Cuba: Globus now offers people-to-people tours

Globus has joined the ranks of well-known tour companies offering trips to Cuba under a special U.S. Treasury Department license that permits people-to-people educational exchanges on the Communist island.

Its nine-day “Undiscovered Cuba” itinerary, based in Havana, includes a city tour led by a local architect; meetings with musicians and university students and local car club members; dinner at a family-owned paladar (privately owned restaurant), with a discussion of the free-enterprise system; a visit with a tobacco farmer and his family; and an excursion to the home of late novelist Ernest Hemingway. Beach time is not on the agenda.

“Our Cuba programs are not about leisure time and being a normal ‘tourist’ in Cuba,” says Pam Hoffee, vice president of product and operations at the Globus family of brands. “They are about interacting with the Cuban people.”

Dates: Frequent departures July 14 to Dec. 8; also Jan. 5 to Feb. 19, 2014.

Price: $2,799 to $3,329 a person, double occupancy; $565 single-room supplement. It does not include a visa fee ($75); mandatory gratuities ($100); or round-trip airfares to and from Miami (varies by gateway city) and between Havana and Miami (starting at $496), which must be purchased through Globus.

Info: Globus, (866) 313-2855

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