I hope you took my advice issued on May 30 to immediately plan a trip to Cuba. As ABC News reported: "The Treasury Department said individuals who bought an airline ticket or rented a room or car before Trump's announcement could make additional travel-related purchases for that travel under the Obama policy, even if their trip to Cuba takes place after the new, stricter Trump regulations go into effect."
The window may be closed, although enforcement may be spotty until regulations are issued. Agents may have difficulty determining if you booked a room before Trump's pronouncement.
The new rules will be a nightmare. Trump has two competing visions. He will continue to allow the licensed tour groups which preceded Obama's liberalization, but with a twist. They cannot use government owned entities. That eliminates all tour buses, such as Transtur most hotels, and all air travel. Even if they can find private transportation that can handle the tour group, all gas stations are government owned. If all this can be circumvented, the outrageous price tag of roughly one thousand dollars per day for a couple will likely remain
He is banning all individual travel, unless specifically covered under restrictive treasury regulations. Ironically, individual travelers almost always stayed in rooms in privately owned casa particulares, the Cuban version of B&Bs. Individuals were also more prone to eat at private, rather than government owned, restaurants. The cost of individual travel was generally one hundred to three hundred per day for a couple.
Larry Stein
Author of '4 Americans in Cuba: A Traveler on a Rope Guidebook'
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