Cuba Student Trips for American Schools

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

US students visiting Cuba as participants of our Cuba school tours will be exploring the cobblestone streets of the old city for most of the day.

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.

Next our trips to Cuba for students offer a complimentary lunch at Paladar San Cristobal where travelers can enjoy traditional Cuban dishes and music live!

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.

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: Our Cuba ballet tours provide great insights into the techniques of the Cuba’s National Ballet both from a practical and theoretical perspective. However, tonight is about Cuba's popular music and dancing. We'll have a Cuban band playing for our Cuba trip students LIVE! An Authentic Cuba Travel® treat that separates our student trips to Cuba from the rest. You'll learn to dance to Salsa, Son, Rumba, and other popular Cuban rhythms with instruction from bandleaders.

Morning: Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

The ballet 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 Ballet 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: trips to Cuba for students feature a guided tour of the Gran Teatro de La Habana (Great Theater of Havana). The original building opened in 1838 as Teatro Tacon. Performers here have included the great ballerinas Fanny Elssler and Anna Pavlova, the major opera singer Enrico Caruso and the great actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Dusse.

The Gran Teatro stages opera, zarzuela and Spanish dance performances, among others. As home to the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, it is the main venue of the International Havana Ballet Festival. The theater is also used by Havana's flamenco ensemble and by the opera company, and its Orígenes Gallery is dedicated to the exhibition and sale of works by contemporary Cuban painters, sculptors and craftsmen. This backstage tour is a highlight of our Cuba student trips that US students visiting Cuba enjoy greatly.

Evening: welcome to the authentic Cuba! 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).

Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

Lunch hosted by Jose Fuster, one of the most important Cuban ceramists and painters today. Another highlight of our Cuba trips for US high schools, colleges and universities.

Afternoon: Cuba trips for US colleges and universities include a motor coach exploration 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.

Evening: Student Cuba trips offer the chance to 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)

Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

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: to enrich the Authentic Cuba Travel® experience, we will go for 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.

Cuba trips for American students also feature a 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 unique community and its Afrocuban cultures.

Enjoy a private Afrocuban religious dance presentation by Regla Folkloric Group_another treat of our ballet tours to Cuba for American students.

Return to your hotel.

Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

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: our Cuba trips for students go to the neighbourhoods to visit grass root community outreach projects such as the Cintio Vitier Project. Students traveling to Cuba as part of this ballet Cuba trip will meet with the project director, voluntary members, and Cuban students next. Painting, papier-mache, drama, music, dance, and other skill development workshops are offered to elementary and secondary students.

Evening: Ballet Cuba travel would not be completed without attending one of the most popular and authentic Cuban ceremonies, The Fire of the Cannon of 9 O’Clock at the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabana.

Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

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: all Cuba education tours should include a tour of the Museum of Fine Arts' Cuban Collection where the American students can appreciate the evolution of Cuba's visual arts over the last 300 years. The collection accounts for the richness of Cuba's Spanish, French, Chinese and African roots.

Evening venue: a highlight of our school trips to Cuba for American students, it is a visit to Casa de La Musica de Miramar. A great opportunity to 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). Another treat of our student Cuba trips.

Trips to Cuba for students will greatly benefit for an exploration of Cuba’s countryside. That’s why, this morning we travel to Las Terrazas town, in Sierra del Rosario mountain range. Ours Cuba students trips usually start the morning tour of the rural town at Rancho Curujey for an educational 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 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.

This morning our Cuba school trips offer an insightful 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 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.

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 Carmen and Caridad Miranda’s botanical and herb garden, called the Viñales Botanical Garden. The two widows maintain a garden full of fruits, orchids and medicinal plants.

Transfer back to your hotel in Havana City.

Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

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: 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 ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

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 Partagas Cigar Factory, founded in 1845 by Spaniard Don Jaime Partagas. 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: free to explore the city on your own and spend time with your classmates and new Cuban friends.

Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

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)

Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

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 Cirenaica 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).

Students taking part of our Cuba ballet trips for American schools will attend ballet classes at the Cuban National Ballet School. Course name: Techniques of the Cuban Ballet School.

Ballet School of Cuba will present course participants with Certificate of Completion for their study of the techniques of the Cuban ballet. 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.