Krisztina Kurtossy, President

Hola amigos!

Welcome to CubaSiTours.com our new updated website for the 2008-2009 travel season. Our travel business in Cuba has been a labour of love for the past 8 years! I hope you find our website easy to use and enjoyable to read. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us, we look forward to hosting you in beautiful Cuba!
The Director of our Travel and Tour programs is Krisztina Kurtossy. She has 12 years experience in leisure, corporate, incentive and group travel and is a TICO certified travel consultant.

Now she specializes in designing personal and group Cuba tours for the past 8 years, while travelling and working between Canada and Cuba. Based in our Havana office, she is happy to be on location to welcome our clients and assist them directly upon arrival until departure. Having an experienced Canadian Representative for our company in Havana, keeps us constantly updated on local news and information in Cuba, to better serve our clients efficiently and effectively.

Providing clients with personal, professional and confidential service is our main goal; all travel arrangements are processed through the Canadian office. Therefore, allowing you many payment options, and giving you financial protection for your travel services purchased, under the strict TICO travel laws of Ontario, Canada. You can be assured your travel services purchased with us, will be handled professionally and protected legally. Our travel partner, Avenue Travel Ltd. has many travel qualifications that include registration with TICO, IATA, CLIA, ACTA & ASTA.

Krisztina says, I fell in love with Cuba 11 years ago when I first came with a group of travel consultants from Canada, shortly after I had graduated from Travel and Tourism College. I had previously been to most islands in the Caribbean and to Mexico several times, but I found Cuba to be very different than the other islands in a good way. The local people were more welcoming to visitors and the island was safer and cleaner, compared to most places in the area I have previously travelled. I also enjoyed very much the variety of good musical entertainment available everywhere, day and night, for all people with different tastes, such as son, salsa, rumba, boleros, Spanish guitar, jazz, classical, pop and rock. I was impressed with the many quality museums and art galleries, the preserved and restored historical sites, along with the many cultural activities readily available to visitors, besides enjoying the decadent, quiet, clean beaches.

I am a person, who enjoys a  relaxing day at the beach, but I’m also an adoring fan of the arts, a continuous student of history, and an admirer of beautiful architecture and I found Cuba to be rich in all these treasures. My Scottish, Austrian-Hungarian heritage, saw me put on a plane alone to visit my gran for the summer in Loch Lomond, Scotland at the young age of 8. I learned early to be an independent traveller and developed a great appreciation of history and culture, visiting many castles and historical sites. Afterwards, travelling to Europe and Britain was always a great pleasure for me; I would revel in the glorious history and culture of the past that surrounded me. So when I visited Cuba this pleasure was reignited, as I soon discovered it to be ¨an eclectic Europe in the warm Caribbean¨ molded into a unique Cuban Culture that has been continuously reshaped over the centuries by its predominant Spanish heritage and various other European, British, American and African peoples cultures and religions. Most islands elsewhere are quite small and you can see everything in a few hours by driving around it within a day, if that is all you are looking for in a vacation, then you will be content. However, if you are looking for a more stimulating trip, then Cuba has what you need. It is approximately 12 hours between Cuba's two major cities, the top of the island's exciting and vibrant Old and New Havana City down to the revolutionary and musical Santiago de Cuba City . However, to fly direct both ways in one trip would be a shame, because you would miss visiting all the charming, colonial towns along the way, filled with history and colourful artisans. You would also miss enjoying the lush, scenic mountain ranges and partaking in the countryside's rich cultural activities. And lastly you would not be able to stop and bathe in the many serene, natural beaches and cays that line both coasts, abundant with birds, wildlife and sea life. So I highly recommend taking the back roads of this intriguing island, meeting the people, exploring the colonial towns and you are sure to discover a new adventure daily!

Cuba's tourism development has been slowly and carefully cultivated since the Revolution in 1959. Therefore giving the island time to learn from its neighbour’s challenges and try to create a more ecologically friendly, protective environment for a more balanced harmony between nature and future development. This is quite evident in the particularly designated, new resort areas that have given respect to the surrounding territory and with no development in the ecologically protected areas and historical colonial towns. I am proud to promote Cuba and its tourism due to the major facts that it is a destination that is ecologically, historically, health and safety conscientious and concerned about its environmental and commercial development in order to protect and preserve the natural and historical landscape of the island for its people, its visitors and its future. I look forward to hosting you in this beautiful island and sharing my passion for its nature, history, culture and people with you.

ABOUT OUR TRAVEL SERVICES IN CUBA

You will always be welcomed upon your arrival at the airport in Cuba with a smile by our friendly Representatives, Tour Guides and Chauffeurs who will accompany you to your select accommodations and assist you in anyway possible during your visit to Cuba. We can design a travel program to suit everyone's individual interests.

We use only professionally employed Tour Guides and Chauffeurs and provide accommodations at various levels that we recommend and inspect regularly, rent modern cars and buses, and we suggest the best entertainment and places to eat that we have enjoyed ourselves. Although sometimes in Cuba as anywhere, conditions can change unexpectedly, so we always welcome your comments to make recommendations to our travel suppliers to improve service and quality and we will do whatever is possible within our means to improve your trip along the way should a situation arise.

With your own modern car rental, you can tour the island independently with our recommended pre-arranged accommodations, for the best price, room categories and guaranteed space. Alternatively, use our private guide and driver for your increased comfort. We also can arrange for you to join a circuit tour around the island usually departing weekly with our licensed, professional tour partners in Cuba. They are a comfortable and convenient way to tour in a semi-flexible pre-arranged trip. There are various itineraries to choose from to suit your needs, with a good variety of activities, towns, beaches and regions visited within one to two weeks . And with a minimum of six passengers travelling together, you can have your own personally guided circuit tour in a modern, comfortable van or coach bus. These tours are great for seeing a lot in a short time, with flexibility to explore on your own at times and with an experienced guide at other times. They are not totally all-inclusive, some meals, activities and gratuities are not included in the price. The tour is conducted by the particular company's professional guides and chauffeurs and the travel schedule is as outlined in their own itinerary, without our direct guidance, we have no control over these tour's activities, sightseeing and meals, but they are usually well done and organized and we have had good reports from previous clients. They also use the same modern comfortable buses we charter and you have a choice of moderate or deluxe accommodations depending on your budget. Our recommendation would be to try our company's special interest, personally designed, all-inclusive group tours that are prepared directly by us to give our clients the ultimate comfort of an all-inclusive trip with the maximum tour experience for great value. We have designed these tours to suit our higher standards of touring in Cuba , and to provide the best travel experience possible to our clients, that we enjoy ourselves. No matter the travel preference you have to tour beautiful Cuba, we will endeavour to make your trip as enjoyable and comfortable as possible within your budget and to suit your personal interests.

OUR PERSONALLY DESIGNED ALL-INCLUSIVE GROUP TOURS

Please try one of our special interest, personally designed, all-inclusive group tours; all you will need is shopping money for personal expenditures and your sense of adventure. Especially if this is your first trip to Cuba , it is the most convenient and efficient way to get comfortably acquainted with this beautiful but continuously developing country, that at times has its challenges. We take our work and your tour seriously; we have designed these tours with our passion for Cuba and your comfort in mind! We are confident that you will definitely get great value for the price and we always strive to give our travellers the best possible quality trip. We contract only new, modern, comfortable, tour coach buses with professional drivers. We use fully equipped, comfortable, clean accommodations, whether they are a moderate or deluxe hotel, countryside cabin, or beach resort, all rooms; have a safety deposit box, full private bathroom, telephone and satellite TV. We inspect our accommodations regularly and if you should have any challenges along the way, because sometimes situations occur we cannot control, we will always strive to improve the situation immediately where it is possible. Eating in established, quality restaurants is a priority for us, since we like to eat too, with advanced planning we try to give our travellers a good variety at every meal along with good, cultural entertainment every night included. And you can be assured you will always have professional, educated, experienced, caring and knowledgeable guides to assist you throughout the tour and a culturally enriched, carefully planned and organized itinerary. We are proud of our special interest, Personally Designed, All-inclusive Group Tours to Cuba , designed to give you the best quality and value for your money. We have been pioneers in the business of group tours to Cuba and now consider ourselves to be experienced, respected professionals with great references to back us up! Although things are not always perfect in Cuba they are improving and we sometimes experience challenges along the way, but we do have the experience and knowledge to handle most situations effectively. And we will always endeavour to make your stay as comfortable as possible within our ability to do so. Dare to compare us with other tour companies and price-wise you will see our tours are very affordable, with everything you need for a complete journey, along with non-stop fun and activities which include everything in one reasonable Canadian dollar price. You don't need to carry a lot of cash or worry about using credit cards. And “ WE WILL NEVER ASK YOU FOR MORE MONEY ALONG THE TRIP!” as some tour companies do! In Cuba all land transportation, accommodations, entrance fees to visited sites according to your itinerary, 3 full meals per day with beverages and all gratuities are included. If you wish to give additional gratuities along the way for extra special service you received, it is at your discretion and we can assure you we take good care of all our suppliers, entertainers and staff along the way so that they take good care of us! You will also have some free time to explore on your own if you desire or we will be there for your every moment if you need us! We stand by our personally designed tours in Cuba as being the best quality and most all-inclusive for your dollar value in the travel industry, designed with our past experiences in mind, to provide you now with a comfortable and a quality tour you will want to recommend to your friends and family or join us again when you return home!

Cuba A Proud People Rebuilding Their Nation With Peace & Positive Visions

On a final note, our goal is to encourage a variety of tourism choices to Cuba and assist the people of Cuba whenever possible. Every booking donates $10 towards our fund for building more playgrounds for the children of Cuba, of which there is a definite need. We have decided this is how we would like to give back in a small way, to help out the continuous re-development of Cuba. The Cuban people are now trying to rebuild their country, after barely surviving at times with only the basics of life. They have struggled for the past 50 years under difficult economic sanctions from international politicians of imperialist beliefs. Resulting in persecution and an unfair embargo imposed on them, over the right to govern their own people and country as they wish. Cuba's people just want to receive recognition in the world as an independent nation willing to live in peace and contribute to world development in a positive way. By already providing its citizens with the basic necessities of life, freedom from racism, free mandatory education, free medical treatment, social services, a healthy, safe environment for their children to grow up in and the charity to continuously send medical personnel with assistance abroad to more impoverished countries than themselves, Cuba has shown the world they can elevate a once raped country, to a better humanitarian living standard for its entire people, which continues to improve with patience and time. They have the right to pursue their destiny with their own culture, language and government; they have proved they can do it in difficult times. I stand up and applaud the brave people of Cuba for finally securing control of their own country and gaining the independent rights they deserve as a nation, while trying to make a positive difference in the world as many nations have also done in history. Fidel, Raul, Ernesto (Che), Camilo, Juan, Frank, Jose, Celia, Melba, Haydee, Abel and others you have made advancements in humanity, a positive difference in Cuba and provided a good example to the world through your visions, persistence and endurance! Cuba please continue to improve your living conditions for your people, grow and expand your ideas in a positive, mature manner and pave the way for the future of a free, advanced, happy, healthy, safe and productive Cuban society for your people. And keep moving forward by promoting world peace, while providing what's best for your country, the environment and preserving your history and culture for all to enjoy.

Salud! Krisztina and Staff of Cuba Si Tours