Great experience and service with Havanacar!

[WangXiu81]

We booked a 6 hours City tour with Havanacar.

Stefano was exceptional in responding to emails promptly. The first part of the tour in the classic convertible car was fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed.

The second part of the tour was walking around old Havana and was also very nice and interesting.

Both our guides Omar and Hugo were incredibly informative, caring and very articulate. They made sure our trip was one to remember. Any concerns or questions we had, they responded to them professionally. I have travelled to many parts of the Caribbean and I have to say this tour guide service has to be one of the best ones I've experienced. They are all genuine and friendly and make your vacation that much better. You can tell that they are passionate about what they do and show you that they care about your experience. This is the ideal way to see Havana instead of a bus full of people in the heat and you can't go wrong with the price. Thank you Havanacar!

Edited January 24, 2019 by WangXiu81

[NCTribeFan]

I'm not finding a site for this name.  Several others for Havana & classic car tours, but not Havanacar specifically.  Can you provide a link, please?

[WangXiu81]

15 hours ago, NCTribeFan said:

I'm not finding a site for this name.  Several others for Havana & classic car tours, but not Havanacar specifically.  Can you provide a link, please?

Their website is www.havanacar.net and you can also contact their manager Stefano at havanacarcuba@gmail.com.

We had the 6 hours tour divided into 3 hours in a classic convertible and 3 hours walking around Old Havana with a local guide for only 190 Cuc which is a real bargain considering it was a private tour.

You won't be disappointed 😉

 

[kcbookworm]

That is the company we are going to book with!  They offered an hour add on cigar factory tour.  Has anyone done that add on?  Also, can someone give me a ball park of what to tip?

[Castaway84]

We really appreciated the service  and we tipped both the driver and the walking tour guide 10 cuc each. They seemed to be very happy.

I think 10 cuc is a fair tip for cuba standards if you really appreciated your service.

Of course it also depends about the length of the tour and other personal considerations 😉

Edited February 21, 2019 by Castaway84
Add on

[Valentina84]

We are booking with them too! We will be doing the 4 hour tour (includes an added hour to visit Heminways spot. I can't wait. 

[NCTribeFan]

I really need to get my planning done!  Will probably book with them.  And will email and see if they can pre-purchase tix for us for Cabaret Parisien.  We don't arrive until noon, and I think we have early dining on the ship, which means we won't really need a 6 hour tour, but I want to do both a walking tour and a car tour, so maybe they'll cut down the time for each and also adjust the price.  Won't hurt to ask, right?

[kcbookworm]

2 hours ago, NCTribeFan said:

I really need to get my planning done!  Will probably book with them.  And will email and see if they can pre-purchase tix for us for Cabaret Parisien.  We don't arrive until noon, and I think we have early dining on the ship, which means we won't really need a 6 hour tour, but I want to do both a walking tour and a car tour, so maybe they'll cut down the time for each and also adjust the price.  Won't hurt to ask, right?

In our communication with Stefan, they seem to be very flexible!  I would certainly ask him!

[Houndfish]

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 12:31 PM, NCTribeFan said:

I'm not finding a site for this name.  Several others for Havana & classic car tours, but not Havanacar specifically.  Can you provide a link, please?

Havanacar.net

[mlnieves1]

I had a great time with Havana tours. We booked a 3hr walking tour and Hugo was our guide. He took us to some amazing places and gave us great history. We went a little over our 3hr schedule but, it was so accommodating and when we told him we wanted to go to a nice restaurant for lunch after the tour, he called and made reservations for us and took us there. I highly recommend this company, and will book them again if we make it back to Havana.

[cpayne]

We used this group for our March 4 hr driving tour.  We specifically requested an English speaking driver for both cars.  Unfortunately only 1 driver spoke English.  Very disappointing for those in the 2nd car.  When I requested English speaking drivers in advance of our tour we were told he cannot guarantee the language skills of the drivers, but that all would know enough English to provide a good tour.  The tour covered a wide variety of sites, but for those with the non English speaking driver they felt like it was more of a drive by bus tour.   Disappointing in that regard.....

[Cienfuegos]

Many Cuban guides have developed English language skills on their own. Dealing with 5-6 guides last year, that was a point of pride for each. 

 

Cuba is in the midst of tremendous change, some guides may see an opportunity for a new future. Which is a challenge to the old leadership.

[pbenjamin]

12 hours ago, cpayne said:

We used this group for our March 4 hr driving tour.  We specifically requested an English speaking driver for both cars.  Unfortunately only 1 driver spoke English.  Very disappointing for those in the 2nd car.  When I requested English speaking drivers in advance of our tour we were told he cannot guarantee the language skills of the drivers, but that all would know enough English to provide a good tour.  The tour covered a wide variety of sites, but for those with the non English speaking driver they felt like it was more of a drive by bus tour.   Disappointing in that regard.....

 

For what it's worth, Old Car Tours allows you to arrange both a driver and an English speaking guide, an extra 20 CUC for the guide.

[cpayne]

20 minutes ago, pbenjamin said:

 

For what it's worth, Old Car Tours allows you to arrange both a driver and an English speaking guide, an extra 20 CUC for the guide.

 My comment was more to let people know just bc you have been told you will have an English speaking guide and/or driver doesn’t mean that is what you will receive unfortunately.   Paying the extra $$ for a guide doesn’t ensure they speak English.  We were told both drivers spoke English and that ended up not being the case.  Not a bad tour, but would have been a much better tour had both drivers spoke English. 

Edited April 22, 2019 by cpayne

[pbenjamin]

Just now, cpayne said:

 My comment was more to let people know just bc you have been told you will have an English speaking guide and/or driver doesn’t mean that is what you will receive unfortunately.   Paying the extra $$ for a guide doesn’t ensure they speak English.  We were told both drivers spoke English and that ended up not being the case.  Not a bad tour, but would have been a much better tour had both drivers spoke English. 

 

What I'm saying is that Old Car Tours is reliable and will provide a separate English speaking guide for an additional fee if requested.  None of this "cannot guarantee the language skills of the drivers" business.  Our driver spoke NO English but the guide was fluent.  

[LadyLauren75]

Personally I can tell that our driver Jose spoke a great English and we had an amazing time with Havanacar. We were also offered an extra guide to join us during the car portion of our 6 hours tour if we wanted to but we declined the offer as we were already 4 plus the driver and thought we might have been a bit too tight.

Your repeated references to the other agency make me think that you are manager or a person close to them making a covert advertisement.

 

And actually in a previous thread you wrote you were corresponding with the agency you had the tour with and were reporting they are still in the business but actually it seems that you " posted" the message from Cuba.

Enclosed is a screenshot where it is clearly specified " Posted Saturday at 1.36 am in Cuba" 

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by LadyLauren75
Add on

[pbenjamin]

Oh good grief. "Posted ... In Cuba" means it was posted in the Cuba forum. I have no connection with these people other than being a satisfied customer. No good deed goes unpunished it seems. 

[LadyLauren75]

18 minutes ago, pbenjamin said:

Oh good grief. "Posted ... In Cuba" means it was posted in the Cuba forum. I have no connection with these people other than being a satisfied customer. No good deed goes unpunished it seems. 

Oh..sorry....

So I might be wrong and I do apologize in that case,  but I still have the impression you are pushing too much that company in a thread opened to write comments on a different one.

 

[pbenjamin]

28 minutes ago, LadyLauren75 said:

Oh..sorry....

So I might be wrong and I do apologize in that case,  but I still have the impression you are pushing too much that company in a thread opened to write comments on a different one.

 

 

Apology accepted. Could you please fix your accusation in the other thread?

[csk47]

We just returned from our five day cruise aboard the Majesty.  We used HavanaCar for a six hour tour during our day in Havana.  The first three hours was great with Hugo as our guide.  He showed us a number of fascinating places, was very easy to understand, and was most accommodating.  We truly enjoyed our time with him and learned a great deal.  For the second three hours we rode in a neat 1960 Buick Invicta convertible.  It was brutally hot, though, and we were secretly wishing we had chosen an air conditioned classic sedan.  We asked our driver to take us to Fusterlandia and that used up an hour of our time.  To be honest, it wasn't worth the long drive.  We saw what there was to see in fifteen minutes.  Because we felt the driver would be sharing more about what we were seeing and he didn't, we were somewhat disappointed in the driving portion of the tour.  When I conveyed that to Stefano afterwards he apologized for not offering a guide (for an extra amount) to talk while the driver drove. It makes sense that the driver must concentrate on driving and trying to talk from the front seat to the back in a convertible is difficult at best.  HavanaCar did a great job overall and our day in Havana was well spent. 

 

[Wideross]

We did the combo tour and it might be the best money I ever spent!  Our tour was fantastic with Jose driving and Jessie translating and pointing out places of interest. We also liked Hugo but we were a bit tired and hot by the time we met up with him after driving all around Havana, so he had more energy than we did but he showed us the things we wanted to see and took us places we did not know existed. We really enjoyed both parts immensely.
We really enjoyed the car the most, as I guess most people do. We plan, or at least I do, to go again as soon as possible and will be sure to contact the Havanacar again when the time comes.

[lovacruz]

On 2/22/2019 at 8:31 PM, Valentina84 said:

We are booking with them too! We will be doing the 4 hour tour (includes an added hour to visit Heminways spot. I can't wait. 

I booked with them for our July cruise. I am happy to hear great feedback. 

[babyjmomma]

I am certainly interested in a local tour and there are a bunch of rave reviews- but has anyone ever had to get a refund? According to their website they have a great refund policy but has anyone ever needed to use it?

[CarolinaGirl2010]

We used HavanaCar.net in April.  We loved our car tour with Victor as our guide.  He was very knowledgeable and considerate.  I would recommend him.  Our walking tour was another story.  We ended up with Osvy and he said he was an entrepreneur, and he was trying to sell us things like gold bars.  Not sure what that was all about.  Plus, we kept telling him we just wanted something simple for lunch, he ended up taking us to a restaurant with a doorman.  We kept asking if it was expensive because we had limited Cuban pesos left and he said no.  Well, it was, and we ended up only being able to order appetizers because of the prices.  I was so disappointed because I had wanted to try authentic Cuban food and ended up with tuna on lettuce with no dressing that cost $9.  Other than that, he was knowledgeable about Cuba and took us all around the city.  I wouldn't want to do a tour with him again though.