131 independent reviews for Cuba tours

Dear David, We are happy that you had a great vacation on Cuba and that you appreciated our services, our team in Havana and of all the wonderful homestays. As you mention many excursions do start at 9am for practical reasons but as all our itineraries are tailor made it is possible to start later or in the afternoon, if you wish. When staying at a homestay for breakfast, lunch and dinner including some soft drink, beer or cocktail you should calculate around 25 - 35 EUR pp per day for an adult depending on type of meals and how many drinks, eg a good full vegetarian dinner with soup and dessert will cost around 10 EUR pp. A dinner with lobster might be around 15 - 18 EUR pp.Three course dinners at top level restaurants in Havana are around 45 EUR pp including some drinks. Homestays can always supply bottles of mineral water, small or big ones, when the homestays have only small bottles you can find 1 litre bottles of mineral water at supermarkets, at restaurants or petrol stations. Cubans do filter and cook their tap water. I personally would not rely on water filter handpumps and-or purification tablets for tap water based on personal experience so mineral bottled water is the safest option. Medicines, suncream, after sun and insect repellent should be always taken from home for the vacation as they are difficult to purchase on Cuba. I hope you made some wonderful family memories in Cuba and thank you for allowing us to help you arrange this special vacation.

We are very happy that our travelers enjoyed all aspects of their journey and we are looking forward working with Catharine and her travelparty again for new Latin American vacation destinations. One small comment. When people prefer to selfdrive we can also recommend this mode of transport and are very happy to explain how renting a car on Cuba works with all pros and contras for selfdrive versus traveling by private taxi.

We are very happy to read that this family loved Cuba so much and that our team in Havana has been of great support for them. We appreciate it very much that our travelers provide all possible details about their experiences, about which bank passes work and so on, so that we can integrate this in our updated manuals and share this with new travelers. We also arranged all dinner reservations along their whole itinerary as a special service during all the days from before Christmas until after New Years Eve and also this gastronomical feedback on the restaurants and casas particulares has been very important for us.

We are very happy that the whole family had a great vacation and fantastic adventures. And yes you can go again, would be our pleasure to be at your service, just Skype or hangout with us and we make a new great travel plan for the family. The interesting part of making tailor made travel plans is that we are constantly visualizing what is the best for our clients given the possibilities and how to arrange all in detail. In this way we are traveling ourselves all over Latin America daily while being in office. By staying in Casa Particulares the local economy benefits directly, all income goes to the local family and people working in the household and usually homestay families on Cuba share the extra food that remains with older people in their street block that dont have any young family members left looking after them. We also motivate our travelers to bring donations to Cuba of clothes, shoes, books, glasses etc and ask our homestay coordinators to distribute that over their street or quarter as they know best who needs what exactly. In Cuba you see little plastics in nature or on the street, mainly because many bottles are re-used for putting in oil, roasted coffee beans and for usage in the garden to put in plants etc. The streets are also really cleaned well. On the Cuban beaches not visited by tourists you will therefore also find much less plastic as elsewhere in the world. The plastics you see are thrown away elsewhere on sea.

We are happy to read that our travelers loved the journey, the island and its people. For Jane it was a second travel to Cuba after many years. Excursions of course should be exactly as they are described in our programs but indeed in some cases local guides and local organizations have to improvise. We are happy that our travelers could enjoy the moment and go with the flow. To go with the flow in the Caribbean is usually the best direction. About the litter on the beach, there are many beaches completely clean on Cuba, also on the wild beaches. It depends on how the sea currents and prevailing winds are. When you study the litter it is almost all coming from cargo ships and other countries and not from the Cubans itself. Cuba is a very clean country, on the streets, in nature, everywhere. Improvements are always welcome of course.

We are happy to read that you loved Cuba and also the remote Baracoa in the East of Cuba with its mountains, beaches, waterfalls and rivers. For people who don't have many days to travel and still wish to do Cuba from West to East we can take out 'Vinales valley' and do it in 14-15 days. People can also fly from Havana to Santiago and do a short East Cuba tour of 8 days, for instance combined with Havana or directly fly in at Holguin. Baracoa is a real gem and really worth the efforts to visit for those who love to explore the far east and to experience an authentic Cuba with pure nature, salsa and artisanal chocolate. We recommend to stay here as long as possible for at least 3 days. The journey from the south to Baracoa via Guantanamo Bay, is the most beautiful road of Cuba with beautiful winding curves, views of the farola mountain, roads connecting the south to the north with some amazing panorama views. It is a remote drive and after a tropical intensive rain shower there can be some debris on the road from the trees. This is part of life. You will have to travel through this remote area to get to Baracoa and we feel that this road is very safe and has a real good asfalt deck compared to other routes in Cuba. It is also used by the regular bus Viazul for the connection with Santiago. For sure the general speed over Cuban’s small country roads is less as what people expect or Google maps indicates. We estimate that people don’t cover more than 50-60 km in one hour as average speed including some photo stops and including some short coffee stops as well during the day. In self drive programs we always split the route from Trinidad to Santiago in 2 parts with an overnight stay in Camaguey and include a private guided tour with bike/taxi in Camaguey. For Cuba on a self drive program, going all the way to Baracoa (East Cuba), you need to be fond of self driving and exploring, as it is a real long way. Otherwise it is better to drop off the car at Trinidad and take the Viazul bus to Santiago or continue by minivan/taxi in case of a travel party. At Santiago de Cuba we then try to have our travelers stay 2 to 3 nights, have a cultural tour and visit the Gran Piedra with the oldest coffee hacienda of Cuba. And for when they continue further eastwards, stay longer in Baracoa to enjoy the area or to join one or more of the outdoor programs we offer. You can have a full free beach day. People can go hiking for 2 days, have day walks, with or without horse back riding, biking, swimming at waterfalls and so on. We always give advice to stay as long as possible as the extra costs are very little for renting a casa particular - bed and breakfast per day. In the end we leave it open to our travelers how ambitious they wish to be with their travel plans given the time window they have.

We are happy to read that our travelers had a wonderful trip with good memories and liked the Cuban people & country. About the actual homestay - casa particular situation for future Cuba travelers we place a some information below. All homestays on Cuba carry the name “casas particulares”, they have a licence and a logo on the door and as a client you are registered in their administration. In the past all casas were families living on location and offering 1 or 2 rooms. As the tourism has increased tremendously since last year on Cuba due to the new incoming US tourism, the low season has become high season and the high season top high season with the result that there is a shortage of accommodation on Cuba which there has been always but now more significant. Many Cuban families who had a good homestay and location have therefore decided especially on the Cuban hot spots as Old Havana and Trinidad to move out of their homestay, buy a house in the suburbs of the village or city and rent all the rooms they have of their former house. A homestay can be now a boutique hostel with several rooms with excellent staff service or the owner passing by now and then, it can be a boutique homestay with only 1 or 2 rooms with staff service only without a family, it can be a traditional homestay with family still living at location and it can be a full free apartment for your own with staff service. It is all called “casas particulares”. What you like and prefer depends very much of each travelers tastes and style. We also like mention that staying with a family should not be romantised as a special experience, that all depends of the travelers own input as well and also with a staff at a homestay you can have great chats for many hours as well on many topics. But you do need to speak good to fluent Spanish. The families in traditional homestays usually only speak little or no English, so the idea of cultural exchange only works when you speak at least enough Spanish. We have had many happy clients in a particular homestay in Old Havana with a free balcony and great street views on Avenida del Prado, which is reviewed as a top homestay on various websites. This homestay our travelers did not like as their was only staff present and they missed a Cuban family which we understand. Our team in Havana tried to change this homestay for their return dates as was requested but it is not at all that easy in high season as they comment and they could not manage. Our travelers are birdwatchers and they stayed in a remote ecological mountain lodge in the Vinales area to give them the best location possible at a casa particular to watch birds, however there is no family here and we also informed them about this.This birdwatching location is requested a lot and we were very pleased that we could reserve this ecolodge especially for them. They stayed at a lovely top homestay at the coast of Trinidad with family and located directly at the sea with direct access to the coral reefs from the garden. This homestay they also reviewed very positively so we are happy about this. The sharing with our travelers after their trip made us clear that we need to improve our question lists for the homestay whether they prefer to stay with or without family (or that it does not matter) and what the exact priorities are together with other important decision factors. So that at the moment of booking our team in Havana knows exactly what to do and what the preferences are, depending on the moment of booking, what the availabilities of the homestays are and what the possibilities are with the given budget of course. After all also a very learning experience for us that we are now implementing with our team in Havana.

We are happy that this journey from West to East Cuba (from Havana as far as to Baracoa) has given some wonderful memories to our travelers and that it has been a real journey. What matters is the journey and what it brings you along the way. That Cuba is an adventurous vacation destination outside the all-inclusive beach resorts may be clear, a travel on Cuba requires an open mind, flexibility, a good sense of humour as the Cubans have and knowing how to enjoy the moment. The rewarding of a journey like this can be immense as Cuba, the culture and its people can be an eye and heart opener and a big inspiration afterwards at home. When we make a tailor made selfdrive program we quote all the car classes in one time of the various car agencies. The client decides which car class fits best in their budget. The most basic car on Cuba is the Geely CK at this moment. It is not the best car they have on Cuba , it is a basic Chinese car. If you experience any problems along the way it is best to go to a garage of their corresponding car rental agency. We have had many travelers who went from Havana to Vinales and then from there all the way to Baracoa with a Geely CK and they managed well we are sorry that in this occasion the car was not the right choice.

We are happy to read that our travelers loved traveling across Cuba in a classic Vintage car with a driver for several days. This trip with a driver is the most flexible private driver option in Cuba. Feel free to ask for more information on this tour. Please note that the drivers only speak Spanish - for sure, it is the most authentic Cuban experience!

We are happy to read that our travelers loved the homestays (casas particulares) so much and that they could support to the local economy of the families, coffee and cacao. This trip probably would have been a top vacation if it weren’t for the flu. Unfortunately flu can be picked up anywhere due to the air conditioning. We always try to inform our travelers the best possible way with a briefing before the trip as well as the briefing they have in Havana and we provide a Cuba manual for what they may expect to come across. In the hope to avoid picking up flu we will implement tips in our briefings for bus travelers. Being vegetarian and/or eating only fish, avoiding pork and poorly cooked chicken can also help avoid stomach problems, we mention this also in our manual. The Viazul buses can be new or old, it seems that our travelers only happened to come across older ones and at the moment that is the best Cuba can offer. We are sorry that the bus broke down, unfortunately this can happen from time to time. We always discuss with clients all the possible transfer options during a trip design from rental car, bus, taxi transfers to a Cuban Adventure Tour with a Vintage car. The pace and length of the trip is tailored by the wishes of each client and what we think is a good itinerary. I am glad that you were happy with the overall planning of the trip as the challenge when a trip does not go completely as planned is to enjoy the moment as the Cubans do and make the journey in itself what matters most and I am glad this is what you did.

We are very happy to read that our travelers had one of their best vacations ever! For this we work and we therefore prefer to dedicate our time to clients committed to work with us. We and our team in Cuba work on all the details every day to make this happen although we also have to say that Cuba is far from an easy vacation destination to work with. We always try to inform all our clients about the up to date situation on Cuba before booking by a tel or Skype chat, through a Manual and a briefing before going to Cuba so that everyone comes with the right expectations. A few remarks. Private taxis transfers are not cheaper then renting a car unless you travel with a travelparty of eg 6 persons, depends on which car class you also rent of course. We recommend selfdrive about taxi transfers as it gives much more freedom. Besides all the longer stops with taxi transfers need to be programmed before and be included in the quotation before traveling on Cuba. The giant land crabs at Bay of Pigs or on the road from Cienfuegos to Trinidad migrate only in the months at some days during March-April to the sea for production and then return again to the land. The roads can be covered by thousands of crabs depending of the hour of the day. It is a natural phenomenon that can not be avoided as it happens over really long stretches of the roads. At NP Zapata – Bay of Pigs you can decide to drive via the highway when the homestay families inform you when it is better to do so or at which hours to drive to avoid the migration. From Cienfuegos to Trinidad or vica versa you can wait for a bus or truck and drive after them to avoid the risk of having your tyres being pinched by the crabs. This is not always clear at first hand as the holes are small but the day after you may find your tyres being flat. Then at last we are developing new programs at several locations from West to East Cuba. At Vinales there are many daywalks options possible from half to full days with a private guide besides horse riding, going to the beach of one of the keys Cayo Levisa or Cayo Jutias for snorkeling, we can arrange birdwatching from a mountain lodge between the mogote mountains to observe 16 endemic Cuban species of the total of 26-28 Cuba has. And we have developed now a new 2 days trekking through a less visited area of the Vinales valley, staying overnight near the mogotes in a lodge and continue the second day into less known areas. So many things to do at Vinales, same for Havana, Soroa, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Santiago and Baracoa. Best regards, Marcel

Very happy to read that this was more than a vacation but a real life journey! About Wi-Fi on Cuba. Homestay families or their staff can be asked to buy a whole package of Wi-Fi cards in Havana for the start of your trip, they earn a little with this and you support the local economy. When we inform them on time they can anticipate to obtain the Wi-Fi cards. You can use these cards at hotels & Wi-Fi hotspots all over Cuba and you can use them for 1 hr. Cuban families are inventive with the help of their relatives in Miami who supply the tools, new is that they capture the Wi-Fi signal from Wi-Fi hotspots or hotels at the roof of their house or building and bring it in 2 steps inside their homestays, accessible for the whole family and for their clients. Best regards, Marcel

We are very happy to read that this trip was one of their best vacations ever. We really recommend everyone that is interested in going to Cuba or already has been not to wait too long with going to East Cuba and enjoy the scenery, ambiance and nature programs at Baracoa. This area is still very remote and pristine which is difficult to find in the Caribbean. This is going to change drastically when Cuba opens up for property investors and daily direct flights will bring tourism from the USA to Baracoa.

We are happy to read that our travelers enjoyed the Cuban scenery and Caribbean charm of Cuba. A small remark is on its place for new Cuba travelers. Cuba is a special vacation destination that is rather complex. A trip on Cuba requires extra attention from a specialized operator for realizing all the details of a tailor made trip. Since the opening of Cuba for the US market last year and a significant increase of tourism, all services in tourism on Cuba are under pressure. As a consequence there is a shortage in good English speaking guides. As is mentioned in this review that excursions can be booked locally, that is true of course, but it means that you will end up in standard excursions with large groups. When you look for a more authentic experience you really will have to plan and book your trip ahead nowadays. With this shortage in English speaking guides on Cuba, the local agents place namely all their clients together in large groups to cover their logistical planning. They have no private guides available as these guides have started their own micro-business and are fully booked on time. It may look like that private guides are arranged via local coordinators that is correct, but they were reserved via us and Havana many months ahead depending on the moment of booking. We make use of several levels of organization on Cuba. When you look for a tailor made trip with distinctive excursions you will need to have private guided tours that can not be purchased anymore at the last moment while you are traveling. This is just to clarify. It all depends of what kind of experience a traveler is looking for. Best regards, Marcel

We are very happy to hear that you had a great honeymoon and we like to thank you for the review.

Nice to hear from our travelers that their vacation was excellent. One remark about Cuban beaches and possible accommodations. Cuba does not have small boutique hotels on a beach, there are some small beach hotels though but they are an exception. In case people like to have a beach stay we provide a list of all possibilities there are within their time given and itinerary. The beach stays can be at the beginning, end of vacation, or placed in the middle, depending on its location and tailor made itinerary. For people who don't like to stay in all-inclusive resorts or smaller beach hotels there are alternatives of course as staying in homestays and make use of local taxis to explore the beaches in the area for relatively little extra costs. There is only one place in Cuba where you have homestays directly on the beach. There are some differences between the north coasts at the Mexican Gulf and Atlantic Ocean and the south coasts at the Caribbean Sea. The seawater on the south is in general 2 degrees warmer then on the north side and the sea is usually less windy. You can distinguish more or less three to four different areas considering the water temperature and currents around Cuba: on the south side is the Caribbean Sea and the waters are warm during the whole year. Which is more or less the same with the western and a small part of the northern shore close to Florida as the Mexican gulf and Caribbean Sea do mix here and only in winter the sea gets marginally cooler. The east coast of Cuba is affected by currents coming from deeper waters in the Atlantic so here the sea can be slightly cooler during the whole year. The sea life for snorkelling (directly from the beach) on the south side is more abundant according to reports of travelers. Maria la Gorda on the extreme west side of Cuba is a top location for snorkelling and diving and lies in the warm Caribbean currents and is situated in a national park. The jellyfish issue on the south side mentioned in this review must have been a local situation and seasonal moment as there are also reports who describe the reverse that there are jellyfish on the north coasts and not on the south side.

We are very happy to read that our travelers loved the trip and Cuba, still a few remarks as other readers and new Cuba travelers might not have the full context or inside information. If Cuba is expensive or not expensive depends on what you compare Cuba with. The rent of a homestay is 25 – 35 CUC per room per night not including yet breakfast. For breakfast, lunch and dinner including some soft drink, beer or cocktail you should calculate around 30 - 35 CUC pp per day for an adult when at a homestay depending on type of meals and how many drinks, eg a good full vegetarian dinner with soup and dessert costs around 7 CUC pp. A 3 course dinner with lobster might be around 12 – 15 CUC pp. The homestay rooms have 2 twin beds, or one big bed per room, airconditioning and ensuite bathroom. At some homestays the twin beds can be big enough to have 2 children in one bed. As a family with small children you can stay therefore in only one room in case it is a family room with 2 bigger twin beds and save on costs. And there are homestays who do have two or more adjacent rooms. This can be of interest for families with bigger children. Further by Cuban law homestays are allowed to accept more than 2 persons per room. However most Cuban homestays have no extra sparebeds or triple rooms. A creative solution for a family of 3 kids is that you can always bring an inflatable matresses and have all the children together in one room without paying extra for another room. Traveling by bus over Cuba is really very economic. But even sharing for instance a middle class rental car among 4 friends is very good value for money having at one hand a luxury car combined with staying at homestays and sharing rooms. Cuba is unique, in whole Latin America there is no other country with such an excellent network of high quality homestays as Cuba has. In the rest of Latin America as budget traveler you will have to stay or in cheap hostels of low quality, or stay in the better but more expensive hotels. We think therefore that Cuba has a really very good value for money ratio when you stay at homestays / casas particulars. Last but not least, a part of your travel investment directly gets ploughed back into the local Cuban communities and in this way you support the Cuban families. Cuba has 2 currencies the peso convertible (CUC) and the moneda national (CUP). Most travelers only get in touch and only do need the peso convertible or CUC. The moneda nacional is still used as a currency in the national / local Cuban economy, however it will disappear sooner or later and its importance is becoming every year less due to the changing economics on Cuba. You only need this money when you want to use a Cuban bus or ferry or want to make use of another local service, but nowadays in almost all cases you can pay in some way or another pay with small coins of CUC for whatever you need or may com across. Most Cuban travelers however will not meet situations in which they are going to need moneda nacional. It is true that when you pay in moneda nacional for instance for a phone card of Etecsa that you get the local Cuban price and that when someone would accept to change CUC into CUP you pay a little more. For foods on the street the price is similar or the difference is very small, it all depends if you have small coins of CUC with you. When you dont have small coins of CUC you pay up ending for everything from some fruits up to using a toilet always as a minimum 1 CUC. When it interests you can easily obtain moneda nacional in a bank, or ask your local guide to change for you. The official rate varies around 24 - 27 pesos moneda nacional for one peso convertible. It is said that both the CUC and moneda nacional will be replaced with a new currency, however so far there are no signs that this is going to happen very soon. When you receive CUC money you should ask for small notes as you need them for most sorts of transactions. Notes of 50 or 100 are often not accepted by small shops or services as they don’t have enough change. So, make sure you always have small notes of 1, 3, 5, and 10 CUC with you. Notes of 20 CUC are usually still accepted. And you should always try to collect small coins of 25, 50 centavos and 1 CUC, especially for making small purchases and giving tips. When returning home the bank at the airport may not have GBP to change your CUC back, this depends on incoming flights and available currency stock on the airport, but they always have USD (and a limited amount of EUR) in stock, so you can always change back your CUC at least in USD! When you still have a considerable amount of CUC to change back at the end of your vacation, best is to change already a part the day before you depart at one of the Cadeca banks in Havana or at an all-inclusive beach resort.

When travelers make use of guided daywalks or trekkings in Cuban National Parks and Biosphere Reserves with the official governmental organisations a part of the income of the excursions is used for environmental education of the communities that are dedicated to farming inside the natural reserves, for scientific studies and for maintenance of the infrastructure and of the natural reserves itself. The whole organisation and all issues of nature conservation will be not so clear for the daily visitors to the National Parks and Biosphere Reserve of course as they are focused to enjoy the wonders of nature. But when the guides are asked to talk about how their organisation operates within the Biosphere Reserves they will explain with pleasure and in detail how everything functions. In this case the clients visited Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve, the Valley of Vinales, declared as Cultural Landscape Heritage sites by UNESCO for the rural life centered on its tobacco farming, they made a tour through the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Peninsula de Zapata (located around Bay of Pigs), they had a dayprogram and walk to hacienda Codina departing from Topes de Collantes which is a nature reserve park established in the south-eastern ranges of the Sierra Escambray Mountains, and they visited the Valley de los Ingenios (Sugar Mill valley) developed at the south-eastern foot of the Escambray mountains as UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the colonial village Trinidad. They visited many protected and well preserved nature sites and this is only a still a small part of all the natural beauty and Biosphere Reserves you can visit on Cuba !

In case you have a selfdrive program and/or just like to work with a GPS app on your smartphone, we suggest to find out at home which application(s) are best to use for your smartphone and if you can download free maps of Cuba with this app or that you have to buy digital maps of Cuba. We can highly recommend the free Navigator app (the one we use is on Android), it has good free maps of whole Latin America and also the map of Cuba can be downloaded for free. Search on Google for Mapfactor + Navigator or follow the download via Google Play via this link: http://navigatorfree.mapfactor.com/en/download/ Tip: take care that you already download all the points / cities / villages you are going to visit in your itinery on your smartphone at home ! You only need your GPS function to be on and you do not need any wifi which makes this app so practical as on Cuba there is no wifi anyway up to now (only at some 4-5 star hotels). Make sure that data roaming via your mobile on Cuba is switched off all the time and doublecheck this now and then! ( nb: there are also special apps to see quickly your data usage by wifi and mobile roaming, one is called Datamanager). We have used Navigator on Cuba and in several Latin American destinations and so far all good. Another recommendation from travelers is to download some streetmaps of Google maps on your tablet or print them out at home so that navigating in Cuban cities is made easier. However for realtime navigation with Google maps you need wifi so for navigation on Cuba this can’t be used.

We receive a lot of questions about selfdrive on Cuba, therefore we like to give some further comments so that more travelers can read about this. 1) The roads are relatively very empty on Cuba, it is a real pleasure to drive over Cuba and explore the island in this way as long as you enjoy driving and experience finding your way as a part of the adventure and vacation. A laid back attitude on Cuba and in the Caribbean in general is always better to enjoy your vacation whether you travel with your rental car, by private taxi or by regular bus. 2) Most roads are completely fine on Cuba. On some specific roads in the countryside you may encounter potholes or damaged road decks, when this is the case we always inform our clients in the road descriptions they receive from us and eventually alternative roads to take. 3) When you have a selfdrive program and/or just like to work with a GPS app on your smartphone, we suggest to find out at home which application(s) are best to use for your smartphone and if you can download free maps of Cuba with this app or that you have to buy digital maps of Cuba. We can highly recommend the free Navigator app, it has good free maps of whole Latin America and also the map of Cuba can be downloaded for free. Tip: take care that you already download all the points / cities / villages you are going to visit in your itinery on your smartphone at home ! You only need your GPS function to be on and you do not need any wifi which makes this app so practical as on Cuba there is no wifi anyway up to now (only at some 4-5 star hotels). Make sure that data roaming via your mobile on Cuba is switched off all the time and doublecheck this now and then! We have used Navigator on Cuba and in several Latin American destinations and so far all good. Another recommendation from travelers is to download some streetmaps of Google maps on your tablet or print them out at home so that navigating in Cuban cities is made easier. However for realtime navigation with Google maps you need wifi so for navigation on Cuba this can’t be used. 4) Only as a beginner traveler on Cuba we recommend our customers that it is better to not drive at night. Unless you drive very carefully, have become an experienced Cuba traveler or have no other option. This is for two reasons. Firstly, some roads in Cuba can be in a bad state. There’s usually no street lighting and/or white reflecting lines so you might hit a deep hole and damage the car. Secondly, many road users either don’t have or don’t use lights just simply as they do not have the batteries or equipment. So this might get you into a difficult situation when you drive to hard! In case of an accident you will usually be considered to be the one who is responsible. You can come across people on horses, horse and carts, bicycles, motorcycles, all kinds of pedestrians and hitchhikers. When there’s no street lighting, it is really very dark in the rural areas after sunset, much more so than in your home country. Sunrise and sunset times at your travel time can be easily checked for Cuba at different times in the year via http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html 5) Then the car insurance, this is obligated on Cuba and always included with a car rental. The insurance covers all damages or robbery even in case the driver is responsible of the accident, as long as you can present a police report to the car rental agency. 6) For those who prefer not to selfdrive, prefer not to travel by regular bus and like to explore still off the beaten path we arrange private taxi transfers in which cultural visits, lunch, swimming and/or snorkeling-diving breaks can be all included. We indicate per traject-itinery which stops can be included and can be interesting for the travelers involved according to their interests. We can also arrange taxi transfers with classical American cars in case you stay at homestays and wish to have this experience of traveling in the old Cuban style. 7) At last but not at least, on some fora some travelers warn and do not recommend to selfdrive on Cuba as in case you have a serious accident you have to stay on Cuba until the accident has been fully investigated. This is true but as long as you drive with caution and avoid driving in the dark (see point 4) there is little to fear about. When you prefer to drink without having to think whether you can or not, we recommend people always to make use of private taxi transfers. Traveling on Cuba and enjoying your vacation is all related to expectations and having the correct information of what you might meet before you start. We always offer our customers to have a briefing by Skype or tel chat before they depart and have them informed as good as possible in this way and through our Cuba Manual. Besides that they receive a briefing in Havana from our partner on their second day. Still traveling on Cuba stays an adventure but that is we think part of traveling on your own and the vacation fun. We also like to mention that in case people look for a complete guided tailor made itinerary in which they do not have to bother about all kind of minor or major details, in which they just can surrender to an overwhelming experience of the authentic and seductive Cuba – which Cuba can be and many times is - we offer to guide travel parties of 4, 6 or more people up to 20 persons. We have guided many travel parties over the last 14 years together with local Cuban guides and in this way Cuba has become also a family of us. You can contract us for a specialized tour leader service so that you have an amazing vacation with your travel party and all typical Cuban issues are smoothly solved at location. This is not only valid for Cuba but is also offered for roundtrips in Argentina, Peru, Brasil, Bolivia, Chile & Colombia.