Despite increasing hardships for locals, 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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Havana´s gracious Vedado district

 Ivan2010 Though mostly shabby and decrepit except for its UNESCO World Heritage colonial core, Habana Vieja, being restored for the tourism trade with the help of the Spanish government, the European Union, and other international donors, the capital of Cuba is truly one of the more remarkable cities in all the world, as millions of new visitors have been discovering each year since the régime started increasingly opening up the island to visitors in the years following the 1991 collapse of…

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Started by Iberia Airlines
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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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  • Anil January 18, 2011 at 1:01am
    Lynn: Do also contact your College and see if they have any immediate plans ? As an alum you can help organize tour to Cuba on behalf of the College :)
  • Lynn Rosen January 16, 2011 at 8:37am
    Thanks, Jose, for this document. Note it was revised in 2004 and, as you suggest, will likely change within the next while. Might a travel writer's organization apply for permission to travel to Cuba with a group under these new possible provsios?
  • 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.
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