Havana is a large bustling city of over 2 million people with distinct neighborhoods that have different personalities. If you have time, make sure to check out the different neighborhoods to get a broader sense of Havana.
Old Havana (La Habana Vieja - or simply, la Habana) is the most touristy part of the city and for good reason, it has charming sites, loads of restaurants and bars and is extremely walkable. If you have only a day or two to explore Havana, focus your time here. We spent the last few days in the heart of Old Havana and enjoyed being in the center of the action.
Central Havana (El Centro) begins at El Capitolio is the gritty real-world Havana scene located between La Habana Vieja and Vedado. Central Havana has many restaurants, bars, and nightclubs.
Vedado has a first-ring-suburb feel to it. It is an urban residential neighborhood with restaurants, cinemas, clubs, and businesses. The neighborhood is ringed by the famous Malecón, the wide esplanade that follows the seawall and features a few landmark buildings such as Hotel Nacional. We spent our first 4 nights at a casa particular (private residence) rented through Airbnb in Vedado and walked about a million miles, as it’s quite a distance to everything from here.
Many embassies are in the Miramar neighborhood. Before the Revolution, this neighborhood was home to many upscale homes and mansions for Cuba's well to do.
Roxanne & Kevin's Top Tips and 10 Things to do in Havana
1. Classic car tour
2. Walk the Malecón at sunset
3. City history tour
4. Stroll through Central Havana.
5. RUM
6. Cooking experience
7. Visit some museums
8. Ice cream
9. Buy some artwork
10. Track down the ghosts of Hemingway
(Do not be alarmed—we are saving cigars for the Vinales list!)
1. Classic Car Tour
Nothing screams “I’m a tourist” like a ride in an obnoxiously bright colored classic convertible car, but this is a must-do (coming from a couple who has refused to do a gondola ride in Venice because it’s too touristy). It’s a great way to see the main sites in the city and gain a new friend (your driver/tour guide).
Very near the capitol and the Gran Teatro is Parque Central situated along the Paseo de Marti. Classic convertible cars and their drivers gather here awaiting you to hire them for an hour or two or three or more. You can haggle a bit on price, but they all cost about the same. The two of us paid 130 cucs total for a 3-hour tour. Partway through the tour we offered our driver, Orlando, another 30 cucs to takes us away from the touristy spots and into more real-life Cuba experiences. The tour ended up lasting 6 hours as Orlando drove us around in his cousins’ 1952 purple Studebaker. We had an amazing time, hanging on to our hats in the breeze, as we saw the major sites of Plaza de Revolución, Fusterlandia and the Morro. We also went to Orlando’s house down in the Electrico neighborhood (originally built to house workers fro the electric company) to see his own classic car under restoration. It turns out most of these convertibles are regular hardtops and they cut the roof off to make them convertibles. We even spent time with Orlando’s cousin, where we saw his various house projects under construction, and he took a machete to top a coconut so we could drink the fresh coconut water while learning about the everyday life of regular Cubanos. It was worth every penny.
Just an FYI. If you are interested in purchasing a classic car to convert it into a taxi, be prepared to spend at least $35,000 – cash. Then pay more to restore it. That’s a big pile of dollars to spend on a car that’s 60 -70 years old, but if you consider that you’re not buying just a car, but a business that my net you between $5,000 and $7,500 a month it’s not so crazy.
Top Tip for Travel on a Budget - Negotiate for a tour extension or change after you're on your way. It seems counter-intuitive, but the promise of a few extra cucs in your driver's pocket (he may be just the driver and not actually the owner of the car) will get you far.
2. Walk the Malecón at sunset
The 5-mile esplanade follows the seawall from deep in La Habana through Vedado. It can be hot in Havana – even in winter (mid 80’s in January) and so when the sun starts to set, the cool breeze off the ocean acts as an air conditioner and throngs of Cubans take to the Malecón to hang out, cool off, people watch, do some fishing and just relax. It’s like the paseo, and a great way to chill a bit before finding your dinner and your 4th mojito of the day. Top Tip - It can be breezy so bring another layer if you think you'll get chilled. As the sun is setting, it's a great place to see (an photograph) lines of classic cars making their way back to Parque Central at the end of the day.
3. City history tour
Strawberry Tours offers several tours (car, bike, or walking) around Havana. We chose the free walking History tour of Old Havana. We booked our spot ahead of time and met at the small Parque Francisco de Albear y Lara just across the street from El Floridita then walked throughout La Habana Vieja visiting all five of the city’s plazas and lots of backstreets. To be fair, nearly any of Habana Vieja's streets can seem like a back street – especially at night. During our tour, Nelson, our guide shed light on the city’s history, a bit of overall background on Cuba, the Revolution and a quick pop into El Floridita and La Boguedita del Medio (two of Hemingway's favorite watering holes) a cigar store, down cat alley, the Plaza de Armas, into the cathedral and a close look at the paving stones of a former marketplace in Plaza Vieja.
Top Tip - Tours are free, but make sure to give your guide a generous tip of 5 to 10 cucs per person.
4. Stroll through Central Havana.
A trip to Havana isn’t complete unless you spend some time walking through el centro. You will see both the beautiful and heartbreaking sides of life in Cuba. Decadent and ornate buildings in various states of (dis)repair, people queuing for bread, milk and other rations, groups of men sitting down to a game of dominoes, drinking shots of rum, smoking cigars, prostitutes, shopowners cleaning the patch of pavement in front of their shop, a dead dog in the street, a mangy dog outside the museum, dogs on leashes, dogs on rooftops or running from one place to another, cats in windows, grandmothers in windows hanging laundry, sewage in the streets, broken sidewalks, building rooftops caving in, people living in what basically amounts to a hole in a wall. It’s all there.
It is vibrant, beautiful, gritty, a cauldron of stone soup and catcalls, laughter and spilled beer, the streets slick and sticky with rum and who knows what else, wrapped in a multitude of odors and scents, onion, garlic, tobacco, excrement and piss. There is no substitute.
Top Tip for Travel Planning: - The area around and behind the Capitol is interesting, Avenida Zanja leads you through what remains of Havana's Chinatown, and Avenidas Neptuno, San Miguel, and San Rafael all bring you through the heart of El Centro and connect Old Havana to Vedado. Also, watch your step. It's easy to trip or slip on any number of things in the broken streets and sidewalks.
5. RUM
We’re not sure that the rum in Cuba is any better than what you will find in Puerto Rico, or anywhere else in the Caribbean, but it tasted great to us and it was literally cheaper than water. You will be offered to stop for a mojito nearly constantly as you walk the streets, no matter the time of day or night. There were a couple of days we had mojitos before we had breakfast. Put another way, we had mojitos FOR breakfast, and lunch for that matter.
There are many rum drinks to try and you should try them all. Here are just a few: Mojito – a traditional high ball consisting of 1 oz. white rum (such as Havana Club), 1 tsp sugar, 2 Tbsp lime juice, lots and lots of mint, (muddle the sugar, mint and lime juice in the glass before adding the rum) and equal parts lemon-lime soda and soda water. Serve over ice, with a lime wedge and mint garnish. You can expect more mint leaves, stems and roots than you’ve ever seen in a mojito before.
Mojito de Pinar del Rio – is similar but swaps out honey for the sugar and uses the local guayabita rum instead of Havana Club. The guayabita rum is made from the local guayabita fruits (grape-sized guavas) that are local to the Piñar del Rio area surrounding Viñales – as opposed to sugar cane.
The BEST mojito we had was the Dark and Stormy served at El Café in Habana Vieja. It used a ginger-honey syrup (heavy on the ginger) and was served in a pint glass – half of which was rum. Have two of those for breakfast if you want to hang with us.
Cuba Libre – basically a rum and coke. 1 oz. White rum, and 3 oz coke, or any cola of your preference, served over ice, with a lime wedge and mint garnish. Some folks add a tbsp of lime juice. Some folks do a lot of crazy shit. It doesn't mean you have to.
Cubata – Essentially a cuba libre but uses only dark rum and cola. No sugar, no lime juice, no mint. Serve over ice with a lime wedge to garnish.
Daiquiri – Hemingway may have helped to invent the daiquiri at El Floridita in Havana, but please stay away from the poor frozen slushie version of the drink it’s evolved into and follow a more traditional recipe listed here.
2 oz of white rum (plata), 1 oz fresh lime juice, ¾ demerara sugar syrup – combine into a shaker with ice, shake until chilled, pour into a chilled glass – over ice if you wish – and garnish with a lime wedge.
Canchánchara – (Kevin’s favorite)1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp hot water – stir to dissolve, add 1 tbsp lime juice and 3 oz aguardiente del cana (the first distillation of sugar cane) and a splash of soda water. Serve over ice, garnish with lime juice, a sprig of mint. Alternatively, you can use añejo or plata rum, though it is not traditional.
La Chancleta – Similar to the Canchánchara – swap out the aguardiente or rum for cachaça (a Brazilian spirit similar to rum) follow the recipe above.
You can learn more about the importance of sugar cane and rum production at the Rum Museum in Habana Vieja. We went, but it’s not a must-see unless you pay an extra cuc or two for the full tasting tour.
Top Tip - Interested in bringing back some rum? Buy it ahead of time and pack it in your checked luggage. You can buy it at the airport but it won't be any cheaper. They will let you carry it on the plane in Havana, but when you change to connecting flights at you port of entry in the US, you will need to put it in your check luggage before you go through security or it will be confiscated from you if you attempt to board your airplane with it in your carry-on luggage after passing customs in the US. You can avoid the worry of the bottles leaking by bringing a couple of 2 gallon-sized ziplock bags with you and placing your bottles inside and surrounded by clothing items to cushion the bottle(s). If you are over the age of 21, you are allowed to bring back 5 liters per person if the alcohol content is between 24 and 70 percent (48 to 140 proof). Anything more than that will be taxed by customs.
6. Cooking Experience
Through Airbnb experiences, we signed up for Cook Cuban Recipes at a Colonial Villa. We started off with learning how to make a mojito the proper way, then made black beans, white rice, fried yucca, and sautéed pork loin. Dessert was flan. The food was delicious, everything very fresh and full of flavor. The best part was chatting with our hosts, who told us a great deal about the daily lives of Cubans, the process of getting food on rations and finding things that are not generally in the marketplace. We loved their insight into organic foods and were amazed at how small their kitchen was, the limited counter space and the use of just one pot and one very small sautée pan to make the meal. Perhaps we really don’t need all our pots and pans…..
Top Tip: You can book experiences like this through Airbnb in advance while travel planning, or, talk to your casa hosts when you arrive. They can hook you up. Maybe learn how to salsa dance?
7. Visit the Museums
We really enjoyed the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts- Cuban Art) and the National Museum of Fine Arts (International Art). They are two separate buildings a few blocks apart from each other, but you can pay one fee to gain admission to both. We visited on a Sunday and there were limited hours. We did a speed visit through both museums and got kicked out of the Fine Arts museum and missed a few galleries—as they shut things down 15 minutes before closing. If you only have time for one, pick the Cuban Art museum. It was really fascinating.
We also visited the Museum of the Revolution, which is often in the top ten things to do in Havana. As far as a museum goes, the displays were second rate and not professional (we saw better photos of Fidel in just about any bar we went into), but it was fascinating to read about the pro-Fidel version of events. Especially interesting was the long list of US CIA aggressions towards Cuba, including poisoning the sugar harvest and over 8,000 other acts of sabotage. It makes you wonder how much of this is true and why Americans are oblivious to most of this?
Top Tip: Bring some toilet paper or wet wipes from home. The restrooms in cafes, paladares and museums may or may not have any. Don't plan on flushing whatever you use, the sewage system can't handle the load. There will be a small wastebasket for your deposit.
8. Ice cream
Ice cream is about the only legitimate street food we encountered. We expected to find more sandwiches, pizza, and other snack items, but no. We must have been in the wrong part of town or not adventurous enough to crawl through an open doorway that may have held the key to a street food paradise. The street vendors we encountered were usually selling vegetables.
The street pizza we had day one was poor by American or Italian standards. They don’t really have cheese in Cuba, the tomato sauce is a bit ketchupy and the salami was more like soft bologna. Edible, but not delicious. Still, at 2 cuc per pizza, it saves one from starvation at an affordable price.
So, the ice cream. Cubans love their ice cream. Coppelia is most well-known ice cream shop in Havana. We walked past Coppelia several times a day while we were staying in Vedado. When it was open, there was always a very long line. Several long lines actually, as there are several entry points into the place. You can stand in line if you’d like to purchase ice cream using pesos, but of course, your tourist privilege and willingness to pay in cucs can get you in straight away – no line. We never did get any ice cream at Coppelia, though we did jump the queue and walk through the place just to see what was going on. We had ice cream at a couple of other spots. One was Casa Gelato in Miramar and is one of Orlando’s (our classic car driver) favorites, and the other was Heladeria Amore right by our casa in Vedado. Both were good and very much like Italian gelato. Cubans love their ice cream, so when in Cuba….
Top Tip - Eat the ice cream.
9. Buy some artwork
There are a number of shops throughout Havana that sell artwork. A lot of it is lovely, but the same from store to store. We bought our prints at the Taller Experimental de Grafica for printmaking. This is an actual studio where artists meet, produce and sell their own artwork. You can wander from place to place within the studio and meet the artists themselves. We bought some original prints from Julio “Omar” Morales. You can call him at +1 58357899 or email him at omarjumlpp@gmail.com if you want to arrange a private showing. The studio is located at the end of the little dead street Callejon del Chorro just at the bottom of the Plaza de la Catedral and Museo de Arte Colonial. There are several good restaurants lining the street - which all looked good and smelled delicious.
Top Tip for Travel on a Budget: The price goes down significantly if you buy more than one.
10. Track down the ghosts of Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway lived in Cuba – in and around Havana – from 1939 to 1960 – longer than he lived anywhere else. Actually, he split his time between Idaho and Cuba during this period, wintering in Cuba. He spent a couple of summers away from Idaho on safari in Africa. First renting rooms at the Hotel Ambos Mundos in Habana Vieja and then eventually buying his home Finca Vigía (Lookout Farm) just outside of town. He wrote at Finca, fished for marlin and hunted Nazi U-Boats aboard his boat, Pilar. Hemingway helped invent the daiquirí and made a drunken fool of himself at both El Floridita and La Boguedita del Medio – 2 bars that pay homage to him to this day.
Hemingway had a friendly relationship with Fidel (at least so says the government) though they only met once. Hemingway may have been quietly supportive of the revolution, a least at its beginning, though later grew frustrated with its results. There are conspiracy theories suggesting that Hemingway was forced to leave Cuba by the CIA or the FBI, or both, and a few others suggesting that his suicide in Ketchum, Idaho in 1961 wasn’t a suicide at all, but rather murder and cover-up by unknown shadowy forces. That’s for you to decide. Hemingway’s diaries do show he was concerned that he was being targeted by J Edgar Hoover. After his death, however it may have occurred, the Castro government seized his property, both Finca Vigía and Pilar. His wife Mary was allowed to remove the majority of his manuscripts and letters, but the government required the rest of the property to remain as it was. The government reopened the home in the 1980’s as a museum. The place was crazy busy (crowded with mostly Bulgarians - surpisingly) when we visited. We weren’t allowed inside but we were able to walk around the exterior of the house and peek in through open doors and windows to get a pretty good look inside. It’s easy to imagine that it looks as though he’s just left it. Books and magazines are left about on tables and chairs. There are several typewriters with paper in them in a few of the rooms and a plate or two on the counter in the kitchen. You can also climb the watchtower and a woman will take photos of the inside for you for a small tip. Hemingway wrote in several different rooms of the house depending on the time of day and used the watchtower primarily as a man-cave. His boat the Pilar, sits dry-docked in what used to be the swimming pool. If you’re lucky, the old woman attendant at the boat will open a couple of the changing rooms where she will yell facts about Hemingway at you while pointing to photos of him on the walls. She takes great delight in telling you that Hemingway and his wife used to walk around naked no matter who was visiting.
Hemingway kept Pilar docked in Cojimar (Koh HEE Ma) a small fishing village just a few miles north of Finca. We went to check it out but much of the main street and the restaurant/bar Hemingway frequented were under construction, so we didn’t stay long. Cojimar is no longer the small, quaint little fishing village one imagines from history and Hemingway's description of it in The Old Man and the Sea. We’d skip this stop if we were to do it again.
In town, you can visit the two bars he made famous and keep his memory alive today – El Floridita and La Bodeguita del Medio. A famous quote attributed to Hemingway is “Mi mojito en la Boguedita, mi daiquiri en El Floridita.” It pulls in the tourists after all. The drinks are rushed and not well crafted, so if you visit, buy a drink, get your photos and move on. A much better bar, more authentic and far less crowded is “Bar Monserrate” just down the block from El Floridita on Obrapia and Avenida Belgica. Order a Cubata.
On our way to and from Finca, our taxi driver (also named Nelson) showed us some of the thriving residential neighborhoods on the outskirts of Havana, we talked infrastructure, politics, baseball, boxing, track and field, life and other such things as people do. He was impressed that Kevin knew the names of several Cuban track athletes and boxers. We were impressed that Fidel was a pretty good basketball player back in the day. He showed us the athlete’s village for the 1991 Pan American games at which Cuba bested the USA. Nelson is a proud Cubano and rightly so. It turns out his wife was a big-time news reporter, and covered the visits of both the Pope and Obama, meeting each of them. We are just three degrees of separation from meeting them ourselves.
Top Tip: Ask your driver questions. They have answers.
11. BONUS: Just Walk Around.
One of our favorite things to do in Havana (as it is anywhere) was to just walk around exploring the streets, back streets, plazas, and buildings. We pick up the heartbeat of a place by being immersed in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feels of a place and its people. No tour or guide can give you as thorough of an experience of a place as hours of strolling up, down, around, and in and out of a place. We often tramp over the same bits of real estate multiple times during our stays and it was no different in Havana. We always felt safe, even late at night in what might appear to be dodgy neighborhoods. The character of a place changes between day and night and over time - even a day or two – you will experience the place in a different way. That’s our jam. It might not be as exciting for you. Try it and let us know.
Top Tip - Take a taxi or bicycle taxi if you are tired or need to get somewhere quickly. Otherwise, walk.
Want more? Check out our other posts on Cuba.
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