Cuban Travel Ban Loosened
In the past, adventurous travelers craving Cuba have secretely booked their own vacations routing themselves through Mexico, the Caribbean, and Canada. However, the land of Hemingway, mojitos, Ricky Ricardo, and 1950′s vintage automobiles will now be accesible to more Americans.
Last month, President Obama issued an executive order that broadens legal purposes for traveling to Cuba to include religious groups, students seeking higher education and journalists. In addition, US citizens can now send up to $500 per quarter for non-family members living in Cuba, as long as those remittances are not directed toward senior Cuban government officials or senior members of the Cuban Communist Party. Getting to Cuba might be easier in the future too! The U.S. international airports that provide services to licensed charters that fly to/from Cuba have been included in the decreased regulations.
For the past fifty years, only US citizens with close relatives in Cuba or those in possession of very resticted licenses were able to travel to the Caribbean island nation due to the United States embargo against Cuba (a commercial, economic, and financial embargo partially imposed on Cuba in October 1960).
Times are a-changing…Cuban culture, beaches and crystal blue water are closer than you think!
I hope so! Havana is one place on my travel bucket list. Maybe I can attach myself to a religious group and then find my way to a bar for a mojito.