Cuba Travel
 

I know it's "illegal" for a US Resident without a license or family in Cuba to travel but I know many Americans travel to Havana every year through Mexico and Canada. Is there a good travel agency that someone recommends that can help ?

Welcome to Flyertalk, justj0shnya. FT has a Forum which is dedicated to Cuba. Thus, I am moving your thread to the Cuba Forum.
Please follow there...
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

I don't believe it is illegal to travel to Cuba. Technically, it is only illegal to spend money there.

I think you need to go through some place in Mexico, Canada or another country.

This has been covered in many threads many times. Because the very act of travelling to Cuba causes you to spend money there (a portion of your ticket pays the landing fees so you've in effect spent money) it's illegal for US Citizens to travel there.

Of course many do - On my last holiday in Cuba the guy in front of me in the customs line was from Seattle, and the guy behind me was from San Francisco :) - Both had travelled on our non-stop from YVR.

Both of them entered with no problems whatsoever.

Try Solways Travel in Toronto.

By the way, has anyone experienced issues upon return to the U.S. from Cuba via Mexico with a Mexican re-entry stamp on their passport?

I always open my passport with the pages of the cuban immigration stamps (I ask always to stamp my passport and not the paper they put in) while entering the US and show it to the US-Immigration officer.

Most of them, especially when they are latinos, appreciate it.

But I am a holder of a german passport. ;)

For a local tour guide and/or accomodation in HAV I recommend this guesthouse (licensed):


http://www.cubaguesthouse.com/index.htm


They speak english, spanish, german and swiss-german!

My only regret during a trip to Cuba a few years ago was I didn't get my (UK) passport stamped. Other members of the group I was travelling with were apparently asked if they wanted their passport stamped on leaving Cuba. I was never asked possibly because of the number of US immigration stamps I had in my passport.

I lost the opportunity to add a Cuban immigration stamp to my collection of visas from "dodgy" countries including Yemen, Iran, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Ethiopia... ;) My passport ran out of blank pages soon after my visit to Cuba and my current passport is a lot more boring.

Hopefully, you speak some Spanish. As a rule, most Cubans do not speak English well. The only English speakers will be those in the travel industry, such as tour guides, hotel front desk workers, etc. Below is the link to a Mexican/Cuban travel agent.

http://www.tainotours.com.mx/taino.php

Prices are in Mexican pesos. Again, I do not recommend unless you speak Spanish to some extent.

Flight centre in Canada offer all inclusive to many resort on various part of the island.. Airfare, transfer resort with all meals and some activities. Local tour are optional. All tour guide, drivers, resort staff that needs to interact with tourist all speak English.

I do hope you're kidding and that's why you used the quotation marks as I happen to have a very large soft spot for Cuba.