Itching to Go to Cuba? – Andrés, OutINCuba

Andrés - OutInCuba

Cuba is a different kind of country, mostly because of its history and the actual consequences it and for that reason it is now at its best! If you are going for the first time, having a tour guide with you to show you around and explain a lot of things will enrich your experience on this great island.

Havana Music - PixabayTo enjoy the country and understand its rhythm and its sights it is better if you have an idea of all the history and gossip that this island has behind buildings, streets, landscapes, food, cocktails, behaviors, words and people.

In Cuba people laugh at their own problems and anything can inspire a joke, a song, a dance or whatever that means joy and you can see and sense how carefree our people are, in spite of all the problems and struggles.

Again, Cuba is a different kind of country full of fun and a sense of freedom to enjoy every minute with no rush.

As a tour guide I always welcome my future friends at the airport, and having a smiling face welcoming you at the airport can be very cheering.

I love the idea of waiting for complete strangers that I’m going to be with for days. The adrenaline of not knowing how it’ll be like.

Cuba - PixabayWe head in Havana in an old American car with AC to make the experience even more interesting. Havana it is a like a live museum of cars, and we are all so used to see them going around, but I know that people also come to Cuba to live the contrast of the old 40ies and 50ies with the influence of modernity.

One of the first things I make clear it is that living and being in Cuba is a big exercise of patience, because there are many things that are hard to find easily, a lot of stuff must be gotten with old fashion means, you are going to be offline most of the time. Things here are not like you know them at home. Cuba in many ways seems to have stopped in time and closed the door, but left the window open and there is a lot coming in through that window

Some people have asked me “don’t you get bored of saying the same thing in the tours every time?” and the answer is no, because the interaction makes it different, the feedback and the individual interests make a change and the information might be basically the same, but again, the interaction does its magic.

For smokers and drinkers Cuba is like a paradise since here you can smoke and drink almost everywhere. For those who love music and dance, it is the same, in fact, there will be a time in which you’ll long for silence because there is music all around.

If you like jogging you can choose the sunrise or the sunset when the weather is cooler and do it through El Malecon with the Ocean on one side and the city on the other side, take little breaks seating in the same Malecon surrounded by fishermen, guitar players, people in love, friends laughing, old cars passing by, sellers, tourists, locals, all type of people, and the best thing: it is really safe. You can even walk around after midnight in the Old Havana without fear.

For night life there are options that can’t be missed. If you want to experience gay bars you’ll have more than 3 options, you can also do some kind of gay hopping since two of them are near each other in the gay friendly neighborhoods. In Havana some things can happen just fast and you can suddenly find a concert or a party going on anywhere.

Cuba - PixabayThere are places in the country that are so worthy to see, and two of them are Viñales and Trinidad.

Viñales it is like one of the most beautiful country sides of Cuba.It will be hard not to fall in love with the sights and the tranquility, the pure air, the food and even the nightlife which is way different than Havana.

Trinidad it is a city that never changed its looks, the colonial architecture it’s original, nothing fake,
The good thing is that the locals mingle with the travelers very well and the American influence in the Cuban culture through the history until nowadays it is very alive.

Gay life in Cuba is not something forbidden anymore, and you’ll find amazing how supportive people can be. Most of the more popular restaurants and bars have gay owners or a story related to a gay character, or gay waiters, so you don’t have to be in a gay friendly neighborhood to enjoy, In fact, it is more likely that you’ll have more fun in a mixed place than in a gay bar. There is always the great gay beach that is just 20 minutes from Havana.

Farewells are always hard and the feeling of becoming friends can come so easily in Cuba, maybe it’s the weather that makes us like that, because even the tourists become more friendly, it can be the alcohol with the music and the heat, you don’t know until you know, but there is a magic in the air of this little country that makes people happy, and believe me, you’ll go home or wherever you are going next feeling luckier and better.

OutINCubaOUTINCUBA comes to you from California Wine Country where we have been offering LGBTQ wine related tours for over ten years. We fell in love with Cuba when a family member married a Cuban and we have traveled to Cuba many times to meet family there and to explore more offerings for our guests. We offer custom designed, legal LGBTQ tours to Cuba through ” Support of the Cuban People”. We do not partner with any government owned businesses in Cuba. Our goal is to help support our LGBTQ team, friends and their families.

We have assembled a team in Havana of four of the best LGBTQ guides. We will show you the “Other Side” of Cuba. We work with seven Havana gay welcoming Casa Particulars that are privately owned inns. All of them are located in Old Havana in what we consider the best and most exciting locations. One of our favorite guides is Andres, who will welcome you at the airport with a sign and a smile to assist you in your Cuban adventure. He can show you art due to him being an artist himself. Take you to private showings at artist studios. Take you out dancing at exciting LGBTQ clubs. There always the great gay beach, Play Este but 20 minutes from Havana that is amazing with the best swimming.

We work with other gay welcoming Casa Particulars throughout Cuba. In Vinales and also Trinidad. We will arrange transportation on your own or have one of our guides travel with you. We offer private cars..bus arrangements and taxi info.

Our tours are small. Usually couples, singles or four friends. We do offer large tours if requested. Our offices are in California and we are here to answer and discuss any thoughts you have on your time in Cuba. You can call us to just talk CUBA!

Cuba Gay Travel Resources

 

Visiting Cuba: 10 Things To Know Before You Go – Globetrotter Girls

Visiting Cuba - Dani

Cuba had been on my travel wish list for a long time. Every time I visited the Yucatán, I thought about hopping on a flight to Havana from Cancun, but somehow it never happened. The restrictions for Americans to travel to Cuba played a big role in this during my first two visits to Mexico in 2010 and 2012, but in 2017, the timing was finally right.

I found a $100 flight deal from Cancun to Havana, and thanks to the ease of travel restrictions for Americans along with new flight routes from the U.S., my friend was able to fly directly from New York to Cuba. (Side note: The joy was short-lived. After Trump’s new restrictions, I am glad that we went to Cuba this year. If you are a US citizen, read this NYT article to find out how you can visit Cuba under the revised Cuba policies).

Even though getting to Cuba from North America has become easier, the country itself is not particularly easy to travel in. I did a lot of research before my trip to make sure I knew what I’d be getting myself into, and that I would be able to prepare accordingly, from dealing with two currencies to arranging transportation around the country in a place where I couldn’t just hop into a rental car like I’d done in Mexico a couple of weeks prior.

Of course, despite detailed research, it was impossible to find out everything I needed to know, and some things I learned as I traveled the country (the fact that there are more tourists than available seats in public buses, for example!).

To help make sure your trip goes as smoothly as possible, I wanted to share with you the ten things I think you need to know before traveling to Cuba.

By AUTHOR – Full Story at SOURCE

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Trinidad, Cuba – Globetrotter Girls

Trinidad, Cuba - Dani

The true showstopper in Cuba for me wasn’t Havana, but Trinidad, a city founded by the Spanish that dates back to 1514 and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I wasn’t sure if it’d be worth the long drive to get there – the city is located pretty much in the middle of the island, halfway between Havana in the north and Santiago in the far south; around 6 hours on a bus from Havana. But I am so glad that we decided to add it to our itinerary, despite the distance from Havana and Viñales, our first two stops.

Trinidad looked like it hadn’t changed much since the Spanish founded it in the 16th century – colonial houses line cobblestone streets, there are several Spanish-colonial churches and neatly arranged plazas, and horse carts outnumber cars. When people say that a trip to Havana feels like a trip back to the 1950s (because of all the American vintage cars from that time), it’s safe to say that a trip to Trinidad feels like a trip back to the 16th century.

In Trinidad, we got to really soak up Cuban life. With four nights here, we had plenty of time to experience Cuban culture, watch people dance salsa in the town square and in the bars every night, watch locals meet for a chat or a glass of rum in one of the benches that lined all the plazas, and artists draw paintings in the many galleries.

By Dani – Full Story at Globetrotter Girls

Cuba Gay Travel Resources

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Classic Cuba – Globetrotter Girls

Classic Cuba

I have so many thoughts and emotions about my Cuba trip, I am still processing everything I’ve seen and experienced on this spellbinding little island. Visiting Cuba turned out more challenging as I thought it would be, but it was so worth it. I have yet to go through the thousands of photos I took and sort my thoughts, but I’ll be sharing a number of Cuba articles shortly.

For now, let’s just say that Cuba isn’t like any other country I’ve ever visited, and yet, it felt strangely familiar. Why is that, you wonder? I grew up in East Germany, a Communist country, just like Cuba still is. In fact, Cuba was one of our socialist allies, and while with the collapse of the Communist bloc, life for me and 16 million other East Germans took a huge turn (for the better), Cubans still live so many aspects of the life that I remember from my childhood.

Before this little teaser for my upcoming Cuba content becomes too much of a ramble (I’ll be talking about this ‘walk down memory lane’, which this trip inadvertently turned into for me, in an upcoming article) – for now I just want to say that I was fascinated by the spirit of the Cuban people, the lust for life, their ability to find joy in the little things, and about seeing how life spills out into the streets everywhere.

By Dani – Full Story at Globetrotter Girls

Cuba Gay Travel Resources

Cato Jutias, Cuba – Globetrotter Girls

Cayo Jutias - Dani

Even though Cuba is a Caribbean island, whenever I thought of Cuba, a Caribbean vacation was not what I had in mind. Instead, I pictured Spanish-colonial colorful towns, lush green tobacco fields and the crumbling facades of Havana’s grand buildings. What I wasn’t thinking of were turquoise, crystal clear waters and pristine beaches fringed by palm trees. But of course, there are lots of exactly those in Cuba, and I am glad that I got to include a couple of them into my packed Cuba itinerary.

The first beach we went to, Cayo Jutias, happened to be a beach that is one of Cuba’s most stunning beaches (nearby Cayo Levisa on a tiny island off of the coast is supposedly the absolute best beach in Cuba. And yes, every beach we saw afterwards looked just.. uh.. nice.. in comparison (but those were still Caribbean beaches..!).

Cayo Jutias doesn’t have any hotels, only a couple of restaurants. Other than that, it is just miles and miles of untouched, picture-perfect beach. And the best thing? Since Cayo Jutias is fairly difficult to get to – located on the northern tip of the island, a bumpy 75-minute ride on a pothole-filled country road from the small town of Viñales – there aren’t many tourists there.

By Dani – Full Story at Globetrotter Girls

Cuba Gay Travel Resources

Gay Cuba: An Aura of East Acceptance

Gay Cuba Photo Credit: Augusto Mia Battaglia/Flickr[/caption] Last May I was living the dream — or at least, I was living someone’s dream. I was on a plane bound for Cuba with 11 handsome, muscly men. We had rented a villa in Cuba’s swanky Miramar neighborhood, where we were destined to spend our days sipping Cuba libres poolside, meandering the streets of Old Havana and dancing to that sultry, syncopated Cuban music that can make you forget that the sun rose hours ago. It was definitely fodder for some type of female fantasy … save for the fact that all 11 men were gay. To an outsider, Cuba would probably not seem to be a prime location to promote LGBT travel. But what we found was quite the opposite: a widely tolerant community where being gay is more than accepted. In fact, in Havana, it’s a nonissue. “Forget about the communist side of it: Latin cultures aren’t necessarily accepting of homosexuality,” said David Lee, owner of luxury travel company Cultural Cuba. “Combine that with the communism, which is also not very accepting, and you assume Cuba would be the worst possible place for LGBT travel. But it’s not.”

By Meagan Drillinger – Full Story at Travel Weekly

Cuba Gay Travel Resources

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Cuba – Ten Things to Know Before You Go

Cuba - Sydney Photo by Sydney Coatsworth[/caption] For more than 5 decades, Cuba has been the much lusted after – but unattainable – American vacation. Oh the torture to be so close to those glorious beaches, to a plucky, passionate nation that remains rooted in the 50’s with antique cars and slicked back hairdos. Despite being ruled by a dictator and ostracized by their closest neighbor, they opened their arms to the world and thrived. Although Americans have been allowed access to Cuba since 2011 through licensed tour operators, the recent lift of the embargo has hearts aflutter. But let’s be honest, it’s going to be a while yet before the average American can jet down for an inexpensive, quickie vacation, though things look good for more open American Cuba travel by the end of 2016. Some travel experts predict it will be 2-4 years before the tourism infrastructure in Cuba matures enough to support American vacationers en mass. While you’re waiting for Cuba to ready herself for you, take a few moments to look – really look – at Cuba as a vacation destination. Cuba is home to a smorgasbord of unspoiled beaches, warm climate and passionate, hot-blooded culture, remember – but it’s still a very poor country and it’s had no exposure to American tourists for more than 50 years. Be prepared for some old-world practices.

By Julia Rosien – Full Story at Go Girlfriend

Cuba Gay Travel Resources

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Another Side of Cuba

Henry_Harris_County_Park_in_Tavernier_Florida_insert_c_Washington_Blade_by_Michael_K_Lavers It was breezy, yet sunny Sunday afternoon at Henry Harris County Park in the Upper Florida Keys. Coconut palm trees lined the calm water in which a few dozen people — mostly young children and their Spanish-speaking relatives who were watching them — were swimming. The first landmass that one would reach if he or she were to have sailed directly south from this point of land would be a group of islands near the Cuban city of Sagua la Grande, which is less than 150 miles away on the other side of the Florida Straits. Life couldn’t be any more different for those who live on this side of the treacherous body of water that has taken the lives of untold numbers of Cubans who sought a better life in the wake of the 1959 revolution. I met Samuel, a 23-year-old man, at Cabaret Las Vegas, an unofficial gay club in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood, on my first night in his country. I was completely exhausted from lack of sleep, but we immediately hit it off and he gave me his phone number before I walked the block to the house in which I was staying.

By Michael K. Lavers – Full Story at The Washington Blade

Cuba Gay Travel Resources

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At the Gay Beach in Cuba

Cuba gay beach Mi Cayito, which is Havana’s unofficial gay beach, on Sunday afternoon turned into quite the party. Beachgoers were dancing perreo (an overtly sexual dance to reggaeton music) that leaves very little to the imagination. A group of men were playing volleyball while a lesbian couple cuddled under a makeshift umbrella they set up nearby. A young boy was flying a kite. It was a relaxing afternoon on my first full day in Cuba, which brought me to this section of Playas del Este that is roughly 15 miles east of Havana. The trip thus far seems a bit less uncertain — and dare I say less complicated — than when I visited the Communist island for the first time in May 2015. The process through which an American must go in order to travel to Cuba remains unnecessarily complicated, even though the Obama administration has formally restored diplomatic relations with the country. The cost of a 45 minute charter flight from Miami to Havana is simply absurd. The need to check into it four hours before its scheduled departure — which was at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday at Miami International Airport for me — is even worse. With this complaining aside, the little things appear to have been made a bit less complicated on this side of the Florida Straits.

By Michael K. Lavers – Full Story at The Washington Blade

Cuba Gay Travel Resources

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Gay Cuba

Cuba We all have been reading the buzz around visiting Cuba. The questions we all have are: Cuba

  • Is it really legal to go?
  • Can I go with my lover/partner/spouse and feel comfortable traveling as an LGBTIQA couple?
  • Can I travel single and have a great time?
  • Is it still affordable to visit Cuba?
  • Is Cuba safe?
The answers are all a definite yes!!!! IMG_1891Thanks to the new loosening of travel restrictions from the USA and the recent advances in LGBTIQA equality…now is the time. To experience the architecture and energy of Havana is amazing. Music comes at you from ever cafe and corner. The architecture is both crumbling and being restored and is amazing. The best and most secure way to visit is to have a Gay tour guide to show you around. Be sure to book a hotel or ” Casa Particular” that is gay welcoming. A “Casa Particular” is usually someone’s home that they have restored to rent to people from outside of Cuba. Not only are you living with and having breakfast with locals but they can also offer you all kinds of ideas on travel through out the Island. [caption id="attachment_39871" align="alignright" width="250"]Cuba - Sydney Photo by Sydney Coatsworth[/caption]If gay politics and issues are your thing then Outincuba also employs one of Cuba’s most active LGBTIQA activists that can show you how the great strides in equality are happening today. Below you will find a list of some great resources for info on traveling to Cuba. Remember that you are not going to lay around on the beach… you are going to experience and learn about one of the worlds most vibrant and interesting cultures. Working with a gay owned tour and travel company is the best bet that you will find all the rooms you have reserved and also find the best gay welcoming locations to spend your hard earned free time and money. Charles Kimball of www.OutInCuba.co has Cuban family in Cuba and has spent time there vetting guides and locations that are LGBTIQA friendly and welcoming. The tour guides will meet you with a smile and welcome at the Havana airport and walk you through changing money and off you go in an old 50s taxi to your new home in Havana. Your guide and new friend will take you on a walking tour of Old Havana. If you would like to see “Gay Havana” by night then go out and experience the LGBTIQA culture from a Gay perspective. Last photo by Sydney Coatsworth]]>