News release
Boulder bike guide keeps leading American riders through eastern Cuba as blackouts make headlines
Cuba Bicycle Tours’ founder lives in a Cuban village and runs legal, small-group tours that pay Cuban families directly.
HOLGUÍN, Cuba. While news coverage of Cuba focuses on blackouts and fuel shortages, Herschel Goldberg is still putting Americans on bicycles in the country’s east. Goldberg, a Boulder, Colorado resident since 1968 who ran Boulder Bike Tours, now lives in a village in el Oriente with his Cuban wife and leads Cuba Bicycle Tours’ nine-day Eastern Cuba Culture & Cycling Tour.
The tour is legal for U.S. citizens under the Treasury Department’s “Support for the Cuban People” general license. Groups of 8 to 12 fly together from Miami to Holguín, stay in private family homes with solar backup, and ride 10 to 25 miles a day on hybrid, gravel or electric bikes, with a fueled support van alongside. Stops include an organic farm that is home to the Bamboo Bike Project, Guardalavaca beach, and Santiago de Cuba, the birthplace of salsa.
“I wanted travelers, particularly Americans, to form their own stories about Cuba, to set free their curiosity, dispel myths and make connections with the real people of this unique place.”
Goldberg built the tours so that what guests spend goes directly to Cuban families: the hosts who cook breakfast, the drivers, guides, farmers and musicians.
Riders give the tours five stars on Google, Tripadvisor and Facebook. “Norm & I felt really safe and cared for in your hands,” wrote one recent rider.
The 2027 season runs January to May. The tour costs $3,895 per person, all-inclusive from Miami. Details are at cubabicycletours.com.
###
More background: Herschel’s story, what the blackouts mean on the ground and how Americans travel to Cuba legally.
