Arrival at "Jose Marti" International Airport in Havana.

Group welcomed by your Authentic Cuba Travel tour guide.

Transfer to your hotel Park View (E) or Nacional de Cuba (P).

Private group check-in.

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

Morning: guided walking tour of Old Havana, UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Visit to the Cathedral Square, the most beautiful and private 18th century colonial plaza of Cuba, named after the masterpiece of Cuban baroque architecture: the Cathedral of Havana built by the Jesuit order.

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

Palacio de los Capitanes Generales was the former seat of colonial government. Today the building houses the Museum of the City.

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.

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

Continue walking tour onto San Francisco Square, one of the oldest in the historical quarter.

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 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: visit to Workshop School in Old Havana. High school graduates enroll in this institution to learn the arts and crafts necessary to authentically restore the ancient buildings of Old Havana. The school teaches young people archeological and restoration work that helps preserving the heritage and cultural wealth of Old Havana.

Tour the school and get engaged with students in the different workshops such as Glass work, Carpentry, Iron work and Restoration. Exchange with professors and students.

Followed by visit to Primary School “Angela Landa”. Exchange with teachers and students to learn Cuba’s primary education level. Tour the schools and enjoy educational and cultural activities by students. Meet the principal of the school Prof. Sonia Garcia. Tour of the school.

Lunch in Cojimar fishing village (optional/ not included in costs).

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.

Followed by 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.

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 the University of Havana, founded in 1728. Meet with professor of History and Law Dr. Delio Carrera. Followed by a tour of the University of Havana campus, law library and meeting with students from the law school.

10:30 a.m. Visit to the community-based project Cintio Vitier in Nuevo Vedado neighbourhood. This project offers painting, papier-mache, drama, music, dance, and other skill development workshops to elementary and secondary students. We’ll meet with director Pedro Pulido for a presentation on his outreach work in the community of Colon.

Lunch break (optional, not included)

Afternoon: visit the Scale Model of Havana City. Meeting with architect Miguel Coyula from the Group for the Comprehensive Development of Havana City.

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: 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. Morning departure to Las Terrazas, located in UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Sierra del Rosario where we start the morning tour of the rural town at Rancho Curujey for explanation of the area.

Enjoy the view of the village that lies above the shores of San Juan Lake and beneath the mountains.

We also visit the home/studios of local artists and artisans.

Visit to rural Primary and Secondary school.

Visit to the ruins of a French Coffee Plantation built in 1801.

Continue to La Moka, an ecological hotel with trees growing up through the balconies and ceiling.

Later we can take a swim at San Juan River cascades and pools.

We have lunch in local traditional restaurant.

Check-in at Los Jasmines hotel. Exploration of Viñales Valley, containing the most spectacular scenery in Cuba and some of the most interesting and varied geological formations on the island. The valley is particularly famous for its great freestanding rock formations called mogotes. Lunch at Cueva del Indio restaurant.

After lunch we will visit the Cueva del Indio, used by the Guanahatabey Amerindians as a burial site in ancient time, and as refuge from the Spaniards for both Indians and Black slaves alike. We’ll take a short boat ride on the subterranean river running through the cave.

Meet with local farmers that have been passing from generation to generation the secrets of growing the best tobacco in the world.

Visit to Mural de la Prehistoria, a huge painting on the side of a Mogote.

Explore Viñales town at your leisure: its open-air craft market, Parque Marti, town church, and other interesting sites of this charming colonial hamlet.

Visit Carmen and Caridad Miranda’s botanical garden, called the Viñales Botanical Garden. The two widows maintain a garden full of fruits, orchids and medicinal plants. Early morning departure to Havana City International Airport for departure.