ITINERARY
Hopkins High School Parent Tour
March 21-26, 2025
Meet at Havana International Airport
When you arrive in Havana, you will pass through customs, get your bags, and exit the airport. Don’t be alarmed if it takes a long time to get your luggage. Cuba has a very slow x-ray system to scan all bags. When you exit the airport, you will be greeted by our Cuban tour guide, chauffeur, and U.S.-based tour leader who will be holding a Hopkins High School sign. We will gather outside the airport in groups according to arrival times and transfer to our Havana hotel.
DAY 1: FRIDAY, MARCH 21 | ¡BIENVENIDOS A CUBA!
Arrive at our accommodations and check in to your rooms
We will be staying in the same hotel as the students located downtown across from the bay in El Vedado neighborhood. This brand-new Indonesian luxury hotel reveals unique designer architecture, fresh rooms, eclectic dining, and beautiful wellness facilities, including the city’s only 24-hour fitness center and an amazing 56-meter-long swimming pool overlooking the sparkling waters of the iconic Havana Bay. After you check in, relax and settle in before our orientation and dinner.
Hotel Grand Aston
7:30pm ~ Welcome dinner at La Guarida
Anyone who has been to La Guarida will find it difficult to disagree that Enrique and Odeisys have managed to create their own magical home restaurant. The building, originally known as La Mansión Camagüey, shows its former grandeur from the magnificent wooden entrance door through the marble staircase up the two flights of stairs to the restaurant itself.
La Guarida Restaurant
9:00 pm ~ Rooftop jazz concert at La Guarida
Above the restaurant, the hottest new music scene in Havana is happening on this rooftop patio on Saturday nights. Tonight, we’ll get to hear one of Cuba’s greatest jazz artists perform under the stars.
Roof top jazz at La Guarida
Breakfast at our hotel
Wake up to a typical Cuban breakfast spread of eggs, fruit, breads, ham, cheese, juice, and many other selections. The buffet is open daily from 7:00 - 10:00 am.
DAY 2: SATURDAY, MARCH 22 | COLONIAL HAVANA
Daily deluxe breakfasts buffet at hotel
10:00 am ~ Old Havana four plazas walking tour
We will get to know the historic core of Havana. In this UNESCO World Heritage Site, one can find extraordinary Colonial architecture of Cuban baroque and art nouveau, both well preserved and decayed, many galleries, contemporary centers, boutique museums, and little shops. We'll start at la Plaza de las Armas, Havana’s first square and the origin point of the city’s settlement. Around the corner, we'll find the Plaza de la Catedral where our hotel is located. There we’ll visit the collective graphic arts workshop, Taller de Gráfica. This public studio for local artists was established by Pablo Neruda and Che Guevara at the beginning of the Revolution as a place where artists living and visiting Havana work on printmaking. Next. we'll see the an exhibit at the Wilfredo Lam Center. The third stop is Plaza San Francisco where we'll see the Basílica and finish at the Plaza Vieja where we can see a couple of exhibits of contemporary Cuban art at two of Havana’s most important contemporary art centers, El Centro del Desarollo de Arte Contemporánea and la Fototeca de Cuba.
Old Havana walking tour
12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Los Mercaderes
We’ll stroll down the oldest street in Havana, Calle de los Mercaderes (Merchants Street), to have lunch in a beautiful new restaurant built inside the home of the owner.
Los Mercaderes Restaurant
2:30 pm ~ Early afternoon free
Continue exploring Old Havana or return to the casas to recharge your batteries, go for a swim, or take a siesta.
Typical game of streetball
5:00 pm ~ Master class workshop with Afro-Cuban electronic fusion ensemble (with students)
Join Hopkins High School students to experience one of Cuba’s hottest Afro-Cuban electronic fusion ensembles perform a private concert and talk about their work as an ensemble on the next-generation Havana music circuit. The group is led by José Angel Blanco.
Masterclass with Afro-Cuban fusion band
6:30 pm ~ Cocktails and house tour of curator Pamela Ruiz
Pamela Ruiz and artist Damien Aquiles have invited us to their beautifully restored luxurious Havana mansion for a tour with cocktails. Read more about their home and story in New York Times Style Magazine.
Cocktails at curator Pamela Ruiz’s Havana mansion
8:00 pm ~ La Fábrica de Arte Cubano (FAC)
Experience Havana’s hippest urban culture magnet: an old peanut oil factory refurbished into a multi-level, multi-purpose, and almost infinite art and music space. This expansive venue boasts a dense cultural program exhibiting contemporary photography, installations, sculptures, three music stages, tapas, and seven bars. This cultural hotspot is an entrepreneurial project of Cuban celebrity musician X Alfonso. This “Cuban Art Factory” is a shining reflection of what the future might hold for Havana as the cosmopolitan trend-setting capital stronghold of Latin America that it once was.
La Fábrica de Arte Cubano
DAY 3: SUNDAY, MARCH 23 | VIÑALES VALLEY
Breakfast at our hotel
Wake up to a typical Cuban breakfast spread of eggs, fruit, breads, ham, cheese, juice, and many other selections. The buffet is open daily from 7:00am.
9:00 ~ Depart for Viñales valley
Enjoy the scenic drive through the Western province of Pinar del Río, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This pine-populated, red-soiled tobacco-growing region of Cuba features lime stone mountains called “mogotes” that jut out of the valley floor.
Viñales valley
11:30 am ~ Visit to Paco y Concha's tobacco farm
On our way to Viñales we’ll stop by a 3rd generation tobacco farm that grows and prepares tobacco for the Cohiba brand. The farmer will show us the process of how the world’s finest tobacco is created.
Paco y Concha’s tobacco farm
12:30 pm ~ Farm to table lunch at Finca Agroecológica
Have lunch on what some might consider one of the most scenic farms in the world. For four generations this family has owned and operated this organic sustainable agricultural project. Enjoy a farm-to-table family-style meal at their house perched on top of a hill with a magical view of the Viñales Valley. The farmers will take you on a tour of their farm after lunch. There’s a reason they call this place “el paraíso.”
Lunch at Finca Agroecológica “El Paraiso”
2:30 pm ~ Afternoon horseback ride through the Cuban countryside
Ride with locals on a caballo through the small farms and geological wonders, and world’s finest tobacco-growing region. Those who prefer not to ride horses can go on a guided hike through the valley or relax in town on your own.
Cuban countryside on horseback
4:00 pm ~ Drive back to Havana for dinner and evening on your own
Return to Havana at around 6:30 pm. Split into small groups to explore Havana’s booming new foodie scene surrounding our hotel. We’ll recommend options and make reservations such as Ecléctico, La Bodega, La Esquina, Atelier, and Casa Mía.
Sunset on Havana’s Malecón
DAY 4: MONDAY, MARCH 24 | FUN IN HAVANA
Breakfast at our hotel
Wake up to a typical Cuban breakfast spread of eggs, fruit, breads, ham, cheese, juice, and many other selections. The buffet is open daily from 7:00am - 10:00am.
Free day in Havana!
Continue exploring Havana on your own. We'll recommend museums, restaurants, shopping, neighborhoods to explore, and more. Be back at the hotel lobby ready to leave for our evening's activities at 4:30 pm.
Free time in Havana
5:00 pm ~ Concert of El Septeto Nacional (with students)
Join the HHS students for this iconic Cuban concert. Fans of the Buena Vista Social Club will be in for a treat to see the legendary and historic Septeto Nacional de Cuba perform a concert for the locals in an unexpected venue. These old timers are masters and great innovators of Latin music over the past 80 years.
6:30 pm ~ Dinner at El Del Frente
Enjoy specialty cocktails and mojitos in our favorite restaurant in Habana Vieja. El Del Frente makes food and drinks that will rival any trendy restaurant in Minneapolis.
Dinner at El Del Frente
8:30 pm ~ Concert in the city (with students)
Attend a public concert with HHS students and Cuban audiences in Havana, to be determined, depending on what is happening that night.
Concert in Havana
DAY 5: TUESDAY, MARCH 25 | HAVANA VIEJA
Breakfast at our hotel
Wake up to a typical Cuban breakfast spread of eggs, fruit, breads, ham, cheese, juice, and many other selections. The buffet is open daily from 7:00 - 10:00 am.
10:00 am ~ Private concert with Camerata Romeu string orchestra (with students)
Visit the beautifully restored Basílica San Francisco de Asis to experience a private performance of the first all-women string orchestra in Latin America. Under the direction of Zenaida Romeu, Camerata Romeu is one of Cuba’s most extraordinary classical music ensembles. This non-governmental independent music group frequently tours internationally and performs new works of numerous Cuban and other Latin American composers.
La Camerata Romeu
11:30 am ~ Capitolio neighborhood walking tour
We’ll introduce ourselves to Havana by getting to know its most grand neighborhood. El Prado is one of the most exquisitely designed major avenues in all the Americas and home to the quintessential structures that define Havana, ranging from Colonial to Baroque to Neoclassical to Art Deco. Designed in 1772 by French landscape architect Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, El Prado runs for many blocks from the dramatic fountain, La Fuente de la India, to the iconic Malecon, marking the boundary between Habana Vieja and Centro Habana. El Paseo, a marble promenade lined with a natural canopy of trees, marble benches and bronze lions was chosen by the House of Chanel for one of the most dramatic runway shows in the history of fashion. It is home to El Capitolio (1929): El Gran Teatro de La Habana (1918), home to the National Ballet of Cuba; The Bacardi Building (1930), a testament to Art Deco and dozens of other structures immortalized in photography and film for decades. El Prado encompasses all the cultural wealth that Havana has offered from the 17th to the 20th Century.
Capitolio walking tour
12:30 pm ~ Lunch at Vistamar
Located in a mid-century modern home with an exceptional view of the Havana seafront and a piano-shaped swimming pool, this restaurant is a favorite place to catch the breeze while enjoying quality Cuban cuisine inspired by the sea.
2:00 pm ~ Private Performance with Modern Dance Company "Mi compania"
Watch one of Cuba’s top contemporary dance companies under the direction of Susana Pous. We will visit a beautiful house transformed into her private dance school and company headquarters.
Mi Compañía modern dance
3:15 pm ~ Return to the hotel and relax
Recharge your batteries for our final night in Havana with a dip at the pool or siesta.
5:00 pm ~ Classic convertibles scenic car ride
Leaving from our hotel, we will travel to our final dinner “Havana-style” in a fleet of specially selected 1950s American convertibles that will take us on a scenic route through Havana’s most beautiful neighborhoods. Don't forget your cameras!
1950s convertible ride
6:00 pm ~ Final concert, dinner, and party with Hopkins students and their Cuban colleagues
We’ll celebrate the international exchange with our Cuban hosts by watching Hopkins High School students perform their work together with the Cuban ensembles in their auditorium. Finish with a large party for dinner, dancing, and socializing.
Optional final evening in Havana
For those who wish to savor your final hours, we'll recommend jazz clubs, hipster bars, and other highlights of the Havana night life (optional, cost not included).
DAY 6: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26 | ADIOS CUBA
Breakfast at our hotel
Wake up to a typical Cuban breakfast spread of eggs, fruit, breads, ham, cheese, juice, and many other selections. The buffet is open daily from 7:00 - 10:00 am.
10:00 am ~ Havana shopping tour: Alma Shop, Clandestina, San José Artisan Market (with students)
For our final morning, join HHS students for to visit a selection of the most interesting and highest-quality Cuban designers and artisans. This is the best time to find a piece of Cuba to bring home with you for gifts or memories while supporting small Cuban entrepreneurs.
Check out of hotel Grand Aston
Artisan & designers markets
1:00 pm ~ Final lunch at Cinco Sentidos
Nestled in the heart of Old Havana, Cinco Sentidos restaurant is a culinary gem that promises a sensory journey like no other. Its charming colonial-era ambiance is transformed with a chic contemporary artist flare and a menu that pays homage to the vibrant flavors of Cuban cuisine. From succulent ropa vieja to ceviche or perfectly grilled seafood, each plate tells a story of Cuba's rich culinary heritage.
Cinco Sentidos Restaurant
3:00 pm ~ Transfer to José Martí International Airport
We’ll drop you off at the airport two hours in advance of your flight back to MSP airport and assist you with check in.
¡Adios, Cuba!