I booked trip via Air Key West (AKW) to Havana, Cuba for guided day tour on 2/27/26. At AKW, the…read morelady issuing our visas (after asking each of us if we "were scared," told us we should've come a week later after Trump had invaded, (according to her, the island would no longer be communist & the embargo lifted, allowing us to buy rum and cigars). She also told us that it would be "no problem" to get passports stamped in Havana, or if they wouldn't, we could request it on a piece of paper. Upon arrival I asked our liaison if I could get a stamp. He said it was no problem, & to follow him. He had a word with our pilot (in Spanish) who shook his head disgustedly. The Liaison then turned around and said it was "impossible". So some pilot with no standing in Cuba, basically tanked that for us, (though one guy in our group actually got his stamped, so it's not like it was a regulation or anything).
According to the itinerary from AKW, the tour would go from the Airport to the Hemingway Home. We'd then go to Cojimar (village where Hemingway launched his boat & fictional home of the "old man" in Old Man and the Sea) followed by a few hours in Havana Vieja where we'd lunch & visit Hemingway haunts like Bodeguita Del Medio, El Floridita, and Ambos Mundo Hotel.
After leaving the Hemingway Home, I asked the guide when we'd be going to Cojimar. He said that wasn't/never had been part of tour. When I mentioned it being on Itinerary, he said it never had been. Due to huge data rates on Cuba, I couldn't pull up/show him the online itinerary, which the owner (Rob) acknowledges is still on the website and "probably needs to be changed". We went to Havana Vieja, walked around, & while the guide pointed out the Ambos Mundo hotel, we just kept walking.
When I spoke to Rob 2 weeks ago, he said Cojimar was taken off tour when the restaurant closed... during covid. Yet, Cojimar is still on the itinerary while lunch is listed on the itinerary as being at Paladar in Havana. If the lunch location was edited on itinerary because Cojimar could no longer play host, & that resulted in no longer visiting the village,, why not remove Cojimar from the itinerary at same time... I mean, the restaurant closed 6 years ago!!!
In conversations with Rob, he kept reiterating changes in tour can be made WITH SUBSTITUTIONS by guides at their discretion in case of events like a power outage. There was no power outage (and why would that matter in a fishing village anyway) and no substitutions were made.
The trip was $1,342. I requested $250-$300 refund. Rob denied it, saying, "Even when we went to Cojimar, we only stayed for about 5 minutes & it's very run down, now". I feel that between omitting Cojimar & just pointing out Ambos Mundo hotel (not going into museum on the 5th floor, explicitly mentioned in itinerary & for which admission-while small- was paid as part of trip cost) I deserve at least a partial refund. The fact it's taken over 3 weeks to even get a response is equally ridiculous.
The buckpassing at AKW is extraordinary. Everything from the guide supposedly "not knowing they once went to Cojimar because "he must be new"" to "it's at their discretion" to my personal favorite, "that's just how things go in Cuba." I feel like AKW thought they could just throw whatever on the tour and people would be fine. I came to see the Hemingway haunts in an exotic locale. I also thought (with Cojimar) that I'd get a small taste of what "real Cuba" was like. But no, we were taken to the Hemingway home & while we can't go in, we were told we could get pics. We were also told by our guide that we were expected to pay workers to take pics of the inside for us (again we'd already paid admission via our trip cost)
It was very disappointing given that I'd wanted to make this trip for literally over 2 decades, and even more frustrating to be told "that's just Cuba"
