A 1958 Chevrolet in Cuba. Photo courtesy AACA Museum and International Expeditions.
Though restrictions on visiting Cuba have eased somewhat over the past few decades, for most Americans traveling to Havana involves more than a visit to the local travel agent (or, more likely these days, Hotwire). In April of 2015, and in conjunction with tour company International Expeditions, the AACA Museum will make it easy to visit the island via Cuba: People, Culture & Classic Cars, a cultural exchange trip centered on the theme of vintage cars.
Cuba is famous for its well-preserved (and creatively modified) classic American cars, stemming from a time when Havana was the vacation destination of choice for celebrities like Ernest Hemingway, mob boss Meyer Lansky (said to be a friend of General Fulgencio Batista himself), Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. The Cuban Revolution put an end to that, and by 1960 the flow of cars from Detroit to Havana effectively stopped, freezing the island in a weird time warp of 1950s American cars blended with later Soviet models, and, eventually, more mainstream imports.
By billing the trip as a way of promoting “meaningful interactions” with Cubans who share a passion for cars, International Expeditions (which runs cultural exchange trips to Cuba on a regular basis) skirts the ban on private American citizen travel to the island. In its brochure, the travel company states that it’s licensed by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to, “engage, organize and conduct authorized people-to-people travel to Cuba.” There is, however, a catch; participants must agree to partake full-time in the activities scheduled, many of which come with a Cuban government-provided tour guide.
While that leaves no time for leisure on one’s own, the planned schedule of activities include enough classic car centered activities that few will complain. The first night in Havana includes dinner with the director of Deposito del Automovil, a “repository” created by the Office of the Historian of the City that is as close to a true automobile museum as one is likely to find there. There’s also interaction with members of the Amigos de Fangio, a club centered on classic cars (presumably in all their weird and wonderful Cuban iterations).
In addition to seminars on classic cars and a guided tour of the Deposito del Automovil, the trip includes visits to Hemingway’s favorite hotel (the Hotel Ambos Mundos), his former home (preserved as it was on the day of his death), art galleries, wildlife sanctuaries, farms and shops, and even travel outside of Havana. This, too, comes with a disclaimer reminding prospective visitors that touring Cuba sometimes requires a sense of adventure, which only adds to the trip’s appeal (in our minds, anyway).
The nine-day trip is priced from $5,170 per person, including charter airfare from Miami to Havana and back. For additional details on Cuba: People, Culture & Classic Cars, visit AACAMuseum.org.
More gadget review in www.mamaktalk.com
