Cuba Travel: Lots of Hype, Little Action

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Thinking of traveling to Cuba now that it’s the “hot” thing to do? I mean, I'd love to learn more about the culture there. I know it used to be a great place to go way back when. My grandma honeymooned there.

Well, believe it or not, you’ll likely find it very difficult to get to the island that sits a mere 90 miles from Florida. Yeah, travel to Cuba may be in the news as the (pronounced: theeeeeee) travel destination right now, but you still won’t see many people booking their next vacations to the island nation.

Why?

For beginners, it’s still extremely complicated to travel to Cuba. If you don’t feel like reading all of that, in short, you can’t just go there for vacation. And there’s a lot more to it than logging onto an airline's website, finding a flight, and buying a ticket to Cuba.

Bummer, right? Not very straight-forward at all! Unfortunately, it gets worse. According to the Wall Street Journal, Cuba hasn’t yet decided when they want you going there, and U.S. airlines really aren’t that excited to fly there:

1. Despite the controversial reestablishment of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries and the lifting of the U.S. embargo, Cuba has not yet decided when – or even if – it once again will allow U.S. tourists and business people to travel there on a fully, unregulated basis. For now, travel there will be limited to government purposes and special, carefully organized and shepherded cultural exchange tours.
   
   
2. No U.S. airline is chomping at the bit to fly to Havana, or any place else on the terribly impoverished island precisely because there’s almost no existing demand for travel to and from Cuba at anything close to profitable fare levels. And given that nation’s average annual family annual income of  under $10,000, the near-total lack of business infrastructure, and the government’s continuing disdain for that would come close to rectifying either of those problems, don’t expect Cuba travel demand numbers to rise very high or very fast.
   

Bottom line

Sure, you can fly to Cuba, and spend several days on the island. That is, if you meet the requirements still in place. But you won’t have many options getting there. Or back.

Someday it may be a tourist mecca, and a great place to go on a tropical vacation. Unfortunately, that day is not going to be any time soon.

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