Travel to cuba

Hey just reaching out to see if any U.S. citizens have experience traveling to Cuba. I know there have been some changes with travel restrictions in the last year and was curious if anyone has advice on navigating customs, visas, and travel regulations. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Wendell

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Cuba.html

Edit: Tourist travel from the US to Cuba is prohibited. If you fall into one of 12 special categories, you can go there (listed on OFAC website).

I think some people circumvent US law by entering Cuba from another country, but I don't know the legality of that.

I traveled to Cuba this past May for a week with my gf. It is a spectacular country. We traveled under the support for the cuban people category. Basically you need to keep an itinerary of your plans to do cultural activities that support locals as directly as possible. We ended up using Viahero to have them create a schedule that was within the legal limits. I was pretty skeptical about using a travel agent, but it ended up making our lives easy and frankly less anxious about traveling within the limits. I was expecting a few questions upon returning to customs in Miami, but they just waved us through. There were definitely Americans not following the special categories that presumably got away with it, but who knows. I wrote a blog on my trip if you want to check it out.

Definitely try and get some climbing in at Viñales. We didn't climb, but even the hiking was amazing. I'll be back to climb. I'm sure there are other MP users that have experience fitting climbing into one of the "special categories"...

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I'd highly recommend traveling there.

http://cubaclimbing.com

This is another great resource. Traveling to Cuba from the US is easy. Visited last winter and had a great time. Flew through Miami and had zero issues. Visa can be purchased at the gate or online for $20-ish cheaper. I went purely for climbing. I didn't have to show any proof of my "Support for the Cuban People" to anyone. No one asked any questions on the way back into the states. To my understanding the US government has 6 months after your trip to question your reasons for travel. Didn't hear anything. Bring bug repellent and seek out the local climbers!

How were the "bees" (any stinging insects) in Vinales?  I am more concerned with that that any other quasi legal issues.

Eric, saw bees everyday but we only had one sting in the whole month. Picked up a couple ticks. The mosquitoes were by far the worst, especially at La Costanera. 

Thanks for all the feedback on here!

I traveled to Cuba several years back and went through Mexico with zero problems in and out. We got approached once in Vinales by three Cuban park service looking officials. They told my wife and I we had to pull our ropes and quit climbing because it was illegal. I pulled my rope and started packing it. They left and I pulled my rope back out and continued climbing for several days without issue. Got stung in the face multiply times by wasp while climbing, drank lots of Mojitos smoked lots of cigars, brought cigars back to the states and had my bags searched and the only thing the us customs agent said was "those aren't cubans are they?" wink, wink:)  I smiled and said of course not and he waved me on. We had a great time traveling solo without any sort of travel agent and other than getting harassed in Vinales for climbing we never once got hassled or asked any questions.

Also I was there in 2014. I don't know what the current status on climbing is there. Even though it was illegal when I was there it was easy to skirt around by taking some precautions. The one time we got caught we were in a pretty visible area, and even though they told us we had to leave they only seemed half serious and that's why I only half pretended to leave and then continued climbing for the day after they left. It was also illegal to surf, just because they said it was, Gotta love communism. Also something to note is that you couldn't buy a climbing guide in Cuba because of course it's illegal. haha. I have some family members heading there in about a week to visit and they are flying in and out of miami and booking airbnbs. That's something that wasn't available when I was there.  

I just returned from there and happy to give you some beta. We had little to no issues getting through customs. Things were pretty low key and no questions were asked. Shoot me a message if you wanna chat further