How to Travel to Cuba Now-Rules for Americans
Recent changes allow US airlines to fly to Cuba. This has removed 90% of the complexity of getting to Cuba.. How to travel to Cuba now is as simple as calling your airline and booking a flight…they take care of the idiosyncrasies of Cuba travel.
Note: President Trump on June 16th, 2017 announced upcoming changes to the travel rules for Americans. Many things remain the same, others change. See my blog post explaining these Travel Changes.
Travel to Cuba is not quite as simple as flying to Mexico, for example, but almost. It is much, much easier than before rules were changed.
I will get to the rules in a minute, but you truly have no obstacles in the way of travel except the limited number of flights from the US. and the limited number of departure cities. You are good to go. Flights started in September and are slowing increasing. See my Page on Cuba Flights from the US.
Travel Rules for Americans, Then and Now
In the past Americans had 3 obstacles in traveling to Cuba:
- No “tourist” travel. You had to get a license approved in 1 of 12 specific categories of approved travel, or under the auspices of an organization who had the license. This generally meant you went with a tour group that had a People-to-People license. Religious groups doing missionary work was another easily obtained license.
- Visa. You had to get a Visa ahead of time for travel to the Cuban Republic. No big deal, but time-consuming.
- Health Insurance. You had to get health insurance that would be good in Cuba. US insurance would not work (remember; the embargo, sanctions, no economic connections). You had to be covered under a plan approved by the Cuban government.
Getting the visa and health card weren’t difficult; we Americans are just not used to having to do such things.
The Latest Travel Rules-Simplified
Two changes occurred to make travel to Cuba now so much easier: the first US flights & cruises were approved and have started, and license application is no longer needed. Now, the carriers handle it all! They want you to go, so they handle the details. Good old capitalism works again. If it is easy to go you will do so, so they make it easy for you.
- No “tourist” travel. You had to get a license approved in 1 of 12 specific categories of approved travel, or under the auspices of an organization who had the license. This generally meant you went with a tour group that had a People-to-People license. Religious groups doing missionary work was another easily obtained license.
- Visa. You had to get a Visa ahead of time for travel to the Cuban Republic. No big deal, but time-consuming.
- Health Insurance. You had to get health insurance that would be good in Cuba. US insurance would not work (remember; the embargo, sanctions, no economic connections). You had to be covered under a plan approved by the Cuban government.
So, How to Travel to Cuba Now? Simple…
- There is still no “tourist” travel, but the necessity of license agreement is gone. When purchasing a ticket you just check a box saying which of 12 categories of travel you fall under. Most people check “People-to-People”. Just check a box! No one is going to ask or care how much tourism you do. Just go and have a good time. For a list of travel categories, see my Rules of Travel
- The visa is still needed but the airline will have a Visa booth set up for this.
- Health insurance card is still needed, but the airline will handle this too for an additional charge. The cruise ships do the same.
You are now good to go. The carrier takes care of all the details. Take your up-to-date passport (with at least two blank pages and expiration date beyond your stay) and head to the airport
Now the American (the Cubans don’t care) rule about no “tourist” travel allowed is still in effect. But, no one is going to follow up and see you on the beach. Just check people-to-people on your application and head to Cuba.
See details of Travel Rules and a list of the US Travel Guidelines to Cuba here.
Also see The Top 12 Things to Know before You Travel to Cuba.