Flia

1. February would probably be your best bet for a little bit cooler and less humid weather, but either month won’t be terrible. 

2. We were on a Royal Caribbean cruise. They first let the people off who had excursions booked through them and then the ones who had private/no excursions off. We waited maybe 45 minutes to get off. It wasn’t a hassle per se, but we had booked a tour starting at 9:00 a.m., and ended up being about 30 minutes late, so if you book a tour, give yourself plenty of time to get off and through customs. Our tour guide was awesome though, and we got our full tour. 

3. After our tour, we walked around for a bit on our own and stopped at a restaurant and some shops. From what I’ve read, most tours will meet you in be square across from the cruise terminal. You can definitely explore on your own. 

4. We used I Love Cuba Photo Tours, and our guide Damian was awesome. You can let them know what you’re wanting to see and do, and they will customize the tour for you. Plus, if you bring in SD card, they will take all the pictures with their camera so you don’t have to worry about that. We did a 4-hour tour and have great 250+ pictures. 

We (my husband, myself, and our two young-ish kids) did a private tour through I Love Cuba Photo Tours, and we felt completely safe the whole time. We also met our guide Damian in the square across the street (seems to be a popular meeting place), and after our tour with him, we felt comfortable walking around for awhile. Damian told us that crime is very low, especially against tourists. If you haven’t booked a tour yet, I can’t recommend them enough, and I loved that Damian took all of our pictures for us with his camera, so we have great photos of our trip. I’ve heard a lot of good things about many of the other private tours, so I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the recommendations, I would just recommend doing a private tour over one through the cruise ship. 

We were just there a little over a week ago. We took Royal Caribbean, and they let the people who were doing one of their excursions off first. Our tour wasn’t through them, so we didn’t get off until about 8:45 (we docked a little after 7, but it took them awhile to get cleared and start letting people off). It took us about 45 minutes to get through immigration and exchange our money, but the money exchange took less than 5 minutes. We were in a slow line, though; the other lines seemed to move faster.

We were supposed to meet for our tour at 9 and ended up being about 30 minutes late, but our guide was understanding and accommodated us.

We are going to be in Havana in July with our two daughters, who will be 8 and almost 4. We’ll only be there for a day, and I’m waiting to hear back from a private tour company about a tour so that we can customize our stop there a bit. I’m wondering if anyone has traveled there with younger kids and how it was. Are there any spots that are kid-oriented to stop or any must-sees for kids? Any parks to go to so they can run a bit? They are pretty go-with-the-flow and extroverted kids, and we’re prepping them in advance, but I haven’t seen much about Havana with kids.