Cuba Student Tours for American Schools

Morning: tours to Cuba for students kick off with a guided walking tour of Old Havana, UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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: 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 a welcome lunch at the stylish Paladar San Cristobal, one of Havana's top ten private restaurants.

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.

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 in Cuba. It provides an introduction to one of the main educational objectives of our Cuba art tours: getting to know Cuba’s contemporary art scene and Cuban artist firsthand.

Next our tours to Cuba for students offer ample free time in the famous handicraft market of Old Havana where travelers can purchase all sorts of crafts and souvenirs by local artisans.

Return to hotel or Casa Particular.

Evening: tonight we have a Cuban band playing for your students privately! An Authentic Cuba Travel® treat that separates our student tours to Cuba from the rest. You'll learn to dance to Salsa, Son, Rumba, and other popular Cuban rhythms with instruction from bandleaders.

Morning: fine arts classes at the Cuban Fine Arts Academy "San Alejandro".

The course begins with an audition class specially structured to assess the students’ artistic level. It is important for the success of your school tour to Cuba that Cuban teachers assess your students’ artistic level that way students can be placed in the right classroom. Students traveling to Cuba as part of our Cuba Art Tours will benefit from this assessment greatly.

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: Tours to Cuba for students feature private visits to the studios of important Cuban contemporary artists such as Alicia Leal and Cirenaica Moreira, Britos’ Sisters, Ernesto Benitez and others young prominent artists. Our Cuba student tours lead the way to inclusive Cuba art tours that bring you closer to the way of doing of top-notch Cuban artists. Exclusive visits to secluded Cuban art collections enrich the Authentic Cuba Travel® adventure.

Evening: attending a baseball game at the Latinoamericano Stadium, popularly known in Cuba as "The Colossus of Cerro” is an attractive activity of our Cuba student tours that students from USA, Canada and all over the world visiting Cuba enjoy greatly. The stadium holds 55,000 people. In 1999, it hosted an exhibition series between Cuban National Team and the Baltimore Orioles (optional).

Morning: Students taking part of our Cuba art tours for American schools will attend today fine arts classes at the Cuban Fine Arts School "San Alejandro".

Student Cuba tours are welcomed by Jose Fuster, one of the most important Cuban ceramists and painters today at his private residence and studio in “Fusterlandia”.

Afternoon: followed by coach tour of the most important sites of Modern Havana such as the Capitol building, the Grand Theatre, Central Park, Prado promenade, Sevilla Hotel, Revolution Square, Malecón seawall, Monument to the Battleship Maine, Hotel Nacional, University of Havana, Cristóbal Colón Cemetery, and the Miramar, Central Havana and Vedado neighbourhoods. Another highlight of our Cuba tours for US schools.

Evening: Cuba tours for US colleges and universities appreciate very much an evening exploration of 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: Students taking part of our Cuba student tours for high schools, colleges and universities from USA, Canada and all over the world will attend art classes at the Cuban Art School "San Alejandro".

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: Cuba tours for American students also feature a ferry boat ride across Havana harbour to the town of Regla. This Afrocuban community has a long, rich and still active tradition of African-inspired religions.

We'll visit Regla's church dedicated to the black "Virgen de Regla" Yemayá, the African goddess of the sea in the Yoruba religion and the patron saint of sailors.

Tour of Regla's municipal museum to learn the origins of this authentic Cuban community and its Afrocuban cultures.

Enjoy a private Afrocuban religious dance presentation by Regla Folkloric Group_ another treat of our art tours to Cuba.

Return to your hotel.

Students taking part of our Cuba student tours for high schools, colleges and universities from USA, Canada and all over the world will attend art classes at the Cuban Art School "San Alejandro".

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: 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. Partaking with Cuba students in their daily routines is part of our Cuba students tours.

Evening: attend one of the most authentic and popular ceremonies in Cuba, The Fire of the Cannon of 9 O’Clock at the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabana_ another treat of our Cuba education tours for American Schools.

Students taking part of our Cuba student tours for high schools, colleges and universities from USA, Canada and all over the world will attend art classes at the Cuban Art School "San Alejandro".

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: Cuba educational tours should include a tour of the Museum of Fine Arts' Cuban Collection where students can appreciate the evolution of Cuba's visual arts over the last 300 years. The collection accounts for the richness of Cuban Spanish, French, Chinese and African roots. This is a mandatory stop in all our students tours to Cuba.

Evening venue: visit to Casa de La Musica de Miramar. A great opportunity for US students visiting Cuba to partake in Rueda de Casino and Salsa dancing with Cubans and tour companions to live music of Cuban best salsa bands such as Los Van Van, Paulito FG, La Charanga Habanera, Adalberto Alvarez, and many others (entrance fee not included).

Morning: time to wear those Cuba Explorer hats and hit the road. Morning departure to Las Terrazas, in 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. It is important for the success of our Cuba art tours that students traveling to Cuba from USA get familiar with the art done in rural Cuba.

Visit to rural Primary and Secondary schools.

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. Lunch by the river.

Check in at your Luxury Casa Particular with breakfast and dinner included.

Student tours to Cuba from USA will embark on the exploration of Vinales 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 Paladar Casa del Campesino.

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. Students joining our Cuba student tours learn to appreciate the hardwork and knowledge involved in the making of the famous Cuban cigars.

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

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

Visit the Viñales Botanical Garden.

Transfer back to your hotel in Havana City.

Students taking part of our Cuba student tours for high schools, colleges and universities from USA, Canada and all over the world will attend art classes at the Cuban Art School "San Alejandro".

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: as part of our Cuba educational tours, we include a guided tour of the Museum of Revolution, the former Presidential Palace. Today it exhibits the history of the Cuban Revolution through documents and objects among which we find the famous Yacht Granma that returned Fidel and his 82 guerilla fighters from Mexico to Cuba to launch the struggle for liberation from the Batista dictatorship.

Other historic artifacts include military vehicles and weaponry from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, a U-2 spy plane shot down during the Cuban missile crisis, and items from Cuba’s nineteenth-century wars of independence.

Evening: free to explore the city on your own and spend time with your classmates and new Cuban friends.

Students taking part of our Cuba student tours for high schools, colleges and universities from USA, Canada and all over the world will attend art classes at the Cuban Art School "San Alejandro".

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: a visit to Partagas Cigar Factory, founded in 1845 by Spaniard Don Jaime Partagas is also a highlight of our education tours to Cuba. Don Jaime owned many of the best plantations in the Vuelta Abajo tobacco-growing region of Cuba and being able to choose from among the finest tobaccos on the island made the brand Partagas incredibly successful.

Don Jaime is also believed to have experimented with various methods of fermenting and aging tobacco and is legendarily credited with hiring the first lector to read to and entertain the cigar rollers as they worked. Before and after the Revolution, the Cuban-produced Partagás has been one of the most revered and highest-selling brands of cigars in the world (optional/ not included)

Evening: our Cuba tours feature a free evening to explore the city on your own and spend time with your classmates and new Cuban friends.

Students taking part of our Cuba students tours for high schools, colleges and universities from USA, Canada and all over the world will attend art classes at the Cuban Art School "San Alejandro".

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: visit to Taller Experimental de Gráfica (Experimental Printing Workshop), a cooperative of young Cuban artists whom can be found working on their lithographs over stone matrices in the large, airy building. The variety of colors, sizes, and content of the prints is wide, including pieces with recognizable Cuban icons, bold black and white woodcuts.

Evening venue: visit to Habana Cafe. A great opportunity to practice Rueda de Casino and Sala dancing with Cubans and your tour companions to live music of Cuban best salsa bands such as Los Van Van, Paulito FG y su Elite, La Charanga Habanera, Adalberto Alvarez y su Son, NG La Banda, and many others (optional/ entrance fee not included)

Morning: Students taking part of our Cuba tours for American schools will attend today fine arts classes at the Cuban Fine Arts School "San Alejandro".

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: visit the studios of important Cuban contemporary artists such as Alicia Leal and Juan Moreira, Britos’ Sisters, Ernesto Benitez and others young prominent artists.

Evening: attend baseball game at Latinoamericano Stadium, popularly known in Cuba as "The Colossus of Cerro” is home of Ciudad Habana Industriales. The stadium holds 55,000 people. In 1999, it hosted an exhibition series between Cuban National Team and the Baltimore Orioles (optional).

Morning: Students taking part of our Cuba art tours for American schools will attend today fine arts classes at the Cuban Fine Arts School "San Alejandro".

Fine Arts School " San Alejandro" will present course participants with Certificate of Completion for their study of the Spanish Language. Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: Free. Evening venue: visit to Casa de La Musica de Miramar. A great opportunity to Rueda de Casino and Salsa dancing with Cubans and your tour companions to live music of Cuban best salsa bands such as Los Van Van, Paulito FG, La Charanga Habanera, Adalberto Alvarez, and many others (entrance fee not included).

Early morning departure to Havana City International Airport for departure.