Past Retreats
Cuba
Cuba Yoga Retreat
1. ITINERARY
Day 1: Welcome to Cuba
Fly to Cuba, meet trip leader Gigi Austin. We also meet our Cuba Cultural Host and the driver.
Check into a high-end private B&B in Vedado. Vedado is located in a chic Cuban barrio.
Welcome to the celebration, orientation and supper at Grados private restaurant, hosted by chef Raulito Bazuka. Chef Bazuka specializes in innovative creations using traditional Cuban ingredients.
After dinner, you might see the famous Tropicana cabaret show or enjoy the joy heritage of the Buena Vista Social Club. Whatever you are looking for, we can help find it!
Day 2:
Get acclimated to your neighborhood with a pleasing promenade procured by a local architect historian. After the tour, you can familiarize yourself with shops and local eateries.
Visit the Luna Chorus, Cuba’s only professional women’s choir at their daily rehearsal. They will inform us of how it is to be a professional musician in Cuba.
Lunch at a private sandwich shop and bakery. The owner is a friend of Gigi’s and the woman will reveal what it is like to run a business. She may even share what it was like to be first same-sex commitment ceremony in Cuba.
Cuban architecture knowledge expands as we walk by the glamorous Hotel Nacional to see where US Citizens travels to get away for a weekend.
Tonight another group of friends will host dinner in their home. This evening is inspired by the phrase mi casa es su casa. My Cuban home is your home.
Day 3
We visit the Capitol area, home to some of Havana’s grand and historic buildings.
We tour Old Havana, the City’s oldest, most colorful neighborhood. Old Havana is filled with contrasts: vintage and modern; upscale and gritty; artists and intellectuals, street performers and families living life. We’ll feel the rhythm of this inimitable place and visit the Cathedral. Walking makes you understand the pulse of the street in a way that bus tours do not. The group is intentionally intimate to make us more nimble.
The afternoon gives time for self-guided exploration and lunch on your own in Old Havana.
Guided tour of the Museum of Fine Arts. This is a revealing look at Cuban society through its art, from the colonial period to the nation’s struggle for independence and the Revolution.
Feria San Jose is a huge market for art, handicrafts and other souvenirs. We’ll meet one of Cuba’s entrepreneurs who expands business innovation beyond the confines of the Cuban norm.
Dinner tonight at your leisure. We will have a restaurant list to make you feel like a food critic for Travel & Leisure.
Day 4
We visit Nostalgicar garage, Cuba’s leading garage for the restoration of classic Cars.
Spend the morning with classic cars. We drive around Havana to Revolucion Square, Fifth Avenue and Colon Cemetery.
Arrive at Callejon de Hamel (“Hamel Alley”) to celebrate neighborhood Afro-Cuban culture. The resident expert will school us on Afro-Cuban dance, and music, and the santería religion. At noon, we accept the coveted invitation to be guests at a weekly rumba party, a music/dance performance that honors key deities of santería.
Break for lunch and relax with unscheduled down-time. Select one of many options from upscale restaurants to local diners.
After lunch, we will cross any undone items off of your list and pack bags.
We dine at San Cristobal, one of Havana’s most famous restaurants. The Obamas dined here during their 2015 tour.
After dinner, we walk along the malecón the wall along the sea to help digest the repast and top off your Cuban trip. The night brings people to socialize along the wall just as the Brooklyn Promenade finds people chatting and enjoying the night air. There will be music and fabulous people watching.
Davy 5
Say a sad goodby to Cuba and head home.
