General Info

Americans can travel Legally to Cuba and also spend money there but have to acquire a 'license'.
Here are the current different licenses on the Government site that I copied.

General Licenses.
The Regulations currently contain eight general licenses authorizing travel-related transactions involving Cuba. General licenses constitute blanket authorization for those transactions set forth in the relevant regulation. No further permission from OFAC is required to engage in transactions covered by a general license. Individuals wishing to engage in the following activities involving Cuba should first review the general license contained in the Regulations to determine whether their travel-related transactions are covered by a general license:

1) visiting "close relatives" who are nationals of Cuba or visiting "close relatives" who are USA Government employees assigned to the USA Interests Section in Havana, Cuba;.
2) official business travel by officials of the USA Government, foreign governments, or Intergovernmental organizations of which the United States is a member;.
3) journalistic activities by persons regularly employed as journalists by a news reporting Organization or by persons regularly employed as supporting broadcast or technical Personnel;.
4) professional research conducted by full-time professionals in their professional areas Attendance at certain professional meetings or conferences organized by international Professional organizations, or participation in certain telecommunications-related Professional meetings;.
5) educational activities by faculty, staff, and students of accredited USA Graduate and Undergraduate degree-granting academic institutions;.
6) religious activities under the auspices of a religious organization located in the United States;.
7) the commercial marketing, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, or servicing in Cuba of telecommunications-related items that have been authorized for commercial export or( Revised 6 May 10,2012.) Re-export by employees of, or an entity duly appointed to represent, a telecommunications services provider;.
8) the commercial marketing, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, or servicing in Cuba of agricultural commodities, medicine, or medical devices by employees of a producer or Distributor or an entity duly appointed to represent a producer or distributor Specific licenses are not issued for transactions that are authorized pursuant to the provisions of a General license. Those individuals who determine that their activities are Authorized by a general license must be able to document that their travel qualifies under that general License and must keep records that are required to be furnished to OFAC or other law enforcement Officials (e. G. , USA Customs and Border Protection) upon demand for a period of five years after the Travel transactions take place.

Specific Licenses:

OFAC will consider the issuance of specific licenses on a case-by-case basis to permit travel-related Transactions where the proposed activity is not covered by a general license but is addressed by one of The statements of licensing policy listed in section 515.560 (a) and set forth in related sections of the Regulations.
A specific license applicant must wait for OFAC to issue the license prior to engaging in Travel-related transactions.
Individuals wishing to engage in the following travel-related transactions involving Cuba should first Review the specific license policies to determine whether their activities may qualify for a specific License:

1) visiting a close relative who is neither a national of Cuba nor a USA Government employee Assigned to the USA Interests Section in Havana, Cuba;.
2) journalistic activities for a free-lance journalistic project;.
3) professional research and professional meetings that do not qualify for the general license.
4) academic educational activities not authorized by the general license for accredited USA Graduate or undergraduate degree-granting academic institutions.
5) educational exchanges not involving academic study pursuant to a degree program and that Take place under the auspices of an organization that promotes people-to-people contact.
6) academic seminars, conferences, and workshops related to Cuba or global issues involving Cuba and sponsored or co-sponsored by the traveler's accredited USA Graduate or Undergraduate academic institution;.
7) religious activities not authorized by the general license for religious organizations located In the United States (Revised 7 May 10,2012.)
8) athletic competitions by amateur or semi-professional athletes or teams selected by the Relevant USA Federation;.
9) participation in a public performance, clinic, workshop, other athletic or non-athletic Competition, or exhibition in Cuba;.
10) activities intended to provide support for the Cuban people;.
11) humanitarian projects in or related to Cuba designed to directly benefit the Cuban people.
12) activities by private foundations or research or educational institutes that have an Established interest in international relations to collect information related to Cuba for Noncommercial purposes,
13) activities related to the exportation, importation, or transmission of information or Informational materials;.
14) the marketing, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, or servicing in Cuba of exports That appear consistent with the export or re-export licensing policy of the Department of Commerce and that are not authorized by a general license; and
15) the marketing, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, or servicing of medicine, medical Supplies, or certain telecommunications equipment by a USA -owned or -controlled firm in A third country to Cuba.

I applied for a license about 10 years ago and was rejected and hence I took a flight from Mexico to Havana. The travel company in MX provided the visa and medical insurance too. Cuba will not stamp your passport if you ask them not to. I had a lot of fun. Since the additional changes in Travel policy by President Obama, there are flights from Miami and also the West coast of USA to Cuba. These have to be booked through the travel agents for those 'educational' visits to Cuba for Americans from USA.

[QUOTE=LifeIsABeach;1647122]Americans can travel Legally to Cuba and also by a USA -owned or -controlled firm in A third country to Cuba.

I applied for a license about 10 years ago and was rejected and hence I took a flight from Mexico to Havana. The travel company in MX provided the visa and medical insurance too. Cuba will not stamp your passport if you ask them not to. I had a lot of fun. Since the additional changes in Travel policy by President Obama, there are flights from Miami and also the West coast of USA to Cuba. These have to be booked through the travel agents for those 'educational' visits to Cuba for Americans from USA.[/QUOTE]Lifeisabeach,

Great so all I need is a license. Let me think. I know now I will apply for a license as a pussy researcher. I will tell the US officials that I am writing a book titled "Riding the Cuban Jineras and their effect on leche production. Maybe my license be accepted unlike yours.

[QUOTE=Cerebro;1647339]Lifeisabeach,

Great so all I need is a license. Let me think. I know now I will apply for a license as a pussy researcher. I will tell the US officials that I am writing a book titled "Riding the Cuban Jineras and their effect on leche production. Maybe my license be accepted unlike yours.[/QUOTE]Much easier now to travel legally since the loosening of the travel embargo by President Obama. Just book through the these special travel agents in USA for their 'tours' to Cuba without having to go through the license process.

[QUOTE=LifeIsABeach;1647433]Much easier now to travel legally since the loosening of the travel embargo by President Obama. Just book through the these special travel agents in USA for their 'tours' to Cuba without having to go through the license process.[/QUOTE]Thanks Lifeisabeach for all the information. For now, I will pass on traveling to Cuba or until they fully lift the embargo and / or travel restrictions. It is still too much of hassle. Also, those tours have too many restrictions and are packed with regulated boring activities (like going to the museum and historic sites, and I am not any interested in learning about the Cuban revolution, Fidel or Che Guevara). My main interest in going to Cuba is to ride the Cuban jineteras and interact with the locals. Also to abide by the US rules these trips for US Citizens forbids the interaction with Cuban locals or leaving the tour, or going to the beach / bay by yourself, so you always within the confines of the tour people. For P4P, I will stick to Colombia and DR, and add more countries where it is unrestricted to travel and also where P4P is legal.

You don't want to go and have fun?

We were there for Valentines Day.

The people were very friendly. Just don't take photos of the police.

It is not a big hassle to get their.

You can even go from Tijuana, Mexico.

Put a blank piece of paper in your passport, to be removed before getting back to the USA.

Oh yes, Cash only, no credit cards. At the time we were there you could phone home from the hotel Nacional.

I heard that maybe you can use the internet?

[QUOTE=Cerebro;1647653]For now, I will pass on traveling to Cuba or until they fully lift the embargo and / or travel restrictions. It is still too much of hassle. Also, those tours have too many restrictions and are packed with regulated boring activities. [/QUOTE]Cerebro, I was hoping that President Obama would totally lift the travel embargo by his executive powers but he has been appeasing the anti Castro residents in Florida for votes. I heard that there is less resentment now and maybe he may lift the travel restrictions before he leaves office. It is easy to go to Cuba. Over 10 years ago, I booked through a Mexican travel agent in Tijuana, Mexico and flew from there. At that time there were more restrictions on the Cubans and only the Cubans who worked at hotels could go to Hotels. Raul made a change where Cubans could rent rooms in hotels. Does that mean that guys can bring Cuban women back to the hotels? There were some Latin Americans staying at the hotel and I would eat dinner with a couple of the younger girls, legal age and then an European guy and myself will go bar hopping with the girls later and back at the hotel we would be screwing. During the day, some times I went on tours to see the country and other days would do some sight seeing in Havana and then go to the central park in the old town, not where the tourists go. People would be playing chess and poetry will be going on. I would sit on the benches with the locals and ask guys sitting close to me to bring some girls, which they would. We would then go a girl's friend's apartment and I would screw the girls there for a couple of hours. I recall that I used to pay about $20.00 to the girl and $5. 00 for the room rental. Every woman was available at that time, single or married. I even used to have some guys at the market offer their daughters and so forth. It's better to have an apartment than stay in a hotel. I do not know the mongering scene now there. Cuba is off my list of countries as I have been there and I usually only visit a country once unless it blows me away. Life is short, just do it. Nothing bad can happen even if you get sick there as Cuba has a good medical system. Just don't wear a "I love Cuba" tee shirt on the flight back and while crossing the border!

Flying to Cuba is simple for US citizens.

Locate a country where Cubana Air flies. Travel to that country and purchase a round trip package deal.

Cuba will not stamp your passport. Pay the departure tax. Destroy your tickets.

My suggestion is Toronto, Canada.

I actually decided to do DR and Colombia. But then I checked all the flight prices and found out that the flight from DR to Colombia is as expensive as the flight from Europe to DR or from Colombia to Europe!! How is that possible? All are around 430. Seems like cheap flights are not at all established as they are in Europe, US or Asia. I was actually guessing it would be around 100-200€.

Do you think that's worth it? Or should I just skip DR then, save 400 and do Colombia only? Not sure about that. I know you can actually spend a lot of time in any country if you want. But I want to get an impression of Latin America and maybe doing only one country is not really representative for the flair. But maybe the only thing I'm really missing when I skip DR is easy girls?

[QUOTE=Wigolon;1650661]I actually decided to do DR and Colombia. But then I checked all the flight prices and found out that the flight from DR to Colombia is as expensive as the flight from Europe to DR or from Colombia to Europe!! How is that possible? All are around 430. Seems like cheap flights are not at all established as they are in Europe, US or Asia. I was actually guessing it would be around 100-200.

Do you think that's worth it? Or should I just skip DR then, save 400 and do Colombia only? Not sure about that. I know you can actually spend a lot of time in any country if you want. But I want to get an impression of Latin America and maybe doing only one country is not really representative for the flair. But maybe the only thing I'm really missing when I skip DR is easy girls?[/QUOTE]Don't break your head. Just pick one country this year. Then the following year, you could try another. Also, let say you pick Colombia. From Bogota you could flight to Medellin, Cali, and Cartagena Colombia or you could go by bus to those towns (very long rides, some a whole day) and also you could flight from Bogota to Lima-Peru, Quito-Equador, and Panama. The price for those flights are reasonably price just check the website from viva Colombia [URL]http://www.vivacolombia.co/.[/URL] You you do your accommodation booking, you should not make long term reservations, just to keep you flexible in terms of making travel plan changes whenever you decide to make a city or country change.

Ok there were some changes in the prices recently: only 214 EUR for a flight from Santo Domingo to Bogota. And for a ridiculously low extra charge of 4 EUR the same Airline will take you to any other city in Columbia from Bogot right afterwards. So I was thinking about this:

Flight from Germany to DR (Puerto Plata).

1. Sosua.

2. Cabarete.

3. Santiago de LOS Caballeros.

4. Santo Domingo.

Flight from DR (Santo Domingo) to Colombia (Cartegena).

5. Cartagena.

6. Medellin.

7. Bogota.

Flight from Colombia (Bogota) to Germany.

So what do you think about my plan?

Am I wanting too much? Should I kick places out?

How about Pereira? Is it more worthy to visit then the three mentioned in Colombia?

If you have miles with Star Alliance, 10 k will get you one-way flight between DR and Colombia on Copa, which is an excellent airline.

I'm like you, I like to have a beach vacation (DR) but also hit Medellin or Cali. I've done it several times w/o a hitch.

[QUOTE=Wigolon;1650661]I actually decided to do DR and Colombia. But then I checked all the flight prices and found out that the flight from DR to Colombia is as expensive as the flight from Europe to DR or from Colombia to Europe!! How is that possible? All are around 430. Seems like cheap flights are not at all established as they are in Europe, US or Asia. I was actually guessing it would be around 100-200.

Do you think that's worth it? Or should I just skip DR then, save 400 and do Colombia only? Not sure about that. I know you can actually spend a lot of time in any country if you want. But I want to get an impression of Latin America and maybe doing only one country is not really representative for the flair. But maybe the only thing I'm really missing when I skip DR is easy girls?[/QUOTE]

It depends, how long is your vacation?

Keep in mind that Bogota, Cartagena and Medellin are at flight distances unless you want to take a 24 hours bus which some people do. I can't stand being on a bus more than 3 hours.

Also, see if you flight from Puerto Plata not the capital Santo Domingo to Colombia.

While in DR those towns Puerto Plata, Sousa, Cabarete, Santo Domingo, Santiago are all good and there are all accessible via nice buses called Caribe tours and metro bus. Sousa to Santiago is about and hour. Sousa is a town of Puerto Plata. Cabarete is the next town to Sousa or 5-10 miles away. The capital Santo domingo is 3-4 hours from Sousa.

As for your Colombia itinerary, it's more challenging its a huge country and as I mentioned all those towns Medellin Bogota Cartagena are far apart unless you planning to do some serious road travel.

[QUOTE=Wigolon;1650992]Ok there were some changes in the prices recently: only 214 EUR for a flight from Santo Domingo to Bogota. And for a ridiculously low extra charge of 4 EUR the same Airline will take you to any other city in Columbia from Bogot right afterwards. So I was thinking about this:

Flight from Germany to DR (Puerto Plata).

1. Sosua.

2. Cabarete.

3. Santiago de LOS Caballeros..[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Wigolon;1650992]So what do you think about my plan?[/QUOTE]Your plan is fucking perfect. The you way you have it laid out appears that you have already done it. You must have done some serious research. Thanks for having your shit together before you asked.

1. Puerto Plata/Sosua/Cabarete (same area)
2. Santiago (you don't need more than 1 day here)
3. Santo Domingo/Boca Chica (same area)

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;1651023]Your plan is fucking perfect. The you way you have it laid out appears that you have already done it. You must have done some serious research. Thanks for having your shit together before you asked.

1. Puerto Plata/Sosua/Cabarete (same area)
2. Santiago (you don't need more than 1 day here)
3. Santo Domingo/Boca Chica (same area)[/QUOTE]I actually prefer Santiago more. They have a couple of nice freelance clubs there.

Not much P4P action in Santiago, but the women are beautiful there, and there is a lot of chances to hook up with local civilian girls. Since Wigolon is looking for opportunities to get real girlfriends and because that is one of his priorities, Santiago may be a good city to spend a few days. I grew up in Santiago and lived there 20 years. The Best places to hook up (not hookers) with the civilian girls when I was there (25 years ago) was in las discotecas / dance places and while attending Utesa university. Now, things are very different and there are many more options, and there is also more P4P than when lived there, but it is still not big on that category. Flying out of the country from Santiago or Puerto Plata than from the Capital Santo Domingo is also better unless you are staying in the Capital.

[QUOTE=Hioctane;1651063]I actually prefer Santiago more. They have a couple of nice freelance clubs there.[/QUOTE]