trip to cuba

I am thinking of going on a holiday to Cuba this year and plan to go on an organised tour as I will be travelling solo. I have been looking at one from Slattery's and one from the Travel Department. Just wanted to ask did anyone go on a tour to Cube with either of these companies and what they thought of the trip they did go on. the one with the Travel Department goes in November whereas the Slattery's one have a number of dates avaialble

Just checking out Cuba myself and I see that mid June to November is the hurricane season.
I've been looking at Slatterys for May (weather is supposed to be very pleasant March, April & May )which to me looks like the better option if Travel Department only go in Novemember.

Try Explore and Exodus - both have good trips to Cuba all during the year and cater mostly for singletons.

Make sure you get travel insurance that covers Cuba. We've just renewed our annual policy and I noticed that almost every site I checked excludes Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba. The first two make sense but Cuba?

Have a hankering to go to Cuba as well, but have heard rather mixed reviews from three people who had been - only one of whom had an organised tour. They said that their experience was very touristy and they did feel rather 'channelled', not really getting to see the real Cuba. They found it not the cheapest either, with this strange thing where foreigners aren't allowed to use proper Cuban money?

The other two did go off on their own and had different experiences. One found it was still hard to break off the established tourist route but was happier that they weren't getting the pre-programmed tour, while the other really tried to go native and was relatively successful but found his lack of Spanish made the going difficult.

All of them said that the food was grim! Dinner would come back as breakfast sort-of-grim! Even so, I'd still love to go and see the place and would try and stay off the tour as much as possible.

We went last year and loved it went in May.The food was not great but other than that had a great time.

Would have stayed in havana for 3 nights but would stay longer than that if went again. would also have loved to see vinales but did not have the time.then when to vadera for 7 nights and enjoyed that.did a good few of the tours.

Would recommend it again and would love to go back.one thing i would change is we flew from dublin to france and on, and the flight was 9.5 hours from france but i think you can now do a direct flight from Manshester. also if bring back duty free that has to checked in again in france as they wont let you bring it through duty free.

putsch said:

Try Explore and Exodus - both have good trips to Cuba all during the year and cater mostly for singletons.

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have used and would recommend both above companies for shorter trips 1-3 weeks. better mix of people and good itineries.

also have travelled in south america for 7 months on my own. v safe and greatest ever experience. a trip from peru over to argentina would be easy and the greatest thing you could do

thanks for the replies. Normally take travel insurance with Vhi and checked and they do cover Cuba. Regarding time of holiday May doesn't really suit as have already arranged a break with a friend in June so was thinking of cuba for the autumn

Weather will be much better for you in late Autumn than June, July and August.
If you want to meet and really mix with ordinary Cubans you need to speak some level of Spanish.
Trinidad is nice town on the west coast, worth visiting for two or three days.
Try and learn to dance a little salsa while over there.
The food is generally not great, don't go to Cuba if you want to eat well let alone gourmet, however you won't go hungry either. Remember there are no McDonalds or indeed fast food outlets of any kind. No shopping either!(a real bonus!)
Great place, great people, enjoy!

have now booked for OCtober visiting havana, Trinidad and a few other places followed by a couple of days at the beach

sue_flaherty said:

have now booked for OCtober visiting havana, Trinidad and a few other places followed by a couple of days at the beach

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Enjoy. Cuba was probably my best foreign trip ever. A great place with great people.

We went to cuba on our honeymoon, it was fabulous. We stayed in a resort for 2 weeks and then 3 nights in havana. We did a tour of havana with a tour guide where we hired a man in a 50s car and he brought us to all the sites. Agree that the food isn't great but it certainly is an experience of a lifetime and the drink is great!

We also did a tour that brought us all around cuba and into markets etc. in fact at one place either trinidad or san tiago my shoe broke in that the bit between my toe on my leather flip flop seperated from the sole and we were ushered over to someones house (the local shoemaker) and he fixed it there and then while his family sat us down while we waited. They wouldnt take money for it. There is tourist money as far as I know and you can only buy it in cuba.

They will accept american dollars or american express but will charge you extra for the priveledge saying that I used my irish visa credit card in the hotel no problem. The people are very friendly and there is an amazing feel to the place, I think partly because there is no advertising.

Who are you flying with? We flew with air france and they were a disaster.

I might be flying with Air France to Cuba in May. what way were they a disaster ?

Do you get a cuba stamp in your passport?

Would that cause problems with the US immigration in the future?

no they don't stamp your passport, they stamp a bit of paper that they put in your passport and take out when you are leaving so you have no evidence of even being there

Air france were a disaster because we were left sitting boarded on the plane for over an hour because they were searching for a "document". We were seated very far away from the tvs and there was only a choice of french or spanish with english subtitles which couldnt be read because the tellys were so far away. All announcements were made in french and spanish until eventually they realised there were english speakers on board so announced them in english in the end too. The food was served straight after take off because of the delay taking off and it wasnt great the red wine was chilled and not very nice. There was no other food available on flight which is about 8 hours I think and asking for a glass of water was very frowned upon. Having flown with singapore areas as my last flying experience before this I thought it was terrible.

Sandrat thanks for your reply. For a long distance flight that doesn't sound too good.
If I go ahead I'll bring a good book and a few munchies. Better brush up my Spanish too. At least I can be prepared.
Have a great trip Sue.

Thanks again for all the advice - will be flying air france so hopefully won't have the same problems as sandrat

We went to Cuba last June for two weeks. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would defintely go back.
Firstly - they stamped my passport - I actually asked for it and I have since been in US with no problems.
It is a very safe country and the people are amazing.
We stayed in Havana for 3 nights in the Hotel Nacional de Cuba -would highly recommend.
Stayed in Varadero for 3 nights - very enjoyable but you get no idea of real Cuba here - just good for rest and relaxation.
We did Trinidad for 2 nights - learn how to Salsa dance here - they have fantastic music & dance sessions in the music house I think it is called.
2 nights then in Santiago de Cuba and 2 nights in Baracoa and then an internal flight back to Havana from Santiago de Cuba.
Food - we actually loved the food - didn't have one bad experience for the whole of the two weeks. Restaurants occasionally run out of food and they may just not bring it out.
Spanish - you definitely need it if going anywhere other than Varadero or Havana. We didn't have any and we got by but I think our stay would have been even more enjoyable.
We flew with Iberia from Madrid and they were awful!

What can I say an amazing place and Baracoa is a real little treat if you get to go there. There is a little hotel at the top of the hill - very basic but would recommend staying there.
Try the Casa Particulares (Cuba's B&Bs) -very enjoyable, you really get a sense of the real Cuba.

we went to Varadero for our honeymoon also and we love it. Going back in September this year. Were in Dom Republic 3 years back but Cuba wins hands down.

A quick question - has anyone flown Premium economy with Virgin. Thinking about it