You start your dance trip with a few days of salsa dance lessons in Havana, the capital of Cuba. There you can experience the nightlife of Havana in the evenings and at the same time try out your newly learned salsa skills. As a break in between, you can enjoy the peace and quiet in the picturesque mountain landscape of Viñales and the Topes de Collantes National Park! This trip takes you through the idyllic small towns of Trinidad, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba – cities where you can test your salsa skills and of course improve them thanks to a few more dance lessons.
Here we go! We will pick you up from the airport in Havana and take you to your accommodation. Arrive and discover the streets of Havana, drink your first mojito and look forward to a great time. Tomorrow your dance trip in Cuba really starts.
On the second day of the dance trip, you will start the dance course with your first salsa lesson. You will meet your teacher, who will turn you into dance professionals over the next few days, but will also be happy to give you tips about Cuba. Of course, he will adapt to your dance level and your individual wishes. In the afternoon, we will organize a guided tour of the old town – La Habana Vieja. During the tour, you will visit the most exciting places in Havana’s old center and learn facts and interesting things about the history of this wonderful city. In the evening, you can also immerse yourself in the nightlife and put your first salsa skills into practice.
On the third day, after the dance session in the morning, you will get the second part of the city tour – you will discover the outskirts of Havana. If you are already a little tired, that’s no problem, because you will be driven in a vintage car! The evening program could be colorful, in the truest sense of the word. Visit the famous Tropicana show, an open-air event that mixes salsa and other spirited dances. This event will definitely captivate you dance enthusiasts!
Dance break! You are taking a day trip to the tobacco valley in Viñales. You can explore the unique limestone cliffs and cave landscape on foot, by bike or even on horseback. If you want to go horse riding in Cuba, then you should do it here. You have probably already noticed that tobacco is a big topic in Cuba. That’s why you visit a tobacco farmer on his farm and watch how to roll a real Cuban cigar. And if you want to dance even more, there are also bars and “Centros culturales” there with entertainment during the day! Your dance trip through Cuba doesn’t necessarily have to take a break here. You travel from and back to Havana in a vintage car. You can admire the wonderful landscape on the way.
On day 5 of the dance trip, you will start the day with salsa energy again. In the afternoon, you can explore Havana individually. In the evening, we recommend the Fábrica de Arte Cubano, where you can be enchanted by Cuba’s contemporary art scene. A varied program from painting and architecture to music and theater to photography and cinema awaits you. At the bar, you will meet both Cubans and international guests.
To ensure that you don’t get out of your routine on your dance trip in Cuba, you and your dance partner will have another salsa dance class on the morning of day 6. The afternoon is at your leisure. Our buddy tip: follow in the footsteps of the great Ernest Hemingway. The Nobel Prize winner for literature spent more than 20 years in Cuba. So there are a few places to discover where he also walked. In the evening, you can meet your dance teacher when you visit a dance bar together and immerse yourself in Cuban nightlife under expert guidance – and of course practice and deepen your salsa knowledge.
Today you will be picked up by your private driver, you will leave the capital and make your way to a really special city: Trinidad. The colonial city in the south of Cuba exudes the typical deluxe flair and you will feel like you have gone back in time. The colonial buildings here have been lovingly renovated and you can also indulge in salsa in the local Casa de la Música – because of course salsa has not stopped in Trinidad either. If you still have energy, you can go dancing again on the first evening.
We hope that no corner of the world cultural heritage remains hidden from you, so we will organize a half-day city tour through the small streets of Trinidad and past the palaces of the rich families. Of course, there are also professional dancers in Trinidad who will be happy to invite you to an advanced level course in the afternoon. This will definitely underline the name of your Cuban adventure – your joint “dance trip to Cuba”.
Are you longing for some pure nature? You are guaranteed to enjoy this today on a trip to the Topes de Collantes nature reserve. The mixture of rainforest, pine, eucalyptus and deciduous trees, coupled with rivers, underground caves and waterfalls, creates diverse ecosystems and is ideal for hiking. The two main hiking trails lead through the La Batata cave to the Hacienda Codina, where orchids and bamboo gardens await you, and through the rainforest to the Salto del Caburní, a 65 m high and gradually sloping waterfall in whose pool you can swim. Along the way you will learn interesting facts about nature in Cuba as well as agriculture and more.
We continue to a city that is not yet very touristy. Camagüey is located in the southeast of the country and is a quiet stopover on your dance trip. Camagüey is the fourth largest city in Cuba, has the second largest old town after Havana and has an unusually labyrinthine street layout. Worth seeing are, for example, the cathedral from 1748 – there are a total of eight Christian places of worship in the colonial city – the Plaza San Juan de Dios, the Plaza Agramonte and the Plaza del Carmen.
Say “Goodbye Camagüey” once – and then you’re off. Today’s trip takes you to the city of carnival and to the other end of the island of Cuba: Santiago de Cuba welcomes you. If you feel like it, you can go to a beach party on the first evening, where your salsa skills are guaranteed to pay off.
Today you will go on two discovery tours. In the morning you will be given another city tour. Decide for yourself whether Santiago can compete with Havana or is incomparable. In the afternoon we have a special surprise tip for you: how about trying out another Latin American dance style? Perhaps your dance teacher in Havana already showed you the basics of the rumba at the beginning of your salsa trip. If not, you now have the chance to try a new dance and learn the rumba to live music in the Casa del Caribe.
In Santiago de Cuba you definitely shouldn’t miss the Carnival Museum, where you can admire original costumes and instruments, among other things. A visit is almost a must, because carnival here in Cuba is something completely different to that in Europe. In the afternoon you can enjoy another course – although this time it’s less about dancing. This time you can live out your musical side yourself. How about percussion? And of course music will also be the end of your day. If you liked the Casa de la Música in Havana, you can also visit one in Santiago. Have a nice last evening in the city, because the next day it’s “Adiós Cuba – mi amor”.
Your Cuba dance trip ends today and we will take you from your accommodation in Santiago de Cuba to Holguín airport. You will begin your return journey full of new impressions and wonderful memories. Have a nice flight!
U.S. travelers need an eVisa to enter Cuba. This document allows stays of up to 90 days for tourism purposes and must be obtained before departure. It can be purchased through Cuban consulates, select airlines, or specialized travel agencies. We recommend applying at least three weeks in advance to ensure a smooth travel experience. You can buy it directly from us in our shop.
The easiest way to fly from the USA to Cuba is via direct flights to Havana (HAV) from major cities like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, New York, Houston, and Los Angeles.
In Cuba, “devices with GPS” are officially banned. Smartphones such as iPhones and iPads were not allowed to be imported for a long time. But: Nowadays, every traveler and Cuban has a smartphone. In reality, importing the devices is absolutely no problem. When you enter the country, no one is interested in your phone. Luckily, because this means you can access offline maps for later navigation and orient yourself using the GPS signal.
Due to the enormous differences in income and purchasing power between tourists and locals, tips are very important. For many people working in tourism, they are the main source of income and often amount to several times the actual salary, which in Cuba, depending on the profession, is between 150 and around 1000 Cuban pesos per month (equivalent to around 6-40 US dollars). We recommend not being too lavish with tips. A factory worker has to work for 24 CUP (= 1 US dollar) for a day. The porter in the hotel earns this amount in 5 minutes thanks to a generous tourist. A little tact is required here.
At the moment, the import of GPS-enabled devices, including GPS-enabled smartphones, is (actually) prohibited. As I said: “actually”. We have never heard of a case in which Cuban customs officials confiscated a cell phone from someone upon entry. The same applies to GPS trackers.
We keep hearing that GPS-enabled devices don’t work in Cuba. That’s not entirely true. In the Sierra Maestra, we had a GPS tracker with us on our hike and it worked perfectly.
In the meantime, the laws in this area are being relaxed step by step. Nevertheless, GPS navigation systems are still not allowed in Cuba. It is best to get a map in advance or install an offline map. That’s what we do when we travel with Cuba Buddy. One recommendation that we use ourselves is Map of Cuba offline.
If you need more tips, please feel free to ask us. The current apps have the advantage that they contain street directories, maps, points of interest, etc. and you can also enter your accommodation, for example.
We can also recommend Maps.Me, as the app works great offline. Install the apps while you are still in Germany and start them to test them. Often some settings still need to be updated or maps downloaded. So really take a short time in Germany and test all the apps. Try to see it as the start of your Cuba adventure. That way it will be more fun and easier.
On your trip through Cuba we recommend that you take part in the local culture, for example in Havana you can enjoy many concerts with live music - this is how you discover the real Cuba!
Discover Cuban culture with Cuba Buddy on our salsa trip
In Havana or many other cities on your trip you will have the opportunity to see a variety of dance shows.
Get to know a variety of musicians at the Fabrica de Arte Cubano
