Private touring in Santiago de Cuba

[travelerchris]

We just returned from our Azamara Journey cruise for the Holidays. It was great as usual. The pier in Santiago has been repaired and we didn't have to tender.  In Santiago we took a private tour with Out of the Box Tours and were very impressed. They are reasonably priced, accept USD or CUC. No credit cards. Several people on the ship didn't like Santiago, while we were very impressed. It may have had something to do with the private vs. bus tour. The guides speak perfect English and they will give you several choices of tours. They will also customize tours. Contact info is Yoennis Díaz Moreno yoe@outofthebox.zone. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by travelerchris
added info

[Wyoming2010]

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 12:45 PM, travelerchris said:

We just returned from our Azamara Journey cruise for the Holidays. It was great as usual. The pier in Santiago has been repaired and we didn't have to tender.  In Santiago we took a private tour with Out of the Box Tours and were very impressed. They are reasonably priced, accept USD or CUC. No credit cards. Several people on the ship didn't like Santiago, while we were very impressed. It may have had something to do with the private vs. bus tour. The guides speak perfect English and they will give you several choices of tours. They will also customize tours. Contact info is Yoennis Díaz Moreno yoe@outofthebox.zone. 

 

Hi, I just wrote to them from another poster's recommendation.  Do they do custom tours, or are you with a group?  Do you mind my asking how long your tour was and what the cost was?  Thanks much. 

[Cienfuegos]

I was very impressed with Santiago de Cuba, but not at all impressed with the Viking guide. The tour was rushed, so a full half hour could be spent at the rum / cigar shop. The guide was rude and dismissive.  Viking was apparently already aware of the problem.

 

The area around Santiago is full of interesting history. San Juan Hill, the slave rebellion site, the Martyrs of the Revolution statuary (a Soviet era monument with multi-story high bayonets and warriors, etc), Fidel's grave, and much more.  I intend to visit again, and try to better appreciate the area.

[travelerchris]

On 2/19/2019 at 8:48 AM, Wyoming2010 said:

 

Hi, I just wrote to them from another poster's recommendation.  Do they do custom tours, or are you with a group?  Do you mind my asking how long your tour was and what the cost was?  Thanks much. 

They have lots of different tours and since my husband is a cigar smoker, our tour included some cigars. It was a fabulous tour and I highly recommend them. Tours are private not group. Cost was CUC 99.00 p/p I think and lasted 5-6 hrs. Including lunch and a stop at a famous rum bar. The final bill was in CUCs and USD. The USD bill was increased to include the exchange fee of 13%. 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2019 by travelerchris
addition, correction

[travelerchris]

3 minutes ago, Cienfuegos said:

I was very impressed with Santiago de Cuba, but not at all impressed with the Viking guide. The tour was rushed, so a full half hour could be spent at the rum / cigar shop. The guide was rude and dismissive.  Viking was apparently already aware of the problem.

 

The area around Santiago is full of interesting history. San Juan Hill, the slave rebellion site, the Martyrs of the Revolution statuary (a Soviet era monument with multi-story high bayonets and warriors, etc), Fidel's grave, and much more.  I intend to visit again, and try to better appreciate the area.

Funny you should say that. We were going to go LA to MIA on Viking on 12-13. JUST before we made payment I found out that they had cancelled the Santiago stop and were spending 3 days in Cienfuego. We cancelled. Viking never notified anybody. Not travel agents or guests. We saw the ship in a couple of ports. It looks nice, but that turned us off to Viking. Their lack of communication. We had a VERY complete tour in Santiago to San Juan Hill, old town, Bacardi estates, Martyrs monument etc. Well worth it. 

[SteveGT3]

I am 'the other poster" that was referred to in an earlier posting by Wyoming2010 on this thread. We really liked Santiago de Cuba and, like travelchris wrote in the posting that started this thread, we were extremely happy with the tour that we took with Out of the Box Tours. If anyone is interested in my posting that reviewed Out of the Box Tours, here it is....

 

[cruizinfools]

On 2/19/2019 at 5:48 AM, Wyoming2010 said:

 

Hi, I just wrote to them from another poster's recommendation.  Do they do custom tours, or are you with a group?  Do you mind my asking how long your tour was and what the cost was?  Thanks much. 

Just thought I would add that Out of the Box absolutely will customize a tour for you.  On our cruise late January we arrived in Santiago at 5 pm for an overnight stay and leaving the next day at 3. We really wanted to see the cemetary and the El Morro fort at the entrance to the bay, neither of which are close to the port. I reached out to several tour companies and Out of the Box was the only one that honored my request exactly (didn't try to add additional stops or time to the itinerary). Due to my desires and our limited time in port in the daytime, we wanted time to explore a little bit on our own after the tour. We met our tour guide and driver at 8 am. Our tour guide was great and they dropped us off at Cespedes Square (downtown) at about 11:30 am. They would have also taken anyone from our group (5 of us from our roll call) to the ship if desired. The price depended on the number of people, starting at 63 CUC pp for 2. Our price was 48 CUC pp or 106 USD. We tipped our guide 20 CUC and the driver 5 CUC. Communicating with Out of the Box was easy and their emails were professional. Highly recommend them!

[Wyoming2010]

I can tell you from pre-trip experience already that they are one of the most professional companies we have ever planned with.  Jenny is amazing -- full of insight, information and wonderful suggestions.  We are doing a full day tour packed with our requested stops on our first day in Santiago, and their Natural Wonders tour the second day.  They were a breeze to work with and were to the point and didn't try to add anything or talk us out of anything.  Can't wait to tour with them in October.  

[SteveGT3]

57 minutes ago, Wyoming2010 said:

I can tell you from pre-trip experience already that they are one of the most professional companies we have ever planned with.  Jenny is amazing -- full of insight, information and wonderful suggestions.  We are doing a full day tour packed with our requested stops on our first day in Santiago, and their Natural Wonders tour the second day.  They were a breeze to work with and were to the point and didn't try to add anything or talk us out of anything.  Can't wait to tour with them in October.  

Wyoming2010, 

i am glad to you took my recommendation and booked tours with Out of tbe Box. I am confident that you will be pleased. Like your experience, working with Jenny was a pleasure and all the plans we made also worked out without any problems. For our Santiago de Cuba tour, Angela was our guide and she was outstanding. I suspect you could request her. For one ir both days since you still are far out on the calendar. I suspect we will return to Cuba earlynext year, and I look forward to hearing about the Natural Wonders tour. 

[Wyoming2010]

On 3/2/2019 at 1:34 PM, SteveGT3 said:

Wyoming2010, 

i am glad to you took my recommendation and booked tours with Out of tbe Box. I am confident that you will be pleased. Like your experience, working with Jenny was a pleasure and all the plans we made also worked out without any problems. For our Santiago de Cuba tour, Angela was our guide and she was outstanding. I suspect you could request her. For one ir both days since you still are far out on the calendar. I suspect we will return to Cuba earlynext year, and I look forward to hearing about the Natural Wonders tour. 

 

We did request Angela for the first day custom tour.  It's going to be about a 7-hour day.   Since we leave at 5 p.m. the second day, we asked that they readjust our pick up time from 8:30 to 8:00 so we get back to the ship by 3 p.m. instead of 3:30.  Very accommodating.  Can't wait to spend the days with them.  Thanks so much for this tip -- as we had no idea who to contact or trust.  

[SteveGT3]

Glad to have been able to help you. I will be interested in hearing how you enjoyed the tours and your experience with Oceania

[Wyoming2010]

18 minutes ago, SteveGT3 said:

Glad to have been able to help you. I will be interested in hearing how you enjoyed the tours and your experience with Oceania

 

I will most definitely post about our experiences for both excursions.  So glad all our Cuba ports are planned!