USA-CUBA and the WAAC provide sports tours for groups genuinely interested in combining top-flight athletic competitions and unique cultural exchanges with the people of Cuba. Athletes traveling in Cuba with USA-Cuba Sports Experiences can not fail to enjoy and benefit from the unique experience of knowing firsthand one of the world’s most charming peoples and one of its most historically and culturally rich nations.
Many of our programs are based in Havana, which itself provides unlimited opportunities for visiting sites of historical and cultural importance. A city of nearly 3 million, Havana retains its old-world charm and its reputation as the jewel of the Caribbean. Some of our teams also compete in other locations through the island, such as the picturesque port cities of Santiago and Cienfuegos, or the lush agricultural region of Pinar del Rio and the ranch country of Camagüey. Our Havana-based groups regularly visit the tobacco-growing Pinar del Río province to the west of the capital city to experience another side of modern-day Cuba. A trip to Pinar inevitably includes exploration of the spectacular ancient caves of Viñales or a first-hand look at Cuba’s world-renowned tobacco industry.
Cuban music provides a backdrop that rarely fails to fascinate visitors to the island. The lively sounds of Cuban dance and jazz rhythms permeate the streets of Havana, both day and night, and color any visit to a city long officially closed to American tourists. Our golf groups competing in Varadero (two hours’ drive from the capital) experience some of the most spectacular beaches found anywhere in the world, while playing on a championship 18-hole ocean/links layout.
The Cuban Revolution was an important mid-twentieth-century event whose details are little known to most Americans. Cubans today continue to live and evolve their revolution in an ever-changing world. American visitors to Havana are often most struck by an environment in which billboards and print ads almost do not exist, commercial advertising exists at a bare minimum, and national television features only a few channels which broadcast afternoon and evening hours only. Cuba is a truly unforgettable experience in which daily life and work-a-day business march to the beat of a very different drummer indeed.
Havana itself provides some of the world’s most special vistas, especially along the oceanfront main avenue or Malecón, where spectacular breakers pounding against crumbling seawalls often shut-down mid-day traffic. One effect of the Cuban Revolution has been preservation of the crumbling architecture of one of the world’s most charming cities. The constant modernization and renovation of skyscraper-lined business districts in major cities throughout capitalist countries has not visited Cuba – yet. The teeming city still displays much of its 19th and early 20th century architecture intact if somewhat tattered and worn. Still-chugging American automobiles of the forties and fifties contribute to making the city a living museum. And most charming are the vibrant Cuban people themselves. Cubans greet American visitors with generous hospitality, despite the differences in political and economic systems that separate the two neighboring countries. And any visitor quickly discovers that Havana is one of the safest cities in the world to wander on foot either day or night.