The issue of terminology is a funny one. I agree. If you go on a people-to-people tour, Cuba will still issue you a
tarjeta de turismo (tourist card) and consider you to be a tourist, even if our government tells us we can't be one.
Originally Posted by
Reindeerflame
(4) Going to the beach: let's not be silly. Going to the beach is not more "touristy" than many other activities, such as eating at a private restaurant (palador) or buffet at an all-inclusive resort, visiting the cathedral, or mailing a postcard. Feel free to go to the beach.
Yeah, but you're not supposed to be staying at that all-inclusive resort either if you want to abide strictly by U.S. law. That's leisure tourism to Cuba and the U.S. doesn't yet permit it.
You have a luxury, reindeerflame, that Dave and I do not. I worked on an update to a major guidebook to Cuba last year. (With all that had changed, it was a total overhaul.) If we're writing about travel to Cuba for publication, it would be irresponsible of us not to state explicitly what U.S. law requires. Now, what an individual chooses to do with that information is a personal decision, of course, and these days, someone can probably get by with bending the rules. We can couch it in those terms, but no one should tell himself that spending an afternoon at the beach in Cuba conforms to U.S. law.