{"id":10474,"date":"2020-04-22T15:51:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T15:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/?p=10474"},"modified":"2020-04-22T16:50:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T16:50:00","slug":"five-reasons-to-still-travel-to-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/en\/five-reasons-to-still-travel-to-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Reasons to Still Travel to Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">With its brightly-colored colonial houses and rattling old cars, Cuba has long captured the American imagination. But the regulations on travel to the Communist country have changed from one government to the next, making it hard for any vacationer to keep up.<\/p>\n<p>On June 5, 2019, the Trump administration cracked down on the most popular ways for Americans to travel to Cuba, banning all cruise ships operating between the United States and the Caribbean island and eliminating the heavily-used educational category of travel called \u201cpeople-to-people\u201d exchanges.<\/p>\n<p>It is a setback for American tourism to the island, but 12 categories of travel are still valid, including family visits for Cuban-Americans, professional research, journalism, religious activities, athletic competitions, and \u2018Support of the Cuban People\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Here are five reasons why travelers should still consider the island a destination, despite these new hurdles.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/plaza-de-armas-cuba.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10477\" src=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/plaza-de-armas-cuba.jpg\" alt=\"Plaza de Armas - Cuba\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/plaza-de-armas-cuba.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/plaza-de-armas-cuba-480x300.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 800px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"fw-bold\">1<\/span>\u00a0 | \u00a0You still can!<\/h4>\n<p>Despite increased restrictions, there are still legal ways to travel to Cuba. But with the Trump administration continuously changing regulations, who knows how much longer this will be the case. Many tour operators are already offering trips under the \u201cSupport for the Cuban People\u201d category, which requires travelers to have an itinerary of meaningful interaction with locals, such as meetings with business owners or artist visits, and to stay in a private home \u2013 known as a\u00a0<em>casa particular<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 instead of a hotel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/jose-marti-memorial-cuba.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10479\" src=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/jose-marti-memorial-cuba.jpg\" alt=\"Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed Memorial - Cuba\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/jose-marti-memorial-cuba.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/jose-marti-memorial-cuba-480x300.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 800px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"fw-bold\">2<\/span>\u00a0 | \u00a0Crowd-free tourist destinations<\/h4>\n<p>Nearly 150,000 passengers visited Cuba via cruise ship in the first four months of the year. With the ban on cruise ships already in effect, reports suggest tourist destinations such as Havana\u2019s Plaza de la Revolucion or the street-art masterpiece of Fusterlandia are now relatively tranquil, with no buses offloading hundreds of passengers at a time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cuban-food-5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10508\" src=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cuban-food-5.jpg\" alt=\"Cuban Food\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cuban-food-5.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cuban-food-5-480x300.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 800px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"fw-bold\">3<\/span>\u00a0 | \u00a0The bars and restaurants<\/h4>\n<p>After the 2016 thaw in US-Cuba relations during the Obama administration, the Cuban government further loosened the restrictions on private enterprise and issued nearly 500,000 small business licenses, many focused on hospitality. This led to a new wave of private restaurants \u2013 called\u00a0<em>paladares<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 around the capital changing Cuba\u2019s reputation for bad food. Just try out Cuban tapas joint, Jibaro, or the hip breakfast spot, El Cafe for a taste of new Havana.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cuban-people-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cuban-people-2.jpg\" alt=\"Cuban People\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cuban-people-2.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cuban-people-2-480x300.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 800px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"fw-bold\">4<\/span>\u00a0 | \u00a0Support the Cuban people<\/h4>\n<p>Cuba\u2019s economic situation is precarious. They already struggle with food and fuel shortages, and there are predictions of further economic hardship ahead. Every cab journey, every meal in a<em>\u00a0paladar<\/em>, or night in a\u00a0<em>casa particular<\/em>\u00a0supports Cuban families whose livelihood depends on it. Your spending on the island boosts Cuban entrepreneurship and financial independence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/parque-central-cuba-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10504\" src=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/parque-central-cuba-2.jpg\" alt=\"Parque Central - Cuba\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/parque-central-cuba-2.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/parque-central-cuba-2-480x300.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 800px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"fw-bold\">5<\/span>\u00a0 | \u00a0It&#8217;s complicated, but there\u2019s plenty of expert advice out there to guide you.<\/h4>\n<p>While it is possible to travel to the island independently, many tour operators have been navigating the complicated regulations for decades and can build an itinerary based on your interests. \u201cWe know the law and the legality and make sure everyone travels with full compliance,\u201d said Ronen Paldi, President of Ya\u2019lla Tours, Ensemble\u2019s on-location Cuba specialists. \u201cWe have been operating in Cuba for 17 years and are experts, not just in the American legality, but also in the Cuban way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With its brightly-colored colonial houses and rattling old cars, Cuba has long captured the American imagination. But the regulations on travel to the Communist country have changed from one government [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-americas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Five Reasons to Still Travel to Cuba - Odyssea Voyage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.odyssea-voyage.com\/en\/five-reasons-to-still-travel-to-cuba\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Reasons to Still Travel to Cuba - Odyssea Voyage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With its brightly-colored colonial houses and rattling old cars, Cuba has long captured the American imagination. 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