O excursions in Cuba that you enjoyed??

[riffatsea]

Yes! I have posted this question on the Cuba forum but no answers soooo......

Wondering if anyone has enjoyed an O Life Cuba excursion?

Trying to decide which ports to use our 2 included excursions and which to do private ones.

We usually only do ship excursions in tender ports for ease of getting off the ship.

We prefer private or small group tours.

So far none of the ports in Cuba are listed as tender ports(Havana,Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba)

Any info would be helpful. Thankyou

[studebhawk]

We have just returned from our Sirena cruise.

We only booked Oceania ShoreEx for this cruise.

However:

Havana: Just wonderful. I don't think it matters much which city tour you book.  We did the morning Historic Havana walking tour. Later in the afternoon, we walked the city on our own. It is easy to do, it is flat walking, however, you need comfortable walking shoes. The city is covered in historic, old cobblestones, a very rough uneven surface. You really need to look down as you walk as there were many open areas in the street that could set up a bad fall. High curbs and steps are everywhere, and, no curb cuts that Americans are accustomed to.

Cienfuegos: We docked in the port which is surrounded by a very rough six-block area that our guide did not recommend that we try on our own. We did the Historic Trinidad walking tour. It was fabulous, historic, charming even with the hour bus ride to get there.

Santiago: A charming historic city, well worth doing a walking tour with a good guide.

 

Notes: We really enjoyed this cruise. My of our fellow pax said they wanted to come back.

Hemmingway House: Overrun with too many visitors. You can only look in the windows, it was hard to appreciate due to the overrun state of this visit. Disappointing overall. Our guide here was very poor, this was a wasted day.

Due to the heat: Carry your own water, don't drink theirs and carry your own tissues etc.

 

Enjoy!

 

[riffatsea]

Thank you sooo much for your specific information!!

I have heard from others(not on Oceania) that Trinidad was a favorite city!

[RJB]

56 minutes ago, studebhawk said:

We have just returned from our Sirena cruise.

We only booked Oceania ShoreEx for this cruise.

However:

Havana: Just wonderful. I don't think it matters much which city tour you book.  We did the morning Historic Havana walking tour. Later in the afternoon, we walked the city on our own. It is easy to do, it is flat walking, however, you need comfortable walking shoes. The city is covered in historic, old cobblestones, a very rough uneven surface. You really need to look down as you walk as there were many open areas in the street that could set up a bad fall. High curbs and steps are everywhere, and, no curb cuts that Americans are accustomed to.

Cienfuegos: We docked in the port which is surrounded by a very rough six-block area that our guide did not recommend that we try on our own. We did the Historic Trinidad walking tour. It was fabulous, historic, charming even with the hour bus ride to get there.

Santiago: A charming historic city, well worth doing a walking tour with a good guide.

 

Notes: We really enjoyed this cruise. My of our fellow pax said they wanted to come back.

Hemmingway House: Overrun with too many visitors. You can only look in the windows, it was hard to appreciate due to the overrun state of this visit. Disappointing overall. Our guide here was very poor, this was a wasted day.

Due to the heat: Carry your own water, don't drink theirs and carry your own tissues etc.

 

Enjoy!

 

In Havana we did a 2 day tour with FerTours and they were great.  Much better than anything O has and less than half the price.  In Cienfuegos and Santiago we did half day ships tours and they were pretty good.  But for Havana you must do a private tour to see all there is there. 

Edited January 9, 2019 by RJB
spelling

[riffatsea]

Thanks for the advice. Can you say which ship tours you took in Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba??

[RJB]

11 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

Thanks for the advice. Can you say which ship tours you took in Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba??

In Cienfuegos we took Cienfuegos Art in your Hands and in Santiago we did Colonial Santiago.  Have a great trip.  We did. 

[ebslcc]

3 hours ago, studebhawk said:

We have just returned from our Sirena cruise.

We only booked Oceania ShoreEx for this cruise.

However:

Havana: Just wonderful. I don't think it matters much which city tour you book.  We did the morning Historic Havana walking tour. Later in the afternoon, we walked the city on our own. It is easy to do, it is flat walking, however, you need comfortable walking shoes. The city is covered in historic, old cobblestones, a very rough uneven surface. You really need to look down as you walk as there were many open areas in the street that could set up a bad fall. High curbs and steps are everywhere, and, no curb cuts that Americans are accustomed to.

Cienfuegos: We docked in the port which is surrounded by a very rough six-block area that our guide did not recommend that we try on our own. We did the Historic Trinidad walking tour. It was fabulous, historic, charming even with the hour bus ride to get there.

Santiago: A charming historic city, well worth doing a walking tour with a good guide.

 

Notes: We really enjoyed this cruise. My of our fellow pax said they wanted to come back.

Hemmingway House: Overrun with too many visitors. You can only look in the windows, it was hard to appreciate due to the overrun state of this visit. Disappointing overall. Our guide here was very poor, this was a wasted day.

Due to the heat: Carry your own water, don't drink theirs and carry your own tissues etc.

 

Enjoy!

 

Good advice re: cobblestone streets in Havana.  Same if you go to Trinidad. 

 

Our experience is Santigo is the roughest city we visited.  Of the 3 ports it is the poorest and most under repaired near the port.  I don’t think you will get robbed walking around on your own. However it can be uncomfortable with some very aggressive street hustlers offering their ‘help’.  Cienfuegos is the cleanest and most upscale.  We didn’t spend much time on our own since we spent almost 2 full days with our private guide going to Trinidad and around the city until sunset at terraces (absolutely beautiful!!!) both days.

 

re: Oceania excursions we used 2 in Cuba and one in Key West.  We enjoyed all of them. In Santiago we took the El Morro fortress tour: Colonial Santiago.  It was an excellent tour for a cruise excursion.  I wished it was a 5 hours tour for the places it covered.  In Havana we booked the Bueuna Vista Social Club tour which was canceled and then we rebooked the Parisian show at the Hotel Nacional.  I will post some photos and more details later.  It is good to book an evening tour if your ship leaves late night in Havana. You are guaranteed to get back to the ship on time for the sailing.  

 

If you want to see Trinidad I highly recommend taking up a private tour with Tony Castillo vs the Oceania one.  We went to Trinidad covering MUCH MORE than what the ship’s tour covers (shrimp farm stop, local fruit stand stop, Sugarcane plantation guided tour, Trinidad city...), go at our own pace... all for 35 CUC per person (there were 6 of us). in a very comfortable van with seat belts.  Oceania’s Trinidad tour was $229 per person!!! and for our cruise Oceania short change those who took the tour on our first day in Cienfuegos because the ship came in 2 1/2 hours late due to heavy winds. 

 

I also agree with the above recommendation to book a private tour for Havana.  We went with Havana Memories and requested for a guide with 5 star rating reviews on TripAdvisor  (her name is Duramis).  She was excellent.  We requested extra stops: synagogue, Fusterlandia, Chinatown, voodoo alley, Havana forest.., All good!  HM got us a prestine 1955 Ford and an excellent driver.  The car looked brand new with no bad diesel smell. 

 

I agree also Cuba is worth coming back to especially on Oceania and Azamara with the overnight itineraries.  

 

What is your ship’s itinerary?  I may be able to give you some suggestions on excursions timing. 

 

I will post more about our trips soon. 

 

Laurence

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2019 by ebslcc

[sammiedawg]

We did four days of private tours which I highly recommend.  Check out the Cuba board or TA for recommendations.  

I heard quite a few complaints about the Oceania tour to Trinidad.  

[Go-Bucks!]

Here's what we did in Cuba:

 

Havana (2 days & overnight)...during the days we wandered all over Old Havana and had a great time! Also took a 1 hr tour of the city in a classic car. At night we took a ship tour and it was fantastic....saw the Buena Vista Social Club in the Havana Club at the Melia Cohiba hotel. Great music, dancing, food and a drink.

 

Cienfuegos....what a fantastic city!! We took a  private tour with Fernando Mora's tours (guide, Beatriz). I agree with a previous poster who said that this was the most upscale of the 3 cities. We loved our day there.

 

Santiago de Cuba....I also agree that this is the poorest city and we would definitely not walk around on our own! We took a private tour with Yuri, but DO NOT recommend him. The sites we saw were very interesting, but we were led to believe that we would have a personal tour but it was not. 

 

Hope you enjoy Cuba....we LOVED it and hope to return in the future. 

 

 

 

[dingsterkat]

We took the Dec 10 Sirena cruise to Cuba and really enjoyed the trip. My husband has Parkinsons - he can walk but not all day so we wanted to get as much as we could from our shore excursions. In Havana, on the first day we set up a late morning private excursion to Hemingway’s house via OldCar Tours.  They were fantastic. Our requested 1951 Chevy Deluxe convertible was awaiting us along with driver and guide.  We had a beautiful day learning about Hemingway’s time in Cuba and our guide knew every interesting fact about the house and it’s residents. The house is your typical open air tropical house with all windows and doors open wide, so when others complain of not walking through I’m confused. I could see everything from outside, but then on our private tour there were no people in our sight lines and we dawdled as much as we wanted.  We then went to the area where Hemingway launched his boat - beautiful ocean but the countryside was covered in trash. A very poor town outside Havana proper - Cojimar. We tipped the guys who serenaded us on guitar and everyone was happy.

 

We had signed up for an Oceania night shore excursion in Havana but did not go... our fault not theirs. We had signed up for the Buena Vista Social Club concert. But we lost interest when we saw on our tickets that it had been renamed the Guajiros something or other. I’m sure it was fine but didn’t feel like a bus ride. 

 

Second day day in Havana we did another private tour with OldCar Tours - saw the city and did some shopping via another awesome convertible. Wouldn’t have changed a thing on our Havana tours. 

 

Cienfuegos we had booked an Oceania  tour - the submerged pearl but we found out upon embarkation the tour was canceled. No others sounded interesting so we winged it. Rented a private taxi and took a comprehensive city tour and shopped downtown at the end. Very impromptu and inexpensive. Pretty town. 

 

Santiago de Cuba we had booked the Oceania tour - Colonial Santiago. It was probably the best way to see town - part walking tour, then a cultural visit with a singing group, more touring and history. Pretty scripted and the least interesting city of the three but still enough social interaction. 

 

All in in all the private tours were better and cheaper. Loved our cruise, but unlike others on this board I think we experienced Cuba nicely and loved the people we met, but we aren’t in any hurry to return. So many more places still unexplored. 

 

I hope you you enjoy it as well!

[rvmike]

We did all private tours in Dec. In Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos we used Shago Tours. Shago was more than half the price and it was only two of us and not a bus load and they will cater to your wants. In Havana we used Blexie  and it was amazing. A 6 hr tour was $130 cuc and good for four people. 2 hrs walking and 4 hrs in a classic car, also open to what you wanted to see. O's classic car excursion  was 3 1/2 hrs and $479 per person. Look into private tours, they are much nicer than O's.

[riffatsea]

Thanks you sooo much to everyone for your detailed answers to my question.

I understand that the private tours seem better and less expensive than the O tours! That is what we usually do in ports. I am generally an independent land traveler so large group tours are not my thing at all! The quandary is that the O life included tours seemed like a good thing to use and now it seems that they are not a good idea for the most part. I am surprised that a cruise line with such a good rep doesn't seem to offer tours that satisfy most of their customers.

There seems to be general agreement that the Colonial Santiago Tour was OK and the Buena Vista Social Club as well.  I am overwhelmed with the choices available for private tours and have started e mailing some of the companies to see what they will offer us.

We will be in Havana for 2 days with an overnight from 8AM the first day to 7PM the second day.

We will be in Cienfuegos from 7Am -3PM

We will be in Santiago de Cuba from 11AM-6PM

I know these are tentative timings as things can change but will be planning with the info I have now.

[riffatsea]

Wondering now if any of the excursions you enjoyed were part of the included O life offerings??

I have just read that there are only certain categories of excursions that fit into that group.

It is beginning to appear that this "free excursion" perk is not as good a deal as it first appeared.

[LHT28]

19 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

I have just read that there are only certain categories of excursions that fit into that group.

It is beginning to appear that this "free excursion" perk is not as good a deal as it first appeared.

when is your cruise?

Maybe change to one of the other perks if you have  time to do so

& remember you have to choose the excursion at least 14 days from sailing  as part of the T & C's of the O life deal

 

[riffatsea]

I have plenty of time!! The cruise is not until November!! I like doing research waaaay ahead of time.

I am just getting confused as to what to do with these so called "perks".

I originally had OBC but we also have free grats so didn't think we'd spend it all on board.

Now that we can use the OBC to pre pay for excursions maybe that would be better??

Not sure??

[sammiedawg]

O life excursions apply to tours $199 or less.  It can be a good deal if carefully cherry picked.  However,  private tour operators will show you more sites in a day than any cruise bus.  You will also get a better feel for the culture and everyday life.

 

We did ten days on Sirena late October. Originally I booked O life excursions.   But just like any other destination, we wanted to see the most sites possible so we joined roll call private tours.  O life can be canceled up to final payment date.  

The private tours were not a cost savings compared to O life.   After changing dollars into Euros, then converting Euro to CUC (and getting charged 10% American penalty plus 3% conversion rate) our currency was devalued.  But our multitude of experiences were infinitely better than what a cruise bus will show you. 

 

I dont think O life with OBC, then booking excursions on board is a good value.  We get free gratuitities and a fair amount of OBC anyway.  

 

 

Edited January 10, 2019 by sammiedawg

[Paulchili]

2 hours ago, riffatsea said:

I am surprised that a cruise line with such a good rep doesn't seem to offer tours that satisfy most of their customers.

A few posters here do not necessarily represent “most of their customers”. In fact, most of their customers do take ship’s tours - for reasons of their own.

For example, we will be going to Cuba on Insignia in November and we’ll be taking all O excursions for a couple of reasons:

1 We’ve been there on a land tour before and have seen a lot of Cuba in detail - just want to go back and see changes.

2 O Life represents good value for us and we have lots of OBC that we need to use. With PPG included and not being drinkers, tours are the best use of our OBC.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Paulchili

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, riffatsea said:

I have plenty of time!! The cruise is not until November!! I like doing research waaaay ahead of time.

I am just getting confused as to what to do with these so called "perks".

I originally had OBC but we also have free grats so didn't think we'd spend it all on board.

Now that we can use the OBC to pre pay for excursions maybe that would be better??

Not sure??

personal choice I guess

I think you have to choose the perk  before final payment   so maybe the OBC  would suit your needs better  then choose the excursions  or use the  OBC for other things  ..spa or shopping if you do not drink a lot 😉

 

[ebslcc]

1 hour ago, riffatsea said:

I have plenty of time!! The cruise is not until November!! I like doing research waaaay ahead of time.

I am just getting confused as to what to do with these so called "perks".

I originally had OBC but we also have free grats so didn't think we'd spend it all on board.

Now that we can use the OBC to pre pay for excursions maybe that would be better??

Not sure??

 

Wow!  November is a long time from now!!!  Good for you that you have so much time to research.  To me research time is half the fun visiting a foreign place.  There are very good tips in the above posts.  You may want to book the Oceania ‘free’ excursion as soon as they are available.  Popular ones do sell out.  As noted above two dates to keep in mind: 1) you can decide to change over to OBC perk vs free excursions perk before final payment 2) double check your tour booking a few weeks before sailing.  I did and notice that Oceania cancel our BVSC tour so we rebooked the Cabaret Parisienne show.  There is a black out period 14 days before sailing when you cannot change excursions bookings 

 

It is a personal choice which Oceania perk to take.  We find that the OBC perk is hard to use up since we already get free gratuities and our TA gave us extra OBCs.  Oceania’s ‘free’ excursions are good value for us if taken as the free perk.  Taking the OBC perk would only be better if you are going to take only one Oceania excursion or all private tours and you have ways to use up the OBC on board.  

 

Laurence

[ebslcc]

3 hours ago, riffatsea said:

Wondering now if any of the excursions you enjoyed were part of the included O life offerings??

I have just read that there are only certain categories of excursions that fit into that group.

It is beginning to appear that this "free excursion" perk is not as good a deal as it first appeared.

Yes. Colonial Santiago (El Morro fortress), BV social club and Cabaret Parisienne are all eligible as ‘free’ excursions.  

 

The excursion vendor that Oceania uses is Transtur.  The buses are all relatively new Chinese made Yutong buses which has a toilet on board!!!  This may be important to some folks since there is a lot of anxiety regarding bad toilet facilities in Cuba. BTW we had no problem with the toilet facilities our private guides brought us to. All were modern and clean.  Make sure you get some .25 and 1 CUC coins when you exchange for CUCs for using toilets.  

 

Googling after our trip I found out that Transtur is state owned  Also many other cruise lines use them.  Excursion quality depends a lot on the guide and the itinerary.  We got a pretty good guide for the Colonial Santiago tour.  The guide for the Cabaret Parisienne tour was horrible. She forced us to get back to the ship before the show was over.  We found out the next day other buses stayed for the entire show!  We and others complaint and they gave us some OBC compensation. The ship’s Consiege told us that the Tropicana show went over by an hour and the ship held back sailing until the tour came back from the tour. 

 

Laurence

[Paulchili]

Those buses look very nice - a lot better than many we’ve seen and used in some other parts of the world.

[studebhawk]

21 hours ago, riffatsea said:

Thanks for the advice. Can you say which ship tours you took in Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba??

Cienfuegos: The trip by bus to Trinidad. My favorite, so well worth doing. We also had a buffet lunch at the hotel in the town square with music supplied by local musicians.

Santiago: The walking tour of the city was more than sufficient. Our guide was very good. The home of Fidel Castro, the city is full of history and our guide told us lots of stories. He even showed us the house of Desi Arnaz and his family.

[studebhawk]

34 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Those buses look very nice - a lot better than many we’ve seen and used in some other parts of the world.

Chines made buses made in a joint production facility, in China, with American Cummins diesel engines. The buses were spotless and had A/C.

[kitty9]

Is there any shopping close to the dock in Havana?   Since I’m a scooter user, I don’t think there are tours that I can use, but I’d like to pick up a few trinkets.

 

Thanks. 

[Go-Bucks!]

5 hours ago, kitty9 said:

Is there any shopping close to the dock in Havana?   Since I’m a scooter user, I don’t think there are tours that I can use, but I’d like to pick up a few trinkets.

 

Thanks. 

 

Cross the street that the terminal is on and you'll be in San Francisco plaza. Cross the plaza and go to the left, down the street. Many shops and cafes as you keep going. 

 

BUT...the streets and sidewalks may not work well with a scooter.