On Using a Travel Agent

Normally, we’re self-organizing travelers. We decide where we’re going, how we’re getting there and where we’re staying with the help of guide books and the Internet. However, November and December were exceptionally busy months for us, so, for the first time in my adult life, I outsourced this work to a travel agent.

Gaby, the travel agent, isn’t to blame for the all-inclusive. We requested it. We figured we’d need to chill out for a few days, and we’d never been to one before. It was, then, a kind of experiment.

Gaby is to blame, however, for the location of the all-inclusive. We specified Veradero, the Sunset Strip of Cuba. It’s a narrow, sandy peninsula about two and a half hours from Havana with something like 60 resorts on it. If you’re going to a resort, we figured, you might as well go whole-hog.

Gaby, however, booked us at a resort at Playa Jibocoa, a beach about an hour east of Havana. She failed to mention that we weren’t going to Veradero. While trying to obtain a driver, a kindly Cuban pointed out our error. I felt like the classic stupid tourist, but at least we went to the right spot.

Jibacoa probably worked out for the best. It was nearly by itself on a splendid beach, flanked by another small resort and a couple sorry-looking campisos full of cement huts for Cuban holidayers (as in all things, the foreigners get the best beaches).

We were able to borrow a couple of creaking, single-speed bikes from the resort, and went on a nice (if grueling–Cuba is hilly and the bikes had one speed) three-hour ride through the rural countryside. We rode through a couple Cuban villages, and got to see the simple way of life of the average citizen. I’m reticent to describe them as impoverished–though they certainly are by Western standards. I know Cuban infrastructure is falling apart, and that the people struggle to meet their own basic needs. At the same time, the village seemed so functional, and the people were happy to greet us. They’d obviously be happier with indoor plumbing and fair prices for their produce, but I didn’t feel the kind of despair that I did seeing the shanty towns of South Africa.

I wouldn’t have had that experience at Verodero. So, I suppose Gaby’s error was our happy accident. That said, she also booked too tight a connection in Toronto. An hour and twenty minutes is just silly, knowing you have to transfer from that infernal “infield terminal” (a 15-minute ride, at best), clear customs and obtain and recheck your bags. Additionally, she failed to apprise us of the routine on Cuban tourist cards (de facto, low-rent visas) and the airport tax that needs to be paid on exit. Those last two aren’t critical, but they’re the sort of thing I’d expect to hear from a good travel agent.

What lesson did I learn about traveling from this trip? Not necessarily, as I might have implied, ‘don’t use a travel agent’. I probably won’t again any time soon. The real lesson (borne out mostly by our experience at the all-inclusive resort) is this: if you don’t have time to think about and research a trip, don’t take it. Traveling is a bit like writing a paper–the more preparation you do, the better the result.