Cultural Island Travel - Travel To Cuba LegallyReviews of culturalislandtravel.com

We loved our experience with Cultural Island Travel! The planning was seamless with helpful information at every phase. The itinerary was outstanding -- a wonderful mix of tours, and activities. But it was the guides themselves that made this such a fantastic week. Their warmth, insights, and amazing attention to detail were amazing! We hope to return!

We had a great trip to Cuba with Cultural Island Travel in January 2025. Traveling to Cuba for U.S. Citizens is tricky, but Shabi and her team did a great job of arranging our visas and letting us know what to expect. Getting to Cuba and through immigration turned out to be easy. We signed up for a group tour, but the two of us were the only ones to join so we had a tour to ourselves. Our guide, Irma, was wonderful. She was with us the entire time and took great care of us. She coordinated our tours and local guides and was flexible when we needed to adjust our itinerary. In Havana we stayed at a very nice B&B in the heart of old Havana, hosted by Yare who cooked us breakfast and arranged for nighttime transportation. During the day we were driven around in an air-conditioned classic car. Attractions included driving and walking tours of Havana, Trinidad, and Cienfuegos, performances by an acapella choir and a dance/percussion troupe, hiking to a waterfall, as well as many other activities. They kept us busy! Lunches were in small, locally run restaurants and were uniformly excellent. Evening meals and entertainment were not included in the tour price, but CIT made recommendations and reservations and arranged transportation to the venues when needed. The meals we had in Havana were all excellent. In summary, although Cuba is suffering economic hardships, we found the Cuban people to be warm and welcoming, especially the CIT guides and helpers. We learned a lot and enjoyed our time in Cuba. We recommend visiting Cuba and enthusiastically recommend Cultural Island Travel.

Our trip in early December was fantastic! All travel details were speedily handled by Teresa. The B&B was exceptional, with art and antiques throughout the house. Lubechenko provided outstanding service with delicious daily breakfasts. While waiting for our daily guide and driver, we could sit out in the garden area complete with 2 fountains, trees and plants. Our guide Dariel, friendly and energetic, acted as translator when needed, and was very knowledgeable about the historic and educational sites we visited, which included the Christ statue of Havana, and a walking tour of old Havana. Dariel kept up a running commentary as our driver Carlos expertly drove us between wide and narrow streets. We periodically observed local Cubans lining up for bakery items and long lines of cars waiting for gas. We explored a local agricultural market and the San Jose craft market. A stop was made at Fusterlandia, the home, gallery and mosaic art neighborhood of Jose Fuster. We were able to briefly meet the artist and take photos. Later we had a ride around the city in a classic convertible car. Another day we enjoyed a drive to the countryside to Las Terrazas, where we had a tasty lunch at El Campesino. Back in the city, a private guide took us through the Cuban Art Museum, and we experienced a delightful Afro-Cuban concert in a private artist's home. Our itinerary included riding in a Tok-Tok which was fun. We visited the home and grounds of Ernest Hemingway who lived in Havana for over 20 years, while writing books and pursuing his passions of sailing and deep-sea fishing. Back in the city we also visited one of the bar/restaurants that Hemingway spent time at, heard some music, and took photos with his statue. Our special requests included visiting a synagogue, a visit with a former Cuban physician about their health system, a drive by the British Embassy (not allowed to get too close!), and finally a brief visit with guide Dariel's mother at her home for a welcoming cup of tea. What a special way to end an amazing trip! We strongly recommend using Cultural Island Travel to visit Cuba, and thoroughly enjoyed our time with Dariel and Carlos. Definitely a 5-star experience!

We recently completed an 8 day family trip to Cuba with Cultural Island Travel ("CIT"). There are some challenges with travel to Cuba. The combination of OFAC regulations and Cuban law make simple monetary transactions complicated. No US credit cards allowed. Some locations do not even accept Cuban pesos- you need a Cuban Credit card. There were rolling blackouts in Trinidad and other locations outside Havana. Poverty and shortages of food and basic goods is prevalent throughout the country. Many buildings are in extreme disrepair leaving you to wonder how they remain standing. All that said the positives of this travel adventure far outweigh the negatives and make this a wonderful travel destination. 1- The Cuban people are warm, inviting, interested and interesting. Interactions with them were uniformly positive. 2- While many buildings are in disrepair many more have been renovated and are in excellent shape. Cuba has a rich heritage and its wonderful to experience. 3- Havana, Trinidad and other locations are easily accessible. Not overrun by tourists. Tourists are welcomed (cf Barcelona, Venice and many other European locations) 4. CIT is a first rate Travel company. Our booking agent Teresa was exceptional. She provided concise and accurate information regarding the trip, options, expenses and made the booking process seamless. 5- Our local guide Ivette was a gem. She was friendly, flexible, knowledgeable and a joy to be around. She was with us the entire 8 days and was willing to make last minute changes to the itinerary and to answer our never ending stream of historical, tourist and personal questions. 6 - Our driver Manuel was also excellent. Friendly and most importantly a very safe driver. We also enjoyed our Trinidad tour with local guide Rafael. I highly recommend you add Cuba to your bucket list travel adventure locations and consider utilizing CIT. To reiterate we thought CIT was excellent!

Our 8-day trip, led by the beautiful and knowledgeable tour guide Irma Glez Salanueva, was steeped in Mexican history and culture, fine food and just plain fun. We had expertly guided tours of the Mayan temples of Teotihuacan and the ancient treasures of the Museum of Anthropology. We took an active part in the Day of the Dead festivities in the streets of San Miguel de Allende and in the private home of a Mexico City family. For fun and excitement, we had an ATV tour of Tepotztian and a serenaded cruise in Lake Xochimilco. From vineyards to local markets to fine dining, we sampled the full flavor of the Mexican experience. If you want a finely curated and thoughtfully organized vacation adventure, I highly recommend Irma and Cultural Island Travel.

Just returned from my trip to Cuba. CIT set up everything for the trip, which made the trip perfect. Cuba is a very safe country to visit. The people are very friendly and welcoming. Would highly recommend booking a trip to Cuba through Cultural Island Travel.

I just returned from the most amazing trip to Mexico with CIT. This was my fourth trip with Cultural Island Travels’ amazing and wonderful Irma. In the past four years, I have traveled with CIT to Cuba twice, to Oaxaca, Mexico once and most recently did the Day of the Dead tour. We visited Mexico City and four magical towns…Coyocan, San Miguel de Allende, Tepotzlan and Tequisquiapan. Some highlights were the pyramids at Teotihuacan, Boat ride through the canals at Xochimilco, tour and tasting at Tres Reices vineyard and winery and the Day of The Dead parade in San Miguel de Allende. The lunches were gastronomic delights and Irma attended to every need during my trip with two other women. Of note is how safe we all felt. During free evenings we had no hesitation to take cabs and/or stroll the streets. I felt much safer in Mexico than I do in my home city in the USA.

I cannot say enough wonderful things about my September 2024 trip to Ireland with Cultural Island Travel (CIT). I was blown away by how incredible this trip was and how much our tour guide Ebony did to make it so. First, a little background. I traveled to Cuba in March 2023 for a friend’s birthday with CIT and was so impressed with what an amazing trip Teresa curated for us with our wonderful tour guide Ivan. It was on that trip that we met the charming Ebony, a fellow CIT tour guide who was working in Cuba but is from Ireland. When I mentioned that I wanted to go to Ireland, Ebony said she’d be happy to be my guide. So, a year later, when I was ready to go to Ireland for my own birthday, I reached out to Teresa and asked her and Ebony prepare an Ireland itinerary for me and several friends to celebrate a milestone birthday for me. It was important to me that in addition to visiting Dublin and other places, that I would be able to stay at Ashford Castle to have my birthday celebration there and also be able to fly the hawks at the Ireland School of Falconry that is on the castle grounds. Teresa and Ebony created a perfect 10-day tour of the country that included all that I wanted, and some other things that I didn’t even know that I wanted until I viewed the itinerary. Then they coordinated the trip for 16 of my dearest friends so that the 17 of us had our own private tour, and they somehow managed to accommodate everyone’s individual needs and travel dates and times and dietary needs and quirks (of which we had many 😊). Teresa even worked with Ashford Castle to personally create the birthday celebration I wanted. Ebony traveled back from Cuba to Ireland and led our tour for my birthday trip. Teresa and Ebony were so gracious and accommodating and Ebony had such a knowledge of and love for her country that it was just a pleasure to spend time with her. She is also wickedly clever and quick with a quip. I fell in love with the country and so appreciated Ebony’s ability to flex and address every contingency that arose. My friends and I are still talking about this trip and how magical it was. I’m so grateful to Ebony, Teresa and CIT for making my trip better than my wildest expectations. As a testament to how good they are, friends who were on the trip are now using CIT for their trips to Cuba. This is not surprising because of just how good Teresa was in curating the Cuba trip I attended the year before. Some of the things that I really appreciate about Teresa (and Ebony and Ivan) is the attention to detail, the excellent communication and responsiveness, and the fact that they really care about their clients. I hope CIT expands their service to other places I’d like to travel, as I would use them again in a heartbeat.