Welcome to Havana City! One of the most fascinating cities in the world!

Your Cuba educational journey has just begun.

You arrive at "Jose Marti" International Airport in Cuba's capital city.

Meet your Authentic Cuba Travel tour guide and bus driver.

Private transfer to your hotel Park View (E), located in UNESCO World Heritage Site, Old Havana Historical Centre or Habana Libre, located at Vedado, the cultural center of Havana City today.

Group check-in.

Breakfast is complimentary from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Morning: visit to the headquarters of La Colmenita Children’s Theater Company. This internationally acclaimed children's theater group was created in 1990. Since then, it has charmed audiences in more than 25 countries with its message of joy, peace and understanding.

The company, which was given the UNICEF Goodwill ambassador status in 2007, recently toured the United States with performances in Washington, New York and San Francisco. Enjoy a private performance, and exchange with directors, teachers and children!

Lunch in La Mina restaurant where you can enjoy traditional Cuban dishes and live music!

Afternoon: meet with architect Miguel Coyula at the Scale Model of Old Havana. The model serves as an excellent introduction to the layout of the city. It is color-coded by age with the historic buildings painted in crimson, pre-Revolution buildings in yellow and the post-revolutionary buildings in ivory.

Followed by guided walking tour of UNESCO World Heritage Site, Old Havana.

Visit to the Cathedral Square, named after the masterpiece of Cuban baroque architecture: the Cathedral of Havana built by the Jesuit order.

The Cathedral's baroque facade is simultaneously intimate and imposing, and one of the two towers is visibly larger, creating a pleasing asymmetry. As with many churches in the city, the building material of Havana Cathedral includes coral, cut and hauled from the edge of the sea by slaves. Look carefully and you'll see fossils of marine flora and fauna in the stone of the cathedral.

Visit to Square of Arms, ancient military parade ground for Spanish soldiers and surrounded by impressive buildings such as:

Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, the former official residence of the governors (Captains General) of Havana, Cuba. It is home to the Museum of the City of Havana. It houses exhibitions of art and historical artifacts and many of the rooms are preserved with their original Colonial decoration.

Palacio del Segundo Cabo. The seat of the second authority of the island. Today it houses important publishing concerns.

Castillo de la Real Fuerza. The second oldest fortress built by the Spaniards in the West Indies. The castle was recently renovated and reopened in June 2008 to hold the impressive maritime museum. Well laid out exhibits chart Spain and Cuba's naval history.

Continue walking tour onto San Francisco Square, named after the Convent of San Francisco, this square was conceived in 1628, with the objective of supplying water to the ships trading with the metropolis. For many years it also served to stockpile the goods arriving from the harbor. Chronicles of the time say that the square had a busy commercial life. The people, in humble carts or afoot, sold and bought a variety of goods. It’s important to know that through this place the Spanish immigrants arrived to Cuba.

Visit to Plaza Vieja, the only civic square of colonial times. Notice it doesn't have a church or government building around. Here we will visit important institutions for visual arts.

Free time in the famous handicraft market of Old Havana, located inside the Almacenes de Depósito San José, an old warehouse on the harbourside where you can purchase all sorts of crafts and souvenirs by local artisans.

Return to hotel.

Evening: tonight we have a Cuban band playing for us! You'll learn to dance to Salsa, Son, Rumba, and other popular Cuban rhythms with instruction from bandleaders. Morning: guided tour of Cuba's National Art Schools. Great opportunity to exchange with the new generation of Cuban artists. Meet with students and teachers.

The schools were designed and built by architects Cuban Ricardo Porro and the Italians Roberto Gottardi and Vittorio Garatti from 1961 to 1965, in the former affluent neighborhood of Country Club Park (today known as Cubanacán), specifically on the grounds of the Havana Country Club golf course.

Only two of the schools were completed, the rest being abandoned and awaiting restoration funding recently approved by the Cuban government.

After 40 years, the original team of architects got together again to collaborate in the most important architecture work from the Cuban Revolution.

Lunch hosted by Jose Fuster, one of the most important Cuban ceramists and painters today.

Afternoon: visit to the Literacy Museum in the Liberty City neighborhood of Havana.

Meeting with museum director Luisa Campos for an introduction on the history of the literacy campaign and the new literacy campaigns taking place in Venezuela, Bolivia and other regions based on the Cuban Campaign model.

Evening: attend one of the most traditional and popular ceremonies in Cuba, The Fire of the Cannon of 9 O’Clock at the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabana. Morning: visit to Finca Vigia, a hilltop villa 20 kilometers east of Havana, where famed author Ernest Hemingway lived from 1939 to 1960. It is here where the writer completed some of his greatest works, including The Old Man and the Sea, Across the River and into the Trees, and Islands in the Stream.

The villa has been maintained as a museum for the past 49 years. It contains original book and short story manuscripts, letters, over 3000 photographs, Hemingway’s fishing tackle and gun collections, furniture, priceless art collection, and a 9000 volume library that contains rare first editions of his books and those of other famous writers.

Finca Vigía has made both the World Monuments Fund List of 100 Most Endangered sites, and The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 Most Endangered Places.

Lunch in Cojimar fishing village.

Tour around Cojimar fishing village, where Hemingway kept his boat Pilar. The writer is remembered by the town with a small gazebo that encircles a commemorative bust, sculpted from the melted down propellers donated by local fishermen.

Afternoon: visit to the Lizt Alfonso Ballet School founded in 1991. Lizt Alfonso’s choreographies are dance and music of a kind no one else creates: a seamless fusion of Spanish classical dance, ballet, flamenco and Afro-Cuban dance.

Followed by: visit the Museum of Fine Arts' Cuban Collection where we see the evolution of Cuba's visual arts over the last 300 years. The collection accounts for the richness of our Spanish, French, Chinese, African cultural roots.

Evening: enjoy Afrojazz, Cubajazz and Sonjazz at Club La Zorra y El Cuervo, Havana’s most famous Jazz club. The club features great performances by island bands and soloists! (optional, not included) Morning departure to Trinidad, in Central Cuba.

En route, we will visit Cienfuegos, a city of neoclassical buildings with a European flair. This trip will give participants the opportunity to analyze and see how the Cuban educational system works in different provinces of the country.

Visit to Palacio de Valle upon arrival. This architectural jewel originated as a home for trader, Celestino Caceres, who later gave it as a wedding present to the Valle family who added to it (in a Mughal Style with carved floral motifs) a stunning Carrara marble staircase, cupped arches, bulbous domes and delicate arabesques.

Lunch at Palacio del Valle restaurant.

Afternoon: guided walking tour of Cienfuegos Historical Center.

We will visit neoclassical buildings around Paseo del Prado and the main Square Jose Marti such as:

The Tomas Terry Theatre, completed in 1895 and named after a sugar baron from Venezuela who arrived in Cuba with no money and made his fortune by buying sick slaves for a low price, to later nurse them back to health and reselling them. This money was invested in a sugar estate that brought him the wealth to build several outstanding buildings in Cienfuegos, including this theatre, with materials specially brought over from Europe.

The Casa de la Cultura, home of another wealthy sugar baron, stunning mansion in neoclassical style.

The Cathedral built with the donation of wealthy families like the Lebrancs, the Albis, the Terrys. Inside you find the reproductions of the 12 Apostles in stained glass imported from Paris. Also the original machinery of the clock tower was built in France. Still in place and working.

We'll also visit the elegant art gallery Galería de Arte Maroya and review its impressively displayed collection of paintings, sculptures and antiques.

Now we journey on to the historic city of Trinidad and check in at all-inclusive Costa Sur or Trinidad del Mar Beach Resort. You'll have time for dinner and a swim in the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. Morning: visit to the Academy of Painting “Oscar Fernandez”. Meet with the Principal and teachers to learn about the school curriculum and enrollment criteria. Tour the school and exchange with students in the different workshops.

Lunch at hotel.

Afternoon: guided walking tour of UNESCO World Heritage Site, Trinidad’s Historical Center, a perfect relic of the early days of the Spanish colony with beautifully preserved streets and buildings with hardly a trace of the 20th century anywhere.

Visit to the Architecture Museum (Casa de los Sanchez Iznaga), housing the most representative samples of the city's architectural development in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Visit to Museo Lucha contra Bandidos, former home of the San Francisco de Asis convent.

Visit to Museo Romantico, overlooking the Trinidad main square. It has an excellent exhibition of romantic style porcelain, glass, paintings and decorative furniture which belonged to the Conde de Brunet and other Trinidad notorious families.

We will stop at a mirador (lookout) over the Sugar Mill Valley, where the sugar barons used to have their countryside mansions and mills. This site is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Trinidad is well known for its pottery makers. We meet with a family that has been passing the tradition for generations: the Santanders.

Free time to wander the streets of historical centre or enjoy the beach.

Evening is free to enjoy the beach, hotel amenities, and the lively streets of Trinidad. How about live Cuban popular music on steps of Casa de la Música – a great opportunity to dance with Cubans and your tour companions. Morning: visit to a Family Doctor’s Office and Community Clinic.

Family doctor's offices and Community Clinics in Cuba are part of the so called Primary Level of Attention. This is an opportunity to meet Cuban doctors and nurses and learn more about their health care system and its practices. You will also receive detailed information about the educational program for training doctors and nurses in Cuba.

Afternoon: transfer back to your hotel in Havana City.

Group check in at Park View Hotel or Habana Libre. Early morning departure to Havana City International Airport for departure.