Cuba
CUBA
-- Gate 1 is not GATE (Global Awareness Through Experience) --
GATE will be offering a program to Cuba in February 2024:
- 2/18/24 - Overnight at Miami hotel
- 2/19/24 - Depart for Havana
- 2/29/24 - Return to Miami from Varadero
We enter Cuba with a Religious Activities visa sponsored through the Cuban Council of Churches. This is a unique opportunity to experience Cuba and her people.
As with other GATE programs, you will learn about:
- The Cuban Revolution and how it has impacted families and the country
- The effect of the decades-old blockade on the country
- The high priority given to education and healthcare for all
- Recent efforts at organic food production
- The value given to the arts in people's lives
Other programmed activities include:
- A guided tour of the Bay of Pigs Museum
- A visit to a highly specialized neurological center
- An ecological preserve
- A late afternoon visit to the former DuPont home
- An opportunity to interact with children at a school
- A presentation on the Cuban system of government
- Time at a Cuban Art Museum
- Time in Old Havana and handicraft and art market
- Families who own their own restaurants
- A music or dance performance
- and more!
Program fees: $2,600.00
Visa: included in the program fee
Registration fees: $50.00 with completed registration form by November 15, 2023
Required: you need an unexpired passport that has at least six months time left upon your return home
Charter flight plus required Cuban health insurance: Approximately $375.00, Subject to change
Hotel cost in Miami and personal money for souvenirs etc. is not included.
The program fee includes all meals, in-country transportation, translation, tips. Some in the previous groups opted for travel insurance in case of plane delays. This is your own choice. Some in the previous GATE groups opted to stay in Miami the night of our return from Varadero. We have a morning flight from Miami to Havana, and an afternoon flight from Varadero to Miami. The time of your connecting flights home would determine the need, or not, of an extra night in Miami.
Lodging in Cuba is in Havana and Varadero.
While the program fee to Cuba is higher than most GATE programs, I have done a comparison search of other groups who travel to Cuba. Here are some samples:
A national magazine has advertised:
$5,855.00 for an 8-day period in Cuba
$5,980.00 for an 8-day period in Cuba
A national organization has advertised:
$5,770.00 + $380.00 group air travel from Miami-Havana-Miami for 7 days
$5,865.00 + $430.00 group air travel from Miami-Havana-Miami
*Charter flight costs vary by the month
Join us for this unique opportunity to meet our Cuban neighbors! As with all GATE programs, we do not go as tourists. All participants will be receiving a religious visa to enter the country. This does not mean that the focus of the program is church buildings, but rather Cuban people who work to improve life for their brothers and sisters.
Please contact GATE (gate@fspa.org) for more information and/or a registration form. Given the advance time needed for visa work as well as group plane reservations from Miami to Havana, and Varadero to Miami, now is the time to register. Contact us today and register!
Click here for registration.
