Reviewed 29 Feb 2012 by Sarah Bland
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
We had so many great adventures traveling with 2 small children (age 3 and 6). We all loved the home stays (casas paticulares), meeting Cuban families with children, Havana's decaying splendour, the coco taxi's, meeting tobacco farmers, desert islands, swimming in waterfalls, Villa Guamas hotel in the lake on stilts, rowing boat trip and bird life at sunset, riding with cowboys, hermit crabs and iguanas..the list goes on!
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
We hired a car so felt completely independent which was perfect with children. Be prepared to ask for directions as there are few road signs and mind the pot holes and animals on the road! A compass would have been useful which we didn't have. We often took some breakfast items with us on long journeys as difficult to come across food shops in case the kids got hungry. The journeys take longer than you think, you have to factor in the time for getting lost but that's all part of the adventure. We felt incredibly safe with a young family in Cuba, everyone was so wonderfully welcoming and I would encourage anyone to do it with a family. Speaking Spanish is essential, lots of sun cream and go with the flow. Kids are so adaptable and they made this trip a special one as they got so much lovely attention from the locals, we received minimal hassle as well.
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
I feel local people benefited from our stay, especially when we were in casa paticulares. We left tips and presents as well as eating with the host family every night. We always gave tips to cleaning staff, tour guides etc as well. We flew to Cuba and drove around for 2 weeks so not great for the environment but we left minimal footprints whilst we were there.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
I would rate this vacation EXTREMELY highly. We had a truly amazing time and I would not hesitate to recommend this operator to anyone. The operator was incredibly efficient and gave good practical advice and a comprehensive Cuba Manual along with excellent customer service. 5*!
Reviewed 04 May 2012 by Katharine Radford
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
We pre booked our hotel with the operator whom we found through Responsible Travel. The whole trip was very easy to set up and the operator was very fast in responding to email queries and setting up phone conferences.
Excursions:
Our pre booked excursions really made the trip and were fabulous. We were so impressed with the local guides, their knowledge and openness.
Havana – very informative walking tour with amazing tour in open top car. As it was hot the tour as a little long for our 8 year old and perhaps a slightly earlier start would have helped.
Vinales – walk round the tobacco fields with alexis. Brilliant. Really informative with chance to see cigars rolled and taste pina coladas.
Vinales – St Thomas caves – very good / children enjoyed
Cayo Levisa – beach/ snorkeling –stunning beach/ reasonable snorkeling… could have stayed longer (? An overnight)
Soroa – Wizard’s walk – 6 hour personalized walk through to a local house where we had lunch. Incredibly informative and very special experience
Trinidad – Topes de Collantes. The tour we did to waterfalls/ Rambo tour through the water was excellent and the guide was very knowledgeable and very good with the children. Good lunch.
Boat trip to Iguanas – they did try to get us to Cayo Blanco and our trip was 1 day delayed because of a motor issue but, the next day we went to Cayo iguanas and loved it – a very special trip.
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
Overall our vacation was great and it was easy to travel around with our 2 children (aged 10 and 7.) We loved Cuba, the warmth and openness of the people, the beauty of the countryside / beaches/ cities and of course the music. We were very impressed with the guides on all the excursions and the format of these trips and we particularly loved staying with families in the casas.
All transfers were efficiently organized but we just had an issue that we had been led to believe that all 4 of us could stay in one room, but in many provincial hotels in Cuba this is not possible because maximum number of beds 3. This was definitely the case in Hotel Soroa and would have been an issue at Costa Sur Trinidad if a last minute upgrade to a bungalow had not been secured (we found out this could have been guaranteed if we had booked it ourselves from the UK).
Accommodation:
Hotel Sevilla in Havana - very well located hotel; friendly staff, great pool and fabulous roof restaurant with amazing views.
Casa Vinales – amazingly friendly welcome and fabulous fresh food/ juices.
Soroa Hotel – beautiful location/ friendly staff next to lovely orchid gardens and great viewpoint walk. The hotel had a huge swimming pool – it was green the day we arrived and only realized how much an issue it was when it was cleaned and suddenly became blue the next day; the hotel also had no money change for 2 days which left us seriously short of money because we had not anticipated this and were not near a town
Casa Trinidad – lovely room/ terrace and friendly welcome.
Costa Sur hotel, Trinidad – bungalow was lovely, but otherwise a very disappointing hotel. The food was very poor buffet style – a large choice, but we found very little tasty food to eat (the A La Carte restaurant we went to 1 day was better). With a few exceptions (which we tipped) the service was poor in the main restaurant , though much better in the bars. The hotel had a real issue with mosquitoes. While they sprayed the hotel, bungalow doors were left open during cleaning and we returned to find over 100 mosquitoes in the room. There were no nets for sleeping and no sprays so we killed them all (not fun). The setting on the beach is beautiful, but the beach was taken over by large groups of Cuban families the whole time and particularly at the weekend when we were staying. I understand the beaches are available for everyone, but there are signs saying that only hotel guests can use loungers etc. This was clearly not enforced by the hotel security staff and there was a day it was very hard to find somewhere to sit! In retrospect I would select a 1 day visit to the beach in Trinidad and would have selected my beach stay elsewhere (? Cayo levisa)
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Tipping local guides/ workers is really important and very much appreciated.
Travel:
We traveled by public transport (bus) and this worked really well for us and was definitely the way to travel between the main towns for us and helped reduce our impact on the environment. In particular the Transtour buses worked very well in that they picked up from a hotel and dropped off at a hotel (it was even possible to go from Vinales to Trinidad by passing the centre of Havana which we were not aware of). Time was lost while drivers took their breaks at Cubanacan service stations but otherwise worked fine.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
Excellent. The main issue related to the accommodation and hopefully the operator and the local agent will ensure this does not affect families in the future.
Read the operator's response here:
For a family with 2 children most Cuban hotels can not provide 4 beds in one room, the maximum is 3 single beds. When the children are too young to be on their own in a separate hotel room, the solution is to stay in homestays / casas particulares. Some homestays have 2 kingsize beds in one room and when the children are really small this is the perfect solution. What you will find more often are homestays with 2 rooms next to each other in the same house, sometimes connected by a door, so this could also serve. A homestay is anyway a more safe and secure environment for parents with small childen then a hotel in case you have to leave small children in another room. With future bookings by families with 2 or more small children we will check all room options with the families what will fit best.
At the Costa Sur Trinidad beach resort the solution for a family with 2 or more children is to stay in a bungalow. It turned out that the bungalows can not be booked by a Cuban operator and that they are reserved exclusively for bookings via the internet. With this kowledge we can anticipate on this situation with future bookings. Although the beach is not at the front of your door, an extra argument for staying in a homestay is that the cooking at the homestays is usually much tastier then the food in the all-inclusive resorts of 3 to 4 stars.
Then another issue mentioned above: in Cuba you will find more and more Cuban “tourists” esp. in the weekends visiting pools of a hotel and beach resorts. They have paid for a day access to the pool or beach. The volume of the speakers usually goes up, there is more drinking and dancing, so it makes it very lively with Cuban ambiance and if you like that it is perfect. When you look for a really quiet time at a swimming pool or at the beach you have to go to the higher 4 star and 5 star all-inclusive beach resorts and/or have your own car as a part of a self drive itinerary and find your own wild and quiet beach. There are plenty of those in Cuba and you can stay either in lovely homestays, boutique hotels and/or beach resorts.
We appreciate the extensive feedback we have received from this family on all issues as mentioned above and other issues.
Reviewed 13 Jul 2011 by Tracy Edward
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
Havana. The crumbling architectural splendour is amazing. Will be fascinating to see how/if things change politically over the next few years.
2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?
Make sure you have all the toiletries you need as such things are difficult to purchase in Cuba and carry some toilet roll with you at all times. Don't expect accommodation to be of a similar standard to the UK and expect to be harassed by people offering taxis, horses, accommodation etc.
3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?
Definitely. We used Cuban pesos and stayed and ate in a casa particular. Also, we avoided internal flights and travelled by taxi as well as using local guides on excursions.
4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?
A real eye-opener. Felt like we actually got a glimpse of what REAL Cuban life is like - the good and the bad aspects. Saw outstanding natural beauty and spoke to (and danced with!) local people who were happy to answer our questions. Overall a wonderful experience, plenty of food for thought which is what we, as a family, like to get from our vacation.
Read the operator's response here:
On Cuba travelers can be approached for all kind of services by street vendors, the more Spanish you speak the less it may disturb. Cubans like to joke, so be humurous with them. Treat these families with respect - they need to make a living as well - and it wont affect your day. You can also use turn arounds and start asking questions and in this way have sometimes even very interesting conversations that gives a good feeling to both parties.
