If you’ve seen the recent news regarding new US policies for travel to Cuba, you may be alarmed at your chances of visiting the island nation, but fret not! While not quite as lenient as before, you can still visit Cuba under the “Support for the Cuban People” reason listed in US law.
American relations with Cuba have had their ups and downs in previous years, but travel to the country has been allowed in some capacity for some time. If you’ve heard about Cuba travel in recent memory, that has largely stemmed from the Obama Administration’s leniency in travel to the country starting with the People-to-People program in 2011 and continued with cruise travel being opened in 2016. Cruising to Cuba is self-explanatory, but the People to People program required that your visit be part of a tour organized by a US-based company in a full-time schedule of activities considered appropriately “educational” by the standards designated by the US Treasury Department. Cruise companies used this to great effect while they were able to.
The Trump Administration on June 5th, 2019 added a few new restrictions that are worth noting for those looking to travel to Cuba. As of now, the People-to-People program is no longer a legal reason to travel to Cuba and cruises can no longer travel from the United States to Cuba in any capacity. While there are technically 11 different ways to travel to Cuba, only one applies to all of the US natives: the Support for the Cuban People category. This is largely vague-sounding like the People to People category, but is slightly more restricted. While the previous category required educational excursions and activities and were more centered around Americans learning culture and assisting the Cuban people through multiple means, the Support for the Cuban People category requires the exclusive use of private Cuban companies and people for sources of excursions, activities, transportation, and even housing. So the major difference is that Americans could simply book through a US company for tours to Cuba, but now everything must go through privately-owned Cuban companies and organizations (no government-owned establishments may be used).
Some travel companies only had tours that abided by the People to People program so they decided to no longer travel to Cuba, but others have worked under the Support for the Cuban People category already, so the new law changes hardly affect them. Keep in mind that some tour operators still haven’t updated their websites of available tours, or haven’t been approved under the new guidelines. Since travel laws and policies are always being adjusted, you should always check with agents for the most updated laws. There are still companies that have prepared for these changes, so if you’d like to travel to Cuba, you can absolutely do so in great fashion with companies like Enjoy Cuba, Cuba Candela, and InsightCuba.
Enjoy Cuba
A leader in Cuba travel as part of the Skedio group, Enjoy Cuba has been offering tours under the People to People and Support for the Cuban People categories for Americans for years. With the new updated travel rules, they’ve begun adjusting the tours in the former category and have been filling up departure dates for the tours in the latter category more than ever before. While the majority of Enjoy Cuba tours are customizable from the bottom up, here are a couple of sample itineraries to choose from:
Memories of Cuba: https://www.atlastravelweb.com/tours/detail/ec-3moc#
Experience History and Nature in Western Cuba: https://www.atlastravelweb.com/tours/detail/ec-ehnwc
Cuba Candela
Based out of Miami, Cuba Candela works exclusively with private Cuban companies to bring world-class service through their socially conscious model. This entails providing both luxury experiences to guests and sustainability to local Cuban communities. Here are a couple examples of itineraries provided by Cuba Candela:
Cuba Weekend Getaway: https://www.atlastravelweb.com/tours/detail/cc-cwg4
Cuba Highlights: https://www.atlastravelweb.com/tours/detail/cc-ch5
insightCuba
The most experienced provider of legal Cuba travel, insightCuba has been facilitating American travel to Cuba since 2000. InsightCuba is the only vendor on our list that not only has escorted and small group tours, but also provides specialty tours that range from doing the Havana Marathon to jazz festivals. Here are a couple examples of these tours:
Havana Marathon: https://www.atlastravelweb.com/tours/detail/ic-hm
Legendary Cuba Tour: https://www.atlastravelweb.com/tours/detail/ic-lct
Special Note: Each of Enjoy Cuba, Cuba Candela, and insightCuba provide more than the specified itineraries above, and even do personalized tours. Most importantly, because Cuba travel has been changed multiple times in the past few years, we strongly encourage travel insurance be purchased in all cases. While the Support for the Cuban People category is still available, this could change. For this reason, we recommend travelers try to book as soon as possible if they are interested in traveling to Cuba, otherwise they should all stay knowledgeable on any changes the government makes in the Cuba travel laws.
