Karen was an excellent "tour guide" and problem solver during the Havana portion of the trip as we did not extend beyond Havana. During the pretrial planning and preparation, Karen was totally on top of the logistics, and was most responsive and timely to all our questions. Since I am an author, I was most impressed with her writing and communication ability. I would highly recommend Karen and give her a 6 star rating. ( on a scale of 1 to 5)
While I usually travel on my own, the special nature of travel to Cuba made going with a group make sense. I looked at Insight Cuba, since they have more overall experience with Cuba travel, but your information showed a clear advantage for a running-specific trip.
It is hard to pick just one--I thoroughly enjoyed meeting fellow runners and hearing about all of their running adventures; as I stated before, I really enjoyed going to the ballet school; but, I guess I have to say, crossing the marathon finish line after almost 5 1/2 hours of inhaling car exhaust, and seeing Karen, Thom and Jeff cheering for me, was a really the best!
Our first trip ever with a tour company and it was an excellent experience. Other than afore mentioned sight seeing burn out, I have no complaints. Food and accommodations were far superior than expected. Marathon staff were excellent. I would highly recommend your company to others.
The people!--participants, leaders, guides, drivers were all great. So much fun to talk to people about other races and running experiences around the world. Seeing all the 1950's American cars--always mentioned as a highlight of the old Cuba. Some of my U.K. friends who have visited since they were not subject to the embargo, always said to me that they wanted to visit before it opened up to the Yanks and got ruined by having Starbucks and McDonalds on every corner!
Cuba was one of the best tours I have taken with Marathon Tours.
This was a wonderful trip to a truly unique destination, with a great group of fellow travelers.
I was very pleased with how Jeff kept everything together and on point without feeling rushed. Our tour guide Vladimir and driver Jorge were the absolute best!
Really pleasantly surprised with unexpected lecture on Cuban-American relations - very helpful to hear the Cuban perspective. Cigar factory was fun, Ernest's house was great.
The people - including Karen - were fantastic. We had a diversity of experiences and a great run. The organization, support, setting of expectations, was simply perfect. It was an interesting time to go to Cuba
I certainly enjoyed the Havana experience, the sights and sounds, the old cars. It was everything I thought it was going to be. The Cuban people were delightful.
I liked the itinerary, the guides, living in the Hotel Sevilla in Old Havana for a more authentic experience. I was already in love with the place and its people before I went. I really enjoyed the mix of activities eg museums, cigar factory, restaurants etc I liked the variety. I enjoyed both my MT guide (Jacqui Kaufman) and my Cuban guides.
I really enjoyed our hotel in Old Havana, it helped that we were a smaller group of traveller and it made it easier for us to interact and get to know the other people. The Cubian guides that we had did and excellent job and really impacted the quality of the trip.
Great course; great support. Tough from a "conditions" standpoint though - very hot and humid. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested, although I think I would suggest that they just do the half. Since it is a 2-loop course, skipping the second loop would not be that big a deal.
