I booked travel through Authentic Cuba Travel®. They did a bang-up job organizing the trip. We stayed in nice hotels, ate some good food and traveled by buses with our most excellent Havanatur guide, Eric. The above slide show are courtesy of Havana Book Fair Tour Participant, Darenna Rainsdon, Librarian. For his entire blog on the Cuba travel experience, Click Here.

Dr. Eduardo Torres Cuevas, Cuba’s Library of Congress (The National Library) director privately meeting with Authentic Cuba Travel® tour participants. Photo Courtesy of tour participant and author Libby Hellmann. Do not miss her excellent article on Reviews on Havana Book Fair Cuba Trip for more photos and testimonials.

Thank you so much to Yane and everyone at Authentic Cuba Travel®. My trip in February to the International Book Fair was everything I wanted and more. The local tour guide was so helpful and informative. The entire Authentic Cuba team took care of us the entire week and made sure we had a safe, enjoyable week in Cuba!

Not only would I recommend Authentic Cuba, but I'll probably travel with them again. Feel free to give my name and number to anyone with questions about your services.

Angela Baldree, Librarian

In 2012, I received an invite to go to Cuba to visit libraries. Now I love libraries and I have been a librarian for over 35 years, but the real word that caught my attention was: CUBA! Who would not want to go to Cuba, the exotic island that Americans are not supposed to visit? Read the entire story...

Gary Warren Niebuhr, Librarian

The tour was fabulous. Can't wait to return. Erik was wonderful as a guide and as a person.

Mary M. Carr, Librarian

I must say that Mario was an excellent guide as well as Joaquin, the driver.

My presentation and Al's went very well at the Jose Marti Nacional Library. I was very moved by ASCUBI (Cuban Association of Librarians) who honored me and Al for our work with Cuban librarians.

Herbert Rogers, Librarian and author of "Cuba, a Book List", and "A Conversation on Cuban Life & Culture"

Thank you so much for the opportunity to go to Cuba. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the trip was transformative. I would say Eric Garcia, our guide, was at least 50% responsible for it being such a great trip. Enough cannot be said about his professionalism, knowledge and flexibility. I am sure your company provides excellent guides in general but Eric is special.

I hope others who take the Book Fair Tour are lucky enough to get him as a guide. The other 50% should be credited to the great group of people on the tour. I’m a librarian not a mathematician; I will just go ahead and say that more percentages should be shared out to Authentic Cuba Travel® for arranging the trip. I am calling this my first trip to Cuba. I can’t wait to find an opportunity to go back.

Our group grew quickly attached to each other and to Eric. We agreed that we needed a common place to share our photos and tour experiences. To that end, today I will be setting up a WordPress site for that purpose. I will share that address with you. For my part anything I post to that site is available for ACT to use for marketing purposes.

Thank you!

Darenna Rainsdon, Librarian

Eric Garcia is an excellent tour guide. He is both personable and professional and should be commended for his care, knowledge expertise, and friendliness. El es muy guapo tambien! Don Alfonso was an excellent and courteous bus driver! Always a gentleman who looked to our safety first, he took care of both us and our coach.

First, the people in our group made our tour much like a family traveling together. We were mostly of the same age and backgrounds, so there was much camaraderie among us. Second, Eric continued to be an outstanding tour guide, being both knowledgeable and friendly. No doubt he has made life long friends among many of us who were fortunate to travel with him. Third, and most important, I felt very safe in Cuba. In spite of the poverty, which I expected, the Cuban people seemed for the most part to be healthy and happy with their lives. They were always open to our question and comments, and welcomed us wherever we traveled.

Overall, my journey to Cuba was more than I expected. Coming from Hawaiʻi, I understood and appreciated “island people” so I felt very safe and welcomed. I would love to travel to the windward side of Cuba some day to see how it compares to Hawaiʻi. My special thanks also to Yane Marquez for making my arrangements to travel so efficiently and pleasantly.

Dr. Kamuela KaʻAhanui, Librarian

It was a wonderful trip. Authentic Cuba Travel® did a great job with all the arrangements, I couldn't be happier with the experience.

Jane Carpenter, Librarian

First and foremost I want to say that Erik Fernandez (on the right with the director of Ediciones Vigia) is the most amazing tour guide EVER! He's knowledgeable, interesting, accommodating, funny, and incredibly patient (especially when dealing with 16 different personalities, some of which could be quite challenging at times.)

I think you should keep him as the tour guide for all the librarian tours. Especially because he did a superb job at translating between the Cuban and American librarians (and that was not easy I'm sure - LONG discussions - we are a verbose people you know ;) )

I thought the tour was FABULOUS! It was well planned, everything went smoothly, and the choices of hotels/restaurants/locations were perfect.

Thank you very much! If I think of anything else I'll send it along.

Jennie Stoltz, Librarian

From our point of view the trip was a huge success, thanks in large part to Mario, his knowledge, his patience, his understanding of the sometimes difficult demands of American tourists.

Mike Bowler, Journalist