Cuba’s Forbidden Properties
The Trump administration has taken steps to further restrict where U.S. travelers can stay in Cuba, adding a dozen hotels to the “Cuba Restricted List” which bans financial transactions with specific Cuban enterprises. The updated list went into effect on July 14.
The 12 new hotels include the Grand Aston, a two-tower building on the Malecón overlooking the ocean that has become popular with educational tour groups, and the recently inaugurated Iberostar Selection La Habana, a 42-story modern hotel that now dominates the Havana skyline.
The other hotels that are now off-limits to American visitors are: Hotel Sevilla Habana; INNSiDE Habana Catedral; the Grand Aston Varadero Beach Resort; the Varadero Sol Caribe; Sol Turquesa Beach in Holguin; Ocean Casa del Mar in Villa Clara; Lagunas del Mar in Villa Clara; Gran Muthu Cayo, Santa Maria; the Melia Trinidad Peninsula; and the Melia Costa Rey in Playas las Coloradas. Hundreds of other hotels in Cuba are already on the list, including the Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana.
According to the State Department, designation on the list “prohibit persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction from lodging, paying for lodging, or making any reservation for, or on behalf of, a third party to lodge” at any hotel on the list.
In September 2020, during his first term, President Trump created the List of Restricted Entities and Subentities Associated with Cuba, and an accompanying Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List. Initially, Cuban enterprises—government agencies, hotels, stores, restaurants—administered by a Cuban military conglomerate, GAESA, were put on the restricted entities list; subsequently the list was expanded to include all state-owned hotels across the island.
The Biden administration left the prohibitions in place, but did not add to list as new state-owned hotels opened over the past several years.
Privately owned boutique hotels, which have proliferated since the prohibitions were enacted, remain available to U.S. travelers.
To see the complete list of prohibited properties, click here.
