VINTAGE GRAND TOUR

Our Vintage Grand Tour to Cuba takes our guests right there, amidst the big seas (the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico). This island has kept its vintage lifestyle and its unique attitude towards life. The people of Cuba are warm and welcoming, and so are the rhythms of their music and the steps of the dance, salsa.

But there is so much more to Cuba than rum, cigars, dancing, music, and their world-famous politics!

We have prepared our Vintage Grand Tour program with a big love for this country, its creative impact, cultural riches, its many stories, talented people, and exciting places. Cuba is not among the wealthiest countries in the World, and also not the easiest to travel in, but we are sure it is the most interesting and inspiring place one can ever visit!

THE GRAND TOUR

We stay in Havana (La Habana) for a few days. The city is a cultural hub of the island and too interesting not to experience it in its depth and with many different moods and its fantastic mixture of people and architecture. After spending time in Havana, we move toward the East to Trinidad and make a short stop in Santa Clara en route to pay a tribute to Ernesto Che Guevara and visit his mausoleum. His is a controversial story and we sure do not want to miss any part of it!

Trinidad hosts us for a few days. We just can't get enough of the old colonial feel and baroque style palaces, old squares and friendly locals. Trinidad is also one of the best-preserved colonial towns in the Caribbeans and we soon understand why...

Via Cienfuegos, an elegant, french style town, we turn now toward the West of the Island and reach the Heaven on earth, the fertile valley of Viñales with its rich tobacco fields and its signature mountains, called Mugotes in Spanish. After some relaxing walks in nature and indulging in stories of tobacco production, charming evenings on the main square, and excellent eating, we return to Havana to conclude our Vintage Grand Tour of Cuba. After seeing more of Cuba, we see Havana now with whole new eyes!

You can read about basic facts on our travel, and about how our days look like, what to expect on our tours, what we stand for and more.

EXPERIENCES ON THE TOUR

The most Iconic experiences of Cuba,

We fully enjoy in a classic American car ride, a private (1:1) lesson of salsa with a Cuban instructor, a cocktail making class, Cuban cigars tasting, and more.

Authentic cultural experiences

Bring Cuba and its culture closer to our guests, such as an excellent talk on Cuban music that enlightens the otherwise complicated and diverse topic of music in Cuba, an Evening Gala in a Grand Theatre in Havana (where, hopefully, and depending on the program of the season, we are able to see a performance of one of the best ballet orchestras in the world, the Cuban National Ballet of Alicia Alonso), an elegant candle-lit dinner in a Restaurant Museum. We also enjoy a charming photo shooting with a professional photographer in an old colonial villa in Havana, a wonderful experience that leaves us with a memorable souvenir to take home to, very authentic and unique!

Creative hands-on workshops

For the experience of the tour to deepen, we are adding a creative hands-on workshop with a local artist that makes us observe the country in more detail and connects us with ourselves and our experiencing of Cuba. With that, our guests get a chance to open up to each other and take pleasure in new possibilities for dialogue and exchange of ideas and feelings.

Our workshops are unique experiences and add value to our tours. If you wonder where it all started, you can read A hands-on Moroccan workshop experience, and about how we add the workshops to our tours, please read This Blog.

For further information on the tour and a program, please feel free to contact us via our Contact form (where we can also arrange for a live call via Skype or IMO).

We thank you and hope to maybe see you one day, in Cuba!

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE VINTAGE GRAND TOUR

 DISCOVERING AND NEW INSIGHTS

• An inspiring talk on the (History of) Cuban Music
• An informal expert talk on how to understand Cuban reality, politics, economy, life, its present, and its future
• Private 2 hours 1:1 salsa lesson with a very own salsa teacher followed by a night of dancing (or just people watching) in a famous local salsa club where Habaneros meet and dance

ELEGANCE AND BEAUTY

• Elegant authentic accommodations in colonial style private houses or beautiful 5- star hotels
• An elegant ride in Havana in old convertible American cars
• Dinner in a Restaurant Museum
• An evening Gala in National Theatre (Gran Teatro de La Habana) - a ticket to an evening of the Cuban national ballet or classical music (depending on the program of the theatre)

CREATIVITY

• A private visit to an old colonial villa and a relaxed photo shooting with a professional photographer
• A creative hands-on workshop in an art studio

The whole experience of Cuba feels like acting in an old vintage movie.

A NOTICE ABOUT OUR TRAVEL We travel elegantly and luxuriously, but we do not intend to travel isolated from the country and the culture we visit. We aim at keeping our travel real. We do not avoid the hosting cultures, their traditions, and customs, but rather explain and encounter them, and accept them for what they are. If the country's standards are lower than those at home, we understand it and try to appreciate the efforts local people put into trying to meet our expectations. If you are interested more in what we stand for and how, please read About Our Values.

ACCOMMODATIONS

It has been only in the last few years that the boutique and luxury hotels have started to emerge in Cuba (and Havana), and we have been following those developments cautiously. We will be eager to add them to our programs very soon.

We are preparing a post on luxury hotels in Havana, so if you are interested, make sure not to miss it by subscribing to new posts via the RSS feed button below.

We feel that the choice of a hotel has a deep impact on travel and experiencing the environment altogether. We always search for hotels (or private accommodations) that add to the experiencing with their artistic, cultural milieu, with their high standard quality and with their care for the people that work for them. This is why we usually prefer to choose luxury private accommodations (rooms or apartments in historical colonial villas, or modern luxury buildings). They like our guests to know that they contribute to Cuban people earning for living with their good work, talents, and ideas. This is an integral part of how we like work. Our values are described further here.

But there are, of course also many reasons for us to stay in beautiful luxury hotels.

So for now, we choose from two options: five-star luxury hotels, or boutique accommodation in private houses (called Casa Particulares).

STAYING IN CASA PARTICULARES is an exceptional experience, though. We always try our best to choose the houses that are beautiful and authentic, with art and a cultural milieu feel, and also that are close by for the group to stay in contact. We adore the old colonial villas in a district called 'Vedado' (in Havana), and in the city center of Trinidad. These villas are usually colonial in style (or charmingly eclectic), filled with Cuban artworks, ancient elegant furniture, and with a beautiful patio or a terrace, where they serve our guests a tasty homemade breakfast.

If you would like to learn more about how we travel and what else is in our offer, please take a read at other Blog Posts.

If Cuba has been on your travel radar for some time now, or you are just starting to think of it now, or you are not even thinking of it yet, but are interested to know more, we had published other blog posts about Cuba.

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