Displaying items by tag: travel

In this article you will find useful tips not only to spend less money in your next trip to Cuba, but also to do things more intelligently and, sure, to make many things easier. The final goal of this writing is to help you to make your life in Cuba more handy.

These tips are not suitable for a completely inexperienced traveler. If you will visit Cuba for the first time, this article is probably not for you, even if you can still apply some tips. But in this case, you should better first familiarize yourself with the country and the place, then begin consider to make things better. But let's go to the tips!

Despite the travel limitations imposed by the U.S. government, there has been a 54 percent increase in the number of visitors from the United States during the first six months of this year. A lot of people have skirted the travel restrictions by first going to countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, the Bahamas or Jamaica, and then on to Cuba.

According to the Ministry of Cuban Tourism 88,996 Americans visited Cuba between January 1, 2015 and July 26, 2015. This is without counting the 164,368 Cuban Americans who traveled to the island during the same period of time. In 2014 only 57,768 visitors came from the U.S. It is predicted that by the end of 2015 almost four million tourists will have visited Cuba with around 150, 000 coming from the U.S. Indeed the country is becoming more and more popular due the improved relations with the U.S. and the fact that it is safe for Americans to travel there.

Furthermore, it is widely believed that many of the tourists who traditionally visit Cancún, the Mayan Riviera, the Dominical Republic or the Bahamas will now visit Cuba instead.

Tourism is one of the mainstays of the Cuban economy and it creates thousands of jobs for the Cuban people in the hotel industry. Taxis, private home stays(casas particulares) and paladares (small restaurants) also benefit greatly from the increase in tourism.

If you are interested in visiting the real Cuba for both short and long-term stays, then look into one of our Exploratory Tours in conjunction with Discover Cuba.

This is one of the first questions people from the U.S. will ask when they think about traveling to Cuba. When Cuba comes to mind many have an image of a sinister communist state where you can be detained for just looking at someone the wrong way. Well, that is not the case. The country and its people beckon tourists form the U.S. and will do to everything to make them feel at home. When the embargo is dropped visitors have more access to the country and be even more welcome.

Many Americans have a general fear of Latin America due to the way the region has been depicted in movies and by the media. They think Latin America is a place of constant turmoil, full of bandidos and revolution after revolution. Granted there are certain pockets of Mexico, Northern Central America (El Salvador and Honduras), Venezuela and Colombia which are dangerous, but Cuba is probably the safest country in Latin America for tourists. For example, if a tourist is robbed or assaulted in Cuba the person committing the crime is subject to a double jail sentence. So if robbery carries a five year term, a person caught perpetrating a a crime against a tourist will get ten years behind bars. Other countries in the region should follow this example to protect tourists.