The World Journeys host was just amazing. So much fun, extremely kind and helpful, using her initiative to make things easier and better for us.
Local Guide: We only had the one guide for the whole time, which was great. Yaniel was wonderful. So good to have someone willing to talk about the reality of Cuban life. His English was prefect which made life easy and he has a good understanding of how Kiwis tick. Yaniel knew his stuff about history etc but never overloaded us with dates etc. Like Karen, he worked hard to keep things going smoothly but still had the time and inclination to socialise with us.
An amazing variety of hotels, but all functioned well. Disadvantages and advantages of each one (eg: Nacional rooms allow smoking) but no real problems. The B&B we stayed at in Trinidad (Hostel VP) was super clean and nice. The main thing was that the air conditioning worked fine in them all, thank heavens!
Some other comments: The main driver the company provided for our tour (Asiel) was absolutely amazing. His maneuvering skills were exceptional, but even better we soon learned we could trust him with our lives on the dodgy roads.
We had no idea that the resort we would be staying at would be so fabulous! Our expectations were not particularly high, as Cuba does things a bit differently, but nothing prepared us for how good the facilities were. And the beach was exquisite! A lot of Canadians just come for the resorts (which is a shame, but never mind) but perhaps World Journeys could consider using some photos from there as part of the tour promotion? I don’t think many Kiwis would know about the Paradise location in Cuba.
The information we were given before we even left NZ was very helpful. Cuba isn’t the sort of place you can fudge it so it was great we were so well informed. One thing was particularly helpful and that was that ATMS and credit cards wouldn’t necessarily work, and how much cash to take to convert to CUC. Spot on!
