Mark in Cuba

Now that I had my passport, my trip to Cuba all of a sudden seemed so real. Prior to that it was all a form of wishful thinking, but with a passport in my hand I felt like I made a giant leap forward and could virtually go the following day if I needed to. Passport changed my point of view from “I have to do this, this and this before I’m able to go” to “I’m ready to go and can do it anytime”.

I started searching through websites of big Canadian travel agencies for best deals to Cuba. I had been basically keeping an eye on several big players on daily basis till I got a clear idea on what prices average trips to Cuba are at and what popular spots are. For your information, below are the biggest on line travel agencies I was regularly checking to pick my vacation:

www.ExitNow.ca
www.iTravel2000.com
www.SellOffVacations.com
www.geo.ca
www.Marlin-Travel.ca
www.RedTag.ca
www.FlightCentre.ca
www.TravelCuts.com

It may seem like a lot, but I never wanted to miss out on a good deal and I believe in preparation so I checked out everything that was available. There were countless other websites, but I won’t list them all. These are major players, if you check each of them, you are sure to find a good deal for yourself.

As it always goes, the more you start digging into something, the more difficult it becomes to choose. My day to day research gave me a pretty good idea on what travel agencies have to offer and how much it costs, but none offered search feature I was looking for – I wanted to find out which time of year it is the cheapest to go to Cuba. No matter which travel agency website you go to, each time you go to search for vacations you can buy, you must enter desired date and duration of stay. What kind of BS is that?

My thinking was that I had a flexible schedule. I could go anytime between now and the US election so I do get to Cuba before it changes. Hence I thought I’d go to a website, enter time frame within which I’m OK to travel and would sort results based on price. I’d pick the best trip based on most convenient combination of price and date and I’d be set. However, it doesn’t work that way. None of the website I was frequenting offered any such feature.

So I decided to visit a travel agency in person. First I went to Uniglobe GEO Travel on 10237 109 Street in Edmonton. I was hoping to find out from the travel consultant what the best time of year was to travel to Cuba. I came there, took a seat and told the girl what I was after. She asked me: “When did you want to go?”

To make the long story short – it was a waste of time. I left the agency frustrating, however to the credit of the agency – they simply don’t have the way to search on a broad range of date. In order for them to conduct a search and provide a quote to you, the client, they need to know the date you wish to travel. If you tell them you are flexible and can go anytime within next three months, just look up the best deal, it won’t get you anywhere. In order not to look completely rude, I pretended I took notes of two trips the consultant suggested and took off.

Next I went to The Flight Centre in Edmonton City Centre downtown Edmonton and left just as frustrated. First thing the agent asked me was “when I wanted to travel”. I rephrased myself that I am flexible and can go anytime within next three months, so she punched a random day into the system and gave me the quote for that day. She punched another date and gave me that quote too. Once again, I pretended I took notes, but discarded the paper upon departure from the agency.

It pays to note, that I had done extensive internet search prior to my in-person visits to these travel agencies so I had pretty good ideas on hotels and prices in Cuba. The visit to brick and mortar agencies confirmed that one is better off purchasing their ticket on line. Not only is it more convenient, you are also gonna spend less money. Quotes I got from the agents were higher than what you would pay for the same trip if purchased on line. That’s also part of the reason why my fake notes were discarded as soon as I was off sight.

Still determined to find out what the best time of year to travel to Cuba was, I decided to call some more travel agencies. Since visiting them in person was so counterproductive and takes lots of time (you got to drive there, park, get in and get an agent to talk to you) making a phone call seemed far less time wasting.

I phoned Marlin Travel first. I tried to find out the same thing – I told her I was flexible and was looking for the best overall deal, but she wasn’t able to look anything up unless I gave her the date. She eventually promised to look into it and get back to me via email. Which she did, however when I received an email, it went straight to the trash folder – it contained quotes for two trips, each of them significantly more expensive than same thing quoted and available for booking on a website.

I also phone iTravel2000.com – one of the web portals I had been frequenting when I initiated my search for best deals in Cuba and agent was as useless for my needs as with any other agency. Simply no way to give them the range of three months so they can tell me which weeks are the best to take.

At this point I had had enough of dealing with travel agencies in person or via phone, so I stuck strictly with internet searches. I intensified my search for best deals in Cuba and intensified my search for information regarding Cuba, including which towns and which hotels are the best to go to. And that lead me to the most important discovery and knowledge I had acquired during my search. Read on to see how I was deciding which destination in Cuba to pick and how I was lead to it through extensive search for the best hotel in Varadero.

Incoming search terms:

• exitnow ca cuba
• best agencies to travel to cuba
• exitnow ca from edmonton
• best cuba deal on internet
• how much money travel agencies that offer trips to cuba make
• trip to cuba combination

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• Choosing Best Time to Visit Cuba
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• I’m Going to Cuba! Now What?
• Havana via Varadero – Cheaper Than Flying to Havana Directly