Photo by David Cogswell
The world's oldest tour operator is the newest entry in the wildly growing Cuba travel market as Cox & Kings, which was founded in 1758, has launched its Cuba program.
Cuba may be the only destination where immersive, cultural tourism is actually the only kind of travel Americans can partake in because under the U.S. embargo that is still in place over Cuba, it's the only kind of travel the U.S. government allows.
Fortunately for tour operators in Cuba, cultural immersion and engagement with locals happens to also be the kind of travel that is increasingly demanded by travel consumers.
And also fortunately for Cox & Kings, with a 250-year history operating tours in exotic destinations, the culturally immersive travel required under the people-to-people rubric comes naturally to the tour operator.
Though the rules for travel to Cuba may be uniform, the way tour operators put the rules into action are wildly different. Each tour operator has its own personality, its own style of travel, its own company culture. And each destination offers a nearly infinite range of possibilities beyond the standard "must-see" sights that would be the most obvious inclusions in any tour itinerary.
Cox & Kings will be conducting group tours of no more than 24 guests as well as private tours, on which the travelers will be able to make their own choices about which of the excursions and activities they wish to participate in as part of their personal itineraries.
Traveling in the Cox & Kings group itinerary, the guests will follow the ghost of Ernest Hemingway through his still-preserved house in the outskirts of Havana; visit a cigar factory and watch how the long-forbidden items are manufactured; meet with organic farmers; take an architectural tour of Old Havana; and experience a performance of traditional Cuban music at the Cuban Institute of Music.
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