A Cuba travel update from Chaz Chambers, following his October 2026 humanitarian trip.
Featured photograph: sharing music during a Havana Music Tours visit in 2023.
After my first humanitarian trip to Cuba
I just returned from Cuba after several days working in Havana and Matanzas and visiting the countryside as part of my first humanitarian trip with The CreatiVrole Project. Some of what we saw was encouraging. Some of it was very difficult.
Cuba is going through an extraordinarily challenging period. Fuel shortages, blackouts, transportation problems, and the pressures of everyday life are real, and I don’t think it would be responsible for us to pretend otherwise.
To everyone who donated or shared our humanitarian campaign, thank you. We’ve been deeply moved by the response. There is still much more to do, and if you’re able, please consider donating to help The CreatiVrole Project continue this work.
We’re also preparing a short documentary using footage from this trip to share our team’s firsthand perspective on life in Cuba today. We’ll be sharing more stories and updates through our social media as we put the film together.
Alongside this humanitarian work, I came home with a much clearer understanding of how Havana Music Tours can operate responsibly in Cuba right now, and why I believe continuing this work matters.
What we found on the ground
Over the last several months, we have been cautious about expanding our regular schedule of tours while we evaluated conditions on the ground. During this trip, we were able to personally evaluate many of the same services, accommodations, transportation providers, restaurants, musicians, and communities that make our programs possible.
What we found was a private sector that has adapted enormously. We have private transportation partners we know and trust, including van and bus operators with access to the fuel necessary to operate. Many of the privately owned casas and villas we use have invested in solar panels, battery systems, and backup power.
Internet access was better and more reliable than we have experienced on many previous trips. We also found new independently owned restaurants, creative spaces, and businesses that did not exist the last time we operated some of these programs.
The music is still there
And, most importantly for us, the music is still there. We met incredibly talented young musicians coming out of Cuba’s music schools, artists finding new places to perform, restaurants creating relationships with musicians, and people continuing to organize concerts, jam sessions, and cultural projects despite everything happening around them.
That matters to us because Havana Music Tours has never been only about taking people to Cuba. It is about the musicians and communities we have built relationships with for nearly ten years. Continuing this work creates opportunities to perform, teach, and earn income, while helping travelers understand Cuba through the people who live and create there.
Every tour creates a small economy around it
Drivers work. Musicians perform. Guides lead. Private restaurants fill tables. Casa owners host guests. Farmers may be able to buy a replacement part for their tractor. Artists sell their work. Independent businesses receive customers.
After almost ten years of working in Cuba, we have seen firsthand what that economic activity means to the people involved. So rather than retreat from those relationships at a time when they are needed most, we have redesigned our programs to direct even more of our activity toward Cuba’s independent and private economy.
Structuring our programs around Support for the Cuban People
For U.S. travelers, qualifying travel-related transactions may be authorized under OFAC regulations, including the Support for the Cuban People general license. Our new programs are being structured around the applicable requirements, with full schedules of meaningful activities centered on independent Cuban musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, guides, farmers, and privately owned businesses.
The authorization has conditions that each traveler must meet. A full-time schedule of qualifying activities and meaningful interactions is required, and restrictions apply to transactions with listed entities and lodging at prohibited accommodations. Visiting private businesses alone does not establish that a trip qualifies. We review accommodations and suppliers against current U.S. restricted-party requirements.
For the current requirements, see OFAC’s guidance on Support for the Cuban People.
Redesigning the experience for 2027
We have also redesigned the experience itself. Our Havana Music & Cultural Tour will again include our farm-to-table experience with our friends at Finca Tungasuk, deeper musicology and performance presentations exploring how Cuban music developed, meetings and performances with working musicians, carefully selected privately owned restaurants, and opportunities to understand Cuba through the people who are actually living and creating there.
And in 2027, Havana Music Tours will celebrate something especially meaningful to Yami and me: our 10th anniversary. After nearly ten years, the relationships behind these experiences continue to shape what we do and how we do it.
A continuing commitment to The CreatiVrole Project
Beginning with these bookings, Havana Music Tours will contribute 5% of tour revenue to The CreatiVrole Project, a separate Colorado-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting artists, musicians, educators, and creative communities in Cuba.
This is not an additional charge to our travelers. It is a commitment from us. The nonprofit’s humanitarian work and our travel programs have separate responsibilities, while growing from many of the same long-standing relationships.
My recent humanitarian trip reminded me why these relationships matter. We were able to help more than a hundred people and families in a small way, but I also came home thinking about something larger: people need more than emergency assistance. They need opportunities to work, create, teach, perform, operate businesses, and build something of their own. Responsible travel can be one small part of that.
Why we feel ready to move forward
Cuba is complicated. It always has been. We will continue to be honest with our travelers about conditions on the island, and we will continue evaluating every departure carefully.
But after returning ourselves, meeting with our partners, seeing the changes in the private sector, and spending time again with the musicians and communities we have known for years, we feel confident moving forward. We are excited to return.
And after nearly ten years, we are reminded again why we started Havana Music Tours in the first place: to help people experience Cuba through its music, and to make sure the people creating that music benefit from the experience too.
If you’d like to see what we are preparing, explore our 2027 Cuba programs. To learn more about the humanitarian work, ongoing projects, or ways to contribute, visit The CreatiVrole Project page.
Chaz Chambers
Founder & Director
Havana Music Tours, The CreatiVrole Project & Musical Getaways