I (Love) Cuba photo tours/just back from Paradise

[ChosenOne]

Just back from Paradise 4/13/19 sailing to Key West and Cuba.   After much research my sister and I chose to book with I ❤️ Cuba photo tours.  Contact yoselvazquez@yahoo.com for info.   We paid the tour portion in USD so no need to convert $$ for that.  We did convert money to CUC for lunch, cigars, rum coffee and tips for our drivers and guide.  This tour included an hour in an old hot pink convertible and then 5 hours in an air conditioned old  Belvediere!   We had Damien as our photographer/guide.  We brought him an SD card to use to take photos of scenery, candid & posed pics of us.  He knew all the best spots with views, etc.  His English was perfect and he was very informative.  Best thing about this tour is you let them know what you want to see.  Our tour included a trip to the fort, El Morro, for the amazing city views & wonderful photo ops.  We also did John Lennon park so we could have our photo with the statue.  Colon Cemetery was next on the list ( I love cemeteries and this one is Huge with lots of amazing statues and memorials)  At Revolution plaza we ran into Yosel, the owner of the tour company.    We opted for lunch at a quick place so we'd have plenty of time at Fusterlandia.  We also did some walking around Havana Vieja (old town) area to look at the Capital, gorgeous buildings etc.  The obligatory stop for rum, cigars and coffee and back to the port.  Amazing day!

 

We were going out in the evening with people we met to walk around and bar hop.  We took an old car (cab) to Sloppy Joe's  (we  bargained down to $15CUC)  Not much was happening there as it was only about 8:30.  We had one Mojito & then walked around ending up at a rooftop bar at Hotel Ambos.  Beautiful view of the ship and nice breeze.  Drinks were $3-4 at both places.  Listened to some street musicians & walked back to the ship.

 

Here is the trick: I actually chose to convert some CUC back to USD before going out for the evening.  The terminal exchange closes at 8PM.  After that there is no way to change CUCs back to USD or vise versa.  You can't exchange CUCs in the states so anything you have left over is totally worthless outside of Cuba.  I still had about $20 CUC left and I guess it is now considered a souvenir!

 

It is HOT in Havana.  Be prepared with bottled water and lots of sunscreen and a hat!

[v3cruiser]

Thats great info and a similar itinerary we have been putting together.

 

How long did it take to get through terminal and exchange money for CUC's to when you met your tour guide?

[ChosenOne]

20 hours ago, v3cruiser said:

Thats great info and a similar itinerary we have been putting together.

 

How long did it take to get through terminal and exchange money for CUC's to when you met your tour guide?

We got super lucky.  Got up early (5:30AM)  and got an "A" sticker so we would be the first group called after they took the Carnival excursions off the Paradise .  We had originally stated to our tour company we'd meet at 9AM (ship docks at 7) and he wanted to change it to 10 & I countered with 9:30.  Well, somehow the Carnival excursions must have been waiting for people or buses because at 7:15 they called anyone ready in group A,B or C now is your opportunity to disembark the ship.  So we were already packed up for the day, headed to deck 5 was through customs and the money exchange in 10 minutes tops!  So I know that was luck but there are many customs agents and people to exchange money so it should go smoothly once you get off the ship.    I ❤️ Cuba had changed their meeting place and we needed to grab a cab to the hotel.  Fortunately I had Yosel's phone # with me and called him to say we were at the hotel and it was 7:45!  He let our photographer Damien know & they grabbed us about 8:15 so we got started early