NEW YEAR 2018 TOUR!
Special Offer: 6 Days, 5 Nights Small Group Package
Havana - Soroa - Vinales - Terrazas - Alamar - Havana
Includes:
Guide, air-conditioned van transport with private driver,
meals, lodging, admissions & fees,
unique one-of-a-kind "off the beaten path" experiences
$2495.00 per person, double occupancy
4 Spaces Remain
Call for details: (415) 789-9398
NEW YEAR 2018 TOUR!
Seize the opportunity celebrate Cuba and enjoy a New Year’s experience like never before!
Designed for the budget-minded traveler in High Season, our Carpe Cuba Hoy! (“Seize Cuba Now!”) tour blends sharing the pulsing island culture with locals while learning and travling a multi-faceted People to People itinerary! Visit the festival of Parrandas de Remedios, step back in time visiting to historic Trinidad (founded 1514), celebrating Christmas there, and be our guests at a festive New Year’s Eve dinner and Show in Havana.
Explore Cuba’s lush countryside and agricultural heartland to stroll and learn alongside tobacco farmers. Dance the Night Away and return home smiling at some indelible memories of the “Pearl of the Antilles,” a destination the rest of the world is beating a path to savor!
Private New Year packages for shorter durations are available; contact us for details.
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Enjoy nights in the luxury of our expansive private 3500 sq. ft. +/- Havana residences!
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Pulse to the beat of Cuba’s vibrant nightlife throughout your travel adventures!
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Delight at a memorable annual holiday festival, the Parrandas de Remedios!
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Celebrate Christmas in Trinidad and its nearby villages, a throwback to the old Cuba frozen in time!
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Visit nature's lush playgrounds in Cienega de Zapata's Biosphere, Cienfuegos, Topes de Collantes and the Escambray Mountains, fresh pools and waterfalls!
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Tour Trinidad's Valley of the Sugar Mills, Cuba's lost economy
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Explore lush Cuban farms in the scenic tobacco region of Pinar del Rio and the wonderful town of Vinales
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Enjoy cocktails taking part in Havana’s vibrant music scene while practicing new Salsa dance moves learned in two Salsa lessons!
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Bring in the New Year at Havana's outdoor gala dinner show and party
Travel times are shown below between destinations included in our Special New Year 2018 travel package. Frequent stops for meals and at points of interest throughout each day's travel adventures.
Havana to Santa Clara: 4 hours
Santa Clara to Trinidad: 3 hours
Trinidad to Cienfuegos: 1 hour
Cienfuegos to Vinales: 8 hours
Vinales to Havana: 2-3 hours
Accommodations include two nights at historic Hotel Nacional, home and headquarters during the Cuban Revolution. Other nights are spent at lovely Casas Particulares where guests enjoy private rooms, strong Cuban coffees and scrumptious breakfasts. Staying at a Casa Particular and interacting with Cuban locals is often a highlight for our travelers. We assist with your luggage at Casas Particulares, but if the flights of stairs present a mobility problem, just let us know and there will be no problem finding suitable alternative accommodations.
Itinerary
Day 1- Havana
Havana! Viva Havana! Known as the capital of fun during the 40’s and 50’s, this spellbinding city immediately captures first-time visitors. Put on your walking shoes and take in Havana’s rich history, grand monuments, world famous cigars and inventive cocktails. You can easily get lost in Havana Vieja (old Havana), the old city of cobblestone alleyways and colonial buildings, ancient squares and noted churches. Walking the Old City is the ideal first-day way to retrieve your bearings and – based on your early arrival – to meet your guide and group for an optional evening meal
Day 2 - Cienfuegos
If Cuba had a Paris then that “City of Light” would arguably be Cienfuegos, known for its rich French-influenced architecture. A harbor city known as the ‘Pearl of the Caribbean’ (as Cuba is known as the “Pearl of the Antilles”), Cienfuegos has seduced travelers for its elegance and beauty. Founded in 1819 by Don Luis de Clouet, Cienfuegos escaped frequent pirate attacks, which allowed it to flourish while nearby towns were ransacked. Travelers can explore Trinidad’s wide streets and promenades enjoy strolls along the Malecon. Trinidad’s Malecon is the longest seaside promenade on the island. “Cienfuegos is the city I like the best”, write our Cuba travelers, echoing the words of musician Benji More some 100 years earlier. We’re pretty sure you would agree!
Day 3,4,5 - Trinidad
Many travelers’ favorite Cuba cultural and historic destination, Trinidad was founded in 1514 by Diego Velázquez and is considered a jewel of Cuban colonial architecture. Trinidad serves for some as a living museum and testament, stuck in the time of Cuba’s first War of Independence when local sugar plantations were devastated by fire. The vibrant colors and soulful music scattered along cobbled streets will literally take your breath away! Travelers will enjoy the best of Trinidad and its storied surroundings, visiting local waterfalls, historic sugar mills and perhaps the best beach in all of Cuba - Playa Ancon. And following each tour day are evenings at a cave disco and throbbing music venues, for Trinidad is known throughout the island for its scintillating music scene! Included is a special Trinidad Salsa lesson, and our group also enjoys a special Christmas dinner celebration!
Day 6 - Playa Larga
On Day Six we head to the beachside community of Playa Larga where we check in to beachfront or nearby private "villas." From here we swim, sail, snorkel, tour the Bay of Pigs ("Playa Giron"), travel upriver by boat to the aboriginal Guama village, visit a botanical garden, hike Enigma de Las Rocas with a local biologist and enjoy true downtime resting up for our journey's continuation to Vinales and Havana.
Day 7,8 - Vinales
Set in a beautiful, lush valley of the Pinar del Rio province, Vinales is one of the most breathtaking locations in Cuba. In the heart of Cuba’s prime tobacco growing region, Vinales sits quietly surrounded by a number of stunning karst hill formations known as mogotes (pin cushions). Experience first-hand the hospitality of a Cuban Homestay and take advantage of the many outdoor activities available to you. Breathtaking views and an ‘enthusiastic’ nightlife will surely make your stay in Vinales a memorable one.
Immerse yourself in Cuban culture by visiting a local tobacco farm and having lunch with a local farmer. Salsa lesson anyone?
Day 9,10,11 - Havana
Havana’s grandest New Year’s Eve festivities happen at Plaza de Catedral, “Cathedral Place” in Old Havana – and you will be there! The main restaurant in the Plaza – El Patio - hosts a night of wonderful Cuban food, drink, song and dancing. Some 300 performers entertain the lucky guests under the Cuban stars on a special stage, delivering Tropicana-style entertainment like nowhere else. And we enjoy it all with special seating and a delicious meal under the stars!
Our final two tour days are spent taking part in a unique cooking and mojito lesson in Hemingway's favorite Havana village, and reveling in Cuban culture and nightlife. Our popular "give-back" visits include community centers, church-supported communities and self-sustaining agricultural neighborhoods, where travelers have the option to interact with residents, practice Spanish, and deliver optional donations brought from the lists of needed OTC medical and school supplies furnished to each traveler. Cap off the Cuba experience with a Classic American Car tour of the entire Greater Havana area, visit to the Morro Castle, a stroll along the Malecon, a visit to one of Havana's premier private beaches, more salsa including a raucous live dance night under the stars, a Cuban baseball game (as available) and other unique memorable experiences.
Trip dates: Choose departures from December 21 - December 30, 2017
Duration - 11 Days, 10 Nights
Start and Finish: Havana, Cuba
Limited to small groups. We reserve the right to limit group size and composition in order to ensure compatibility
Meals include all breakfasts, five lunches and five dinners at Cuba's best private family restaurants ("paladares"), with our time-honed recommendations and reservations (as requested) to a variety of other restaurants.
Accommodations are at our private and spacious 3500 sq. ft. +/- residences with private bedroom and bath, daily maid service, cook available on request, breakfasts, living room, dining room, salon, gardens, 24-hour security on site, "run of the house."
This package tour includes English-speaking local Cuban guides, transportation between destinations, meals as specified, airport transfers on arrival and departure, the Remedios Festival, group Christmas feast, Havana walking tour, city and town orientation walks at each destination we visit, the New Year Even Havana party and dinner, Salsa lesson in Havana and much more.
Pricing : From $4395 per person, double occupancy, including transport from Miami, U.S. State Department required Visa, all breakfasts, additional meals as shown, transport, guiding, hotel and casa particular private accommodations, admissions, experiences, welcome drinks when offered, and mandatory Cuba health insurance.
Single supplement: $750.00.
Excludes: $25 per person Cuba airport departure tax payable at U.S. airport prior to departure; personal purchases, snacks, alcoholic beverages except where offered as part of dinners.
This tour sells out annually. Subject to availability at time of receipt of non-refundable deposit (the deposit is a 100% credit against this or any other of our Cuba tour packages for one (1) full year following the first day of each tour.
Deposit: $500.00 per person - deposit is a full trip credit.