President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Cuba on Monday and Tuesday, and that trip could portend the cutting of more red tape that makes travel to the island nation more about learning about a culture and less about sunning on the beach.
Under the current requirements, Americans must spend time with rank-and-file Cubans. It’s called “people-to-people” tourism.
Getting rid of this may not be a boon.
Until they try a Cuban people-to-people itinerary, plenty of American travelers “are not accustomed to visiting kids in a school or going to a community project. Or going into somebody’s home,” said Tom Popper, president of New York-based InsightCuba tours.
Too many American travelers “just want lala land in their travels. They don’t want to get out of their comfort zone,” said TV travelogue host and guidebook author Rick Steves.
But often, the greatest rewards lie just beyond the reach of one’s comfort zone.
So consider this: What if we travelers always made person-to-person contact a priority? What if we borrowed a few tactics from folks in the people-to-people business?
As it happens, here are a few:
• Set a local goal. Then get help. Tour operator InsightCuba’s guides like to send travelers to the farmers market with five Cuban convertible pesos (about the median weekly Cuban wage) with the assignment of buying all the ingredients for a group meal.
“The idea is to see how hard it is to get together the meal,” said InsightCuba’s Popper. Suddenly, conversations with vendors get more detailed, haggling happens, a little money gets spread around, “and they’ll have an interaction that you don’t see at most farmers markets.”
• Hire a local guide, preferably without a big bus. Consult the Web and guidebooks to find a local guide with good references. These people can build an itinerary around your interests and make introductions.
• Make eye contact and start conversations. After all, what’s the point in trying to pass as a local? If you succeed, nobody will explain anything to you. Take your usual travel precautions, but wear your curiosity on your sleeve.
• Ask directions, even if you already know them. Allow time for these contacts to grow into larger adventures.
• Make ear contact too. Stash those earbuds, and you’re apt to meet artisans working, monks chanting, kids singing, musicians practicing — you name it.
• Go to church. Or temple. Or mosque. Most religious gathering places are happy to see visitors. Show respect and curiosity and a warm welcome is likely to follow.
• Go to college or a collegiate neighborhood. No matter your age, odds are good you’ll find some people with flexible schedules who want to practice their English.
• Do it alone. Or as a group. As InsightCuba’s Popper noted, group trips can ease access; it’s easier for a known organization to book a visit to a school, for instance.
But as Steves explained, independent travelers, exploring the world alone or in small, self-directed groups, have the flexibility to embrace serendipity in a way that no larger group can.
• Look beyond the usual hotel suspects. At a minimum, personalize the experience by chatting up your hotel’s staff. Better yet, try a B&B or home stay, perhaps through Airbnb or VRBO. On a home stay in a Cuban casa particular early this year, Steves frequently found himself on the rooftop patio, talking politics with his hosts and other locals.
“If you can go to a bar and meet strangers, that’s wonderful,” Steves said. “But there are all sorts of ways you can have these people-to-people experiences.”
If these kinds of contacts boosted profits for cruise companies, hoteliers and the people who run casinos and theme parks, the travel industry would do more to make them happen. But they don’t.
It’s not really our government’s job to make us into citizen diplomats. This stuff is up to us.
