Classic Car Tour - pick your own car in advance

We would like to pre-arrange our car tour for Havana AND would like to pick our car as opposed to the tour shows up with whatever car we get. Old Car Tours allows you to pre-select your car. Does anyone know any other classic car tour groups that also allow you to pre select your car before your arrival? We are car enthusiasts and have set in our mind a few select cars we want....silly, I know! :)

We picked a car with Old Car Tours but they showed up with a different one.

We, too, picked a specific car with Old Car Tours and they showed up with a different one. The say in advance that this could happen due to the age of the cars not being always available. We still very much enjoyed the tour.

We won't be in Havana until next May but I booked with Blexie and requested a Ford sedan with a/c. He emailed back that we would have a 57 Ford sedan with a/c with the guides name and where to meet. I guess I'll find out when we get there if we get what he says will be there.

If you want a particular car, you can ask- but I would caution setting yourself up for disappointment if that car is not what you get. I know a gentleman who was quite disappointed when his requested car was not what he got. Nonetheless, he said the guide and tour were good.

We did not care which car- and a good thing because our scheduled car broke down on the way to get us and they arranged something else on the fly. Interesting that our classic American car had a Mitsubishi diesel engine. Apparently there are very few original engines in the cars.

Has anyone used Old Car Tours?  I haven't seen many reviews for them.  I will be there in February with my husband and 14yo dd

29 minutes ago, momonmeds said:

Has anyone used Old Car Tours?  I haven't seen many reviews for them.  I will be there in February with my husband and 14yo dd

Have you already confirmed with OCT? If so, we were with them last May and highly recommend! I would further ask for driver Rolando and Luis as guide. 

Otherwise, I have a full review with Blexie (last minute trip and OTC was unavailable), and they were amazing as well! Check out all details and pics here! It's a pristine Ford Fairlane! 

https://escapadeschica.com/2018/11/15/cuba-where-time-stood-still/

Brenda 

I have two cars booked with them I chose 2 but could care less what they are as long as they are convertibles.im sure they breakdown and have to be substituted and we are in no position to worry about it.ill see plenty of classics when I go to Charlotte for auto fair in April.

All we want is a car with air conditioning. Has that request ever not been granted and they show up with a convertible with no air conditioning? That was our other option.

We used Blexi in Dec . and asked for a convertible. He talked us out of it and showed up with a 57 Chevy in great condition with a/c. It is hot there and we were glad to have the a/c.

We have a car reserved 

with Blexie I believe he only has sedans with a/c. That why I booked him.

On 8/6/2018 at 2:51 AM, pbenjamin said:

We picked a car with Old Car Tours but they showed up with a different one.

I picked 2 but im not counting on them being what i picked.i told him as long as they are large convertibles im good.i go to the big car shows every year that gives me my fill of the old classics.

We just disembarked today. We planned two tours with oldcartours.com and they brought the exact cars we requested. Both tours (Hemingway and Central Havana with Fusterlandia) were wonderful. When you meet at the Russian Orthodox Church (about 2 1/2 blocks from the cruise terminal) they had a piece of paper with our name, They then called the driver and waited for the tour guide to show up. On both tours we left before the agreed upon time. The guides were very knowledgeable and friendly. There was only one issue--we are in our mid 70s and it was difficult to fit our butts, legs and knees in the back seat of a convertible!!!!!!

oldcartours doesn't have to pick you up at the church near the pier.  We had them pick us up at Paladar San Cristóbal and drop us off at  El Floridita.  They go to the paladar early and waited patiently while we finished our lunch,

We booked with Blexie for April 2019 in Havana and Viajes Vintage in Cienfuegos.  There will be a 90 minute drive from Cienfuegos to Trinidad and then back again.

They assured me that the driver, guide and 4 adults would fit comfortably.  I'm concerned that these cars do not have seatbelts.  Can anyone let me know about that?

Please respond to pcohen48@gmail.com

Our group of 11 just got off Majesty of the Seas yesterday and were in Havana on Thursday and Friday. I booked 4 cars through FERTOURS and my only request was one convertible.  We received a pink Chevy convertible that made our birthday girl extatic.  I personally wanted a sedan with air condition even though it wasn’t terribly hot in Cuba this week so we also received 3 sedans.  I can say that pink convertibles are very popular and there are several private “taxis.” Also, you will see far more Chevys than any other brand of car. For some reason, Chevy parts are easier to come by which was fine with us since we are from Detroit and had 3 GM engineers in our group. 

I cant say enough wonderful things about FERTOURS. My significant other (a GM emoloyee) really wanted to ride in a ‘57 Chevy which I didn’t request, however some of us planned to go out at night and our wonderful guide Mikey helped us arrange (last minute) to be picked up at the ship terminal later in the evening. He arrived with 3 cars including a green ‘57 Chevy, so I had yet another happy camper. 

From what I saw here’s how it seems to work with the private tours...the owner of the tour company may own his own vehicle and may serve as a guide/driver personally but by and large to accommodate larger groups or multiple customers on one day, they contract with their friends. The drivers own the cars you ride in and may or may not speak English. The guides hired by the company spoke perfect English. These were highly educated people. Among our FERTOURS guides was a  mechanical engineer, a Cuban born man educated in the US before returning to Cuba as an adult, and a female with an accounting degree from the university. I was particularly impressed that Fernando from FERTOURS provided us with a female guide since it was particularly helpful when we ladies needed to use the restroom. 

In short, you can request a specific car and a good private tour company will do their best to accommodate you. There is no guarantee, but all of our requests were met and I must say it was one of the best (if not the best) private tour I’ve ever booked in any country. The service we received may have even surpassed the service I received in Civitaviccia/Rome some years ago which until now set the bar for me. 

I don’t recall seatbelts but I honestly didn’t care so I didn’t bother to look.

Definitely avoid the ship’s tours. I felt so sorry for the folks hopping on giant busses being herded like cattle through the city. 

Heres a pic of the cars waiting for us on time as requested.