Cuba has long captivated visitors with its Afro-Cuban culture, UNESCO-protected cities, gelato-colored classic cars—and its loquacious, quick-witted locals. Post-pandemic, travelers can enjoy all of this once more. Cuba’s new e-visas, launched in August 2024, pave the way, as does the return of several American tour companies that had paused travel to the island. Starting in January 2025, Abercrombie & Kent’s tours will take travelers first to Camagüey, Cuba’s third-largest city—and a UNESCO World Heritage Site filled with churches, figurative sculptures, and celebrated ballet performances at the City’s Teatro Principal—before traveling west to spellbinding Trinidad, with a stay in the sparkly new Meliá Trinidad Península. Then travelers will go on to Cienfuegos, the city of columns, and Santa Clara, home to Che Guevara’s monumental mausoleum before landing in Havana. That same month, GeoEx tees up a range of immersive experiences in Trinidad, plus a live performance in Cienfuegos by the Chamber Orchestra, with meals at authentic Cuban paladares (private restaurants) and private salsa lessons. (Guests will drop their bags at tropical hideaway Mansión Alameda, which opened in 2023.) With Tauck, which returned to Havana in September 2024, there are opportunities to interact with fascinating locals: a baseball star, a tobacco farmer from the lush Viñales Valley, and the members of a vintage car club. ReRoot Travel’s brand-new program is similarly designed to take you off the beaten track and into the homes of artists, farmers, even Santeria priests. If you want to time your visit to Havana’s dazzling festival calendar, join Project Por Amor with Cuban-born Adolfo Nodal, on new multiday trips anchored to the International Jazz Festival (January) and the Havana Biennial art fair (November through February). A flurry of gorgeous boutique stays have opened in Havana in the last 18 months including La Distancia, in an elegantly revived mansion in the leafy neighborhood of El Vedado, and Estancia Bohemia, a luxurious stay in a reimagined 18th-century palace. By the end of 2024, Havana’s third Kempinski property will open its doors in northern Old Havana: the 219-roomed Gran Hotel Metrópolis with a rooftop pool and panoramic views. Skip sleep in favor of a night out at Mayko’s Lounge Bar, opening February 2025 in southern Old Havana. Owner Wilson Hernández is Havana’s best-known bartender, formerly of hip hideaway El del Frente, so you can expect heady cocktails, ’70s cult music, and all the vibes. —Claire Boobbyer
Denver
Go for: a polychromatic food scene; new lodgings that straddle past and present
