Espíritu Travel Omdömen 200

The initial service in booking was good and itinerary ,choice of sights , accommodations and restaurants was excellent . The tour guide as world class with exceptional personality that went beyond to make sure our visit was enjoyable .

This tour uses knowledgeable friendly local guides and stays in small casas in regular neighborhoods. You get a good sense of daily life for ordinary Cubans. Activities are varied and include urban walks, mountain hikes, horseback ride, museums, snorkeling, and lots of delicious meals in unassuming family owned restaurants.
Groups are very small. Our group of five was small enough that we could experience local scenes without overwhelming them.
Karin was very helpful and responsive in helping us plan before the tour.

Fernando was a very good guide - very flexible and willing to work with us to change the itinerary if we wanted to change things around. He did an excellent job of explaining what we were seeing and its significance. Everyone we met was very friendly and helpful - especially the casa particular owners and their families. Going to Havana for a few days and then to the country for a few days was the perfect mix to get a feel for the differences in city vs rural life. The tour of the St. Thomas cave in Vinales was truly spectacular.

This trip is a must for those who think more government control of the economy will improve economic conditions. A real eye opener !!

We had a great expirience with espiritu Travel, we chose a weekend in Havana and had an amazing time, each of our three days started at 8 am with breakfast in our casa and later we were greeted by our amazing guide Santy and Carlos our fantastic driver. We had a walkig tour though entire Havana, shopped at the market, and had the best mojitos we have ever tasted, visited many historic sites, drove by the town in cool old car, we saw many interesting monumets,sites and dined and great places that served super fresh and delisious meals, not mentioning drinking the best cofee at the Maria Cafe in Las Terrazas. Thanks to our exceptional guide Santy we even managed to visit a beach and spent our last afternoon swimming and relaxing even though it was not a part of our trip. Santy and Carlos were able to accomodate our extra requests, and went above and beyond to make our trip spectacular. Big thanks to Karin for arranging such an amazing adventure we will never forget and also to Santy and Carlos!

Just got back from 11 days in Cuba. After much painstaking research about which tour agency to use, settled on Espiritu and was so happy we did. They are the BEST! It was our first (but not our last) visit to Cuba and Karin Eckhard was always available to answer every single question I threw at her, no matter how ridiculous it seemed. She got back to me right away. Having visited many countries and worked with many tour agencies, I can tell right away if someone cares about my interests and is willing to work with me to get the most out of the travel experience (and within the budget). Espiritu is that company.
I also really appreciated that Karin made changes to the itinerary I suggested because she knew it was “too much” or “not enough time.” Besides the itinerary, “what to bring” and other great tips (like leave your expectations at home), Karin also suggested we check out “The Cubre Libre Story” (8 episodes) on Netflix that was really helpful in terms of historical context.
We booked a private tour from Havana to Santiago de Cuba because we wanted to see as much of the island as possible, not just the western half. That's a lot of driving and a lot of seeing. It was more than worth it. Karin paired us with Mario as guide and driver. He was awesome, knowledgeable, attentive, professional, funny, a great driver, and so obviously enjoyed showing off Cuba to us. All of the other local guides and trips we took from an architectural tour of Havana, cooking class, tour of Santiago de Cuba, to the incredible hike to the Comandancia de la Plata in the Sierra Maestra were equally terrific. My only regret is that I do not speak Spanish because I would have loved to have gotten to know our casa owners better. As it was, they were all welcoming, friendly, and hospitable. The casas Karin arranged for us were excellent.
I can’t say enough about the trip. Except can’t wait to go back.
THANK YOU ESPIRITU TRAVEL!

We had a fantastic time on Espiratu's "Hello Cuba" tour. We have never done a group tour before and the idea of a "small group" tour appealed to us. We loved our guide, Yilian, and our driver, Frank. They took excellent care of us, which felt luxurious and reassuring! The tour was well-planned by Karin, and she was responsive and helpful throughout. We packed a lot into a short time but it didn't feel hectic. My husband and I highly recommend Espiratu and our Cuba tour was the trip of a lifetime and a "bucket list" adventure!

The very best company I have worked with, indeed.
In more than 18 years in the tourism industry in Cuba, I have never seen any other tours so well organized and someone so focused on satisfying customers as much as Karin Eckhard, I so mean it.

Carlos Enrique González.
C.E.O & Founder The Real Cuba.

I am fairly adverse to group tours (like to arrange everything myself), so booked with Espiritu given the small group size (maximum of 6). There were 3 of us on the tour, 2 of us who are old friends and 1 extra person who also signed up for the tour. These tours work best I believe if all people are compatible in terms of interests and physical abilities. In general, I thought the trip was well organized, with a lot of diversity to what we saw and did. The casas where we stayed were basic, but exceptionally clean, and located in convenient locations, although there was not always hot water. Two, however, did not really qualify as casas particulares as the hosts were not living on site and we were alone most of the time in the casa (they showed up to make breakfast). In Trinidad, where we had the nicest casa, there was a lot of street noise, which may have just related to the fact that there was a fair going on outside the casa. Our guide Mario was knowledgeable and went out of his way to try to provide us with lots of unique experiences (he even got us ballet tickets at the National Theatre in Havana on one of our free evenings). The food at all the restaurants was excellent. We also went on several tours, which were combined with another Espiritu group that was doing the same tour that we were doing. This increased our group size to 9 for these excursions, but fortunately we enjoyed the company of the others on this group. All in all, I think this was quite a good tour which exposed us to a lot and did allow us to learn more about the culture of Cuba.

Six of us went on a family trip. The entire journey was wonderful. Our guide, Carlos Gonzalez, was very knowledgeable and entertaining. At the end of our time, he was like family. Cuba is welcoming, very safe, has extraordinary food and wonderful music. Our night at the Buena Vista Social Club was a special, one in a lifetime, treat. We also had a private concert by a local Son band while we we out for dinner one night. This was fabulous. The accommodations were all excellent with nice private bathrooms and air conditioning. Breakfast was always included and comprised fresh fruit, juice, eggs, toast, and some special sweet treats at times. Couldn't have been better. We have traveled on will continents, and found this tour delightful. Bravo!

We just recently traveled to Columbia with Espiritu Travel. This is our second trip with Espiritu. We have been very happy with the personal service we received while planning and during our trips to Columbia as well as our trip to Cuba last year. We would highly recommend using Espiritu Travel and will use them again.