Cuba Study Trips makes sure your School Jazz Band plays OFFICIALLY at the Havana Jazz Festival

Morning: Jazz travel to Cuba should make no compromises and immerse the American students traveling to Cuba into the authentic Cuba that coexists parallel to Cuba’s mainstream tourism.

Cuba Study Trips will treat US schools in Cuba to a guided walking tour of OLD HAVANA, a UNESCO world Heritage Site destination that attracts millions of foreign visitors every year.

By the expert hand of your Cuba Study Trips Cuban guide you will tour the 4 main colonial plazas in Old Havana such as Plaza de La Catedral, Plaza de Armas, Plaza Vieja and Plaza de San Francisco.

US schools visiting Cuba will also explore the most important landmarks of Havana’s historical centre. Worth mentioning the Museum of the City, former Captains General Palace, The Fortress of the Royal Force, The Cathedral of Havana, The Basilica de San Francisco, among many other attractions of this popular destination for Cuba’s tourism.

Study trips to Cuba for American universities will wrap the morning exploration with a visit to the largest handicraft market of Cuba, located in a former warehouse on the harbour side. American students traveling to Cuba will have ample free time to purchase all sorts of arts and crafts at very affordable prices.

Study trips to Cuba for US schools attending the Jazz festival of Havana will also include a lunch break at a popular restaurant in Old Havana, Paladar San Cristobal that features not only authentic Cuban dishes but the best Cuban popular music live!

In the afternoon, our Cuba Jazz tours feature an exclusive visit to the Lizt Alfonso Dance School. US students visiting Cuba will be treated to a backstage tour of the dance company. The world acclaimed dance company will also introduce Cuban students to US students for a meaningful people-to-people exchange.

Lizt Alfonso’s choreographies are dance and music of a kind no one else creates: a seamless fusion of Spanish classical dance, ballet, flamenco and Afro-Cuban dance.

Time permitting; the Cuba jazz travel adventure will continue with a short coach ride to the Eastern Beaches of Havana city for some “cooling off” time at the beach before heading back to Vedado for the opening of the International Jazz Festival of Havana tonight.

Tonight is the night! University Jazz Ensembles and Jazz Big Bands traveling to Cuba with Cuba Study Trips will enjoy premium seats at the Opening Ceremony of the International Jazz Festival of Havana.

A morning visit to Cuba’s Higher Art Achools is always a highlight in our Cuba study trips for American students traveling to the Caribbean island for people-to-people exchanges and cultural enrichment. The Cuba Jazz travels will introduce US schools to professors and students of music, visual arts, dance and drama this morning. Students will even be able to take on jam sessions with Cuban young Jazz musicians and staff. This quality time and interaction with Cubans is another component of our Cuba education tours that cannot be copied by other Cuba travel companies providing Cuba educational tours to the Caribbean island.

As people-to-people meaningful exchange is a key aspect in our study trips to Cuba, next Authentic Cuba Travel® will take American students to Jaimanitas, a coastal town in the outskirts of Havana inhabited by fishermen for centuries. This is also the land of Jose Fuster, a Cuban visual artist who has turned the town into a living art gallery. Fuster opens the doors of its residence and studio to Cuba Study Trips this morning for special lunch and guided tour of the area. What a treat! Only with Cuba Study Tours®!

In the afternoon, we will continue our meaningful encounters with the Cuban people by visiting other humble towns in the outskirts of Havana city, San Francisco de Paula and Cojimar coastal town in an attempt to retrace the footsteps of American novelist of Ernest Hemingway in Cuba.

Cuba Study Trips will visit Finca la Vigia, a hilltop villa 20 kilometers east of Havana, where Hemingway lived from 1939 to 1960. It is here where the writer completed some of his greatest works, including The Old Man and the Sea, Across the River and into the Trees, and Islands in the Stream.

Cuba Jazz Travel also features a visit to Cojimar, another coastal town inhabited by fishermen where Hemingway used to park its famous boat El Pilar. Monuments, sculptures and paintings of the famous US writer can be found all over the place. Hemingway was a beloved friend of Cuba and the people of Cojimar.

Tonight marks the first official performance of your University Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Big Band at the Havana Jazz Festival. Authentic Cuba Travel® facilitates the official invitation to play at the main venues.

It is a lifetime opportunity for US students to be honored to represent their university, state and nation in such a world acclaimed event. And then they will get to play and rub shoulders with the most talented Jazz musicians from Cuba and abroad.

Jazz trips to Cuba should also immerse US students in the authentic Cuba that lies outside Havana city. This morning Cuba Study Trips will treat American schools traveling to Cuba to the Vinales Valley and Vinales Town, declared UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Site and showcasing one of the most amazing geological formations in the world, the mogotes, flat-top freestanding rocks hills.

Once in Vinales Valley we will continue our people-to-people encounters with visits to local tobacco farms and meeting with farmers that have been passing from generation to generation the secrets of growing the best tobacco in the world. Jazz Cuba travel should be about exposing US citizens to the Cuban culture and the Cuban people, not just about sipping mojitos in fancy beach hotels.

As part of the Cuba Study Trips explorations of the Valley we will take US students traveling to Cuba to a guided tour of 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.

A visit to Mural de la Prehistoria, a huge painting on the side of a mogote is also a highlight of our trips to Cuba for American schools attending the Havana Jazz Festival in an official capacity.

The most authentic and delicious Cuban dishes are served at Mural de La Prehistoria restaurant. Cuba Study Trips will provide a complimentary lunch next. The venue also features great Cuban country music live.

Before heading back to Havana city, the study trips to Cuba will allow US students to explore some more of Viñales Village at their own leisurely pace. Recommended spots: open-air craft market, Parque Marti, town church, and other interesting sites of this charming colonial hamlet.

Tonight marks the second official performance of your University Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Big Band at the Havana Jazz Festival. Authentic Cuba Travel® facilitates the official invitation to play at the main venues.

It is a lifetime opportunity for US students to be honored to represent their university, state and nation in such a world acclaimed event. And then they will get to play and rub shoulders with the most talented Jazz musicians from Cuba and abroad.

Morning: a guided tour of the Museum of Cuban Art is the icing in the cake for a comprehensive cultural immersion of US students traveling to Cuba as part of our Cuba Study Trips for University Jazz schools. The collection accounts for the richness of the island's Spanish, French, Chinese, African cultural roots.

Cuba Jazz tours will treat US travelers to Cuba with a lunch at Paladar San Cristobal in Old Havana.

Afternoon: to enrich the Authentic Cuba Travel® experience and enhance the people-to-people component of our study trips to Cuba, we will go for a ferry boat ride across Havana harbour to Regla Town. 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 Jazz tours to Cuba for American students.

Tonight marks the closing ceremony of the Jazz Festival of Havana. It also marks the final official performance of your University Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Big Band at the Cuba Jazz Festival. Authentic Cuba Travel® facilitates the official invitation to play at the main venues.

It is a lifetime opportunity for US students to be honored to represent their university, state and nation in such a world acclaimed event. And then they will get to play and rub shoulders with the most talented Jazz musicians from Cuba and abroad.

Your Cuba Jazz adventure to the Caribbean island of Cuba sadly comes to an end. Cuba Study Trips provide with an early morning transfer to Havana City International Airport for departure.