Experience the best Havana has to offer.  You are licensed to travel by the U.S. Treasury Department in the "support for the Cuban people" category. Trip activities are especially geared toward the interests of individual participants. You may wander alone, stay with your friends, or join our group excursions. It’s up to you!

Upcoming Trips

After the January 2024 trip, the next group trip will be April 1-April 8 or 9, 2024 (7 or 8 nights). We will purchase a group rate from Tallahassee to Havana. But you can also meet up with our connecting flight in Miami. We usually fly American airlines.

You must have a valid passport to travel, with at least six months left before the expiration date on it. You will need a visa before you leave the U.S. ($88); we will purchase this for you as part of our services.

The trip cost includes in-country airport transfers, a city tour, three other tours (an all-day trip to Soraya to visit an organic farm and eat lunch; a half-day trip to Santa Maria Beach with an all-inclusive hotel); a half-day tour to Fusterlandia (an artist’s tile work all over the streets of a small village); a guide and translator; morning & evening gatherings for outings; and accommodations in the neighborhood of Vedado (near the Habana Libre hotel, and within walking distance of the Hotel Nacional).

You can choose to stay with a Cuban family, or rent a family-owned space where there would be no family interaction. The latter costs more than the former. Please take a look at the photos in the Gallery section of this website to see what the accommodations are like.

Contact jans-trips@comcast.net for a sign-up sheet, or for more information on budget, housing, tours, etc.

Stay with Cuban Families

You will stay with families and travel under the category of travel “Support for the Cuban People.” We will arrange accommodations for you, all within walking distance of each other in a neighborhood called Vedado.  Our group members have found that staying with families is better than staying in the hotels in the area; they come with maid service (cleaning) and sometimes with breakfast (if your host or hostess offers it, which many do).  Everyone gets at least a lockable private bedroom (usually with a queen bed but sometimes two twins) and bath, with AC.  You are welcome into the kitchens and living rooms, and some of the families will make your breakfast (or just coffee) for a small charge.  The bedrooms usually have doors directly to the outside so you can come and go without going through family space.  Some do not, in which case you enter by the front door of the building (with your own key).  Buildings do not have working elevators; you must go up and down stairs.  Cubans are very friendly and are willing to help you in any way they can; in fact, some people in my groups still correspond with their Cuban families.

Group Leader, Jan DeCosmo

Ms. Jan DeCosmo, Ph.D., is retired Professor of Humanities in the Department of Visual Arts, Humanities & Theatre at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.  She is director of Jan’s Gallery and the Caribbean Center of Southside Tallahassee.  

Group members are not going as tourists, as there is no tourism allowed to travel to Cuba because of the 1962 U.S. Embargo against Cuba . Passengers may travel legally if they fall under 12 categories identified by the Office of Foreign Assets Control – US Treasury Department. Travelers will be going for full-time activities under the category and are asked to keep travel records for five (5) years. The category we travel under is "Support for the Cuban People." 

Activities that would qualify you for this category include:  staying with a Cuban family; learning Spanish; speaking with and/or interviewing Cubans from all walks of life; taking cooking, dance, art, music or any other type of lesson from a Cuban; visiting museums, etc.  The point is to spend your money NOT at government-run hotels and enterprises offering “touristy” things, but in ways that directly benefit the Cuban people.