Trekking holiday in Cuba

We are delighted that you enjoyed your recent trip to Cuba so much and that you particularly enjoyed Cayo Levisa, a truly beautiful location. Cuba is such a diverse country and it certainly sounds as though you had a good holiday. In your final travel itinerary we included links to local maps indicating the best walking route between the bus drop off points and your accommodation in each location, so I hope these were helpful. Finally, I am sure that any tips you gave would have helped the Cubans who had been with you, and our payments in Cuba also go directly into Cuban pockets, particularly for homestay accommodation, guided hiking and other guided activities where local people are providing the service.

We are delighted that you enjoyed your trip to Cuba with us, and that you made good connections with local people. We would be very happy to help organise your next trip to the island, and look forward to hearing from you again.

We are very pleased that you enjoyed your trip to Cuba so much, and that you felt that it benefited local people. With 20 years of experience in Cuba, we always strive to involve local suppliers as much as possible, from your guides and drivers to the homestay accommodation hosts.

We take great care in selecting our local partners but, as you have pointed out, some work differently than others. We have already followed up your comments about the Paradiso arrangements and will be in touch with you separately about that part of your trip, but are delighted that the rest of the holiday went very well.

Cuban people are extremely hospitable and naturally friendly and it is good to know that you were able to enjoy meeting local people and getting to know more about Cuban culture. The natural environment in Cuban national parks is outstanding and we are really pleased that you enjoyed this element of your holiday so much.

However, you are absolutely right about the toilet facilities in bus stations and similar public places, as they are not always very good. Often an attendant will leave CUC$1 on a small plate as an indication of what you could tip, but you are not obliged to leave as much as that. Tipping is not compulsory, but is expected, and you can be assured that whatever you do leave for the toilet attendant, that person will be most grateful for the supplement to their normal local salary.

Thank you for your positive feedback - overall it certainly sounds like you had a truly memorable holiday in Cuba!

Many thanks for your positive comments about your hiking trip in Cuba. I am delighted that our practical recommendations proved to be useful on the ground and that our trip instructions were correct and easy to follow. Looking forward to hearing from you again in the future!

We provide a detailed itinerary for all clients, including everything that has been booked by us and whether it needs to be paid for locally or has already been included in the price paid by the client. We have no information on Holguin city tours, nor was this at any time mentioned to Mrs Parsons by us so it naturally would not have been included in our arrangements for her. We are very sorry if she misunderstood the local representative who met her at the airport and would agree with her that you should always check the cost of an additional element of the trip before booking it. If we had had this information, we would certainly have passed it on to her before departure.

Re the trekking, we have tried various options over the last 4 years for hiking over Pico Turquino, and in our opinion three days in the national park is the best length of time to spend there. The trek that was booked in this instance was our full 5 day round trip which includes 3 nights in the national park. We are able to book abridged treks in this beautiful national park but it means cutting out some aspects of the overall programme.

The first full day in the park includes a guided visit to La Comandancia, Fidel's secret HQ in the Sierra Maestra mountains, which takes the best part of 3-4 hours from the starting point of San Domingo. It is such a significant place to visit that it would be pointless to rush the visit. The latter part of that first day is spent walking to the La Platica community, an hour from La Comandancia, where the first night is spent in a refuge with dinner cooked and served by a local chef. There is usually time to explore the community and to visit the local primary school and doctors post, which is all part of the cultural tourism aspect of our trips in Cuba.

The second day in the park includes trekking for 5-6 hours to the Aguada de Joaquin refuge about 2 hours from the summit of Pico Turquino. It would not be practical to push people on to the next available refuge on Pico Cuba which is 90 mins from the summit on the other side of the mountain. The third full day in the park includes hiking from Aguada de Joaquin to Pico Cuba where the third night is spent. The final day includes a 4 hour descent to Las Cuevas on the coast and the end of the trail. I do not see how anyone can do the whole ascent and descent in one day unless they were going up and down the same route from the Caribbean side rather than going down the other side of the peak to Santo Domingo.

We are always willing to amend our programmes to suit our clients and have a number of tailormade treks which can accommodate most itineraries.

We are delighted that Mrs Parsons enjoyed her trip overall and, as she suggests, we will advise future travellers to double check prices of local tours before booking them.