Is Cuba on your bucket list? Check out this sample itinerary designed for a large healthcare organization as a study tour. Call or email info@cruisebargains.com for more information. As an Affiliate of Worldview Travel & Member of Virtuoso Travel Consortium, we specialize in affordable luxury travel www.cruisebargains.vacationport.net

1. JOIN COLLEAGUES FROM THE CENTER FOR HEALTH DESIGN
FOR A PRIVATE GROUP TOUR OF CUBA
CUBA: CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE AND CULTURE
In order to reserve space for our February 9-16, 2013 tour please call our exclusive booking agency by August 31,
2012.
Travel Cruise Connections
1-800-213-7777 or e-mail robinorr@cruisebargains.com
For decades, few U.S. citizens have been able to experience Cuba travel. But now, the U.S. Treasury Department’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control has granted Tauck a license to provide People-to-People educational exchange
travel to Cuba through 2012. Meet face-to-face with local residents from different professions, share thoughts, gain
knowledge, and connect with Cuba’s cultural heritage through Cuba: Connecting with People and Culture. Around
key themes of Cuban culture and the arts, education, entrepreneurism, agriculture and the spiritual side of Cuba,
guests interact directly with the people of Cuba. Meet Cuban students and teachers… learn about Ernest
Hemingway’s Cuba … discuss art and private enterprise at the studios of community artists… visit with farmers to
talk about agrarian reform and organic farming… meet with and listen to local Cuban musicians… interact with
members of charitable organizations about their work… learn about Afro-Cuban religious traditions… have dinner
at a paladar (a small, privately operated Cuban restaurant)… and connect with Cuba and Cubans on Tauck's
cultural exchange.
'Auténtica Cuba' – the real Cuba we'll visit on our People-to-People educational exchange trip – is a truly amazing country, and so
different from any other place I've been. The Spanish colonial architecture is beautiful, restored or not. The art and music are genuine,
engaging and everywhere. And the people are warm, open, curious about the U.S., and very eager to share their country and their
culture with us.
Day 1 Begin your Cuba travel in Miami
Tauck’s Cuba travel experience begins at 6:00 PM at the Hilton Miami Airport. Your small group of 20 to 30 travelers gathers tonight at
the Hilton Miami Airport for a welcome reception and Tauck Director briefing about tomorrow morning’s charter flight to Havana and the start of
your educational exchange trip to Cuba.
Lodging
Hilton Miami Airport
Day 2

2. Bienvenidos a La Habana
After breakfast, your Cuba travel begins as your group boards an included charter flight from Miami to Havana’s José Martí International
Airport, where our local Cuban guides greet you. The drive from the airport to your hotel orients you with Cuba’s enigmatic capital city, whose
nearly 500-year-old heart, Habana Vieja (Old Havana), is home to one of the largest collections of Spanish-Colonial architecture in the
Americas. Pass by Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Square), dominated by a memorial tower honoring 19th-century Cuban patriot José
Martí. Arrive at your home for the next six nights, the Meliá Habana. Following lunch at the hotel, head to the Museum of the Revolution –
housed in what had once been Cuba’s Presidential Palace in Habana Vieja – for a discussion on U.S. - Cuban relations, followed by a visit to
the museum’s exhibits with a local guide. Have dinner tonight at the hotel.
Day 3
Cuban Culture Through the Arts
Ernest Hemingway loved Cuba and its people, who returned that affection to the American author they simply called “Ernesto.” Discuss the
novelist’s life and work in Cuba with a local historian at the hotel before traveling to the fishing village of Cojimar, whose people and lifestyle
were the inspiration for The Old Man and the Sea; visit a memorial to Hemingway erected by the people. Continue your Cuba travel to Finca
Vigia (“Lookout Farm”), the author’s home from 1939 to 1960, for a guided visit featuring his 9,000-volume library, his beloved yacht Pilar, and
the typewriter on which he wrote some of his greatest works. Visit an organic orchard and private restaurant for lunch and a cooking
demonstration before continuing to Habana Vieja. Make your way up to Room #511 in the Hotel Ambos Mundos, Hemingway’s “first home” in
Cuba; check out the memorabilia on display. Join your local guide for a stroll in Habana Vieja, including Plaza de Armas; dating back to the
1500s, it’s the oldest square in Havana, surrounded by 18th-century buildings.
Day 4
Cuba’s Independent Artists & Community Spirit
Today’s Cuba travel focuses on the transformative effects of art on Cuban life – featuring interactions with art students and teachers,
independent community artists and the people whose neighborhoods benefit from the cooperative spirit their projects create. Travel to
Jaimanitas on the outskirts of Havana and the home studio of the internationally known community painter and ceramist José Rodríguez
Fuster – dubbed the “Picasso of the Caribbean” – part of an ever-expanding public art project that includes more than 80 uniquely decorated
houses, a chess park, swimming pools and other public artworks; talk with project and community leaders about the project’s impact on the
neighborhood. Then head to one of Cuba's art schools, whose program prepares students for careers in music, visual arts, performing arts
and communications media. Meet students and faculty to discuss the school’s conservatory programs and see the work they produce. Lunch
will feature jazz musicians from the Cuban Institute of Music. Experience Cuban entrepreneurism firsthand this evening with dinner at a
paladar (a small, privately owned and operated Cuban restaurant) that specializes in nouvelle Cuban cuisine.
Day 5
Cuba and the Land
Managing Cuba’s land, water and other natural resources more effectively through agrarian reform, conservation, entrepreneurship and other
initiatives is the focus of our Cuba travel activities today. First, travel to rural Pinar del Rio for a demonstration of and discussion about the
process of producing Cuba’s most famous product – Cuban cigars – at a cigar factory. Continue on to the Viñales Valley for lunch; interact
with students at a rural elementary school or sports complex in Viñales. Visit a tobacco farm for a discussion about agrarian reform with
members of Cuba’s independent farming community; meet community farmers and their families to talk about their newly formed agricultural
businesses, and the general achievements and challenges of agrarian life in Cuba. Return to Havana for dinner at your leisure this evening at
the hotel.
Day 6
The Spiritual Side of Multicultural Cuba
Given the country’s origins as a Spanish colony rooted in Catholic traditions, religion has always played an important role in Cuban society
that continues to the present day – you’ll see this as you interact with Cubans and their religious traditions, institutions and influences today.
Begin today's Cuba travel with an early-morning visit to Havana’s Colón Cemetery (Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón). One of the largest
cemeteries in the world and renowned for its elaborate memorial architecture, it’s the final resting place of noted Cubanos from all walks of life,
including artists, writers, musicians, patriots and ballplayers. Meet with a group from one of several faith-based charitable organizations to talk
about their ongoing educational, medical and spiritual support for Cubans. After lunch, visit Casa de Africa, housing a collection of sacred
artifacts related to Santería – an Afro-Cuban religion drawing upon West African, Caribbean and Catholic traditions – interacting with locals
and staff for insights on these traditions and Africa’s significant cultural impact on Cuba as well as the U.S. Have dinner tonight in Habana
Vieja.
Day 7
Cuban Education & the Future

3. With literacy and higher-education rates among the world’s highest, education is important to Cubans; today, visit Casa Verde in Havana to
talk to local experts about the city’s historic architecture and the role of education in its restoration and preservation. Meet with members of the
Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) to discuss issues affecting women and education in Cuba; then head to the historic Hotel Nacional de
Cuba for a brief tour of the hotel’s Salon of History. After a quick lunch, visit the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), which educates
international medical students from outside Cuba – mostly from Latin American and Caribbean countries, but including some Americans – and
is a major part of Cuba’s healthcare system. Meet and talk with ELAM students, faculty and administrators about medical education in Cuba.
Join us for a farewell dinner in Havana this evening. Note: On departures when a visit to ELAM is not available, another Cuban medical facility
will be substituted.
Day 8
Journey Home
After breakfast, transfer from the Meliá Habana to Havana’s José Martí International Airport for the included return charter flight to Miami.
Tauck’s Cuba travel program of educational exchange ends at Miami International Airport. Allow three hours for flight check-in.