This itinerary is subject to minor changes during the trip. All meals and activities are included in the cost unless indicated by “cost not included.”
DAY 1: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10 | WELCOME
Meet at Havana International Airport. When you arrive in Havana, you will pass through customs, get your bags, and exit the airport. Don’t be alarmed if it takes a long time to get your luggage. Cuba has a very slow x-ray system to scan all bags. When you exit the airport, you will be greeted by our Cuban tour guide, chauffeur, and U.S.-based tour leader who will be holding a PRCNO sign. We will gather outside the airport in groups according to arrival times and transfer to our Havana hotels.
Arrive at our accommodations and check in to your rooms. We will be staying in Havana's best privately owned boutique hotels located close to one another in the historic core of Habana Vieja. These are historic mansions in classic Spanish Colonial architecture remodeled with a modern twist. After you check in, relax and settle in before our orientation and dinner.
7:00 pm ~ Welcome mojitos and introductions. Meet & greet each other as we begin our tour. We will have a welcome and orientation over mojitos (or non-alcoholic refreshments).
8:00 pm ~ Welcome dinner at El Del Frente. Enjoy specialty cocktails and mojitos in our favorite restaurant in Habana Vieja. El Del Frente makes food and drinks that will rival any trendy restaurant in New Orleans.
DAY 2: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 | COLONIAL HAVANA
Breakfast at our villas. Your house will cook a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, and ham.
10:00 am ~ Old Havana four plazas walking tour. We will get to know the historic core of Havana surrounding our hotel. In this UNESCO World Heritage Site, we will see extraordinary Colonial architecture of Cuban baroque and art nouveau, both well preserved and decayed, many galleries, contemporary centers, boutique museums, and little shops. We'll begin with the Plaza de la Catedral where our hotel is located. There we’ll visit the collective graphic arts workshop, Taller de Gráfica. This public studio for local artists was established by Pablo Neruda and Che Guevara at the beginning of the Revolution as a place where artists living and visiting Havana work on printmaking. Next we'll see an exhibit at the Wilfredo Lam Center. We'll continue on to la Plaza de las Armas, Havana’s first square and origin point of the city’s settlement. The next stop is Plaza San Francisco where we'll enter the Basílica.
11:00 am ~ Private Concert with Camerata Romeu. Visit the beautifully restored Basílica San Francisco de Asis to experience a private performance of the first all-women string orchestra in Latin America. Under the direction of Zenaida Romeu, Camerata Romeu is one of Cuba’s most extraordinary classical music ensembles. This non-governmental independent music group frequently tours internationally and performs new works of numerous Cuban and other Latin American composers.
12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Los Mercaderes. We’ll stroll down the oldest street in Havana, Calle de los Mercaderes (Merchants Street), to have lunch in a beautiful new restaurant built inside the home of the owner.
2:00 pm ~ Four plazas walking tour continued. We'll continue our walking tour of Havana's historic core at the Plaza Vieja where we can see a couple of exhibits of contemporary Cuban art at two of Havana’s most important contemporary art centers, El Centro del Desarollo de Arte Contemporánea and la Fototeca de Cuba. Then continue our walk down the pedestrian promenade of Obispo street to the Parque Central, Capitolio, and Prado boulevards.
2:45 pm ~ Capitolio neighborhood walking tour. We’ll introduce ourselves to Havana by getting to know its most grand neighborhood. El Prado is one of the most exquisitely designed major avenues in all the Americas and home to the quintessential structures that define Havana, ranging from Colonial to Baroque to Neoclassical to Art Deco. Designed in 1772 by French landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, El Prado runs for many blocks from the dramatic fountain, La Fuente de la India, to the iconic Malecon, marking the boundary between Habana Vieja and Centro Habana. El Paseo, a marble promenade lined with a natural canopy of trees, marble benches and bronze lions was chosen by the House of Chanel for one of the most dramatic runway shows in the history of fashion. It is home to El Capitolio (1929): El Gran Teatro de La Habana (1918), home to the National Ballet of Cuba; The Bacardi Building (1930), a testament to Art Deco and dozens of other structures immortalized in photography and film for decades. El Prado encompasses all the cultural wealth that Havana has offered from the 17th to the 20th Century.
3:30 pm ~ Time at leisure. Continue exploring Old Havana or return to the hotel to connect to WiFi, recharge your batteries, or take a siesta.
7:30 pm ~ Dinner at La Guarida. Anyone who has been to La Guarida will find it difficult to disagree that Enrique and Odeisys have managed to create their own magical home restaurant. The building, originally known as La Mansión Camagüey, shows its former grandeur from the magnificent wooden entrance door through the marble staircase up the two flights of stairs to the restaurant itself. The location is glamorized by Cuba's provocative and most iconic film “Fresa y Chocolate.” La Guarida has gone on to become one of the most popular restaurants in Cuba. On the menu is a choice of squash soup, eggplant caviar, or smoked marlin tacos for a starter; fish, chicken, or pork for the main course with sides of rice, black beans, fried yuca and plantains; and a cocktail, spring water, and coffee for dessert.
9:00 pm ~ Rooftop jazz concert at La Guarida. Above the restaurant, the hottest new music scene in Havana is happening on this rooftop patio on Saturday nights. Tonight, we’ll get to hear one of Cuba’s greatest jazz artists perform under the stars.
DAY 3: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12 | VEDADO MANSIONS
Breakfast at our villas. Your house will cook a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, and ham.
10:00 am ~ LECTURE: Overview of Havana’s architectural history with Wilfredo Benitez at the Ludwig Foundation. We’ll begin our day with a multi-media presentation about Havana by Wilfredo Benitez, General Manager of the Ludwig Foundation and expert on the historical development of Havana. He will give a glimpse into the history of Cuban architecture, from the Colonial era to the 1950's modernism and until today. This will deepen our understanding of the city while we explore its many neighborhoods throughout the week.
11:30 am ~ Visit the Convento de San Francisco de Asis with architect and preservationist Isabel Rigol, National Prize for Preservation. The Convent of San Francisco de Asís is a religious building of baroque architecture located in the square of the same name in Old Havana. Its construction began in the year 1548 and lasted until 1591. It was completely finished almost 200 years later, with a series of structural reforms that took place from 1731 to 1738. Currently, inside the monastery, the Museum of Sacred Art of the city of Havana is housed along with a chamber orchestra performance space. Isabel Rigol is credited for saving and preserving this structure and in the process, founding Centro Nacional de Conservación, Restauración y Museología (CENCREM). She will take us on a personalized tour of this historic jewel of Havana while discussing her perspective on Cuban conservation.
12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Paladar Ivan Chef Justo. We’ll have lunch at a nearby restaurant run by Fidel Castro’s former primary personal chef. The style of the place is thoroughly Cuban-Mediterranean, located on the second and third floors of a building that is over 200 years old. The food is nothing short of spectacular.
2:30 pm ~ Museo de Artes Decorativos. One of Havana's best museums dazzles like a European stately home. It's replete with all manner of architectural features, including rococo furniture, Chinese screens, and an art deco bathroom. Equally interesting is the building itself, which is of French design and was commissioned in 1924 by the wealthy Gómez family. Walking around you'll encounter a weighty collection of porcelain, ceramics and glassware amassed by the former lady of the house María Gómez Mena, who was known for throwing lavish parties before the 1959 revolution put an end to wanton extravagance. The garden is a more Italian affair, guarded by statues and busts denoting the four seasons.
4:00 pm ~ House tour of Curator Pamela Ruiz. Pamela Ruiz and artist Damien Aquiles have invited us to their beautifully restored luxurious Havana mansion for a tour with cocktails. Read more about their home and story in New York Times Style Magazine.
5:00 pm ~ Dinner and evening on your own. Return to our accommodations for dinner and evening to explore on your own. Relax, Rconnect to WiFi, and explore the city on your own. There are a lot of great concerts and other options in Havana on a Saturday night. We’ll recommend options and make reservations at the best restaurants in town such as O'Reilly 304, Yarini, Cinco Sentidos, and Jama (optional – cost not included).
8:00 pm ~ Suggested activity: El Cañonazo a las 9. After dinner, you could return to the Morro/Cabaña colonial fortification overlooking the bay and participate in a nightly ritual that has been maintained for centuries with the firing of the cannons and muskets as the public announcement of the closing of the Bay for the night. Along with the pomp and circumstance of the nightly recreation, you will enjoy a fabulous view of the City of Havana at night. Havana was guarded by a wall as part of the defensive system put in place by the Spanish Crown from the late 1700s to 1863. It was customary to shoot a cannon every morning and evening to mark the opening and closing of the gates of the city as well as the iron chain that blocked the harbor entrance at night. It symbolizes Cuban independence and resistance. The tradition has been kept until the present day when at 9:00 p.m., Spanish soldiers clad in military fatigue carry out the renowned Cannon Shooting Ceremony. This daily ceremony marks the beginning of the Havana night life.
10:00 pm ~ Suggestion: Tropicana Caberet. The Tropicana was the most famous nightclub in the world from 1939 to 1959. Built in the gardens of an early 20th-century residence, it contains one of Cuba’s most significant modern buildings, the Arcos de Cristal (1952), a thin-shell concrete structure by architect Max Borges Recio. The club continues to operate and is the only of Havana’s famous clubs to survive the Revolution. You will see the gardens and the show, which is based on the 1950s cabaret-era spectacles (optional–cost not included--talk to Gretell about reserving tickets ahead of time).
DAY 4: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 | WEST HAVANA
Breakfast at our villas. Your house will cook a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, and ham.
10:00 am ~ Colon Cemetery. A cemetery of historical importance and essentially an open-air museum of Cuba's past, Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón is the final resting place of many prominent Cuban figures and notable families (pick up a map at the entrance to guide you along). The cemetery's best-known resident, the Milagrosa, gathers thousands of pilgrims annually for the miraculous events surrounding her past exhumation, and is believed by Catholics to have supernatural wish-granting powers.
11:00 am ~ Private Performance with Modern Dance Company "Mi compania". Watch one of Cuba’s top contemporary dance companies under the direction of Susana Pous. We will visit a beautiful house transformed into her private dance school and company headquarters.
12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Vistamar Paladar. Located in a mid-century modern home with an exceptional view of the Havana seafront and a piano-shaped swimming pool, this restaurant is a favorite place to catch the breeze while enjoying quality Cuban cuisine inspired by the sea.
2:00 pm ~ Visit to the Insituto Superior de Arte with Felipe Dulzaides. Che Guevara and Fidel Castro turned a former country club into the only school for all the arts in Latin America through an ambitious dream to break traditional forms and empower their arts & culture. Although unfinished in its construction, it is now Cuba’s most advanced school of the arts with architecture revered worldwide. The "ISA" has schools for dance, music, visual art, theater, and media arts. We will have the opportunity to tour the dance school left in ruins on a guided tour by artist Felipe Dulzaides.
3:30 pm ~ Fusterlandia. See the ceramicist who has transformed his entire neighborhood into a Gaudi or Brancusiesque wonderland of sculptures, mosaics, and murals. Fuster’s home and neighborhood gallery has become internationally renowned for community projects where neighbors volunteer their houses to become part of a sprawling masterpiece known as “Fusterlandia.”
4:30 pm ~ Return to our accommodations to relax or explore on your own. Relax, connect to WiFi, or explore the city on your own.
8:00 pm ~ Dinner at Tierra. Tierra is just as much about the Havana arts scene as it is about food. Built into the VIP section of the Cuban Art Factory built out of recycled shipping containers. This wildly popular paladar pushes the limits of private industry and government cooperation in a 100-year-old previously abandoned cooking oil factory along the Almendares River between the Vedado and Miramar neighborhoods. We’ll enter through the front door of the FAC and get to skip the long lines that typically go around the block.
9:30 pm ~ La Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC). Experience Havana’s hippest urban culture magnet: an old peanut oil factory refurbished into a multi-level, multi-purpose, and almost infinite art and music space. This expansive venue boasts a dense cultural program exhibiting contemporary photography, installations, sculptures, three music stages, tapas, and seven bars. This cultural hotspot is an entrepreneurial project of Cuban celebrity musician X Alfonso. This “Cuban Art Factory” is a shining reflection of what the future might hold for Havana as the cosmopolitan trend-setting capital stronghold of Latin America that it once was.
DAY 5: MONDAY, OCTOBER 14th | HEMMINGWAY & NEON
9:00 am ~ Breakfast at our villa. Your house will cook a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, and ham. Be ready to leave at 10:00 am.
10:30 pm ~ Ernest Hemingway’s Finca Vigía. Visit the hilltop house of American writer Ernest Hemingway where he lived from 1940 – 1960 with his wife, Martha Gellhorn, and their children. Cuba was Hemingway’s most frequented country where he wrote the Old Man and the Sea, To Have and Have Not, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway donated his Nobel Prize to the Cuban people. His home in San Francisco de Paula has recently been the subject of a massive preservation effort by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. At this farm, you will see his sport fishing boat, the Pilar. The Finca Vigia estate and the fishing village of Cojimar are considered the most significant locales for those interested in Hemmingway’s history.
1:30 pm ~ Afternoon free. For your final day in Havana, explore the city on your own. Please see our recommendations of where to eat and what to do in Havana for ideas. We'll help you make reservations and arrange transportation if needed.
6:30 pm ~ Classic convertibles scenic car ride. Leaving from our hotel, we will travel to our final dinner “Havana-style” in a fleet of specially selected 1950s American convertibles that will take us on a scenic route through Havana’s most beautiful neighborhoods. Don't forget your cameras!
7:30 pm ~ Dinner party at artist Kadir Lopez’s house and Habana Light Neon Studio. Celebrate with a home-cooked Cuban meal in a magical setting in the tree-filled Kohly neighborhood of Havana. In his home, gallery, and studio which includes a neon shop and studio for neon sign restoration, Kadir will discuss neon, some of the restoration projects in the city, and the efforts to restore the post-war heritage of Havana. Live music with the popular duo Nu9ve.
DAY 6: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15 | CIENFUEGOS
7:00 am ~ Breakfast at our villas.
8:45 am ~ Check out and depart for Cienfuegos. After breakfast, we leave Havana and head towards Trinidad with a stop in Cienfuegos. On this drive, we will transition from the Atlantic to the Southern Caribbean. The route will cross many sugar cane fields and agricultural farms. We’ll have a rest stop along the way, stretch and use the bathroom.
12:00 pm ~ Lunch at Villa Lagartos. We will walk to have dinner on the water at the tip of the peninsula of Punta Gorda at this charming paladar.
1:30 pm ~ Walk to Palacio del Valle. Take a stroll down Punta Gorda to see the old French houses of New Orleans style. Arrive at th former 1910’s palace of a wealthy sugar baron. The ghosts of Cuba’s past, when rich sugar barons built elaborate mansions and planted out vast estates, still seem to linger in the sultry Caribbean air, especially around the central Cuban city of Cienfuegos. Lavishly decorated with Neo-Moorish, Venetian and Gothic motifs and often compared to the Alhambra Palace in Spain, the Mudejar architectural style of this home resembles an elaborate wedding cake.
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2:30 pm ~ City tour of Cienfuegos historic core. A relatively young town in Cuban terms, Cienfuegos was founded in 1819 by French settlers from America and Haiti. As a result, there’s a decidedly French provincial town feel about it and because of Cuba’s isolation for so long, the entire town is almost as it was in its 19th-century glory days. The entire old city of Cienfuegos is a UNESCO world heritage site and the square, flanked by stunning neo-classical facades, wide streets, and a collection of palaces and public buildings, is an example of why it is considered a colonial treasure. Visits will include Central Park, the 19th Century Italian-style Tomas Terry Theater, and the Prado Promenade. We will have some free time to explore, shop in the markets, and talk to the locals.
3:30 pm ~ Private concert with Luís Alberto Barbaría.We'll meet and hear a founding member of the legendary Cuban collective Habana Abierta, guitarist, composer, producer, and arranger Luis Barbería is known for his intricate guitar work, his innovative usage of Afro-Cuban rhythms, and his reinvention of classic Cuban genres such as bolero and rumba. As a solo artist, he has produced three albums including A Full, which won best record in the fusion category in Cuba's national music awards, Cubadisco.
4:30 pm ~ Continue on to Trinidad. Drive on a small road that cuts through the Escambray Mountains and then cruises along the coast to Trinidad, a charming UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the seven cities founded by the Spaniards between 1510 and 1515. Arrival for sunset.
6:30 pm ~ Arrive at your bed & breakfast in Trinidad. We will be spending two nights at bed & breakfasts in the countryside. Trinidad has houses in their colonial streets that date back to the 1500s. Being able to stay in these homes with families who rent rooms is a more fun and personal way of getting to know the country and its people. You will have a special home-cooked meal by your host family.
7:30 pm ~ Dinner on your own in Trinidad. Explore the village's many small restaurants on your own. You won't have to walk far until you see options on all sides with traditional food and live music. Alternatively, you can ask your house for a home-cooked meal (optional--not included).
9:00 pm ~ Open-air music concert. Every night there is music under the stars at the Casa de la Música just a short walk from our houses. Like Rome’s Spanish steps crossed with a Grotto, locals and foreigners gather to sit on the stone steps or at bistro tables and listen or dance to Cuban rhythms.
DAY 7: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16th | TRINIDAD
9:00 am ~ Breakfast at our villa. Your house will cook a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, and ham.
10:00 am ~ Tour of Trinidad’s historic core with historian Nancy Benitez. This morning we will be guided through Trinidad’s Casco Histórico, the crown jewel of Cuban colonial architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This includes the Plaza Mayor, many cobblestone pedestrian streets, and museums of colonial sugar barons including the Palacio Cantero and the Sanchez Iznaga Mansion. Our specialist, Nancy Benitez, is the historian of Trinidad and is very active in the field of local restoration.
12:00 pm ~ Live concert of Tonadas Trinitarias. The Tonadas Trinitarias were founded in 1846 and presumably existed during the 1850s-1860s when the Jimenez family lived there. They are still going strong today after 176 years after there founding and are based half a block away from the corner of Gutierrez and Guaurabo streets where Lico Jimenez was born and his family lived in Trinidad. The tonada is a musical form indigenous to Trinidad de Cuba that they have kept alive and defended for over a century and a half. We'll meet Claro Valdespino, the elder member and lead percussionist of the group, as well as his son Francis de Asis Valdespino, the lead dancer and one of the singers.
1:00 pm ~ Lunch at Paladar Los Conspiradores. Located in a 1750's corner villa at the foot of the Escalinata, this private restaurant is owned by an antique collector who has furnished it as it would have been a hundred years ago featuring delicious homemade traditional country cuisine.
2:30 pm ~ Free time to explore Trinidad. Take time to wander this beautiful colonial village on your own or with your guide. There are local artist galleries, artisan kiosks, and other fun places to explore. We recommend the museums of colonial sugar barons including the Palacio Cantero and the Sanchez Iznaga Mansion. You must have your bags ready to leave for Havana promptly after lunch.
7:30 pm ~ Final dinner party at our house. Return home for a home-cooked country meal under the stars of the peaceful Trinidadian night. We'll celebrate our week together packed with new experiences and savor our final moments in Cuba.
DAY 8: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17th | SANTA CLARA
7:15 am ~ Breakfast at the villas and check out. Your house will cook a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, and ham.
8:00 am ~ Transfer to Santa Clara International Airport. We will bring people to the airport in groups according to departure times. You will be assisted through check-in and customs.
11:05 am ~ Depart from Aeropuerto Abel Santamaría (SNU). We'll all be leaving from this smaller international airport in Santa Clara to Miami to catch our connecting flights home.