The hottest ticket requested from Marazul Charters in Weehawken this summer is a trip to the island nation of Cuba. New, relaxed laws implemented with the support of President Barack Obama allow people with Cuban relatives to travel to the island once a year, rather than waiting three years between trips.
The change has brought Marazul Charters, which translates from Spanish to Blue Sea Tours, a surge in phone calls from people eager to make travel arrangements to visit the Communist country.
There is still a ban that prohibits Americans who don’t have relatives in Cuba from traveling to the island. The last time the United States allowed general tourism to Cuba was 1982.
“There’s a lot of pent up demand for travel to Cuba.” – Bob Guild
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According to Bob Guild, program director of Marazul Charters, they have had a 30 to 40 percent increase in trips sold from their offices in Weehawken and South Florida, with the percentage increasing every day.
The business is located in the same plaza as Pathmark on Park Avenue.
“As summer gets closer, people and their kids are getting out of school, and they want to take their kids and go to Havana to visit their relatives,” said Guild. “People can’t figure out why there are restrictions on traveling to Cuba, and why there are not restrictions on any other country in the world. You can go to Iraq for tourism if you want, you can go to Saudi Arabia, or China, you just can’t go to Cuba. So nobody can figure that out, including myself.”
The cost
Although there are no non-stop flights from Newark-Liberty International, you can take a flight to Miami and a 45-minute chartered flight to Havana at an approximate cost of $450 to $550 round trip, depending on demand and the day you decide to travel.
A flight to Cuba from Nassau in the Bahamas would cost about $315 and from Cancun, Mexico, a round trip flight is about $325. Every couple of weeks there is a direct flight from JFK International, according to Guild.
He said tourists have a variety of sites to see in Cuba. Apart from being the largest island in the Caribbean, with 600-700 miles of beaches, visitors can enjoy the architecture, the music, and even sports such as baseball, which is a huge hit there.
To visit, you must have relatives on the island, sign a statement that says you have relatives in Cuba or provide your Cuban passport or birth certificate, and request a visa, which can obtained through Marazul without needing to leave your passport with him. The cost for the visa averages about $50 and takes just days to receive.
“There are a couple of bills in Congress that have a lot of support that will do away with restrictions and make Cuba like every other place in the world,” said Guild, “so the United States citizens would be able to travel anywhere, and we hope that will go into effect. If it does, it will open a flood gate of people who want to visit.”
Melissa Rappaport may be reached at editorial@hudsonreporter.com