Felicidades!
New Year’s celebration HABANA STYLE!
ITINERARY
December 28, 2018- January 02, 2019
Please note that this itinerary will continue to evolve and improve until your arrival in Cuba.
DAY 1, Friday December 28
Travel and arrivals during day.
TBD ~ Check into your flight to Havana
It is important to arrive at least two hours before your flight departure because checking into flights to Cuba is slower and requires more paperwork than flying to other places. Follow the instructions that your airline has provided you. Please hold onto your airplane ticket the whole time you are in Cuba because it has a stamp that serves as your medical insurance. It is also important to hold onto your Cuban visa card until you depart Cuba.
TBD ~ Meet at Havana International Airport
José Martí International Airport, Terminal 2 or 3 depending on the airline, Los Boyeros
Flights from your home cities will take you on the most direct path possible to Havana’s airport. You will be greeted by your guide at the arrival exit of the airport. We will gather outside the airport in groups according to arrival times and transfer to our accomodations in our shuttles.
TBD ~Transfer to Havana
During the drive our travel staff will introduce themselves and give you some important information about Havana. Brief stop in Plaza de la Revolución to see ministries, monument to José Marti, and the colossal famous image of Che Guevara.
TBD ~ Arrive at our accommodations and check-in to your rooms
We will be staying in this bed & breakfast located in the area of greatest cultural activity in the central neighborhood of Vedado. Hotel is surrounded by theaters, restaurants, bars, jazz clubs, hotels and cafés and only four blocks from the “Malecón habanero,” known as the sofa of Havana.
Optional neighborhood orientation walking tour
After settling into our rooms and before going to dinner, those who are interested can get acquainted with our immediate surroundings.
7:30 pm ~ Welcome dinner at Paladar San Cristobal
San Rafael #469 e/ Lealtad y Campanario, Centro Habana, 7-860-1705
Located in an eclectic bottom-floor home of an early 20th century mansion in Centro Habana, this is the restaurant that most dignitaries, including the Obamas, visit first when they come to Cuba.
9:30 pm ~ Havana night activity
After dinner, we can attend a music or dance performance, to be determined depending on what is happening in the city that night. Such activities could include the National Ballet, National Contemporary Dance Company, jazz concerts, salsa clubs, Tropicana, drag shows, and other attractions of Havana’s non-stop nightlife. In addition to attending events, it is an opportunity for night photography (optional – transportation and entry cost not included).
DAY 2, Saturday December 29| OLD HAVANA
8:30 am ~ Breakfast at our accommodations
Your hotel chef will fix a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, and eggs.
11:30 am ~ Old Havana:
Cuban guide will give us a history of the city’s settlement. We’ll then continue to the Plaza de la Catedral where we will make a stop at the Taller Experimental de Grafica. Yamilys Brito, director of the Taller, will give us a little tour, and people can buy inexpensive prints produced by the resident artists.
12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Doña Eutimia
Callejón del Chorro #60-C, Plaza de la Catedrál, Habana Vieja, 7-801-3332
Doña Eutimia is one of Cuba’s oldest favorites. This little paladar, nestled in the alley next to the Taller de Gráfica, is just off of the Cathedral Square. The house specialty is "ropa vieja," (old clothes) a Cuban classic made of shredded lamb.
2:00 pm ~ Old Havana: historic plazas and contemporary art centers
Taller Experimental de Gráfica, Callejón del Chorro, Habana Vieja
Centro Wilfredo Lam, Calle San Ignacio 22, Habana Vieja
We continue our exploration of Old Havana with a visit to the collective graphic arts workshop, Taller Experimental 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 can work on printmaking, a tradition in Cuba liked to the printing of the ornate cigar box labels. This is a good place to purchase original and affordable artwork. We’ll then see an exhibition at the Wilfredo Lam Center.
4:30 pm ~ Return to our accommodations for leisure time
Time to relax, explore on your own, connect to WiFi, recharge your batteries, and take a siesta.
8:30 pm ~ Dinner at Rio Mar
Calle 13 #406 e/ F y G, El Vedado, 7-832-4894
10:30 pm ~ Havana at night
We will crawl around the old City and Vedado to find interesting watering holes and music venues that will give you the Havana glamour and grit experience.
DAY 3, Sunday December 30| HAVANA
8:00 am ~ Breakfast at our accommodations
Your house chef will fix a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, and eggs.
11:00 am ~ Visit to private vintage car restoration company
This visit will help you understand how those 60 year old American cars can still glide throght the city. You will also learn about the new budding entrepreneurial spirit taking over Cuba.
12:00 pm ~ Lunch at Finca Marta
Caimitos, Artemisa
This small experimental agro-ecological farm 15 miles southeast of Havana aims to demonstrate that farms focused on biodiversity and intensive management can thrive in a rapidly changing economy by producing high quality products without the need for state-run distribution. Founded in 2012 by the renowned Cuban agronomist Dr. Fernando Funes-Monzote, La Finca Marta serves many of Havana’s restaurants, schools, and nursing homes. Recent political reforms like legalizing direct sales and the emergence of private food and transportation cooperatives are allowing new models of privatized agriculture and culinary development. We'll enjoy a farm-to-table lunch and then a tour of the farm led by Dr. Monzote.
3:00 pm ~ Visit to the homes of Afro-Cuban spiritual leaders with Elias Asseff
Meet in Parque Trillo, Calles Hospital y San Rafael, Centro Habana, 5-295-9799
Meet Afro-Cuban religious practitioners in this authentic and rare invitation to go inside the homes of a “palero” (Palo del Monte) and a “babalawo” (Santería). As sacred Congo and Nigerian worldviews, respectively, combined with Catholicism, new belief systems emerged in Colonial Cuba. Members of these religious traditions will share their altars that are made to communicate with the dead, the saints, and a pantheon of African deities. The journey will take place in Cayo Hueso, beginning in Parque Trillo and ending at the Callejón de Hamel. This is an opportunity to discuss religious practices that continue to have great importance in Cuban culture. In fact, you have seen traces of it everywhere since your arrival.
4:30 pm ~ Lecture with Marc Frank on social, economic, political situation of Cuba (at REX Duplex Theater)
Frank has lived in and reported on Cuban politics and culture for Reuters for more than 30 years. His book, Cuban Revelations, is on your reading list.
7:00 pm ~ Dinner at Paladar El Cocinero
Calle 26 entre Calle 11 y 13, Vedado, 7-832-2355
El Cocinero (“The Cook”) is just as much about the Havana arts scene as it is about food. Built into the same building as the Cuban Art Factory, this paladar pushes the limits of private industry and government cooperation in an atmosphere offering landmark views and enthusiasm for a variety of art media. The restaurant makes use of half of a 100-year old, and long abandoned, cooking oil factory along the Almendares River between the Vedado and Miramar neighborhoods.
8:30 pm ~ La Fábrica de Arte Cubano
Calle 26 entre Calle 11 y 13, Vedado, 5-565-2621
The Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC) is a cultural center located in a former oil factory that has been transformed into a vast space for art and music. It attracts young Cubans, artists and others eager to enjoy the scene, and presages what the future might look like for Havana as a cosmopolitan trend-setting cultural magnet in Latin America.
DAY 4, Monday December 31| CAPITOLIO NEIGHBORHOOD
8:30 am ~ Breakfast at our accommodations
Your hotel chef will fix a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, and eggs.
10:00 am ~ Visit the Rex Duplex Theater and Neon Center
Enter the Boulevard San Rafael, a Cuban shopping district that is in process of beautification partly through the restoration of vintage neon signs that survived the Revolution. This boulevard is anchored by the REX Duplex Theatre, a new neon and media center that is being created by Cuban artist Kadir Lopez Nieves and our lead guide Adolfo Nodal. It was built in 1938 and then expanded in 1949 to become Cuba’s first multiplex with two separate film theaters connected by a grand lobby. The project will provide an exposition of vintage Havana neon signs and new neon art, neon workshops and offices, a design studio, and a media center in keeping with its original film function to the community. The center will become Cuba’s premiere neon institution and will lead the movement to bring back sustainable outdoor commercial and civic lighting to the country. We will see a short film and hear a short presentation on the project.
12:00 pm ~ Lunch at Arte Corte
Arte Corte, Aguiar 10 e/ Peña Pobre y Monserrate, La Habana Vieja
We’ll continue on to the Plazuela del Santo Angel, an area experiencing significant renovation of the houses and emerging entrepreneurship. This new energy is fostered in part by the work of the famous barber “Papito.” He has created a private interactive museum where the visitors, while comfortably seated in a hundred year-old chair, awaits their turn, where you may view antique scissors, razors, mirrors, vials, shaving brushes, combs, and advertisements, along with original paintings and drawings by Cuban artists, all focusing on the topic of hairdressing. With support of the City Historian’s Office, Papito’s cultural project employs hundreds of Cubans and has brought together barbers, hairdressers, models, artists and historians to teach, organize exhibitions, shows and art festivals including Barber’s and Hairdresser’s Day, a celebration that converts Old Havana’s Plaza Vieja into a huge outdoor salon. Arte Corte doubles as a fashion school and the setting for “Habáname” (Havana-me), a hairstyle show that exhibits creative and fantasy coiffures inspired by emblematic sites and monuments of the city. Arte Corte was a destination of Obama’s historic visit to Havana in 2016. We will get a tour of the project and a chance to meet and talk with Papito (Gilberto Valladeres). We’ll also have lunch at their restaurant El Figaro.
2:30 pm ~ Take a walk around the Parque Central area. You can see the city getting ready for Cub’a most fun holiday event which starts tonight at midnight.
4:30 pm ~ Return to our accommodations for dinner and evening to explore on your own
Relax, connect to WiFi, or explore the city on your own. We’ll recommend options and make reservations at the best restaurants in town such as Café La Esquina, Los Mercaderes, Vista al Mar, Le Chansonnier, El Atelier, La Moraleja and El Mediterraneo (optional – cost not included).
9:00 pm ~ Late night dinner and New Year’s Eve Celeberation. This event will be determined by the whole group. There are a variety of options (On your own. Tonight’s event costs are not included in your trip cost)
DAY 5, Tuesday January 01| CENTRO HABANA
8:00 am ~ Breakfast at our accommodations
Your house chef will fix a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, and eggs.
11:00 am ~ Visit to the homes of Afro-Cuban spiritual leaders with Elias Asseff
Meet in Parque Trillo, Calles Hospital y San Rafael, Centro Habana, 5-295-9799
Meet Afro-Cuban religious practitioners in this authentic and rare invitation to go inside the homes of a “palero” (Palo del Monte) and a “babalawo” (Santería). As sacred Congo and Nigerian worldviews, respectively, combined with Catholicism, new belief systems emerged in Colonial Cuba. Members of these religious traditions will share their altars that are made to communicate with the dead, the saints, and a pantheon of African deities. The journey will take place in Cayo Hueso, beginning in Parque Trillo and ending at the Callejón de Hamel. This is an opportunity to discuss religious practices that continue to have great importance in Cuban culture. In fact, you have seen traces of it everywhere since your arrival.
12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Paladar La Guarida
Concordia. No. 418 e/ Gervasio y Escobar, Centro Habana
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 for a classic scene from Cuba’s most iconic film, “Fresa y Chocolate” (on your film list), La Guarida was the first upscale paladar to gain international fame. It remains a landmark on the Cuban culinary scene, against which all others are measured. Make sure to stop on the first floor and wander a bit for some amazing photos.
2:30 pm ~ This afternoon is free for you to pursue your own walking tour or any special interest or go back to any of our previous stops.
4:30 pm ~ Leisure time
Relax, connect to WiFi, or explore the city on your own.
6:00 pm ~ Final Dinner at Hotel Sevilla
Trocadero 55 e Prado y Zulueta Habana, 7-860-8582, 5-555-5148
Have dinner in the top floor of one of Havana’s architecturally most charming hotels. Originally a Biltmore hotel, this classy ballroom is one of the only government managed restaurants in Cuba that can claim to have the best food, service, live music, an old Havana atmosphere on the island.
10:00 PM ~ Late night music clubs recommendation: Jazz at the Jazz Café
For those of you who like late night music, we’ll walk to one of today’s greatest jazz nightclubs, which is just down the street from our B&B (optional--entry not included).
DAY 6, Wednesday December 02, 2019, APRIL 16
8:00 am ~ Breakfast at our accommodations
Your hotel chef will fix a traditional Cuban breakfast which usually includes café con leche, freshly squeezed tropical juice, fresh fruit, bread, cheese, and eggs.
10:00 am ~ Check out of our accommodations and load bus
10:15 am ~ Shopping at Mercado San José Artisan and browse Old Havana
Ave. del Puerto, Havana, Cuba
Depending on your flight schedule, there will be free time in our final day to explore a few final places in Havana that haven’t been scheduled yet. We recommend taking you to the artisan market to shop for Cuban crafts and then to browse the old town freely. Lunch is on your own, but we will recommend good restaurants in the area. Our vans are also available to take you to other parts of the city if desired. IMPORTANT: Please make sure to meet up on time to go to the airport without delays.
TBD am ~ Transfer to José Martí International Airport
José Martí International Airport, Los Boyeros, Havana
Depending on your departure time, we will transfer you to the Havana Airport three hours before take off. We will assist you through check in and customs to make sure that you are well on your way home.