Cuba, August 2007 - Transfers

One of the biggest problems I found with not using a package trip was trying to find a company who could provide us with transfers from the airport and to our hotels. I couldn't find anything with my regular travel suppliers and no-one I knew had travelled to Cuba independently so I turned to Google for help.

The problem with finding companies via Google is that you have no idea how reliable and reputable they are. There wasn't a great deal of choice, in fact, it was quite tough finding a company who had a website offering what I wanted which was

private transfers from;

• Havana International Airport to Hotel Ambos Mundos

• Hotel Ambos Mundos to Hotel Barcelo Marina Palace

• Hotel Barcelo Marina Palace to Havana International Airport

The company I found was Destino Caribe (www.cubadestinocaribe.com) so I sent them an email. They replied within 2 hours giving me a price and pick-up times from the hotels based on our flights. Payment had to be made by bank transfer so I also had to pick up the charge for the international transfer of funds.

This did give me cause for concern as I could be wiring my money away with no guarantee of getting what I paid for. So I looked at a few things to see if I could gauge how reputable the company are. First of all, they appeared near the top of the search results in Google which is a good sign. Its not easy to get high up in the search results so this indicated the company had been around for a while. Next, I checked the details of the web domain ownership. This won't necessarily tell you if something is wrong some details checked out so I could be fairly sure I was talking with the right people. I was happy as I could be so I wired over the money and Destino Caribe proved to be excellent. They were on time for the pickups in modern, air conditioned vehicles. I would have no issues with recommended them or using Destino Caribe again.