Morning: Our Cuba tours usually begin with a meeting with Cuban architect Miguel Coyula from the organization overseeing Havana’s urban development, Grupo para el Desarrollo Integral de La Ciudad. Mr. Coyula will introduce you to the historical center of the city as you explore the Scale Model of Old Havana.

Next we will pay a visit to Piscolabis Bazar-Café, a privately-owned Cuban bazaar and coffee shop run by self-employed (cuentapropista) Cuban fashion designer Sandra De Huelbes to shop for some exclusive clothing and accessories as well as unique souvenirs and local handicrafts. Shopping in these sorts of stores directly supports the Cuban people and the Cuban families financially while encouraging independent entrepreneurial activities that in turn strengthen civil society in Cuba.

Followed by visit to Clandestina Store & Studio. Founded in 2015 by two women Idania del Río and Leire Fernández, this is Cuba's first independent design store. The space includes a design, creation, and experimentation lab—a printing and finishing workshop; a store that receives 40,000 clients a year and an office that manages a global sales operation. Here you can buy the perfect gift or souvenir while supporting a Cuban family!

Lunch: a new wave of paladares (privately-owned restaurants) has recently swept the Cuban dining scene offering excellent food and charming ambient. Today we’ll enjoy a welcome lunch at the stylish Paladar San Cristobal, one of Havana's top ten private restaurants.

Afternoon: After lunch, it’s off to an experimental printmaking venture, Taller Experimental de Gráfica. Organized as a cooperative, this workshop features the next generation of Cuban lithographers. There, we’ll observe the artists at work as they produce a wide variety of prints including full color lithographs of various sizes, as well as dynamic woodcuts. Often the work incorporates recognizable Cuban symbols and local themes. Support for the Cuban people meaningful exchange in between the US travelers and the Cubans is quite an unforgettable experience of our Cuba tours and travel.

Afterwards, it’s time to stretch our legs and experience the authentic Cuba that lies within Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our guided walking tour will take us to a variety of unique, Cuban cultural sites including several of Havana’s most important squares: Cathedral Square, Square of Arms, Plaza Vieja, and San Francisco Square.

During the afternoon walk, you’ll take in wonderful examples of Cuban architecture, such as the Cathedral of Havana, started in 1748 by the Jesuits, experience the Museum of the City located in the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, where the colonial governors of Cuba once resided, and see one of the Caribbean’s oldest forts, the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, recently renovated into an impressive, maritime museum.

Before returning to the accommodation, you’ll have free time to explore the delightful handicraft market of Old Havana. At the market, you’ll have the chance to purchase crafts and souvenirs that truly represent authentic Cuba. Hence, supporting the Cuban people by patronizing privately owned restaurants, stores, art galleries and other small businesses.

Return to accommodation.

Evening: Even though is not included in the cost of our Cuba art tours, we always recommend going to the Gran Teatro de la Habana to enjoy a performance of the National Ballet of Cuba. (optional)

Morning: The third day of your Cuban art travel begins with a return to Old Havana and a special tour of the Museum of Fine Arts’ Cuban Collection, housed in the beautiful Palacio de Bellas Artes—an added bonus for architectural buffs! The museum displays the largest collection of Cuban visual arts not only in Cuba but in the world.

The next stop in our Cuba art tours is Callejon de Hamel, a completely unique art installation located in the middle of a neighborhood. The heart of a Cuban cultural renaissance, Callejon de Hamel is the brainchild of the late Salvador Gonzales. Using local buildings as backdrops, his vibrant murals and evocative sculptures incorporated imagery from Cuba’s African heritage. You’ll meet local artists and have a chance to learn about their artistic inspirations and hopes for the neighborhood.

One of the favorite highlights of Authentic Cuba Travel®’s Art Tour, Fusterlandia is the studio and residence of one of the most recognizable Cuban artists now working. Meeting the host of our luncheon, Jose Fuster, and seeing his work, is one of the many terrific reasons to get aboard with Authentic Cuba Travel®. A ceramicist, muralist, and painter, Mr. Fuster has garnered global attention for his highly original—and often whimsical—work.

Afternoon: We’ll delve deeper into the contemporary Cuban art scene with studio visits to some influential and highly regarded artists representing several generations and practicing in different media. These include Alicia Leal, a painter who often draws inspiration from myth and religion, and her daughter Cirenaica Moreira, whose latest work explores Cuba’s African roots.

Other memorable stops of our Cuba tours include visits with Juan Carlos Alom, an important experimental photographer, and the Britos’ Sisters. Yamilys is a highly respected, young printmaker, and her sister Jaqueline incorporates personal narrative themes into her paintings.

Return to accommodation.

Evening: Even though is not included in the cost of our Cuba art tours, we always recommend going to the Gran Teatro de la Habana to enjoy a performance of the National Ballet of Cuba. (optional)

Morning: The day begins with a unique opportunity to see how Cuba cultivates its best, young, artistic talent. Cuba's National Art Schools (ISA) offers a comprehensive program much like an arts conservatory in the United States.

Talented students work with a faculty made up completely of professors who are working visual artists, art curators, or art critics. During the tour of the facility, you’ll actively engage both faculty and students, and learn from them about current directions in Cuban Art. This support for the Cuban people activity will result in a meaningful interaction with the new generation of Cuban visual artists.

Lunch: a new wave of paladares (privately-owned restaurants) has recently swept the Cuban dining scene offering excellent food and charming ambient. Today we’ll enjoy lunch at the stylish Caleza Real, one of Havana's top ten private restaurants.

Afternoon: Continuing on the theme of originality and contemporary directions in Cuban art, our Cuba tours visit some at one of the most up-to-date galleries, the Habana Art Gallery. Although it’s one of Cuba’s best known and longest operating galleries, it stays extremely current and showcases leading edge work from Cuban artists.

After our gallery visit, we’ll meet several more artists that are exceptional. Combining media, visual technique, and subject matter in unusual and fascinating ways, these include the self-taught and highly individualistic photographer Rene Pena, Lazaro Saavedra, who combines pictorial work with performances and video, and Jose Angel Toirac, a painter and installation "political" artist.

Evening: Enjoy a beautiful view of the city at the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabana as you experience a great and historic Havana tradition: Fire of the Cannon of 9 O'Clock Fire of the Cannon of 9 O'Clock.

Morning: Our first visit of the day is to the Wifredo Lam Center, named for the world-famous, Cuban, modernist painter.

In much the same way that Lam embraced a fusion of cultures, mythologies, themes and modernist techniques in his work, the Wifredo Lam Center promotes the contemporary art not only of Cuba, but also of other countries in the Caribbean and the developing world.

The Wifredo Lam Center is also responsible for turning all of Havana into a living art gallery during the Havana Art Biennial. While at the Center, you’ll have time to visit rotating exhibits of international work and Cuban art from the Biennial, and the permanent collection includes a number of important pieces by Wilfredo Lam.

Optional Lunch: optional lunch presents as a great opportunity to eat in a privately-owned family restaurant which are abundant in the area. Your Authentic Cuba Travel® tour guide will facilitate individual bookings and we will provide you with a list of recommended paladares before tour departure. Enjoy!

Afternoon: Your art tour of Cuba continues with visits to some of Cuba's most prestigious art institutions including the Center for the Development of Visual Arts, the Fototeca de Cuba, and La Casona Gallery.

During the course of the afternoon, you’ll be exposed to a terrific overview of the recent trends in Cuban painting, photography, video, sculpture, and installation work as you view exhibits, meet artists, and speak with curators and gallery staff.

Return to your accommodation.

Morning: In our Cuba art tours, we celebrate the beginning of a new year with a refreshing visit to Las Terrazas Community, located in the mountains of Sierra del Rosario. This UNESCO Biosphere is a beautiful and unique region showcasing a combination of sustainable development with environmental preservation.

A place where you can enjoy hiking, bird watching, or just lounging around, you’ll get an orientation to the natural wonders of the area at the delightful village of Rancho Curujey.

We’ll do a little local sightseeing while also stopping in to meet local artists and artisans. Your participation in these activities directly supports the Cuban people and the Cuban families financially while encouraging independent entrepreneurial activities that in turn strengthen civil society in Cuba. But don’t forget your bathing suit, as we’ll also take a refreshing swim in the San Juan River.

Lunch will be at a local, traditional paladar.

En route to Vinales Valley, we will make a stop in Consolacion del Sur, a town in Pinar del Rio province to visit the outreach-community project El Patio de Peregrin. The brainchild of Cuban painter Mario Pelegrin, this humble art gallery and pottery workshop has become a power horse to promote diverse cultural and artistic initiatives in the area.

During this visit we will engage with Mario Pelegrin and his team to learn more about the role of this independent organization in Pinar del Rio. This support for the Cuban people activity will result in a meaningful interaction with the individuals of Consolacion del Sur, Cuba. We will present donations of educational & humanitarian items and ask how we can help promoting their work in the USA.

We’ll then continue to the Viñales Valley, where we’ll overnight at your Luxury Casa Particular, a full service accommodation with spectacular views of the valley.

Evening: celebrate New Year’s Eve at a venue of your choosing tonight (optional/ not included in tour costs). Your tour guide will give you advice on the numerous venues in the city where you can partake in the celebrations for New Year’s Eve. He will also help you book your favourite dinner and event. Tour desks can also help with booking events for this special night where one more anniversary of the Cuba Revolution is also celebrated.

Vinales Valley is one of the most geologically striking areas on the island. It has dramatic cliffs, numerous caves, and mogotes, unusual hills with steep sides and rounded tops. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is the pride and joy of the inhabitants of Western Cuba, and one of the most beautiful Cuban destinations to spend your last day in the Caribbean island.

As part of our full-time schedule of support for the Cuban people activities, today we’ll stop in the provincial capital city, Pinar del Rio to visit the studio and art gallery of Pedro Pablo Oliva, one of the most internationally recognized Cuban painters today. With works in the permanent collection of the Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts as well as in array of collections worldwide, the artist decided to fund The Studio of Oliva not only as an art gallery and exhibit space but as a cultural institution promoting the arts in Pinar del Rio.

Lunch: Our tours to Cuba for Americans feature a delicious traditional lunch at the privately-owned bar-restaurant Paladar Yuri & Nino, El Campesino. Yuri is a young woman entrepreneur who started this small restaurant that has expanded into a large establishment. Yuri and her family work hard to create delicious and plentiful food that comes with a beautiful mountain view.

The Cueva del Indio is part of the largest system of subterranean caves in all of Latin America. The caves are the site of both Amerindian pictographs and burials. Indigenous people also used the caves, as well as runaway plantation slaves, as places to hide from Spanish colonialists.

An underground river runs through the caverns, and you’ll get to experience the cave during a trip by boat.

One the way, you’ll view the “Mural de la Prehistoria,” a gigantic hillside painting commissioned by Fidel Castro, and painted by the artist Leovigildo Gonzalez Morillos in 1961.

In the afternoon, you’ll have free time to roam the delightful town of Viñales with its small wooden homes fronted by porches. You can shop at the stalls in the craft bazaar, people watch in the city park, visit the town church, or stroll the Viñales Botanical Garden.

Early morning departure to Havana City International Airport for departure.