Despite everything, the Caribbean's most impressive island offers one of the world's great travel experiences, from its music and culture to Havana and its other cities, as well as beaches and nature.

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In Cuba, Go West, to Pinar del Río & Viñales

  marcin jucha For visitors to Havana, one of the most popular day and overnights trips besides colonial wonder Trinidad is a visit to the far west of Cuba, the mostly rural province of Pinar del Río (whose locals, by the way, have over the years endured much teasing by other Cubans as guajiros – "country-bumpkin" peasants – though at least these days inaccurately, as far as I’ve been able to tell).  It’s home to not only the eponymous city – which makes for a charming visit in its own…

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Started by José Balido
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The colonial (and beachy) charms of Trinidad

When I started visiting one of Cuba’s earliest settlements (founded in 1514), down in the central south coast some five or so hours from Havana, in the late 1990s, Trinidad was a sleepy little colonial gem in the rough – as in, fairly shabby like most other Cuban towns, seemingly trapped in amber, even smaller feeling than its population of a little over 70,000. The colonial quarter was all about cobblestone streets lined with those retro old U.S. cars parked in front of low-slung,…

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Started by José Balido
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Welcome to Santiago de Cuba, the country's second city

When it comes to cities in Cuba, capital Havana does hog a disproportionate share of the attention – and it’s not hard to understand why. But at the southeastern tip of this island country, 540 miles (870 kilometres) from the capital, is another which amply deserves to be part of any visit to Cuba. One of the first of many settlements in the Americas to be named after mother country Spain’s revered pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela, the bayside port of Santiago de Cuba is this country’s…

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Started by Tripatini
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  • José Balido January 16, 2011 at 5:20am

    You're right, Anil, journalists have always been exempt from restrictions on travel to Cuba, but if you read the Treasury Dep't. OFAC regulations on their Web site, it has to be a full-time journalist:


    "...journalism by journalists regularly employed in that capacity by a news reporting organization, including supporting broadcast or technical personnel..."

    Here are the current U.S. guidelines for travel to Cuba; this document will likely change in the next several weeks as these new changes are implemented.

  • Anil January 16, 2011 at 3:20am
    I thought that journalists were already exempt along with persons of cuban descent who have family ties in the island ? I'm sure Ed or Joe can shed some light into this ?
  • Lynn Rosen January 15, 2011 at 11:05pm
    About time. How can we lobby to include journalists alongside universities and religious groups? Seems logical.
  • Anil January 15, 2011 at 2:12pm

    Ed: Just read about it in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12197939

     

    So encouraging.  I think allowing Universities is a good step. Maybe alums ? Who will howl ? Whomever has much to lose ?

  • Ed Wetschler January 15, 2011 at 1:44am
    Obama announces loosening of restrictions on travel to Cuba.http://yhoo.it/eogiy0  Who will benefit? Who will howl?


  • Tripatini January 1, 2011 at 1:20am
    A final interesting note for 2010: iconic Havana tourism stalwart the Hotel Nacional may be a little grubby around the edges but is still going pretty strong as it marks its 80th anniversary this week: http://bit.ly/hGrHSH.
  • David Paul Appell October 29, 2010 at 9:14pm
    For those who read Spanish, check out CubaEnLinea.net, with lots of great forums for:

    Cuban art
    Cuban music
    "Cubanisms"
    Cuban humor
  • The Penguin October 7, 2010 at 11:00pm
    Hello, I just joined this group. Looks like a nice one.
  • Sam Scribe September 29, 2010 at 8:33pm
    I don't know this group's members (I'm new), but I'll assume that if you're in this group, you favor lifting the embargo. However, "More than half of the members [of the House Foreign Affairs Committee] received contributions from the pro-embargo anti-travel U.S.-Cuba Democracy PAC," reports John McAuliff, director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development.
    That's not a good sign.
    When will this embargo finally end?
  • Northeast News August 30, 2010 at 5:00am
    LEASE LAND IN CUBA

    Last week I asked, "What next?" Now I just saw the answer to my question:

    http://s.marketwatch.com/media/swf/main.swf
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