Each November, photography lovers have the opportunity to explore Havana and Viñales accompanied by the award-winning photographer Jim O’Donnell. Participate in a photography trip to Cuba is a great way to develop your photography skills by learning from a professional photographer while exploring a destination you’ve always dreamed of visiting.
If you want to discover Havana from the lens of your camera and capture unique moments, join Espíritu Travel on their annual 8-day Havana photography trip in November. Havana is truly a photographer’s dream destination. It is a street photography heaven. Contact us and sign up for our next Photography Tour in Havana! We like to keep it personal al local so our Cuban Photography Trips have limited participants.
Why Choose to do a Photography Trip in Havana?
Havana is one of the most photogenic locations on the planet. With a unique, gritty atmosphere, welcoming people and a colorful, pulsating culture. Havana is such an exotic and unique destination that when you arrive you can feel overwhelmed by the city, there are so many details to photograph!
From behind your lens, you will be able to be the witness, as well as the main character, of how Cuban culture and the nature of this magnificent destination manifests itself on your Havana trip. While we’ve all seen images of Havana full of the old American cars there is so much more: the magnificent architecture, the history mingling with the present and the faces of its people.
Peace of advice: we recommend you have a list of photography places you do not want to miss during your trip to Cuba. The award-winning photographer Jim O´Donnell will give you his personal opinion and will help you capture the essence of Cuba.
Check out our Best Places to Photograph in Havana blog post.
Espíritu Travel Havana Photography Tour
Unlike other photography tours at Espíritu Travel, we create a personalized workshop specifically designed for photographers of any level. We adapt to your level of photographic knowledge and the technical equipment you have. Also, it is limited to 6 people.
The photography trip to Havana not only makes the best use of the fantastic photographic opportunities but also aims to give an insight into the daily life of Cubans, building relationships with artists, dancers, athletes and small entrepreneurs to discover the hidden gems most visitors will never experience.
8- Days Havana Photography Tour Itinerary
Upon arrival to Havana, you are greeted at the airport by both Jim O’Donnell and our extraordinaire guide, Carlos who will welcome you to the island, making you feel right at home.
After getting settled at the casa particular (a private house run by Cuban families), the group gets together over mojitos and piñas coladas at the famous Hotel Nacional! Here you will have time to talk with your companions during your trip and Jim O’Donnell will explain the itinerary for the next 8 days in detail.
You will start the days early so you can capture the first shines of the sun at the Malecón while the fishermen prepare their boats, and the old metropolis wakes us. You will start your photography trip with a walking tour thought Havana, you will see local markets, colonial mansions, street dancers and painters, and discover unique stories to tell with your cameras.
Finish the day with panoramic tour of Havana in classic American cars, after heading to the Fortress San Carlos de La Cabaña to capture the sunset of the Havana cityscape.
You will also visit the Cuba Libro cafe and bookstore in Vedado, a cultural center dedicated to building, strengthening, and supporting the Havana community. You will have the chance to photograph the magical that takes place in Cuban National Ballet in Old Havana and enjoy the live music at the Fabrica de Arte Cubano, an intellectual nexus for live music, art expos and fashion shows.
At the end of your photography trip in Havana, you will leave the bustling city of Havana behind to get out into the countryside, to the rural community of Viñales (a 2.5 hr drive), famous for its mogotes, small limestone hills situated throughout the lush green countryside. Along the way, we will visit Las Terrazas and Soroa.
In Viñales, you will visit tobacco farms where you will learn firsthand how the tobacco for the world-famous Cuba cigars is grown, processed and assembled.
Have a look at our 8-day Havana Imagined Photography Workshop for more detail information.
What to expect from your photographic trip to Havana
A great personal and human experience, this country always enriches you. You have to visit Cuba with an open mind and eager to interact with the people. Photography is an ideal tool to generate that link, the perfect excuse to establish that connection. Cuba always offers great photographs, it is a very accessible country for any traveler and it is extremely photogenic.
Cuba, and in particular Havana, is one of those paradises of images that will require all your concentration so you do not miss any detail; and, in addition to that, human contact with the locals will nurture us in such a way that we will be left wanting to return.
Hidden Cuba Photography Expedition 10 days trip plan
If you already been to Havana, check out our Eastern Cuba Photo Trip. This area of Cuba is rich with Afro-Cuban and indigenous traditions and graced with staggering landscapes unlike any other on the island.
You will visit Sierra Maestra and Fidel’s former rebel hideout, Santiago de Cuba and its markets full of colors to photograph, Baracoa, Cuba’s oldest city and Gibara, a small, rustic, and somewhat run-down fishing town situated on the bay.
Find out more about Hidden Cuba Photography Expedition here.
Travel with a positive impact
Espíritu Travel “Take a Camera to Havana” program will provide the opportunity for you to donate your old or unused camera equipment to Cuban photographers in need. With the help of your tour leader, you will be able to discover the most spectacular Cuba. You will be able to see how Cubans really live in a unique and very personal experience.
Participating in a Photography Trip to Havana is the best travel plan for lovers of this art and even more so if the destination is nothing more and nothing less than Cuba, a country that has stopped in time, unique in itself, where every corner of the island hides a story to tell through the lens of your camera. If you are interested in participating in Espíritu Travel next Havana photography tour, contact us to receive more information.
