Reviewed 19 Sep 2007 by Richard Elliott
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Memorable - Having donated a few packs of pens and pencils to the community school in Las Terrazas, the Principal invited us to have look around. We were invited into a classroom of 5/6 year olds and a couple of them sang a few songs to our group. Fantastic bonus to the trip as this normal would require eons of bureaucractic form filing and negotiating with the education ministry to achieve we were told by our guide. Future reference for travellers - schools need writing note pads!
Exciting - the whole thing, just being in this small country with such a place in world history.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
- Take a bundle of writing note pads and take them into the school above - ensured a warm welcome and the very rare insight into a school day.
- take toilet paper/ wet wipes/ spare plastic bags/ basin plug (I had to fashion one out of a water bottle top, boy scout stylee)/take your mobile phone as it does work there/take plenty of cash as it does disappear quickly when you are buying lunch, dinner, cocktails and if you are a generous tipper every day.
- be aware that as well as police being everywhere, there are plain clothes officers mingling with the crowds on the look out for unacceptable behaviour, and that can mean just sitting on the railing of the Capitolioli building!
- learn some Spanish - it helps to have some understanding and being able to read the propaganda billboards/house decorations/signs/museum exhibits on your journey - its a major part of the holiday
- if you hate/are frightened by/are allergic to horses - this holiday is not for you - major transport medium across the country.
- 30 grade protection sunscreen - it was scorching
- take your teenager with you to show them how lucky they are in the UK compared to how others live in the world.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Benefiting locals - Only indirectly if you consider that every enterprise is state owned! Nationalised in our language. Hotels, tour guides, boats, everything and everyone were either owned or employed by the government. The ONLY time your money directly reaches the pocket of the local people is when you give them the cash yourself in the street.
Environment - not in the slightest really.
- It was so hot the air conditioning was on maximum 24/7 in any room or bus we were in.
- no evidence of recycling of waste products
- our last bus was so badly 'out of tune', the driver was over revving the engine to get it to go, climb hills and to prevent it stalling when he stopped.
- the basins had no plugs available other than in hotels where it was a mechanical one. Water just runs away down the drain.
- public transport is so environmentally unfriendly, i.e. huge diesel trucks the scale the army may use to transport troops and tanks in the city centres, what ever we did made no difference to the poor situation there anyway. Cuba 's eco friendly attitude is a political idealism thought up by their national hero, Jose Marti - nothing to do with saving the planet, I am sorry to say. Apparently industry pours contaminated waste straight into the Gulf off Havana, so once again, we would not make any noticeable impact on what we did on holiday. Its a 3rd world country except with excellent education and health systems.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Enlightening, interesting, fascinating and a once in a life time thing. Go before the Fidel era passes on and this unique place changes forever, for good or bad depending on your politics. Put my life in perspective again.
Read the operator's response here:
Thank you so much for taking the time to give us such thoughtful and constructive feedback. Like most people who visit Cuba, you were obviously smitten by the unique charms and eccentricities of this enigmatic country!
As you say, Cuba is a developing country so unfortunately environmental concerns are often superseded by the day-to-day ordeal of living and surviving. As a tour operator we endeavour to adopt environmental best practise wherever we travel however this is only possible to the degree that the infra-structure of the country allows it. I hope this doesn't sound like a cop-out! Plugs in rest-houses should be available wherever in the world so we'll certainly look into this.
Thanks again Richard and hope to see you on a trip with us again in the future.
1of2
