Cultural Island Travel - Travel To Cuba Legally Bewertungen 

Where to begin... I did some research online and came across CIT. From that moment on, I knew I found the perfect tour company. Kristen was easy and enthusiastic to work with and very responsive to any questions my friend and I had prior to our trip. She helped customize the tour to accommodate our requests. A big thumbs up on customer service.

Then from the moment we arrived in Havana, our tour guide Laura Gonzalez was fantastic. She was so pleasant, knowledgeable and fun to be around. She even added some fun little surprises for us along the way which we loved. We got the privilege to get to know Laura and made a friend along the way.

Cuba is a beautiful country with amazing people, culture, history, food, etc. I felt safer walking the streets of Havana than I do in my own city here in the US. The food (especially desserts) and drinks were delicious. All the guides that we met from the Revolution Museum to the Grand Teatro to old Havana were what made the tours fantastic, as well as the our drivers. Getting to visit community projects and private concerts is what really makes the trip special- along with how flexible the staff are to accommodating and customizing our visit.

As someone that has traveled extensively in different parts of the world, this by far was the best tour I've been on and exceeded all my expectations. Top notch all the way!

FYI - No one got sick or even an inkling of an upset stomach like what happens when you go to Mexico. CIT scouts out all the restaurants/paladars in advance and so it was great to feel like you could eat and order anything off the menus.

We had a 6-day tour in March 2019 and enjoyed it thoroughly. Cultural Island Tour crafted the trip meticulously to be enjoyable and educational, and to comply with the legal requirements of the USA and Cuba.
Our tour guide (Naomi) was excellent: She combined history, insight, and education, and was available and eager to assist even when she was off-duty - and she is a very delightful person to be with.
We stayed in a B&B, others in our group stayed in a hotel, and all had excellent accommodations.
Best to convert euros than US dollars to avoid the 10% fee in addition to the normal currency conversion fee.
Leave your credit cards at home; it's a cash society. US credit cards won't work there anyway. And tipping is highly appreciated; the people really need the money.
One tip: If you take a taxi (my preference was a '56 Buick, like the one my grandmother drove) and have a young driver, ask in advance what the fare will be as the taxis have no meters. We learned that even in a socialist country, everyone is a capitalist (although drivers in the 30-60 year old age group charged very reasonably).
We were a bit apprehensive in advance; after all, it's still Cuba. But our experience was 100% positive.

I would 100% recommend Cultural Island Travel to anyone wanting to travel to Cuba! The booking experience was smooth, and it was so nice not having to worry about the itinerary or worry about obtaining visas! Kristen and her team were easy to work with in building our itinerary for the weekend.

We loved Irma and all our guides once in Havana! The entire experience was amazing -- the food, the tours, the CARS, everything! Our casa was great, and couldn't have asked for a better experience!

Everyone needs to contact CIT now to book a trip to Havana! It was incredible!

We are a retired couple with a lot of travel experience. We usually travel on our own but for Cuba we needed a travel company. We feel very lucky to have found Cultural Island Tours. From start to finish the staff was uniformly helpful, accommodating and professional.
Teresa Sanchez worked with us to arrange an itinerary that suited our interests. She never seemed to tire of hearing about our concerns and answering endless questions. We found her advice to be spot on.
At Teresa's suggestion, we chose a B & B instead of a hotel in Havana. Our lodging at Cristy & Pepe's was wonderful - we had a spacious two-bedroom apartment to ourselves with a kitchen and dining/living area. It was in a great section of town, safe and convenient, close to restaurants, an internet park.
As for our tour guides and drivers - they all were great. Our main guide, Irma was a particular jewel - very knowledgeable, accommodating and professional - also a delightful and fun companion. She took us to great restaurants and helped us on our quest to find the best ice cream in Cuba.
Due to varying schedules our group consisted only of ourselves for several days in Havana and for a trip from Havana to Trinidad. We were lucky to have Handy, a great driver, and a classic '58 Chevy Biscayne for our transportation.

Teresa,

The trip was perfect from start to finish thanks to your attention to every detail in creating our itinerary! The restaurants were great especially Al Carbon. We spent lovely evenings at the National Hotel.

Ariel was great! He was fluent in Cuban history, as well as so knowledge of American history & politics, it made the days with him really enjoyable. He accommodated all of our requests with no hesitation. The cars and drivers exceeded all expectations.

Maritza and Margarita were gracious hosts. We looked forward to breakfast every day with them. Their location was perfect and centrally located. We walked all over and always felt safe.

Thanks for making it an unforgettable experience!

Gerry & Beth

My name is Kirk, and I enjoyed every minute of my time in Cuba thanks to Cultural Island Travel. Like many Americans traveling to Cuba for the first time - it can be an adventure that can be a little nerve racking because of politics and not knowing much about the country. Cultural Island made me feel at ease from the first conversation with the office. The company will work with you and make sure you get everything you need out of the tour. While I was down there Laura and the team made sure every question I had was asked was answered (and I ask a lot of questions). Great experience - I learned a lot and had a great time exploring.

My family travels extensively but rarely on any sort of "prefab tour." We always just do our own thing and design our own itinerary so I was a bit hesitant to book a package tour for our first trip to Cuba as we thought it might be too constrained, inflexible, and perhaps, a bit canned. Boy were we wrong! We decided to go to Cuba for a mass birthday celebration and I just wandered around the internet looking for something appealing as I was convinced that we needed professional assistance for this particular trip. I called several services but felt discouraged because it seemed like everybody was selling a static, pre-configured product. Then I ran into CIT. What a refreshing breath of air from the onset! Kristen, Donna and the gang were completely personal and designed the tour around our interests and varying schedules. The itinerary was incredible and all of our guides, incomparable (especially Ari, our main guy!). All of their materials, advice and tips were so helpful and we all felt like we packed in a month's worth of inspirational experiences into a mere 7 day trip. All six of us HIGHLY recommend CIT for anyone thinking of traveling to Cuba. All of us thought this would be our first and last trip to Cuba...but because of our incredible experience, we'll probably go again...and make sure CIT is a part of it!

We just returned from a great trip to Cuba with CIT. The guide (Fernando) was informative and spoke English well . The drivers were all great and we felt safe. The Grand Packard hotel was truly a 21 century hotel, quite luxurious and comfortable. The tours were all interesting and a pleasure. The restaurants we went to were all great.
This was an excellent trip and we highly recommend it.

Our family of 17 spent an amazing four days in Havana. The staff at ICT (Krista & Donna) thoroughly handled every detail in preparation for our trip. Our guides Patricia and Irma were wonderful in taking care of us. They absolutely made what my oldest son described as an “epic” experience for us. They are both so impressive in every way. They are organized, intelligent, knowledgeable, personable and caring.We simply fell in love with them and we fell in love with Cuba. On the third day of our time in Havana, my youngest granddaughter (age 7) asked why they were not coming “home” with us. I cannot overstate how their professionalism contributed to this “once-in-a-lifetime” trip for all of us. I am happy to offer my highest recommendation for the ICT team for their overall effort in making this time so special for us.

We booked a 1-week tour focusing on the Music and Art of Cuba (Havana and Trinidad) in early January 2019. Prior to our departure Cultural Island Travel (CIT) demonstrated excellent organization. Kristen, one of the travel experts, was especially responsive to our many questions, had great follow up, and offered excellent suggestions for paladars (restaurants) and night life. We were delighted that despite our booking a “group tour” they did not cancel because we were the only two travelers. Our guide, Ebony was truly outstanding. She was very attentive, always on time, paced the itinerary well, was fluent in Spanish and English, made us feel comfortable and welcome, and had a wealth of knowledge about the country. We had a memorable, stimulating, fun, and effortless vacation mainly because of Ebony’s relaxed manner and expertise about Cuba. We were also very impressed with the specialty guides who offered insights into the Cuban history, culture, and art. Our driver was also courteous, pleasant, and responsible. We loved the people, culture, architecture, food, and music that Cuba has to offer. As part of the itinerary CIT arranged private concerts and meetings with many musicians, singers, and dancers, all of whom were welcoming and extremely talented. We only wish that we might have had more opportunities to meet visual artists. We would definitely book with CIT in the future and have already referred them to our friends and family.

Our family with two teens traveled to Cuba with CIT. The experience was superb from start to finish. They worked with us to customize the itinerary based on our interests and preferences. We learned about the architecture, arts and economy.
Most important, my kids learned about the history of Cuba and gained a first hand perspective of the island and its rich culture.
The accommodations were comfortable and restaurant selections delicious. Our guide was the BEST!! She made our entire trip fun!

A huge thank you to Kristen Jelley, Donna Abuan, Laura Gonzalez, and the team at Cultural Island Travel, for planning and executing our amazing Cuba adventure. We are still on a Cuba high, three weeks later! As special heartfelt thank you to our wonderful guide and new friend, Fernando Ramos Cuesta, and our driver Paul, who spent three days with us in Havana and Cienfuegos. We had difficult logistics to deal with, but you all pulled it off seamlessly. I still can't believe that we made it to Finca Vigia, Hemingway's home, with time to spare; a dream come true. I have to admit that I cried when we had to say good-bye to Fernando in Cienfuegos. We also enjoyed our visit to Santiago and our guide, Rogelio, though our time together was too brief. Cuba is such a beautiful country, and it's people so warm and welcoming; can't wait to return! As a further testimonial, we are already planning our next visit in February, with Cultural Island Travel, of course! Thank you again!

Karan and Bob
Sarasota, FL

It is a truly surprising destination, Cuba is. We have never imagined in our entire lives, to have set foot in this unique, and irresistible country.

It was quite an amazing experience to visit Havana, Cuba in such a short time, 3 nights and 4 days at that. However, we consider it as one of the best and memorable travels we have ever had so far. We had the best time ever. We would have to say it was a vacation of a lifetime!

Booking:
Kristen Jelley was the Cuba Travel Expert at Cultural Islands Travel who helped us booked our tour. We contacted her nine days prior to our desired date of travel. She was very patient and accommodating. She made sure that we are happy with all the travel arrangements, we had her changed our hotel and dinner reservations at the last minute. She worked hard so that we receive all the documents necessary for our travel before our departure. I have never dealt with a travel advisor as energetic and efficient as Kristen. We are very grateful of all the things she did for us in planning our perfect Cuba getaway. For us she is the Super Cuba Travel Expert!

Tours:
The tour certainly gave us a glimpse of the history of Cuba, its rich culture which is diverse. We saw different and interesting things worth seeing, the architecture is impressive, not to mention the colorful buildings that lined up busy streets, and seeing those classic vintage cars are a sight to behold! And riding on them is not to be missed! It gives you a feeling of nostalgia, as if you’re going back in time. We also had private performances to experience their music and a private salsa dance lesson. In all cases, the food was very good and tasty! Well prepared and healthy. It far exceeded our expectations. The whole experience came out very smoothly and we had so much fun. There was a good amount of activity and have enough time on our own. It was definitely a worthy adventure to have explored Havana via Cultural Islands Travel as our travel agency.

Guides:
For the most part, we were awed at how Ebony made us feel we belong as if we’ve known each other for long. She clearly exhibits willingness to help us enjoy our time which we did. She’s a very nice young lady, with great personality, a wealth of knowledge and went way beyond all expectations to show us everything she possibly could. She was fun to be with, very engaging and extremely accommodating. She was even our photographer and never complained, she was not strict as to the time and had never shown impatience. She was truly focused on the customer ensuring we were satisfied. She assisted us willingly to our comfort. The guide's itinerary as suggested by the company owner of Cultural Islands Travel were very informative and friendly.

We would certainly use and highly recommend Cultural Islands Travel and Ebony as travel specialist, again.

Overall, we had an excellent experience and would highly recommend Cultural Islands Travel. We really enjoyed our time with her.

Thank you very much for everything!

David and Leilani

Teresa,
The girls and I had an amazing trip. From the start you and your team didn’t miss one detail...
You were patient and informative. You answered calls and emails instantly providing us with the answers and comfort we needed for this trip. You went above and beyond for us. 5+ star treatment.

That treatment continued from the moment we arrived at the airport in Cuba. Laura was absolute PERFECTION. We were a high maintenance group (lol) and she accommodated us every step of the way… not only was she very informative, patient, punctual and sweet; her knowledge and openness about the culture in the country was unmatched and exceeded all of our expectations. We had the best time. We cannot wait to go back.

I would recommend cultural island travel to everyone and anyone who ever has any thoughts to traveling to Cuba. I am hoping to see your company expand its tours to Europe.

I had the most amazing experience in Cuba thanks to the kindness and help of Teresa with organizing our trip. She made it so simple and I didn’t have to worry about any details. Once arriving in Cuba, Laura met us at the airport. She was with us the whole way and gave us a once in a lifetime experience that i don’t think we could have had with anyone else. I 100% recommend this company and especially Teresa and Laura!!

From the beginning of our trip to the end, Cultural Island Travel, Teresa and Laura, took exceptional care of us! The details were precisely explained and planned prior to our departure making all paperwork easy to prepare and the tour itself once we were greeted by our educated tour guide Laura, was so interesting and diverse yet flexible enough to accommodate any changes we may have wanted to make! I cannot say enough about this agency as it was one of the most memorable, educational and fun trips I have ever experienced. I thank Teresa and Laura for their guidance, patience and kindness! Obviously I would highly recommend Cultural Island Travel!

We went to Cuba for 5 days and Culture Island Travel arranged almost everything for us. They were professional, there when they were supposed to be and the guides were fantastic! They recommended great places to eat and to go at night. They tailored our experience to suit our needs and wants. They were also flexible when we decided to alter the plans a bit. I felt very comfortable with them and would highly recommend them to anyone I know, and in fact already have!

In Jan 2018 we enjoyed a 10-day tour to Cuba with Cultural Island Travel. They did a fantastic job! We requested a customized tour with a group of only five people and stayed in Havana with a couple day trips outside. Our guide (Ebony) was exceptional and so were the others who supported her. We stayed at a private home (apartment) which the tour company found for us. The restaurants they took us to were all excellent and we also visited many interesting concerts, museums, historical and other sites. I highly recommend this tour company.

Recently returned from the Havana Jazz Festival Tour with Cultural Island Travel and our group enjoyed it very much. The musical offerings were varied and of very high quality. Truly a wonderful week of jazz!
We were very well taken care of by our excellent guide Santiago Flores who was with us for the entire five days and was very well informed about all the cultural and historical stops on our tour. He was always extremely courteous and professional and attentive to our needs. I think we were fortunate to have him as our guide..
The driver Eduardo was also excellent. He was always punctual and drove us to near and far destinations safely, ensuring our smooth entry and exit to all events.
Cuba is a wonderful country that has suffered image issues due to ignorance and politics. It is indeed safe and clean and the people could not be nicer. We stayed at the Parque Central in central Havana, and it is a world class hotel with nice rooms and live Latin music playing continuously from morning to midnight in their very charming lobby sitting area.
Would recommend Cultural Island --and Santiago Flores- to anyone wanting a Cuba travel experience. We will return for sure.

Had a wonderful time in Cuba. CIT put together a comprehensive, interesting, informative and fun package for the 4 of us. We had a beautiful 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom suite with a terrace and ocean view at our b&b. It was perfect. Our tour guides Mario & Fernando were great. They were well informed, caring, accommodating and friendly. I plan on recommending CIT to friend's. Thanks for everything.