CUBA: What are your vacation plans.....

[Travelman]

34. I hate to piss on anyone's parade, but...

...for the ordinary tourist, nothing has changed.

The "prohibition on travel to Cuba" has never actually existed. It has never actually been illegal to go to Cuba. Yesterday, today, a week ago, or a decade ago, it was and has been completely legal for any U.S. citizen to board a plane to Havana from Cancun or Montreal or London or Mexico City or anywhere else. And even with a Cuban stamp in your passport, there would not be any actual legal problem (though the Customs agent might give you some hassle).

It has only been illegal to SPEND MONEY in Cuba. The law officially says that Americans may not monetarily support Cuba in any way, so I was at least technically in violation of the law when I bought a couple of Cuban cigars in London about ten years ago (they weren't THAT great anyway, frankly). So you can legally fly into Havana, but you can't legally pay to take a taxi from the airport, for example. Obviously, spending money at hotels, casinos, restaurants, and bars is right out, too. So, I suppose, one could theoretically legally fly into Havana and walk everywhere until you fly back out, but that's not much of a vacation.

The only way that the embargo can legally be lifted is by Congress, and that's pretty unlikely to happen any time soon.



So for the time being, the only legal way to vacation in Cuba is under some aegis that gets blessing from the Treasury Department (and, to some degree, the State Department). For the most part, that's "journalism" and "cultural exchange" and the like. There are certainly companies out there (such as Gate1, noted above) that have organized trips, and they'll help with the immense amount of paperwork, but at the end of the day, it's still a decision at the whim of the Treasury Department to allow a U.S. citizen to go spend money vacationing in Cuba.

I've had at least a dozen calls at my office today already asking for when we're going to set up trips for people to Cuba, and I've had to explain this over and over again, unfortunately.

It will certainly happen some day, but that day is not tomorrow or next month and almost certainly not next year. Royal Caribbean is not adding Puerto de la Habana to their ports-of-call just yet. Getting things like diplomatic representation there is a BIG step forward, but it's not the be-all, end-all of opening up Cuba for the typical American tourist.


Sorry.