Arthur Frommer: Tours to Cuba are less than compelling

Five tour companies – and only five – have obtained licenses to operate cultural, religious or educational tours of Cuba. And here is what they are charging:

In all, only five tour companies – the ones I’ve listed above – remain ready to operate tours to Cuba, at forbidding prices in four out of the five instances, under the exemption that was announced to the usual travel embargo nearly a year ago. Virtually all their departures are completely sold out, and it appears that only a very small number of Americans will thus be able to make the trip in 2012.

What happened? I think I know. The exemption to operate tours to Cuba, announced by the Obama administration nearly a year ago, was limited to the operation of cultural, religious or educational tours, requiring stays primarily in the two major cities of Cuba. But those cities – Havana and Santiago – have a limited amount of hotel space. By far, the overwhelming majority of hotel beds in Cuba are in the beachside resorts found in Varadero, in Manzanillo, in Coyo Coco, Cienfuegos, Santa Lucia, Cayo Santa Maria and Holguin.

But the high-rises of these beach towns would never pass muster as locations for cultural, educational or religious travel. And thus, would-be operators of legal tours are confronted with an almost insurmountable obstacle of limited hotel space.

When the travel embargo against Cuba finally is lifted in full (if that should happen in our lifetimes), it is expected that cruise ships will immediately dock in the harbor of Havana, providing beds and meals for the thousands of tourists who will want to visit that long-forbidden country. And most would-be visitors will find, for a long time to come, that the only standard hotel rooms available to them are in beach resorts far removed from Havana. It is those beach resorts that accommodate the hundreds of thousands of Canadian and other foreign vacationers who come each year to Cuba.

So, for much time to come, travel to Cuba by large numbers of Americans will be enjoyed only by those backpackers who, defying the embargo and risking arrest (I’m describing a pattern of conduct, not advising it), simply fly to Havana from Jamaica, the Bahamas or Cancun and seek out a bed in the “casas particulares” (private homes) offered to them by Cuban families. The religious, cultural and educational programs, by contrast, seem like a big bust for all except the wealthy tourists who book them.

This story was originally published January 15, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Arthur Frommer: Tours to Cuba are less than compelling."