Travel to Cuba Now an Option for Americans

Now available for Americans; small group tours to Cuba, where participants take part in people-to-people educational programs. The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has approved tours to take Americans to Cuba.

The program operated from 2000 to 2003, when it was discontinued because of new travel regulations. The programs will now be allowed to resume as those regulations have been revised.

Now anyone can reserve a spot on one of the company's six programs with more than 130 departures through September. Each trip will be limited to 16 participants and led by a host/escort. Prices, starting around $1,700 USD will cover all meals, accommodations in four and five-star hotels (double occupancy), ground transportation, domestic flights within Cuba if required, all entry fees, guide services, travel insurance and U.S. Treasury Department license and letter of authorization.

Contact a Professional Travel Agent for more information!

Some Travel Restrictions to Cuba Will be Lifted

On Tuesday the Obama administration announced that some travel restrictions to Cuba will be lifted. The move would leave intact the nearly 50 year old embargo against the communist regime, but would expand opportunities for American students, educators and researchers to visit Cuba.

It is expected the Treasury department will issue more licenses for exceptions to the ban. Officials are working on the regulations and hope to have them completed before Congress resumes.

President Barack Obama has said he wants to reach out to Cuba and promote democracy there by easing travel and financial restrictions. But he also has said political or economic reforms are necessary before the U.S. takes further steps to normalize relations.

Continental Now Offering Flights to Cuba

On Tuesday Continental Airlines began offering direct flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Havana, Cuba.

Cuba Travel Services Inc. will offer a chartered flight every Tuesday on a Boeing 737-800 operated by Continental Airlines. The flight will take off from LAX at 11 a.m.

Most travel from the United States to Cuba has been banned since an embargo was imposed on Cuba in 1962. Cuban-Americans were allowed to visit their families under various policies, however. About five years ago, President George W. Bush placed a three times a year limit on such trips for Cuban-Americans. His administration also more tightly regulated who could accompany them as family members on the trips.

President Obama repealed those restrictions in April. Cuba Travel says it hopes its new flights will be possible with the 100,000 Cuban-Americans living in California, some 85,000 of those in Los Angeles. The company also hopes to serve "journalists, government officials and researchers, as well as sports teams, educational facilities and other groups."

Cuba Travel Services was formed by a group of Los Angeles business professionals to facilitate a better understanding between the United States and Cuba.

Obama Lifting Restrictions on Family Travel to Cuba

In a measured break with a half-century of U.S. policy toward communist Cuba, the Obama administration lifted restrictions Monday on Cuban-Americans who want to travel and send money to their families in Cuba.

This includes the removal of limits on the frequency and amount of remittances that Cubans can send to family members in Cuba. Travelers will be authorized to carry up to $3,000 in remittances. And Cuban Americans will be able to visit relatives in their Island homeland for as long as they like and as often as they like.

In a further gesture of openness, U.S. telecommunications firms were freed to seek business there, too. However, the U.S. economic and trade embargo of communist-ruled Cuba will remain, but leaders of Latin American countries at this week’s Summit of the Americas are expected to push Obama to repeal it. The summit takes place April 17 to 19 in Trinidad.