Morning: As part of our Support for the Cuban People trip to Cuba, we will engage in authorized Support for the Cuban People activities organized by Cabildo Quisicuaba, a Cuban community project under the direction of Dr. Enrique Alemán Gutiérrez and its team of more than 74 health professionals and social workers that volunteer their time to the project. Promoting the community involvement in the preservation of the Cuban identity and its culture through different out-reach activities in Centro Habana municipality, the Cabildo Quisicuaba has made possible the creation of a community library, an amusement park for children, a community theatre troupe, 7 dancing and performing art groups, as well as several workshops.

We will meet with and enjoy the musical offerings of a local children's chorus or even the rapping abuelitas (grandmothers). This Support for the Cuban People activity will result in a meaningful interaction with the individuals of Centro Habana community in Havana, Cuba. We will present donations of educational & humanitarian items and ask how we can help promoting their work in the USA.

With our JAZZ CUBA TRAVEL PACKAGES (which include express entrance to most Havana’s attractions and activities as described in the day-to-day Cuba itinerary), an introduction to the 18-year-old Scale Model of Old Havana by renown Cuba architect and urban planner, Miguel Coyula strikes a nice balance between visiting a world-class museum and providing the kind of people-to-people educational Cuba experience that has given our Cuba tours great popularity among travelers, organizations and educational institutions from USA.

Featured Lunch: a new wave of paladares (privately-owned restaurants) has recently swept the Cuban dining scene offering excellent food and charming ambient. Today we’ll enjoy lunch at the stylish Caleza Real, one of Havana's top ten private restaurants.

This is a unique opportunity to see how Cuban entrepreneurship is reshaping the dilapidated Cuban culinary industry one dish at a time. As part of your lunch and your Support for the Cuban People experience to Cuba, we will establish a dialogue with local restaurateurs to learn how they have been able to reconcile the socialist centralized economy with the demands of the free market in the booming private Cuban hospitality industry.

Afternoon: how long does it take to fall in love with a Cuban destination? With Old Havana, especially in ‘winter', it can be love at first sight.

Whether it’s an urban adventure through Havana’s colonial architecture, sipping refreshing mojitos at the many of the bars and restaurants or listening to Cuban musicians paving the old cobble-stone streets in the historical centre, Old Havana, this UNESCO World Heritage site has mastered how to make the best of an Authentic Cuba walking tour.

At 500 years young, Old Havana is the largest and best preserved colonial core in Latin America. The distinctive colonial plazas, Plaza de Armas, Plaza de La Catedral, Plaza de San Francisco or Plaza Vieja - surrounded by an impressive array of historical buildings like the San Cristobal Cathedral of Havana, the Palace of the Captain Generals or the Fortress of the Royal Force- make the UNESCO World Heritage site of La Habana Vieja a welcome lesson in the early days of Havana and Cuban history.

Your Cuba Jazz Festival tour guide on this 2 hr stroll around the historical centre will share the story of how this area that Spanish settlers established in 1519 as no more than a meeting point for Spanish ships waiting for the right season to cross the Atlantic back home soon became the epicentre of all the trade in between Spain and the Spanish colonies in Central, South and North America.

A shaded indoor visit to the Experimental Printing Workshop can help balance out the hot- weather exploration of Old Havana. With the Havana jazz festival Cuba tours, Authentic Cuba Travel® offers a friendly atmosphere for US visitors to engage with ordinary Cubans in Support for the Cuban People exchanges.

Part of what makes our jazz trips to Cuba from US so special is the Cuban people we introduced the American travelers to. Next we will introduce you to the teachers and students of a local primary school in Old Havana. You will learn more about Cuba’s education system and programs.

Those US visitors to Cuba looking for Cuban souvenirs to bring back home will appreciate our next visit to the Old Havana’s Mercado de Artesanias located in a 20th century shipping warehouse. Although traveling to Cuba from USA for tourist activities is not permitted under the Biden Administration’s USA Cuba Travel Regulations, it is perfectly legal to import art work and crafts bought directly from Cuban entrepreneurial artisans.

Next we will pay a visit to Piscolabis Bazar-Café, a privately-owned Cuban bazaar and coffee shop run by self-employed (cuentapropista) Cuban fashion designer Sandra De Huelbes to shop for some exclusive clothing and accessories as well as unique souvenirs and local handicrafts. Shopping in these sorts of stores directly supports the Cuban people and the Cuban families financially while encouraging independent entrepreneurial activities that in turn strengthen civil society in Cuba.

The array objects for sale are as diverse as the team of Cuban artists that produce them. Supporting these Cuban creators is the main objective of our shopping visits. While sipping on Cuban coffee, we will engage with our Cuban hosts in conversations to learn more about their approach to empower artistic creation inspired by Cuban culture.

Evening: the great appeal and excitement of the International Jazz Festival of Havana 2025 that attracts both tourists and locals has to do with the array of concerts that explode through the city during the 5 nights of the event. Authentic Cuba Travel® will provide you with the Official Havana Jazz Schedule 2025 before departure so that you have an idea of the jazz concerts you will attend. Do not forget your Havana Jazz Festival ALL ACCESS VIP PASS!

Morning: as part of our Support for the Cuban People trip to Cuba, we will engage in authorized Support for the Cuban People activities organized by Vocal Clave de Sol, a world-acclaimed Cuban community project founded by Nuria and Yamile Garcia in 2009. Promoting independent musical education in San Agustin, a community in Havana lacking in recreational and artistic venues for the youth, this independent organization started with just 9 members (ages 7 to 16) and has grown to more than 200 now.

During our visit we will engage with the members to learn more about the role of this nongovernmental organization in promoting traditional Cuban music and culture in the community. This Support for the Cuban People activity will result in a meaningful interaction with the individuals of San Agustin community in Havana, Cuba. We will present donations of educational & humanitarian items, enjoy a special performance by the students, and ask how we can help promoting their work in the USA.

A visit to Cojimar –a humble fishing town in Eastern Havana- is an excuse to reflect on the life of Ernest Hemingway, one of America’s most honored authors and one of Cuba’s most respected American visitors. A guided tour will exceed the expectations of even the most discerning US traveler. Your Havana Jazz Festival tour guide will tell stories of how a local fisherman inspired Hemingway to write one of the bestselling novels of the 20th century, The Old Man and The Sea. Hemingway earned the Pulitzer Price for Fiction award in 1953 and Nobel Prize for Literature award in 1954 with this novel.

Our Jazz escape to Havana’s coastal town is sure to finish with a drink (optional) at Las Terrazas, Hemingway’s preferred bar restaurant in Cojimar.

We will have lunch at another privately-owned restaurant, Paladar Casa Grande serving delicious Cuban food in a charming environment. As part of our lunch and our Support for the Cuban People experience to Cuba, we will establish a dialogue with local restaurateurs and staff to learn how they have been able to reconcile the socialist centralized economy with the demands of the free market in the booming private Cuban hospitality industry.

Afternoon: the recognition that Finca La Vigia (La Vigia Farmhouse) has received celebrates both being the birthplace of Hemingway‘s most important literary works -The Old Man and The Sea, Islands in the Stream, For Whom the Bell Tolls- and the home of the famed American author for over 20 years. Nestled in the heart of a Havana’s humble town, San Francisco de Paula, this unique property is the Ernest Hemingway Museum today.

Another top-notch attraction of our Jazz trips to Cuba is a guided tour of this 19th century property that Ernest Hemingway bought in 1940. It is not hard to picture Hemingway being inspired here, whether in the writing room at the top of a tower next to the main house with killer views or in his bedroom standing in front of a book cabinet. Typewriters, books, pictures, hunting trophies and other possessions seat undisturbed by time and visitors since 1959.

As part of our Support for the Cuban People travel to Cuba, we have scheduled a private exchange with the organizers and children of the The Little Beehive, a children theatre group, located in Vedado neighborhood. This world renowned independent theatrical group, official UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors, has performed extensively around the globe and even in the United States recently. The children and teachers will engage in a lively chat with our tour participants and even perform a play in English. What a treat! We will present donations of educational & humanitarian items and ask how we can help promoting their message of peace in the USA.

Evening: enjoy the magic of Havana city at night as you explore the array of venues hosting the Cuba’s Jazz Plaza 2025 tonight. Armed with the Official Havana Jazz Festival Calendar 2025 in hand, your Cuban team will facilitate fast-track entrance to the Havana Jazz venue of your choosing. Please do remember your Havana Jazz Festival ALL ACCESS VIP PASS!

Cuba travel from USA can be life-changing when you have the time to really explore and experience this authentic Cuba destination. Our Cuba Jazz programs give you that precious moments, and today we are off on a 2hr bus ride to UNESCO World Heritage site, Vinales Valley. You’ll always remember driving through its up-and-down winding roads carved between flat top mountain hills (mogotes), looking at the tobacco farm houses in the valley, gliding through the Indian Cave underground river, admiring the breathtaking views, and talking to the new torrent of Cuban entrepreneurs taking over town.

En route to Vinales Valley, we will visit El Patio de Pelegrin, the outreach community project and brainchild of Cuban painter Mario Pelegrin. This humble privately-owned art gallery and pottery workshop in Consolacion del Sur Municipality (Western Cuba) has turned into a powerhouse for the promotion of cultural and artistic projects in this countryside community.

During this visit we will engage with Mario Pelegrin and his team to learn more about the role of this independent organization in Pinar del Rio. This Support for the Cuban People activity will result in a meaningful interaction with the individuals of Consolacion del Sur, Cuba. We will present donations of educational & humanitarian items and ask how we can help promoting their work in the USA.

Upon arriving at Vinales town, we will enjoy a delicious traditional countryside lunch at the privately-owned bar-restaurant Paladar Yuri & Nino, El Campesino. Yuri is a young woman entrepreneur who started this small restaurant that has expanded into a large establishment. Yuri and her family work hard to create delicious and plentiful food that comes with a beautiful mountain view.

Love cigars? Be sure to follow your Havana Jazz Festival tour guide around tobacco fields and tobacco drying houses in this region that grows the best tobacco in the world and where the only thing more intriguing than hand-rolling Habanos are the traditional methods of growing and drying tobacco. On this tobacco heritage tour of Western Cuba, you will also discover how the local farmers used to trade tobacco with neighbor islands through the Caribbean Sea before the independence from Spain. Meeting with farmers as they go about their daily routines is also a great chance for the American visitors to learn more about the life of ordinary Cuban farmers in the countryside.

Get up-close to mogotes, subterranean rivers, and pre-Hispanic Cuba`s history! You will come face-to-face with stalagmites and stalactites formations as you descend into the Indian Cave –former burial grounds of the Guanahatabey people, aboriginals of this area before the arrival of the Spaniards. After a guided boat ride through the underground river, you will exit through a gift shop.

The People-to-people General License implemented by the Obama administration brought about a boom of bed-and-breakfasts (Casas Particulares), family restaurants (Paladares), and other small ventures ran by Cuban entrepreneurs independently from the central government. Individual US travelers just booked through AirBnB or TripAdvisor and they were set to go.

For the next hours, we will meet with young Cuban entrepreneurs in Vinales Downtown to learn firsthand about the new reality.

Next we will head back to Havana city to get ready for tonight Havana Jazz Festival events and concerts.

Evening: discover how the Havana’s Jazz Plaza 2025 evolved to be the biggest International jazz festival in Latin America as you become familiar with Havana’s Theatres, Jazz Clubs and Venues hosting the festival. The 2025 Official Havana Jazz Festival Line-Up will guide you through the night! Keep your ALL ACCESS VIP PASS handy!

Morning: US visitors who travel to many authentic Cuban destinations and try different Cuba travel experiences tend to be more interesting to others than those (80% or so) who simply go to Cuba as tourists (a big no-no for those who want to visit Cuba legally from USA) and stay in beach resorts for the entirety of their Cuba vacation.

A key element of our authentic Cuba tours that sets our Cuba travel company apart from the rest it is the escapes that we make into the most humble yet genuine neighbourhoods of Cuba to discover authentic traditions and get to know the real Cuban people. And we are about to experience another one of those adventures as we visit Santa Amalia neighbourhood where a group of elder dancers have maintain tap dancing alive in Cuba for decades. Now they will display their dancing skills to live Jazz music. We will spend the morning exchanging with members of the Santa Amalia Community Project and the Santa Amalia Tap Club.

For a unique and captivating scope of Cuban arts, we will visit the privately-owned studios of Havana’s most famed painters, sculptors and photographers. Whether is an up-close and personal look into the life and work of Alicia Leal, Cirenaica Moreira, or an intimate discussion with Ernesto Benitez, Jaqueline and Yamilis Brito, this Cuba jazz travel experience will be a momentous occasion in our travelers’ life that will broaden their horizons beyond Cuban jazz music.

Once back home, Americans joining our Cuba tours tell the story of their journey through Cuba, as they discover the cultural side to this great country. Those travelers joining our jazz escapes to Havana from USA understand the breadth and depth of the Cuban culture, not only by attending amazing jazz concerts in Havana every night, exploring interesting destinations but experiencing people-to-people exchanges with great Cuban folks they meet every day such as Cuban artist, Jose Fuster, our host for the next hour or so.

Our first visit will be to the Jaimanitas Communit Project, in the seaside town of Jaimanitas, not a mainstream destination for Cuba’s tourism, the place Fuster calls home. For over a decade, this authentic Cuba’s artist has been decorating every single standing structure in town. From the humble houses of local fishermen to the local community clinic, ceramic murals, paintings and installations embellish the coastal village.

The authenticity of the Caribbean Picasso (as Fuster is oft referred as) can be felt even in the sea breeze that envelopes his privately-owned studio which we will visit next.

Arguably serving the best Creole food in Cuba, today’s complimentary lunch will be served at El Aljibe restaurant, which garnered international attention after an appearance on US TV Show NO RESERVATIONS hosted by late chef Anthony Bourdain.

We will visit the privately-owned AMOS Photography Gallery, and get up close and personal with the work of Ramses Batista. We will revisit Mr. Batista’s 20-plus-year career featuring portraiture, social documentary, religion, landscapes, and nudes. Supporting these Cuban entrepreneurs is the main objective of our Support for the Cuban People trips.

For some time, the Callejon de Hammel Community Project has been overlooked as anything but a stopover to hear the frenetic Rumba music and dancing that kicks off on Sundays. But as the participants in our jazz trips to Havana discover, this Afro-Cuban inspired gaudy alley was reinvented under the artistic direction of the late Salvador Gonzales, a Cuban muralist whose work can also be found in New York’s buildings. Colourful murals, sculptures and installations can be found everywhere.

Evening: attend the closing ceremony of the 40th International Jazz Festival of Havana 2025. Please, do not forget your ALL ACCESS VIP PASS.

Today marks the end of your Support for the Cuban People Jazz adventure. Your Cuban guide and bus driver will escort you to the International Airport for departure.