Travelling to Cuba under the People To People provision

[Julia-and-Dave0]

Hi there! My wife and I are travelling to Cuba for Christmas from the USA and were hoping to track down a little more information on how we can fulfill the People-To-People Cultural visiting provisions. We are very interested in seeing as many sights, experiencing as much culture and talking to as many people as possible to travel legally but haven't had much luck in actually booking any kind of day tours while we're there. It seems that most "package" options include airfare/accomodations in their hefty price tags- and we've already booked our airline tickets and have Airbnbs arranged already for places to stay.

Any recommendations on daily kinds of tours that fulfil the requirements? Or can we just keep our receipts from all the museums/exhibits/etc that we visit and call that good?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Andrew157]

We visited Cuba back in January 2016 and basically arranged our tours as went went along from the local guys - often just using taxis to get to places or from one airbnb to another. Actually one guy sublet the second journey to his mate so instead of a 1980s VW passat we has a 1956 Chevy. The brakes actually worked on the Chevy.

I don't know what the people to people provision is as I live in a free country called England and my government allows me to travel anywhere. I guess if I had asked I would have received a receipt but there is not tax to reclaim

[Jennifer317]

Hello Julia and Dave,

My husband and I are planning to go to Cuba in February and we have the same question as you. I'd love to know what you have found out. I hope you have a fantastic trip!!

Jennifer ***

[Lawrene0]

Hi, @Julia-and-Dave0. Just tagging you so you see @Jennifer317's question to you in this thread. She wants to know what you learned!

[David929]

Hi @Julia-and-Dave0 and Jennifer!

Hailing from North Carolina, we are also trying to go to Cuba in June. Do Airbnb's count as a people to people exchange and did you just keep all of your receipts for museums or did  you book through a tour to avoid all the hassle?

[Lair0]

Same for me. Looking to travel in April with Air BNB's.

[David929]

Hi @Lair0,

Do you plan on using airbnb's to qualify for the "people to people exchange" when you go to cuba? 

[Sarah498]

Wondering this as well - let me know what you found out!

[Rachel218]

Earlier today I was listening to a podcast by Conde Nast (Travelogue) from December 2016. They mentioned that staying via Airbnb potentially fulfills the people-to-people requirement. I'm trying to find more details, but you might be able to poke around on the CN website. Would love to hear how it goes and any tips for those of us trying to get there before A) it gets crazy with US tourists, or B) Trump pulls back on this.

I can't put a link in the discussion, but if you go to the Conde Nat website and search for Cuba, there are a lot of helpful articles. And you can find that podcast on iTunes or their site directly. It was called "Where To Go in 2017".