Archive for the ‘Travel Questions’ Category

Havanatur prepares for American Travelers to Cuba

  There’s been a quiet but relentless transformation in the Cuba Travel sector over the past 2 years. Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism, better known via the acronym MINTUR, has slowly limited access to the U.S market by prohibiting all national service providers from selling to Americans. That is, besides Havanatur. Havanatur is a wholly owned […]

Tripadvisor Gives Cuban Resort Worlds Best Status

  Vacation review giant Tripadvisor today announced the world’s highest ranked all-inclusive resort. What makes the accolade so important is not only that it’s the Cayo Santa Maria Royalton Hotel but, that the American company finally decided to give Cuban customer service a thumbs up and the prestigious title it deserves.The Cayo Santa Maria Royalton […]

Cuba Travel Network & Fastbooking cease trading

Not a surprise to many in the travel industry, Fastbooking and its Cuban branded Cuba Travel Network have ceased trading earlier this week. Attempts to contact Fastbooking for comment at both their New York and Paris offices have proved unsuccessful. It is unclear why Fastbooking – Cuba Travel Network will no longer provide Hotel Reservations […]

Cuba Car Rental companies to use locally manufactured cars

    Every year Cuba’s Ministry of tourism spends upwards of $25million on the renovation of its Cuban Car Rental fleets. However, each year the new cars purchased are often plagued with typical mechanical problems which render portions of the fleet unserviceable until spare parts can be delivered. A recent accord signed in mid 2013 […]

Cuba Hotel Reservation | Cuba eliminates hotel prepayments

    For over two decades Cuba has been one of the worlds few destinations where in order to receive a hotel confirmation, one had to prepay the whole stay, days, weeks or months in advance. Some visitors having prepaid thousands for a hotel stay in Cuba six months or more in advance. But not […]

Cuba Travel Network | against all odds

      A lot can happen in a decade, both in politics and business. During my initial visit to Cuba, Tour & Marketing was flying high, its staff a picture of happiness and success. After talking with Elba Castillo, their sales manager and Eddie Lubbers hotel sales manager, about the company’s internet travel business, […]

Getting out of Cuba | Marriage instead of a raft?

  Perversely, as Cuba´s tourism numbers increase, so do the opportunities for Cubans to exit the island. You see, while tourists wander around Old Havana snapping shots of decaying buildings, the Cubans sat in them are scheming about how to get out of the country. Some are courageous enough take to rafts to cross the […]

Cuba set to unify its whole travel sector

  Between the 1970´s and early 1990´s the Cuban government had just one tourism travel agency called INTUR. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, with a national eye on increasing tourism revenue, the then president, Fidel Castro, allowed various entities to sprout into life, each spearheaded by one ministry or another vying to […]

Cuba People to People | Marco Rubio wake up call to Obama Administration

  This all started with Senator Marco Rubio who recently slammed the Obama administrations travel openings in the United States senate. Here is an excerpt of his floor speech:   “When I look at this stuff, you know what I want to say? Come on, man! This is about promoting democracy and freedom in Cuba? […]

Cuba Import Tax Hike | Biting the hand that feeds

    In our recent article concerning the introduction, then slow winding back of liberties in Cuba, we offered evidence that Raul Castro was simply opening the door (again) due to the Pope´s visit. Much like his brother did a decade earlier. The door snapped shut about 1 year after the Pope had left in […]

Sol Melia prohibits internet use by Cubans in its Cuban Hotels

In an unusual twist right out of a badly written novel, Sol Melia denied access to the internet on camera to two Cuban citizens this past Sunday. In itself a remarkable decision by the Spanish chain with more hotels in Cuba than any other. The video shows a Melia employee alleging that both Etecsa and […]

Venezuela’s Vergatario Cellphone to turn bytes into digital remittances for Cuba

A termination fee is the charge imposed by telecommunications operators to allow a call to end on their network and the receiving person’s handset or ground line. These fees are generally higher when ending on a cell phone network. Cuba charges one of the highest rates in the world to allow people outside Cuba to […]

Cuba – Obama announces return of Clinton´s 1999 policy on Cuba

Time Magazine from 1999 during the Clinton era along with Obama´s 2009 Clinton era Cuba policy…”we´re going to travel like it was 1999″   The White House announced Monday that it is abandoning long-standing restrictions on family travel, remittances and gifts to Cuba, and also is taking steps to open up telecommunications with the island, […]

Travel advice and questions answered by Cuba Experts

Looking for difficult de find answers to questions about: Cuba Travel, Hotels, Car Hire, Visa issues, distances, best modes of transport, Restaurants, Discos, and Beaches? Basically anything you need to know before traveling! Answers will be provided by specialists both in Cuba and outside of Cuba who have a profound knowledge of the island. Try […]

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