Notes on Havana, Cuba

Havana was our first destination on a 3 week trip in Cuba, and we ended the trip with a night there too. It is a beautiful, complicated, confusing and fun place to be, though tricky at times.

We were in Havana in late November/early December as part of a 3-week trip in Cuba, so all my notes are based around my experiences as a tourist at that time. Please do check any dates/opening times/locations etc. if you’re planning your own trip – things change! Links are to websites if I can find useful ones, or Google Maps locations if not, so you can see where they are. Please also note this post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!

Contents

Pictures, please!

If you’d prefer just to look through my photos for now I’ve made a gallery of the photographs in this post here, but if you’d like to read my notes you can find them all below.

Top recommendations in Havana

You can read my notes on what we got up to below, but if you are short on time here are my top recommendations on what to do in Havana, which you can also see on the Google Map below. You can take a look at my more general ‘Notes on travelling in Cuba: cities, countryside and beaches in a three week trip‘, too, where I’ve written about things like travelling around the country and accessing the internet.

My top recommendations on a map

Full notes on my time in Havana: how we spent 6 days in Havana

Arriving in Havana

We flew to Havana from London via Madrid. I don’t recommend the airline we used, but we arrived safely. You need a tourist card to enter Cuba and when we travelled in late November 2022 you also needed to register your COVID documents. Having everything ready in advance made it all very straightforward when we arrived. Find out more about what we prepared in advance in my more general ‘Notes on travelling in Cuba: cities, countryside and beaches in a three week trip‘.

We contacted our Casa Particulair host in advance and asked them to arrange a taxi to pick us up from the airport and drop us at Casa Castellon*, which made things much easier for us. There were lots of taxis available at the airport too.

The ride took about half an hour, our tired eyes peeking out at the dark streets, interesting buildings, Ché Guevara’s huge image adorning the side of a building and a slither of yellowish moon. We paid €30 to the driver when we’d reached our destination.

Mario at Casa Castellon* was great and gave us a map, access to the internet and plenty of info. Arriving in the evening usually works well for us as we can head straight to sleep, which is exactly what we did.

Day 1: Casa breakfasts, changing money, exploring Habana Vieja, sampling rum

We had taken up the offer of buying breakfast at our Casa and we were so glad we did. In the dining room we were served a fresh fruit platter, fresh juice, coffee, warm rolls and our choice of eggs with sliced tomatoes. It was absolutely delicious and the perfect start to the day! We decided then that we’d add Casa breakfasts to every morning so we started each day with a great meal and usually they were so huge that they would see us through until dinner.

Now that we felt a bit more alive we could take in more information and Mario was happy to answer all our questions. We needed to change up some money (you can’t get Cuban Pesos outside of Cuba itself, you’ll need to take Euros and/or US Dollars) so we asked and followed his advice. There are official exchange shops called Cadecas and he advised us how to get the best rate – I’ve written a bit more here but my advice would be to ask your Casa host what they suggest. We had absolutely no problems by following ours.

We set out with a loose plan to explore, first walking along Paseo del Prado, the walking strip, to the massive gold-topped Capitol, where we got stopped several times (“where you from? England, oh, Ali G!”) by people trying to take us on tours in vintage cars, telling us how lucky we are to be here on only day they can sell boxes of cigars half price! Eventually we realised we just had to say we’d been here a little while/we’d already done that and they’d head off. Everyone is very friendly and nice, often genuinely trying to be helpful and it was lovely to chat with people, but it just feels silly to waste their time when we weren’t going to buy what they were offering at that time.

Havana is beautiful but it is crumbling. Near to where we stayed the entire front of an apartment block had just fallen off weeks before we’d arrived. Thankfully no-one was hurt but it was heartbreaking to see people’s homes just sliced open like that. All around the city an eclectic mix of buildings stand side by side. Some have been restored and some of them are taken over by mildew, plants and erosion. There is beauty in all of them but sadness too at what is fading away without money to invest in restoration.

We went to gaze at the sea at Parque La Punta (Tip Park), across to the lighthouse, large statue of Jesus and Casa Blanca. It was very peaceful around there, lots of space, coastal wind and less people asking if we needed taxis.

Next we wandered to the old town and visited the cathedral. It was nice to be in the cool after the heat of the streets and interesting to look at the building and paintings within. We headed towards Plaza Vieja through beautiful streets lined with stunning buildings, musicians playing, little squares filled with trees and street art. We’d read that the City Historian, Eusebio Leal Spengler, had been running a project to invest in renovation of Habana Vieja (Old Havana) for the 500th anniversary of Havana in 2019 and it was clear in this area that it had been hugely successful, with freshly painted buildings and well kept gardens. Later we learned that Eusebio Leal Spengler had sadly died shortly after the anniversary and no-one had been appointed to fill his position. I hope someone does take on this important role, the impact it had was so visible.

We’d hoped to go to the Camera Obscura but it was closed, so instead we went to a café on the square for frappuccino’s, water and a much needed sit down. It was probably relatively expensive but we valued the rest, cool drinks and the lovely view of the square.

We went to Palacio de los Capitanes Generales, the Museum of the City, which on that day was free to enter with only the ground floor open, I’m not sure if that’s usually the case. We were wandering about when a woman started telling us about things, taking us into bits that were roped off and encouraging us to take photos. Of course we tipped her but it was never clear if she worked there or was just an entrepreneur. It was interesting to see and it was good having her knowledge, I share this as I like to know what to expect!

We headed off again to a place Tim had marked on the map as ‘Crazy Art’. The route took us through streets filled with people queuing for phone credit, slices of pizza, eating icecreams, music pouring out from half-shuttered bars, filled with people dancing. Once palatial buildings stood crumbling, people swept up, hustled, chatted – everything was very full on. We reached the location of the ‘Crazy Art’, which in reality is called El Ojo del Ciclon, ‘the eye of the cyclone’, a gallery displaying the work of Leo D’Lázaro and it was amazing! There were suitcases painted and suspended from the ceiling, a lampshade draped in books, a telephone booth plastered with photographs. A guy came out and explained a bit about the artist. He’d created this studio space to be interactive and encouraged us to look around, climb up to the rooms upstairs, even play the table football he’d made, which was great fun! The whole place was filled with his work, both in progress and completed and it was really inspiring. We were invited to stay longer if we wished, drink tea, hang out or come back for one of their salsa sessions, which was so lovely and definitely somewhere to head to meet people, particularly if you’re a solo traveller. We figured out where to put a tip (in a sort of telephone box I think) and headed onwards.

We were travelling at the time of the World Cup and saw a small bar showing the England/Wales match and stopped in for ‘cerveza e football’ as the man on the door promised us.

Next was Museo Del Ron Havana Club, the Havana Club museum, where we booked on to the next English tour, which was at 16:00. We paid for the classic option, which included a sample of the 7 year rum and a cocktail, but there was another option that included a rarer sample, both incredibly reasonable. The tour was about an hour and really interesting. I liked the model of the original factory grounds and it was great to learn about the process. The guide was amazing being able to say things in most languages (we were the only English people there, really he should have done it in Italian as they seemed to have the biggest contingent). We had our sample of rum at the end but then they closed everything up and we never got our cocktail! The tickets were really cheap so we couldn’t be too disappointed, I’d just advise you to get the cocktail before you start the tour if you are going later in the afternoon!

Our final walk of the day was to San Isidro, where there was interesting street art. The street art was good, but we enjoyed just walking through the streets, looking at the buildings and shops squeezed into the tiniest of stairways. We continued exploring. We knew before we came that Cuba is very safe, and we absolutely found this to be the case, even when we took ‘wrong turns’ through dark streets.

We thought it was only right to have a mojito at this point and went to El Patchanka where a trio were playing amazing music. The drummer was playing bongos with his hands and other percussion with drumsticks in his toes! The atmosphere was fantastic, even a tiny boy outside was completely engrossed and it was nice to see him clapping and enjoying it despite his mother attempting to feed him his tea.

For dinner we went to the restaurant Mario had recommended to us, Habana 61. I had Camarones Enchilados (Cuban-style Creole prawns) while Tim had Ropa Vieja (Cuban pulled beef) served with rice and black beans to share. They were absolutely delicious, amazing flavours and I have never seen so many prawns on one plate before! We also shared a flan (more like a cheesecake really but with a creme caramel flavour).

Still slightly on UK time, and having walked a long way, we headed back to the Casa.

Day 2: Granma, a walk with a disappointing end and dinner in a urinal

Due to a booking issue we were moving to Casa Maura* today, a couple of floors down from Casa Castellon*, so after another delicious breakfast we packed up and moved. Casa Maura is pretty much the same layout but with a slightly different kitchen and a side terrace too. Our room was really nice and we had a TV where we could watch the World Cup if we wanted, too.

We headed back out to do some more exploring. We’d planned to visit the Museum of the Revolution but the main building was closed for refurbishment so we could only visit the Granma Memorial. The memorial is well laid out, the building designed to represent the palm trees and foliage of the location where the revolutionaries landed when they came to Cuba, with a replica of the boat housed in a glass building.

We had a really nice chat with doctor who stopped to talk to us as he recognised our accents and was interested in life in the UK, tried to visit Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Arte Cubano, which was closed that day, the Camera Obscura (which never did open the whole trip) and stopped for frozen lemonades at Café O’Reilly, a lovely little coffee bar, instead. 

We had a bit of a rest back at the Casa, then went to walk part of the Malecon along the coast. The sun was dipping down, people were hanging out, fishing, looking at the sea (and trying to sell cigars) and it was nice to walk and look. There are beautiful buildings in various states all along.

We eventually reached the Hotel Nacional where apparently everyone should have a fancy drink on the lawn. My advice is not to bother – there are far, far nicer places with much better service! As we’d walked all that way we sat in a swing seat away from the main area, drank our cans (yes, cans) of beer and watched the lovely cars driving past. There was a beautiful pink sky fading to twinkly lights as we headed back to the old town.

We went to Esto no es un Café by accident really but it was lovely! I went for Pollock Chicken, Tim had Duchamp Pork and thankfully the waitress explained before it arrived that this was an art themed cafe and the food was based on different works of art. Mine looked like a pollock painting and Tim’s was served in a urinal!! They were both really tasty though and the service was brilliant. There was free wifi too so we stayed for mojitos and made use of it, before heading back.

Day 3: Cuban art, famous bars and lobster pasta on a rooftop

After breakfast we visited the Infotur, tourist information, with the hope of getting a map for the hop on and off bus but things were very sparse. We got a map, some pointers on places to go and an idea to book a walking tour for another day, which we did on the Casa wifi.

The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Arte Cubano was open today so we spent a lovely morning wandering around the huge building filled with a wide range of Cuban art from 1600s upwards. There were some really, really great pieces, well worth visiting!

In search of refreshments we had a couple of false starts trying to find an ice-cream place that didn’t seem to exist and another café that only had espresso available, so we went to Café del Oriente instead. It was like stepping back in time, a shiny brass coffee machine, a man playing slightly sad songs on a clunky piano and a very smartly dressed waiter. We had frozen lemonades and a large bottle of water (the first time anyone has actually had that available!) and sat at the bar watching the activity.

In the afternoon we had more difficulties finding places that were open. Miniature Havana: shut. Playing card museum: shut. Microbrewery: shut. La Bodeguita Del Medio (Hemingway’s mojito hangout): open but too full for now!

We had success with El Floridita, which claims to have invented the daiquiri (not technically true, I don’t think) and another of Hemingway’s haunts. As expected it was very touristy but it was fun and we had very nice daiquiris indeed.

Next we headed to El del Frente (‘in front of’) where food and drink was slightly pricier than other places but it was all delicious and the rooftop atmosphere was great! We shared mixed tacos and lobster pasta – all really, really tasty! They even gave me a lovely flower.

Afterwards we went for a drink at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, another famous bar that we expected to be full, like Floridita and Bodeguita, but we were surprised to find the bar almost totally empty. The slightly dejected looking barman told us we could only have Cuba libres, Cubatas or beers – fine by us! We looked around at all the old photos of happy customers, strange to think people like Sinatra came here and here we were with it to ourselves. Also I found my muscle man stirrer hilarious.

Day 4: Extra large Jesus, Che Guevara House, a pink convertible to a cemetery and an amazing night at Fábrica de Arte Cubano

After yet another delicious breakfast we took a long walk round to the ferry port, to take a ferry over to Casa Blanca. On Google it’s marked as Nueva Terminal De Ferry and looks like a big glass box.

The sign for the ferry said $2 but when we gave a 500CUP note we were told that was too big. It turned out to be 2CUP, not US dollars as we’d thought, which is an extremely small amount!

The ferry trip was pleasant – a very small boat with standing only and not a lot of health and safety but totally fine! We arrived at Casa Blanca and headed up the hill to El Cristo de La Habana, the statue of Jesus. Having not really seen many tourists we were surprised to see a few groups of them up there, including Americans who we really hadn’t seen many of at all. There was a great view across to Havana and we had a coke from a shop shaped like a castle whilst sitting on a bench. 

We visited La Cabaña de Che Guevara, Che Guvera House, which was really interesting. I had no idea he was a doctor, a pilot and a proficient chess player as well as a revolutionary.

We then walked along to Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña and after a wrong turn where a couple of people with machetes and a baseball bat kindly pointed us in the right direction we found it. We had an intro talk in Spanish which we listened attentively to but really only know it involved the British being in Cuba, going to Florida and the Spanish taking over (based on what we’d learnt previously).

The fort was very impressive and surprisingly empty. Again great views, and slightly randomly found it interesting to see the gift shop where they hold world records for rolling the longest cigars. We strolled around, took plenty of pictures of the view across to Havana and enjoyed some shade in a little area with trees growing up the walls in interesting ways.

A few people had let us know about the canon ceremony each evening at this fort, where people dress in traditional costume and a canon is fired at 9pm. We didn’t go to this but we did hear the canon several times in our stay.

We passed through the displays of weapons and planes at the Museo Historico Militar (Military Historical Museum) and headed back down to the ferry port, where we had quite a long wait for the next boat but on a seat and in shade.

Today we had evening plans! We got a ride in pink vintage convertible to the Necrópolis Cristóbl Colón, the main cemetery (despite the initial story that it was shut to walkins and we should do a full guided tour instead). It was a pretty cool way to travel! The cemetery was peaceful and beautiful but I’m not sure I’d put it in the must sees as Lonely Planet had. There didn’t seem to be a map (as indicated in LP) so we just wandered and pondered, struck by how many 2022 deaths there seemed to be.

We walked through the suburbs of Vedado to Cuba Libro, a really cool café/second hand bookshop filled with interesting books, games and trinkets. We had coffees and just sat for a while, which was lovely.

Afterwards we headed on through more residential areas, light fading and eventually we found paZillo, which we’d read about in a Suitcase article. They didn’t seem to have the burger menu mentioned in that article but we had their twist on Mojitos and really good chicken burgers with sort of home made crisps. Delicious and very reasonable!

Off we set again, in the dark, to Fábrica de Arte Cubano – what an amazing place! Formed from an old factory plus some shipping containers, you pay €2 (US) each to enter and get given a card to keep track of drinks purchases, then pay for everything at the end. We wandered through bars, areas decorated with graffiti, sculptures, crazy photography, paintings, all sorts! We sat and watched amazing performances of tango (by some of the people we’d previously met at El Ojo del Ciclon), accompanied by incredible singing and a band featuring an amazing violinist who couldn’t have been much more than 20 years old.

We wandered through again and watched a band perform downstairs before queuing to settle up and leave (the queue to get in was huge now!) and got whizzed back down the Malecón in a Lada.

Day 5: Free walking tours

It rained really heavily in the night, waking us up, but providing the perfect weather for the Strawberry Tours Historical Centre walking tour we’d booked for 10:30, meeting near La Floridita.

There were 6 of us in the group and our guide was excellent and encouraged us to ask plenty of questions, which is exactly what we all did. We learnt so much – it’s probably best to try to do this nearer the start of your stay if you can, so you can learn and ask for recommendations etc. I won’t try to list everything but a few things that stuck in my mind were: the impact of José Martí, the government got rid of the CUC (there had previously been 2 types of Cuban Peso) and increased the minimum wage just before COVID hit so things were good for a bit but it was short lived as tourism was cut short. There are two kinds of shops: those where people have to pay with cards in euros or dollars (via MLC cards), and bodegas, supply stores where people pay in pesos, with a very noticeable difference between the two. The queues we’d been seeing at bodegas were for rations as we’d thought, where each person gets set amounts of things, such as 5 eggs per month, one bread roll per day and a small amount of chicken on a set day each week. Oh and the daiquiri was actually invented in Santiago.

We had a really extensive tour of the Old Town, visiting each of the Plazas, the Museo de la Farmacia Habanera, Museum of Pharmacy Habanera a great independent shop called Clandestina (which you can order from online), for ice cream at Heladería Mango & Cafe and through more residential streets. It was an excellent tour and we decided to come back for the Cuban Revolution tour in the afternoon too.

After a quick break and a trip to Esto no es un Café for something to eat and some wifi access we met for the second tour. Everyone who’d been there in the morning had come back too.

The revolution tour was equally excellent and we learnt more about Castro becoming president, how the guerilla wars took place and even had opportunity to visit a community project where they do art and lessons with children, teenagers, adults and elderly, which was really interesting.

In the evening we had a more successful trip to La Bodeguita Del Medio to complete the Hemingway drink experience with a mojito, then went for dinner at ChaChaChá, which was recommended by another couple in the tour. We both had slightly different beef dishes, which were really nice and Cuba libres that were good too.

Then it was back to the hotel to pack ready to head on to our next destination, Viñales.

An afternoon and morning at the end of our trip: an excellent meal, watching football in a stranger’s house and a great final lunch

After travelling around Cuba for a couple of weeks we came back to Havana for a night before flying back to UK. We arrived by Viazul bus from Varadero at about 15:40 and stayed in Centro Habana this time in more of a hotel than a Casa, which I wouldn’t recommend so I haven’t linked to it here. Definitely stick to Casas is my advice!

Having bought ETECSA cards elsewhere in Cuba we went in search of an internet park to check in to our flights but something was up because we just could not connect no matter what. Really weird. We ended up back at Esto no es un Café for internet and just taking in the evening atmosphere in Habana Vieja.

For dinner we headed back to Centro Habana to go to Casa Miglis. It wasn’t immediately obvious how to get in, but seeing it through the window a waiter appeared, showed us the entrance through the doorway to the left and we were soon in the elegant restaurant admiring the artwork. The drinks were excellent and although the menu was a little limited due to the supply issues Tim had lamb chilli and I had Pasta Casa Miglis, which was really, really tasty – brandy in a creamy pasta sauce really works!!

The following morning after various sagas at the hotel we decided to take in as much of the city as we could.

Lonely Planet had rated the Napoleon Mueseum as a must see so we headed there, having checked the Sunday opening times. It was shut, nothing but a Christmas tree blinking in the empty interior. We decided to go to visit Plaza de la Revolución instead, which was quite a long but interesting walk. We saw the huge structure in memory of José Martí, outlines of Che and Cienfuegos on the buildings overlooking it and a tourist being told off for sitting on the floor in the carpark in front.

Next we headed to Habana Vieja on quite a long route through residential areas that looked really interesting and nice. There was even an allotment or farm of sorts.

The World Cup final was on and as we walked we could hear the occasional ’GOOOOOOOAAAALLLLL!!!’ so we tried to catch a glimpse of what was going on. We’d already seen a happy woman jump up and run to share the news with her neighbour when Argentina scored one of their 2 goals, then as we were walking through a busier area a man came to the door of his house and said ‘Francia have scored two goals in 4 minutes!!!’ and insisted we come into his house to watch. They sat us down and put the fan on – Tim was offered rum from his cup. They chatted to us about our visit, it was so lovely. The match went to extra time and although they would gladly have let us stay we were conscious of our limited time and thought perhaps we should move on.

We went to what I’d hoped was a market of handmade things but it was the same as all the other souvenir stalls – Che T-shirts, carved wooden ornaments, cigar paraphernalia etc. we left and went to to look for somewhere for a cool drink, catching Messi’s final and winning penalty on the way with a crowd peering into a cafe.

El Café was another place you could easily miss as there wasn’t a lot of signage. I had lemonade (more like a non-alcoholic mojito really, nice), Tim had an iced latte and we shared a pineapple juice. It was a really nice place with interesting photographs, a good loo and the drinks were lovely. They had a good looking breakfast menu, too.

We had a bit more of a wander, then a late lunch at Habana 61, the place we had our first dinner, recommended by Mario from the first Casa, and it was a good choice. Tim had Ropa vieja, I had pork and we savoured them with rice and beans. Delicious!

We headed to the coast end of town and visited Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta which was interesting and peaceful away from sales people, so we had a wander around and then went to sit on the sea wall for a bit to reflect on the trip.

Leaving Havana

Travelling from Havana to Viñales

We asked our Casa host to arrange a Taxi Collectivo to take us to Viñales. We got a mid-morning pick up (which is less common, most Collectivos set off at 8/8:30am). It all felt a bit confusing but it worked out totally fine and was one of the best ways to get from town to town.

Travelling from Havana to the UK

At the end of our trip we had a final night in Havana and then asked our hotel to arrange a Taxi to the airport. We had a really good chat with the taxi driver on our way to the airport about how things are in Cuba – it was really great to speak with him.

The airport isn’t huge so although you can check in early (which we did as we couldn’t check in online) you can’t go through security until 3 hours before your flight. There are shops and restaurants once you’re through though and we stocked up on Havana Club, which they sealed and was fine for us to take whilst travelling carry-one only.

We loved so much about Havana but can see why people say they prefer other areas in Cuba. The sales pitches are constant, but I completely understand why people do it and it’s always in a friendly way. It’s sad to see so many beautiful places crumbling and such lovely people struggling with such limited resources.

There is also so much beauty, creativity and a real sense of community that I just haven’t seen anywhere else.

Next stop: Viñales

If you’d like to have a look through my photos without all the notes I’ve made gallery of the photographs in this post here.

Notes on Travel is a blog by photographer Jayne Lloyd, noting the things I found useful to know when I was visiting Havana in November/December 2022 as part of a 3 week trip around Cuba. I’ve tried to be accurate but please do check for up-to-date information before going as things are always changing! I apologise for any mistakes, please do let me know if you have more recent info.

* This post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!