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Philip Levine  March 2026-Cuba trip

From March 9 to 16, 2026

Accommodations: Marques de San Felipe

Number of participants: 10

 

Day 1 •  Monday March 9• Say hello to Cuba!

  • Arrive at Havana’s José Martí International airport (HAV).

  • Transfer to, and check-in at your hotel accommodations is prearranged.

  • Free time to settle in and rest up at your hotel.

  • Group welcome dinner with your guide and tourmates at the private five-star restaurant.  

  • Evening is free for you to explore the sights and sounds of the city

 

Day 2 • Tuesday March 10 • Romancing Old Havana, Walking tour

  • Greet the day with tasty breakfast at your hotel accommodations.

  • Walking tour of the four historic plazas in Old Havana with a local guide. Meet residents and shopkeepers along the way, many of whom are beneficiaries of our humanitarian travel project.

  • Lunch is served at Mojito Mojito private restaurant. Ideally situated in Plaza Vieja, its friendly staff, quaint atmosphere, and delicious food ranks it tops on TripAdvisor. The restaurant’s slogan, “A single mojito is not enough.” We agree.

  • Free time painting in Old Havana.

  • Bus will pick up participants at 4:30 p.m

  • Dinner included at a private, local restaurant.

  • Together with hundreds of Cubans, attend El Cañonazo, the 9 PM Cannon Firing Ceremony.

 

Day 3 • Wednesday March 11• History, Fusterlandia, American vintage cars

  • Greet the day with a tasty breakfast at your hotel accommodations.

  • We'll feast on a delicious lunch (included) hosted by José Fúster, one of Cuba's most important ceramists and painters. And we’ll tour his whimsical studio in Jaimanitas, just outside of Havana

  • Return to your hotel accommodations to freshen up.

  • Time for you to explore the city.

  • Get ready for an American vintage car tour of Havana. Hail back to picture postcard days of the 1950s. You will tour the most important sites of Havana in classic US automobiles lovingly restored and maintained by their owners.

  • Dinner tonight is included.

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Day 4 • Thursday March 12• Arts & Painting

 

  • Greet the day with tasty breakfast at your boutique accommodations.

  • Visit San Alejandro school

  • Lunch at a private restaurant

  • Departure to Bosque de La Habana (Havana’s Forrest)

  • Free time for painting the beautiful surroundings of Bosque de La Habana

  • Return to hotel and freshen up for the evening.

  • Dinner included

  • Don’t miss out on Havana’s nightlife. Your guide can suggest all the hot spots.

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Day 5 • Friday March 13• Organoponico,  Hemingway & Cojímar

  • Greet the day with tasty breakfast at your accommodations.

  • We'll visit the UBPC Vivero Organopónico Alamar, 15 km (9.3 miles) east of Havana. It's one of the most successful urban organic farms in Cuba raising ornamental plants, medicinal herbs, and millions of seedlings for neighboring residential and collective farms. Established in the early 1990s, the Alamar cooperative has over 20 members and provides a range of healthy, organic vegetables to the community. Produce is raised employing the practice of permaculture: no chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Instead, natural biological methods are used to nourish the soil, frustrate pests and conserve water. The result is an increased rate of yield and reduced costs.

  • Visit Finca La Vigía (House and farm of Ernest Hemingway Museum) where North America's literary giant Ernest Hemingway spent twenty-one of his most important and productive years penning building blocks of English literature.

  • Special lunch prepared by private restaurant El Ajiaco, included.

  • Visit Cojimar, small fishing Village one of Hemingway’s favorite’s places.

  • Free time for painting.

  • Return to your accommodations.

  • Dinner included at a private restaurant.

 

Day 6 • Saturday March 14• Fine Arts & Capitolio

  • Greet the day with tasty breakfast at your accommodations.

  • Havana’s Louvre. Examine Cuba’s greatest visual masterpieces spanning three centuries at Havana’s Museum of Modern Art – Palacio de Bellas Artes. Sections are devoted to landscape, religious subjects, and narrative scenes of Cuban life over 300 years. Together the exhibits account for the richness of the island’s Spanish, French, Chinese, African and Aboriginal cultural roots. Notable works include those of René Portocarrero and Wilfredo Lam. You’ll meet and chat with museum staff and perhaps local artists.

  • Visit to the renovated Capitolio de la Habana. El Capitolio, or the National Capitol building, is the former seat of government and the most famous landmark in Cuba. Located in Havana, it was completed in 1929 and was the city’s tallest building until the 1950s. By 1933, the country was in a depression, and 22 people were shot dead as they protested against the government outside the building. Historians note that, in the wave of destructive aggression that was sparked by Machado’s resignation, the building remained unscathed, except for the former-President’s face on the door bas-relief which was scratched out. You’ll get these and other insights of the history of Cuba while wandering its stunning halls.

  • Lunch at local restaurant, included.

  • Free time for painting in Havana.

  • Dinner included at a private restaurant .

  • Time to explore Havana’s vibrant nightlife, and make new Cuban friends. We’ll keep you posted on evening entertainment options
     

Day 7 • Sunday March 15• Viñales Valley, land of the Gods

  • Greet the day with tasty breakfast at your accommodations.

  • We’re off to voluptuous Viñales Valley, an idyllic mountaintop hamlet in the heart of Cuba’s celebrated tobacco-growing region. The village sits in the center of an expansive valley surrounded by stunning karst hill formations known locally as mogotes. Mogotes are irregularly shaped steep-sided hills that can rise a thousand feet, and have bases ranging from just a few hundred yards in diameter to more than a mile in width. In commendation, UNESCO lists exalted Viñales Valley’s natural wonders as a World Heritage Site.

  • Birding along the road.

  • Visit a privately-owned small tobacco plantation that produces the rarified leaves for Cuban’s world-renowned cigars. We’ll meet the owners – the third generation of women – who operate the farm using horses and oxen. They’ll give a personal demonstration on how to craft hand-rolled Habano cigars.

  • We’ll hike the fields of Finca Agroecologica El Paraiso organic farm and learn how this family reclaimed a rocky mountainside to grow vegetables, herbs, and exotic fruit trees.

  • Lunch at an organic farm: Finca Agroecologica El Paraiso. All of its menu selections are cooked up from organic farm-fresh local ingredients. “So incredibly delicious,” say many hundreds of TripAdvisor diners.

  • Boat ride through the aquatic veins of Cueva del Indio [Indian cave]. Float on the underground river that runs through a vast limestone cavern. You’ll get bat’s eye view of mammoth-sized stalactites and stalagmites lining the interior of this mini-mountain karst formation, known as a mogote in Cuba. These camel-hump formations date back to the Upper Cretaceous era.

  • Return to your accommodations in heavenly Havana.

  • Farewell dinner is included.
     

Day 8 • Monday March 16• Missing Cuba so much already

  • Greet the day with tasty breakfast at your boutique accommodations.

  • Transfer to José Martí International airport (HAV) for flights home.

  • We’ll miss you and hope you will return soon. In Cuba, we say, “A true friend remembers the song in your heart when you have forgotten the lyrics.”

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