$4,500 Buys a Chef-Led Trip From Miami to Cuba in April

If you've got some money laying around and you're looking for an interesting long weekend, Cuba Libre -- the restaurant and rum bar with outposts in Orlando, D.C., Philly, and Atlantic City -- has joined with Insight Cuba to lead a chef-led trip to the island from April 20 to...

By Melissa McCart

February 15, 2012

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If you've got some money laying around and you're looking for an interesting long weekend, Cuba Libre -- the restaurant and rum bar with outposts in Orlando, D.C., Philly, and Atlantic City -- has joined with Insight Cuba to lead a chef-led trip to the island from April 20 to 24. The trip is made possible after the Obama administration loosened travel restrictions to Cuba in 2011.

Forty-five hundred dollars buys D.C.-based chef Guillermo Pernot as a Havana tour guide; round-trip airfare to Cuba; hotel accommodations at Palacio del Marqués de San Felipe y Santiago de Bejucal; meals; guided activities; U.S. Treasury Department License and Letter of

Authorization; an English-speaking Cuban tour guide; entrance fees; ground

transportation, transfers, and taxi fares; and travel health insurance.

In addition to exploring landmarks, travelers can visit farms, state-run

restaurants, and local

paladares, family-run restaurants often staged in homes. On the

itinerary are the restaurants of those participating in Cuba Libre's

guest chef series,

Pop-up Paladares, which has hosted the first Cuban chefs to cook in the U.S. in quite some time.

Sound worth it?

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