What's it like in Cuba.

We are think of going to Cuba sometime this winter but we're getting mixed messages about the best way to organise the trip, and how much genuine salsa dancing we will actualy get to do.

It has been said that if we just do a straight forward package tour then forget about the dancing, as the tourist areas are not somewhere the local Cubans are encouraged to go except for work. In fact it has been suggested that they are activly discouraged from mixing with tourists!

Organised salsa dancing packages are often expensive and I have a feeling that they may also be a watered down version of the real Cuba put together to please the tourists vision of "real salsa in cuba". Friends have told us that they have had a great time on these tours but is it really Cuba?

Others have suggested that if we go under our own steam then we would never find the right dancing clubs and yet other suggest that a split cuban holiday in an Havana hotel and a private rent with a local family is the best option.

Help please???!!!! to many options. Have you been? Where? With whom? What was it like? I need more information.