Captivating Cuba Reviews 252

Sarah and the local team worked hard with me to find the right Casas and activities for me as an active wheelchair user who wanted to get a real flavour of Cuba. The delivery in Cuba was spot on, great accommodation, really knowledgeable and helpful guides and every transfer pickup was spot on time.

I went on the Essential Cuba tour. A great tour if a little rushed. Some of our party arrived in Havana a day or two before the tour stared and then stayed on at a beach resort afterwards - I should have done that too!
Excellent office, very helpful briefing documents and available to answer all your questions.
Top tip - on leaving Cuba, if you have any Cuban money left change it BEFORE you get to the airport. I had to queue for 1.5 hours at the airport Bureau de Change.

This was an amazing trip. Our guide, Dennis, was great although he occasionally struggled with his English. The sites were astonishing although it was a shame we didn't have more time in cienfuegos and it would have been nicer to arrive a little earlier in the day to some of the other places as I would have welcomed the opportunity to wander and explore a little. Shorter lunchtimes would have helped with this though I guess 2hour lunches are just a cuban 'thing'!
Overall though I loved Cuba and look forward to returning.

Very helpful and friendly staff, also very efficient.
Would highly recommend this company.

Fantastic all round service.

good tour & stay

CaptivatingCuba organised a holiday for us to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It was bespoke package and everything was brilliant. Staff could not be more helpful and made some very well informed suggestions that we were so glad we took up.

The team in the UK designed a bespoke family trip to create a memorable journey through central and west Cuba. We had a busy itinerary with plenty of plans which could have gone astray but I am delighted and, if honest, relieved(!) to say that every transfer and booking was fulfilled as booked. The help in Cuba when needed was reassuringly provided promptly and by charming people!

Booking process was really great, very helpful staff.
The package was as described, no bad surprises.

Great service from Captivating Cuba. All arrangements and transfers were seamless and well planned. Our first trip to Cuba-loved it!

Brilliant tailor made holiday, couldn’t have been any better. Told them exactly what we wanted to do and visit, and their recommendations were spot on. Highly recommended.

We had a brilliant holiday. I cannot fault the organisation fro planning through to receiving information and tickets to the holiday itself which went like clockwork. Thank you!

We went out Virgin on the Thursday flight, had 3.1/2 days on our own in Havana, then joined the "Essential Cuba" 7 day tour. This is the way to do it, for the one day given to Havana in the tour itinerary is just not enough even to taste the city.

In terms of info and booking, CC were excellent, with great responses and quick communications. Their rep was at Jose Marti on arrival, and was helpful and the transfer all worked OK. Casa Vitrales in Vieja was fantastic in every way and we loved it. Accommodation elsewhere not so good, mainly on account of noise at night and resulting lack of sleep. Once there, you are in the hands of a Destination Cuba state employed guide and driver, and we were very lucky as ours were wonderful. There was only one other couple on the tour element, with whom we also bonded closely. By the end of the week, it was like a small family!!

My main gripe with CC is their representative in Trinidad. The previous night we had stayed in Las Tarrazas at Hotel Moka. We hated the place, found the whole set-up incredibly creepy and were relieved to be away in the morning. It was an hour later on the bus I realised that approx CUC1,200 (£900) had been taken from my rucksack. I always use the safe when I travel, but we had literally 5 mins in the room on arrival before being whisked away for a walk of the "community". The safe was in a dark corner, I couldn't read the instructions nor figure it out. I just didn't have time to seek help, but thought it would be ok for the couple of hours we would be out, zipped up in my bag. The only other possibilities were that someone broke into the locked mini-coach during the previous day, or that the driver took it. I was told emphatically that the bags were completely safe to be left on the bus when we left them. This seems unlikely to me.

This was a real blow, as not only was it a lot of cash, but it left me with only a few CUCs in my wallet. Stopping for lunch en route in Santa Clara I tried 3 times to use my card in an ATM, and 3 times my bank blocked it. By the time we arrived in Trinidad, we were stressed, fed up and had almost no cash. Sami, the wonderful guide did everything she could - we went to the police station, where the CC rep showed up and made it all worse. A slick wise-cracker (or at least he thinks), he was all smiles, handshakes and "how's your rooms?". My partner snapped that we'd only spent 3 minutes in them at that stage. He showed zero empathy, no interest in how and where it had happened, and no advice. He was just showing his face, and we wish he hadn't. The police couldn't deal with it then, so we had to return the next day.

Again, the rep showed up, this time with "did you have a good lunch? Great place, isn't it?" Of course he was trying to divert, but with no skill. The guide did everything, including re-writing my statement in Spanish. He just sat there gabbing away non-stop to her in Spanish. A more utterly useless holiday rep I have yet to meet.

Overall we had a great time, but this stress brought on my IBS, so lost another evening to my hotel bathroom. I wouldn't use CC again as some of their accommodation choices weren't great and I have zero faith in the representatives in Cuba.

Excellent-everything went to plan-very good guides

Excellent from start to finish!
The team at Captivating Cuba were helpful, informative and friendly from our first contact through the whole of our time in Cuba.
Their suggestions, advice and organisation of where to stay, places to visit and things to look out for worked really well and all of the reps we met on the way were perfect - helpful but not pushy.
We travelled around a bit with organised guides, all of whom were easy to get along with, knowledgeable and happy to share conversation. The places we stayed - hotels and casas worked really well and were all good quality.
We had a great time, met some great locals and learned a good amount about this fascinating country. Thanks Captivating Cuba.

Absolutely brilliant trip, so well organised, thoughtfully and with such consideration for the Cuban people. Superb guides, taxi drivers and accommodation giving maximum opportunity to meet and learn from local people wherever we went. Excellent itinerary, choice of accommodation and would not hesitate to use Captivating Cuba next time we visit (and we will).

Really impressed with the level of knowledge from everyone I have spoken to. Now just looking forward to the trip in February.

The service we had was really good from start to finish. All emails and enquirers were responded to really quickly. We stayed 3 nights in Havana and then 4 nights in Varadero. We were met at the airport and left promptly. All other transfers ran smoothly and the hotels were of a good quality. All in all we were really happy with the service and the holiday

The staff are extremely knowledgeable, friendly and polite. They secured the holiday we wanted when no other company could.