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Colin F wrote:
I did a guided "photography" trip to Cuba about 4-5 years ago; it was put on by a College in Vancouver, BC, but open to the public. (This was pre-Canon days for me, I used a Panny G3 m4/3 camera at the time). There was about 10-12 of us, and it was a most excellent way to do it, at least for the first time there. Not only did we not have to worry about where to stay or where to eat, or where to go, but it got us into places that we would have likely never seen, in an efficient use of time. The great thing too was the fact that we had lots of free time, so I wandered around all kinds of places all by myself which was just ecstatic! I had some really cool experiences. And then when the evening rolls around, you can reconnect with the people in your group. It would have been less great if we didn't have that free time to explore, but it still would have been good, and makes it much easier to return there again alone or with a friend if desired.
We hit Havana; Vinales; Soroa; Cienfuegos and Trinidad. While some stops were a little rushed, it was fantastic.
Just because you're in Havana, it doesn't mean that you're stuck with cheezy, touristy shots (although I unknowingly was guilty of taking a few of those myself out of ignorance). The city is large, so you can explore the millions of nooks & crannies and get very good, creative shots. I had some fantastic experiences.
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Good points, Colin. Yes, there are good organized trips with all those advantages you mention. As an example of ones to avoid, two of my friends just visited Cuba on the tour from hell. There were 40 people crammed on the bus, which meant every bathroom stop in Cuba's little toilet facilities lasted almost an hour. The organizers turned out to be an ultra-right American-Cuban exile extremist religious group whose trip agenda was showing how Cuba was ruined by socialism. They refused to let the participants go out of sight of the organizers--it was a regimented by "minders." The right-wingers lied and insisted that was required in Cuba. That was a lot of fun. Not. However, the "small-group" tours can be good in many ways, as you describe, especially by getting you into insider places you would miss otherwise and taking care of all the hassles and logistics that can use up a lot of your time if you want to cover a lot of diversity in Cuba.
My favorite way to go to a new place is two-stage: start with a very specialized, short, non-touristy, group for education and other orientation, then go out on my own for the bulk of the trip. Let the education cleanse your brain of erroneous preconceptions. I did a month in Spain that way several years ago, and it worked out very well. Picking the brains of knowledgeable people along the way--adjusting plans as needed--is an important part of that.
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