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REGISTER NOW The Official Havana International Jazz Festival Tour fills up fast. Don't be left out in 2009! Seventeen jazz fans missed the 2008 Festival Tour due to late registrations.
READ 2008 JAZZ TOUR TESTIMONIALS AND STORIES WITH PHOTOS coming next week!
JAZZ PASSES We only provide passes to tour participants. Non-tour travelers must purchase passes in Havana. Ask your hotel concierge where to buy them. They are not sold in advance or abroad. |
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| Cities and provinces you'll visit |
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Havana City and Havana Province |
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Viñales Valley and Pinar del Río |
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| Included in Jazz Festival Tour |
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Son, salsa, cha cha cha dance lessons taught by Cuban pros |
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Learn about Afrocuban culture and visit a babalao: santería priest |
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Tour the Superior Institute of Art and Museum of Modern Art |
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Numerous evening venues where the best Cuban music is performed |
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Meet painter and ceramist José Fuster at his whimsical home studio |
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Dinner at La Guarida where the Oscar-nominated movie Strawberry and Chocolate was filmed |
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Tour the Partagas cigar factory, the Museum of Rum, and the scale models of old and modern Havana |
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Explore the Cueva del Indio (cave) and the Viñales Botanical Gardens |
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Memories of Cuba last forever. Discover the island on routes less traveled. |
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Learn all about Cuba and experience the world's best jazz |
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Sunday 8 February to Tuesday 17 February 2009 |
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10 days and 9 nights of music and culture in Cuba |
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Jazz Festival passes, most meals and many activities included |
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Private excursions of historic Havana and magical Pinar del Río |
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Stay in the classic Hotel Riviera on the edge of the Caribbean Sea |
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The 2009 Official Havana Int'l Jazz Festival Tour is design by Cubans and Canadians for first time and returning visitors to get to know Cuban culture while experiencing the best of Latin and international jazz. Tour participants stay at the 1950s classic Hotel Riviera, where you can rub shoulders with Cuban and world jazz greats. |
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The tour is fully escorted from the minute you touch down in Havana until you return home. While on the island you're in the conscientious care of an expert multilingual Cuban guide together with a bus chauffeur. |
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Premium jazz passes are issued to tour participants for festival activities and concerts. Your guide will keep you updated on scheduled and spontaneous performances. We provide group transport to the main events. |
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Time to commit. This tour fills up fast. We advise registering now. Seventeen jazz fans missed out on our 2008 tour due to late registrations. (Shy, budget-minded, ultra-independent? Read about the benefits of group travel to Cuba). |
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Chucho Valdéz icon for Jazz Tour events |
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Shoe icon for music and dance venues |
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Face icon for art and museum visits |
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Turret icon for history and architecture |
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Owl icon for nature and ecology tours |
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Fork icon for meals included in tour cost |
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Smiling icon for free time and leisure |
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Ball icon for beach, sun and swimming |
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| Hint BLUE text links across this site offer extensive details and pictures. |
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US travelers This program is legal and licensable for professionals engaged in full time work related to this tour's theme. Click the license image (above) for qualification and application instructions. We also advise on alternative Cuba travel. Inquiries are confidential. Contact us! |
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| Travel for change Cuba Education Tours, a Vancouver Canada based organization dedicated to green, ethical travel that benefits Cubans and our guests. |
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 Five star treatment twenty-four seven from the island and Canadian staff of Cuban Education tours. |
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| Included in costs are all activities listed below unless noted otherwise. |
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| Island transportation You travel in a private luxury tour coach chauffeured by a professional driver. |
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| Meals B=breakfast L=lunch D=dinner indicates meals included. Your guide is glad to suggest eateries for every taste and budget for meals not included. |
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Getting to Cuba Call 1-877-687-3817 toll free or email us. We can help. |
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| CHECK OUT EACH TOUR DAY :: 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 :: 6 :: 7 :: 8 :: 9 :: 10 :: |
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| GETTING TO KNOW THE CARIBBEAN'S LARGEST CAPITOL |
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Modern machete dance inspired by the working rhythm of sugar cane slaves.
Books are sold everywhere in Old Havana. |
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Courtyard of the Museum and Factory of Rum.
Don't forget your dancing shoes! Bring several pairs for different steps. Hint You can leave them with your new Cuban friends. |
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| Exterior and interior of the Cathedral of Havana initiated by Jesuits in 1748 and completed in 1777. |
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Dinner at famed paladar La Guarida, location for Oscar-nominated film Strawberry and Chocolate. |
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Partagas makes the world's most famous cigars. |
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Morning walking tour of Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We'll visit four of the five historic plazas that make Havana unique in the western hemisphere. It contains the largest collection of remaining colonial-era architecture.
Cathedral Square, the most beautiful and private 18th century colonial plaza on the island. Named after the masterpiece of Cuban baroque architecture: the Cathedral of Havana built by the Jesuit order.
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| Square of Arms, an ancient military parade ground for Spanish soldiers, surrounded by impressive buildings such as: |
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Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, former seat of colonial government. Today the building houses the Museum of the City. |
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Palacio del Segundo Cabo, seat of the second authority of the island. Today it houses important publishing concerns. |
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Museo de Artesania at Castillo de la Real Fuerza, the second oldest fortress built by the Spaniards in the West Indies. Today it displays treasures of artistic ceramics by the most prestigious Cuban artists from the middle of the last century to present. The institution is host to the Ceramic Biennial. |
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We continue onto San Francisco Square, one of the oldest plazas in the historical quarter.
And later onto Plaza Vieja, the only civic square of colonial times. Absent are churches and government buildings. We'll visit an important center for the visual arts.
We'll visit the Scale Model of Old Havana to learn about the community, its history and its development plans.
Now we'll tour the Rum Museum, an ancient three floor colonial residence, in Old Havana, is the venue of the Rum Museum. Built in 1780, it was owned by the Counts Mortera. In 1982 it was declared Cultural Patrimony of Havana by the UNESCO. Your guide will take you through all the steps in the manufacture of the original Cuban Rum from slave to modern times, from the sugar cane field through bottling. You'll conclude with a final toast to the rhythm of Cuban traditional music. Visitors can learn how to prepare a mojito (right), the delicious Cuban cocktail, made of rum, lime, sugar and mint leaves.
Lunch at La Mina Restaurant where you'll enjoy traditional Cuban dishes and music – live!
This afternoon we'll visit the Partagas Cigar Factory founded in the middle of the 19th century. Here some of Cuba's most famed cigars are produced including Romeo y Julietas and Cohibas among other big names. You'll witness the secrets of the craft.
Welcome dinner at La Guarida paladar, location for Oscar-nominated film "Strawberry and Chocolate."
Tonight we have a Cuban band playing for us. You'll learn how to perform and dance to Salsa, Son, Rumba, Mambo and other popular Cuban rhythms from the band members of Grupo Dulce María.
Later we'll enjoy the best Cuban jazz in Havana at Club La Zorra y El Cuervo [The Fox and the Raven] (optional participation, not included in cost, 10 CUC entrance fee). |
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| PINAR DEL RIO'S DRAMATIC VINALES VALLEY |
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Consider climbing to the top of a mogote! |
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Viñales is perfect for trekking, bird watching and horseback riding. |
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Exotic and unique plants and animals thrive in Cuba. The island has more protected areas than any other country. |
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A river runs through the Cueva del Indio used by the Guanahatabey Amerindians as a burial site and a refuge from the Spaniards. |
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| CUBA HAS 300 ecologically protected areas comprising 22 percent of its landmass. Six of these areas are UNESCO World Biosphere Reserves. Over half the island's diverse flora and fauna is indigenous – existing nowhere else – and is guarded from exploitation. In 2006, the World Wildlife Fund named Cuba the only nation to achieve a sustainable planet friendly economy. |
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Morning excursion to the rural agriculture-based Viñales Valley. You'll be in awe of its spectacular natural landscape featuring the most interesting and varied geological formations in the Caribbean. The valley is particularly famous for its great freestanding rock formations called mogotes. Viñales is the heart of tobacco cultivation on the island.
We'll take a breathtaking boat ride through the Cueva del Indio used by Guanahatabey Amerindians as a burial site, and later as a refuge from Spanish slavers. Within you'll witness earth's natural history from the Jurassic to the Paleolithic era and beyond.
Visit to Mural de la Prehistoria a huge painting made on the side of a mogote. Early on in the Revolution Fidel Castro responded to an appeal by a local artist to pay tribute to the Darwinian perspective of evolution.
Lunch is included in program cost.
Free time to explore Viñales village at your leisure. Examine its open-air craft market, Parque Martí, main parish, and other interesting highlights of this charming colonial hamlet.
Visit Carmen and Caridad Miranda's magical mini-paradise, known as the Viñales Botanical Garden. These two elderly widows maintain a little Eden full of fruit trees, orchids and medicinal plants nurtured lovingly and organically.
Return to your hotel in Havana.
Your evening is free to rest up or go out on the town. Your guide keeps you posted on local events. |
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| Animal partners help out on the farm. Eco-friendly practices result in tasty organic produce and high productivity. |
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Learn about the cultivation and processing of tobacco from seed to leaf culminating in the world's most famous cigars. |
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Junior learns to ride a horse. Cubans can truly claim that no child is left behind. |
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The jutía, native to Cuba, is a large rodent the size of a cocker spaniel. They dwell in trees and are vegetarians. Jutías are the preferred breakfast of crocodiles. |
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| HAVANA – EDUCATION, CITY TOUR, ANCIENT CEREMONIES, JAZZ FESTIVAL |
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Right Panorama of the ISA (Institute of Superior Arts). Its facilities are considered amongst the most unusual and best examples of architecture globally. |
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Above Soldiers fire the 9PM cannon. Below Students watch the blast.
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Morning meeting with Sonia Ortega, Director of International Relations for the Institute of Superior Arts (ISA). We'll tour this architecturally stunning campus and talk with its students – the next generation of Cuban musicians.
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Fantasy garden and studio of acclaimed artist José Fuster. |
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This afternoon we'll feast on a delicious lunch hosted by José Fuster, one of Cuba's most important ceramists and painters at his whimsical studio in Jaimanita, just outside of Havana.
Followed by visits to the studios of other contemporary young visual artists.
Get ready for an air-conditioned luxury coach tour of the most important sites of Modern Havana such as the Capitol building, the Grand Theatre, Central Park, Prado promenade, Revolution Square, Coppelia Ice Cream Park, Plaza José Martí (in front of US Interests Section), Malecón seawall, Monument to the Battleship Maine, Hotel Nacional, University of Havana, Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón, and the Miramar, Central Havana and Vedado neighborhoods.
Group dinner at Prado y Neptuno, a fine Italian style restaurant in Old Havana featuring delicious food and a great atmosphere.
Tonight we witness a most dramatic ceremony: the Firing of the 9PM Cannon at the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña. |
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| HAVAVA – URBAN PLANNING, DANCE LESSONS, JAZZ FESTIVAL |
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Small section of the incredible scale model (second largest in the world) of the city of Havana used for urban planning. |
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RESTAURANTE EL ALJIBE Always filled to the brim with clued-in local and foreign diners who appear to be having the time of their lives, this joint's barbecued chicken served in bitter-orange, lemon, and chicken juices sauce is the house dish, at once dark and tangy. And, oh yes, the house special of black beans, rice, chicken Aljibe, and tostones is a sumptuous all-you-can-eat delight.
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A great day to explore pre-Jazz Festival performances around the city including jazz "garage" bands. |
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Morning visit to the Scale Model of Havana and a private meeting with world-renowned architect Dr Mario Coyula Cowley, director of the Group for the Integral Development of the Capitol. His organization hosts a museum that contains a model of the entire city of Havana. The model took nine years to build and is the second largest in the world after one of New York. Havana's 727 square kilometers are represented in an area of 22 meters of length and 10 meters of width. City planners needed to see and have a tactile sense of the impressive physical and cultural patrimony of Havana, spanning five centuries as a port city, island and Caribbean capitol, and launching pad for the conquest of the Americas.
Historical periods of construction are displayed through the use of different colors. Brown represents the colonial period, ochre the republican period, ivory the revolutionary period, and white represents new projects, sculptural monuments and cemeteries. With the use of textures and colors similar to the natural ones, the vegetation, parks, beaches and plazas are distinguished. This virtual tool enables city planners practical and realistic planning. They experiment by placing miniature buildings in the peewee metropolis to see how they fit within a specific area and architectural context. If planners don't like a proposal, they can move it somewhere else, demand a design change, or nix it. You'll learn how each part of the city has developed historically, and the tough challenges each district faces today.
Follow up dance lessons from the band members of Grupo Dulce María – so you'll have all the right moves for Jazz Festival action!
Lunch at one of Havana's most popular restaurants: El Aljibe. This eatery is so famous and food so tasty it is being franchized.
Afternoon activities: Check out pre-Jazz Festival performance happenings around the city.
Evening venue: Participate in the Opening Ceremonies of the Havana Jazz Festival at the Karl Marx Theatre in Miramar.
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You'll meet with renowned architect Dr Mario Coyula Cowley, Director of the Group for the Integral Development of Havana. |
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Afrocuban inspired folkdance. |
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| Grupo Dulce María members will teach you all the necessary dance moves to shake like a Cuban! |
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Street dancing and musicians are everywhere especially during the Jazz Festival. |
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Jazz Festival band and dancers perform on the Malecón. |
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| EXPLORING AFROCUBAN CULTURE AND DOING THE JAZZ FEST! |
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Evening dance during the festival. |
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Youth snake dance in the island's annual Carnival – a Latin America tradition – in Cuba with strong African influences. |
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Morning ferryboat ride across Havana harbor to the municipality of Regla. This Afrocuban community has a long, rich and still active tradition of African-inspired religions.
We'll visit Regla's church dedicated to the black "Virgen de Regla" Yemayá, the African goddess of the sea in the Yoruba religion and the patron saint of sailors.
Tour of Regla's municipal museum to learn the origins of this unique community and its Afrocuban cultures.
Meet a babalao (highest priest in the santería religion) in his home.
We'll visit home studio of painter, master printmaker and designer Antonio Canet.
Return to Havana to get down for all the Havana Jazz Festival happenings this afternoon and evening. |
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You'll visit the studio of master artist Antonio Canet. |
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Regla's church honors a black goddess who protects fishers and sailors. |
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Ferryboat traversing Havana harbor to the municipality of Regla. |
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| HAVANA – CUBAN ART AND THE HAVANA JAZZ FESTIVAL |
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Community Rumba performance in Havana's Callejón de Hamel. |
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Entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts' Cuban Collection. |
Morning visit to the Museum of Fine Arts' Cuban Collection where we see the evolution of Cuba's visual arts over the last 300 years. The collection accounts for the richness of the island's Spanish, French, Chinese, African cultural roots.
Free afternoon to explore festival happenings. Why not try a paladar (small private restaurant) for an intimate meal with your friends.
All night Havana Jazz Festival happenings! Check with your Cuba Education Tours guide for up-to-the-minute festival events.
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| HAVANA – POOL SIDE ARTS, FARWELL DINNER, JAZZ CLOSING EVENT |
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Expect the very best musicians at the closing ceremonies of the Havana Jazz Festival. |
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Free morning and afternoon to relax at the edge of Hotel Riviera's swimming pool, pal around with tour mates or new Cuban friends, or take in Havana Jazz Festival activities and events.
Farewell dinner for tour participants at Café del Oriente, one of the best in Old Havana, featuring a wonderful menu of special Cuban dishes.
Evening: closing ceremonies of Havana Jazz Festival! This is your last chance to enjoy world-class jazz in Cuba – until 2010!
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| FREE DAY IN HAVANA OR ON THE BEACH! |
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Havana's eastern beaches are called Playas del este [Eastern beaches]. |
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Today is free to explore the city, spend time with your new Cuban friends and tourmates, and decompress in preparation for "reentry" into the hustle and bustle of home. Why not check out the rich history, architecture, art and culture of the metropolis? See our list of 64 Amazing Things To Do and See in Havana.
Optional beach trip! How about an afternoon at the Playas del este [Eastern beaches] just 20 kilometers outside Havana? Easy and economical arrangements can be made at your hotel's tourist desk. Don't forget your swimwear and sunscreen; el sol shines stronger on the island! These beautiful white sand beaches rival the best sun destinations in the Caribbean. |
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A perfect place for snorkeling and other water sports. |
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| GOODBYE CUBA – HELLO NORTH AMERICA |
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| KEEP IN TOUCH with your new Cuban friends – exchange email addresses! Bring some business cards to pass out on the island. Take pictures and keep a journal. Upon your return, we'll post them on this website for all to see and enjoy. |
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Early morning transfer to Havana's José Martí International Airport for your return home. Don't forget to save 25.00 CUC for your Cuban airport departure tax.
Want to stay longer on your own? Contact us and we will help make it happen. |
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| We'll miss you and hope you return soon! |
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Old Cuban saying, "a true friend remembers the song in your heart when you have forgotten the lyrics." |
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