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I had a trip to Cuba last month, and I’m there again now. Things are heating up on the political scene. A bunch of evangelical churches have launched a campaign against marriage equality, and the LGBTIQ community and allies are working to organize support too. I just read a declaration from Cuban anti-racist activists, intellectuals, and projects, supporting marriage equality, criticizing the fundamentalist campaigns that…

Cuba’s in the middle of revising their Constitution. A draft has been approved by their Parliament, and there’s currently a period of public debate and input. The revisions will supposedly be adopted in November. In theory, this period of public debate and input represents a chance for the Cuban people to influence the revision. I’ve heard a lot of cynicism about this from Cubans I…

Every year I lead a group for Cuba’s annual Pride celebration, celebrated in conjunction with the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). The festivities always include a conga, which is a dancing-in-the-streets kind of parade. A street band plays drums, horns, and other percussion, more rhythm than melody. Occasionally they play riffs from a popular song, and the crowd sings along. People dance down…

I’ve had dietary restrictions on the brain lately! I get enough inquiries about this, I figured it was worth writing about. So I’m going to explain how I handle food for my vegetarian/vegan travelers. If you’re going to Cuba on your own, this may give you an idea of what you’ll be dealing with. If people are interested, I can also do a post on…

I’ve made a couple changes to the site lately! One is my Cuba brochure, listed on the Travel With Matt page. This spells out how my custom trips work, where I organize a trip just for your private group. I’ve also updated the Testimonials page with some feedback from my travelers. This includes feedback from people who came on open enrollment trips, together with other…

Coming up on May 19 – 26, visit Cuba with everyone’s favorite OM YOGA DIVA Nicole Payseur! This cultural adventure gives you a broad perspective on Cuba today. You’ll meet with local community activists one minute… and listen to one of the island’s hottest jazz combos the next. Your experience will range from rural Cuba to the big city, from Havana’s hottest restaurants to standard…

A year ago, I led a trip to Havana for the annual Jazz Plaza festival. Of all the music I heard that week, the band that made the strongest impression was Emilio Martini’s Natural Trio. What I loved about them – besides sheer excellence – was their playfulness. You can just tell they’re having a blast, fooling around together and improvising little musical jokes. I…

In my last post, I talked about three restrictions on Cuba travel implemented last month. In this one, I’ll discuss how these and other recent events affect Cuba and the Cuba travel industry. One thing you need to understand is, Cuba depends on tourism. It’s the country’s number one source of income. A lot of tourism dollars flow to/through the Cuban government, as they’re paid…

Coming up this May, visit Cuba for the annual Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia! That’s the Cuban equivalent of a Pride celebration, complete with a march/conga, gala, and more.

Today the Treasury department released amendments to the restrictions on Cuba travel. For the most part, this was just the official rollout of changes Trump announced way back on June 16th. For my kind of travel – People-to-People trips – there are three significant changes. Two were announced in June, and the third comes as a surprise. But if you’re already registered for one of…