Naranee Ruthra-Rajan review 12 Jan 2013
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The group and guide I travelled with, the visit to an organic farm, learning Spanish and salsa, a BBQ by River Duaba in Baracoa, the homestays, snorkelling for the first time, learning Cuban cooking in Santiago, trip to the cemetery in Santiago, salsa and rum, watching flamenco ballet, Cuban food (it really is better than people suggested) - there's too much really to pick just one.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Have an open mind, take sunblock even in Winter, and learn some basic Spanish and salsa. The last one's not absolutely essential, but will definitely make the trip more enjoyable and make things a bit easier.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes - there's a real effort to keep things local, with the excursions we took and places we ate. The homestays are a big part of this. There's also an effort made to explain responsible travel principles and this is borne out in the way the trip is run. Advice was given by our local guide when people wanted to know how to help people who live there, and he helped those members of the group who'd brought medicines and school supplies to donate in Santiago as we were there not long after Hurricane Sandy.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent. Great homestays, great guide, met lots of friendly people, interesting excursions, plenty of opportunities to learn about Cuba and many many chances to enjoy Cuban food, rum and salsa. I can't wait to go back.
The flexibility of choosing what to do once you get to each place, and the small size of the group means that it's possible for everyone's interests to be taken into account which also makes for a more varied and interesting trip than one where lots of excursions are included in the first place. As well as our own guide, we met some of the other guides from the company and all were very friendly, interesting and enthusiastic about showing you their country.
This company makes a real effort to choose good local guides both to act as tour leaders and for local excursions at each destination.
We ate really well with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables on offer. This probably shouldn't have been such a surprise but I'd heard a lot before I went about how bad Cuban food was - this proved to be a myth. Like anywhere in the world, including London, New York and Paris, it's possible to have some rubbish meals if you go to a rubbish restaurant, but that doesn't mean it's not possible to eat well there. Go to the increasing number of paladares (private restaurants) and ask around for recommendations, and you will eat very well there whether you're a vegetarian, pescatarian or omnivore.
Rachel Grubb review 9 May 2013
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Staying in the guest houses, observing local life/culture.Being part of life in Cuba.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
To be aware that things such as soap and toilet roll may not be as readily avalible as in Europe
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes we were given advice on ethical behaviour/choices by our guide from the outset. The accommodation and the resturants he recommended also benefited the local people
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent
Elizabeth Hanan review 15 Apr 2013
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Vinjales - walk around the tobacco farm seeing tobacco at all stages to finished cigars. The time at the organic farm, salsa dance and meal - very different culture and life style - good casas all through for us. Also enjoyed Trinidad and Havana. Could have had more time in Havana
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
It is a good idea to arrive the night before the trip to spend time in Havana. Otherwise allow at least half a day at the end of the trip before the plane out. It was good to have arranged someone to meet the plane on arrival and arrange a taxi. Your notes and advice was invaluable....For a person who likes to sleep alone the single supplement is necessary.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes - your advice on tipping assisted as well as gifts suggested which were appreciated. However some feedback on meals from travellers would be good as only one larger meal per day would be better and keep within the budget set.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
We enjoyed our experiences in Cuba with the group and the diversity offered in locations and with the casas. The original itinerary with the long drive from Havana to Trinidad at the beginning would probably have been better finishing with a relaxing time at the beach after the drive.
Sue Reynolds review 14 Apr 2013
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Havana and Trinidad.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Wear a bum bag - I got mugged in Havana.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Staying in casas is a good idea but I don't believe they were paid very much for us staying yet the price of the holiday was high. There was no conservation aspect to the holiday and nor was it expected.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
The tour guide was poor - she was totally unengaged with the group and even by the end did not know our names and we were only 8. She told us very little and on the one day she did given information it was word for word from the Lonely Planet. Some casas disappointing and most of them had bedrooms with no windows except for in Vinales. The guide in Havana talked at us for 45 mins out of 1 1.2 hours in the same place so we did not see much of the city. Suggest leaving out Cienfuegos and having more time in Havana and maybe see more in Santa Clara.
Read the operator's response here:
Hi Sue,
Thank you for submitting your feedback. As Manager of our operation in Cuba I really appreciate these detailed comments, as feedback (including negative feedback) is in fact a great help to us to improve our services, and it is the number 1 way we monitor the quality of our services and is critical in helping our guides to continually improve.
I am disappointed that your experience wasn't what you had hoped for. I appreciate that the guide is probably the most important aspect to the success of a tour, so I will personally be addressing directly with the guide, her performance on this tour. I'll look into her training and why this was not adequate. She was trained on the job late last year by one of our very experienced guides, so I'll consult with that guide to try and identify if there are any areas of our training process that need changing or improving and perhaps why he evaluated her as qualified for the job when perhaps she wasn't ready yet.
The casa accommodation is quite inexpensive compared to hotels, and apart from that we believe they provide a much more interesting experience for the traveller, and better opportunities to meet and interact with the Cubans and experience their culture. I agree that it would be cheaper travelling independently and use casa accommodation. Nevertheless at around $100 a day, I believe this tour does represent excellent value for money and takes a lot of the hassle out of travel in Cuba (which is one of the more complicated countries in which to travel). The tour also priced well under similar tours of any competitors that we know of.
I'm sorry to hear you were robbed in Havana.
Thanks again for your valuable feedback.
Kind regards
John
Michael Parry-Jones review 6 Sep 2012
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The Nightclub in a cave in Trinidad was amazing!
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Pick up as much Spanish as you can before you go as many of the owners of the Casas have little or no English.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
It definitely benefited local people!
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
10/10.
Nina Tahhan review 24 May 2012
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Vinales was a beautiful town, I very much enjoyed the visit to the tobacco farm and the dinner at another farm near by. It was also a great experience to have a local person take us around and introduce us to other locals and to tell us so much about local life.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Be sure to sort out your money before you go, cash is best but not all currencies can be changed so check before you go otherwise it is easy to get stuck because credit card facilities don't always work so you can't rely on that.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes, the fact that local people were employed was certainly a bonus not only for them but for us as well because we learnt so much about local culture and life.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I had a wonderful time with my group and with the locals, it was one of my favourite holidays, I would rate it 9/10. The first few days at the beach were not so great because we were in an isolated place and it was raining and I was in Cuba to experience the culture so being isolated was not ideal, if the weather was better it would have been a bit better so it's so much the fault of the tour company.
Toni Ayres review 4 May 2011
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Drinking rum and coke out of a coconut while swimming in beautiful sea waters at sunset, simply brilliant. Not only did the coconut float but so did the bottles of rum and coke waiting for topping up.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Learn Spanish - we had attempted to but failed and we wished we had stuck at it. It would have made the homestays much more enjoyable.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, benefited local people as we gave gifts and paid families to cook us meals. I don't think we impacted the environment and the tour company decided that we would share the bus with another tour group to be responsible and have less an impact with pollution.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Loved it. Been on many tours, the tour guide was good and it was lovely to travel in a manageable group size.
Sarah Lodge review 12 Apr 2011
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Vinales, drinking rum on the Malecon, staying with the Cuban families
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Bring snacks for the journeys and know basic Spanish. Be prepared for basic food with little variety.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, we stayed with local families
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent, a brilliant insight into Cuban life and politics
Nita Dent review 14 Feb 2011
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Mogotes in Vinales, or sunset over the Caribbean, or 5 course meal with full lobster for main for 10 cuc in Trinidad casa, accompanied by Guitarist, all on rooftop, under the stars, with great companions and cubre libres.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Relax and enjoy the variety on offer, mountains, beaches, superb food and drink, people and places, music and dancing, all enhanced by our informative guide.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Paying local people for local services - smiles all round.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
My friend and I had wonderful time, made new friends and fell in love with beautiful Cuba. Only negative, final 4 nights arranged in old town Havana casa were changed to one in central Havana.
Kalwinder Bhogal Bhogal review 13 Jun 2011
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
There was always something memorable every day, from scenery to meeting the owners of the homestays.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
You may not understand the politics but have an open mind. The currencies are confusing, take time to learn the differences
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, but there is a difference to supporting local people and the money going straight to the government, good to know when that is the case, which is clear on the trip. Agree to minimising the impact on environment
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Excellent, had a great time, learned a lot. Thanks!
Rein Estigoy review 6 May 2011
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Going to the baseball in Pinar del Rio. It was the grand finals and since baseball is the number 1 sport in Cuba, the atmosphere was amazing and we had a lot of interactions with the locals. Having lunch at a Paladar with some people who helped us - we were lost and in return we took them to lunch! We got a real insight into the political system, how a normal Cuban person lives etc.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Like any other place, be streetsmart but be open to experiences that can appear dodgy at first. Cuba is pretty safe - Tourism is one of the main revenue streams for the government so people respect tourism. Don't be afraid to stray away from the group on your free time. The best experiences for my partner and I were the ones where we didn't rock up in a tour bus!
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
We stayed in Casas during the tour, so yes in that sense it benefited local people. We also picked up Cubans needing a lift in the direction we were going (this is common practice). The environment? Not so much. We travelled in a big bus that had empty seats, but to be fair, tourism is very regulated and on top of that, locals use a different currency.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
The holiday overall was good. I must admit that I was not a fan of this particular organised tour, I’ve done a couple of others (whether it’s the destination's limitations or the structure of the tour, or a combination of both I don’t know). At times i found that the tour was an additional barrier to authentic experiences i.e. bigger group of foreigners walking around is good as wearing a shirt "I’m a tourist", big tour bus, restaurants had to be able to accommodate us all (some paladars are tiny)etc.
On the other hand, the guide can be used as a communication bridge and/or an opportunity to access different things, in our case, it was one of the other guide's friend who got us into the baseball. Being in a group is safer, so you could easily walk around with the guide and have a proper look around as you are not busy keeping an eye out for "un-safetiness." My takeout would be to go for the tour but don't let it define your trip. Do your research on places you want to see within the set destinations.
Sue Fagg review 11 Apr 2010
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The trip with this operator.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Currency - take hard cash and beware card use can be limited as the whole system in a town can go down.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes - home stays great.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Great.
Sarah Williams review 4 Oct 2009
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The whole of Cuba is magical in every way and some of my most memorable parts were all the wonderful salsa dancing opportunities and watching live bands that I got chance to do.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If you want to make the most of this trip, add on a few days at the end of the holiday to chill by the beach, because throughout the week's tour, you'll want to stay out every night til the early hours dancing away as well as getting up early to enjoy the day time activities. Therefore, at the end of the week, you will want to relax!
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes, as we stayed with host families, and ate dinners they prepared, so our money was able to go directly to them, rather than the government. Also, by buying presents from locals helped also.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
Ten out of ten.
Nicola Turner review 12 Aug 2009
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
There were so many memorable moments: watching the amazing dancers on the steps of the Casa de la Musica in Trinidad, walking through the Vinales valley, having an intensive salsa lesson on the porch of my casa particulare in the rain, meeting lots of lovely people . . . I don't know where to begin - or stop!
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Take LOADS of extra cash with you - even if it seems excessive. Getting at your money otherwise can prove difficult. Double check that your credit card is NOT American (even if it doesn't seem like it is - I got stung badly when I discovered that my European-seeming bank was owned by an American bank...). Also, take plenty of small toiletries to give to the ladies that work in the hotels/casas/in the streets and small gifts/souvenirs from your home country to give to the owners of the casas (I wish I had done this!). Take plenty of batteries if you need them (they're not always easy to get, even in Havana!), take LOTS of pictures, just take the chance to chat to people around you. If you can, try to learn a bit of Spanish before you go.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
With the obvious exception of the flight, I was satisfied that my impact on the environment was minimal and was delighted that my money was going into the pockets of Cuban people rather than the greedy corporations running far less interesting tours/holidays for far more money. Incidentally, I feel that a tour such as this gives you far more opportunities to interact with local people and learn about their country from THEM rather than travel guides!
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I was constantly speechless by the warmth and welcome of the people, the fun and lively atmosphere and the beauty of the landscape. By far, this was the most interesting, well-organised and eye-opening trip I have been on. My only regrets were that I didn't know much Spanish, I didn't take enough cash, and that I wasn't there for longer. I have already started a savings fund so I can return again next year!
Julie Evans review 21 Apr 2009
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
There were so many but if I have to single out one memory it would be hiking up to the waterfall nr Baracoa followed by a short trip in a 1950's automobile to a spot by the edge of the river where one of the homestay hosts had organised a pig fest (roasted a whole pig) for lunch!
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
I took enough cash for a week and credit cards MBNA & Barclays Visa cards neither worked in Cuba! Have low expectations and see them soar! Take old mobile phone accessories especially head sets for sony ericson phones - money just can't buy them!
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Yes - although the emissions from some of the cars probably didn't help. Not only did we visit local schools the tour guide arranged for unscheduled stops to hand out supplies.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
One of the best holidays ever - a wonderful country with wonderful people and something for everyone.
Joanna O'Brien review 3 Dec 2009
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
Cuba is a beautiful country but it is the people that make it so special. Favourite moments - lunch cooked by a farmer on an open fire in the hills on the way to Trinidad. Chatting to the locals in Vinales and attempting to smoke a cigar rolled by one of the tobacco growers. Swimming in crystal clear waters near Cienfuegos. Eating in a local restaurant (actually someone's spare bedroom) in Santa Clara. And music everywhere.
2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
Travel light - as it is possible to have clothes washed in the casas. You will get more out of the trip if you know a little Spanish. If possible add a few days at the end of you tour to relax in Havana or on the beach as it is fairly full on.
3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Local people were very much involved throughout the whole tour.
4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
A very good way of discovering the real Cuba and practising your Spanish.
