owned by the Cuban state and are linked to the tourism sector, which exacerbates the legal and economic consequences for those who cause the damage.
Punta Gorda, where the incident occurred, is the most exclusive neighborhood in Cienfuegos. Located at the southernmost tip of the city on a narrow peninsula bordering the Jagua Bay, it is home to historic mansions, hotels, and restaurants, and houses one of Transtur's main offices in the province.
Accidents involving tourist cars are a recurring phenomenon in Cuba, documented on social media with cases in Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas, and other provinces. In a dramatic collision in Havana in July 2025, a taxi collided with a tourist car, and that same month another rental vehicle was left destroyed in Santiago de Cuba. In September 2024, a tragedy in Las Tunas resulted in seven deaths following a collision between a taxi and a tourist car.
The difficulties in renting cars in Cuba are not new either. In May of this year, Cubans arriving from Miami reported failures on the part of state agencies, including vehicles being unavailable despite reservations paid for in advance, all exacerbated by the energy crisis affecting the island.
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