Cuba
Havana
A capital caught between centuries - colonial plazas, crumbling grandeur, fifties American cars and live music on the corner, all along one sea wall.
Havana is a capital preserved by circumstance: a UNESCO-listed old city of Spanish plazas and shuttered palaces, a shabby, magnificent grid behind it, and the Malecon sea wall where the whole city goes to sit at dusk. Fifties Detroit steel still runs the streets as shared taxis, rumba and son come out of doorways, and half a century of politics is written on the facades. It rewards walking, patience and conversation more than a checklist of sights.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Spanish
Currency
CUP
Timezone
UTC-4
Why you'll love Havana
Habana Vieja four restored colonial plazas and the lanes between them, still lived in rather than turned into a museum quarter
The Malecon kilometres of sea wall that double as the city's bench, bar and dance floor once the heat drops
Music rumba in the alleys, son and trova in the old city, and a national habit of playing live rather than recorded
The cars fifties Chevrolets and Buicks kept alive by improvisation and working as shared taxis, not posed for photographs
Best time to visit
Dec-May
27-33° days
23.135° N, 82.359° W
UTC-4 · America/Havana
whenywhere contains ads and partner links that we think are helpful and that earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Weather & when to go to Havana
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Dec-May
Watch for Jun-Nov cyclones & hurricanes risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Havana
Summer runs hot and heavy with humidity, and the Atlantic hurricane season spans June to November with the greatest risk from August to October. Power cuts are a fact of life year-round and bite hardest when it is hottest, so a fan-only room in September can be a long night.
Top things to do in Havana
-
Habana Vieja - the four colonial plazas
history 👍 PopularPlaza de la Catedral, Plaza Vieja, Plaza de Armas and Plaza de San Francisco anchor the restored old city, linked by lanes of baroque churches, courtyards and second-hand bookstalls. The restoration thins out a few blocks in, which is where it gets interesting.
-
The Malecon - walk the sea wall at sunset
scenic 👍 PopularThe curving seafront road from the old city out to Vedado is where Havana comes to fish, flirt, drink and play music. When a northerly blows, waves break clean over the wall and soak the whole avenue.
-
Classic American cars - ride an almendron
culture arts 👍 PopularFifties Chevrolets, Buicks and Fords work fixed routes as shared taxis: flag one down on a main avenue, say where you are going and squeeze in. Convertible tours along the Malecon are the polished version of the same thing.
-
Fabrica de Arte Cubano - art, film and live music in one warehouse
nightlife music ⭐ Highly recommendedA converted cooking-oil plant in Vedado holding contemporary art, photography, fashion and several stages under one roof, with bars scattered between the galleries. The most interesting night out in the city by a distance.
-
Callejon de Hamel - Sunday rumba in a painted alley
culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedSalvador Gonzalez's Afro-Cuban murals and scrap-metal shrines cover one Centro Habana alley, and on Sunday afternoons it fills with drummers and dancers. Crowded and well known to visitors, and still the real thing.
-
El Capitolio and the Paseo del Prado
historyHavana's domed capitol, modelled on Washington's and built a little taller, faces a marble promenade shaded by laurels where the city walks, sells paintings and plays chess.
-
Museo de la Revolucion - the revolution's own account
historyBatista's presidential palace now tells the story of his overthrow, bullet holes in the marble and the yacht Granma in a glass case outside. Read it as a primary source rather than a neutral one.
-
Castillo del Morro and La Cabana - the nightly cannon
historyThe Spanish forts across the harbour mouth give the best view back at the city, and each night soldiers in eighteenth-century uniform fire the cannon that once announced the closing of the sea gate.
-
Cementerio de Colon - marble avenues of the dead
historyVedado's necropolis is a city in miniature, laid out in numbered streets of mausoleums, angels and Carrara marble, with the shrine of La Milagrosa drawing a steady queue of the hopeful.
-
Plaza de la Revolucion - Che on the ministry wall
historyA vast, mostly empty parade ground under the Marti memorial, with the steel outlines of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos mounted on the ministries opposite. Ten minutes and a photograph, usually arrived at by classic car.
-
Fusterlandia - a neighbourhood tiled in mosaic
culture artsThe artist Jose Fuster covered his own house in Jaimanitas in broken tile and then kept going down the street, roofs, benches and bus stops included. Half Gaudi, half fever dream, out west beyond Miramar.
-
Paladares - eat in Havana's private kitchens
foodFamily-run private restaurants, several of them in faded mansions, cook far better than the state places: ropa vieja, roast pork, fresh fish and lobster where it is going. Book ahead for the well-known ones.
-
Live son and bolero in the old city
nightlife musicCasas de la musica, hotel patios and back-street bars run trios and full septets nightly, playing the Buena Vista repertoire and a good deal beyond it. Somebody will pass a hat or sell you a disc, and it is worth it.
Best areas to stay in Havana
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Habana Vieja
First-time visitors $$Restored colonial plazas and narrow lanes
Explore hotels in Habana Vieja →
Vedado
Everyday Havana $$Leafy fifties grid, local and unhurried
Explore hotels in Vedado →
Centro Habana
Local & good value $Crumbling, crowded and utterly alive
Explore hotels in Centro Habana →
Miramar and Playa
Quiet & spacious $$$Wide avenues, embassies and garden mansions
Explore hotels in Miramar and Playa →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Havana
Getting to & around Havana
Getting there
Fly into Jose Marti (HAV) south of the city; a taxi is the only practical way in
Flight
Jose Marti International (HAV)
About 18 km south of the centre, with international flights using Terminal 3. Official taxis queue outside arrivals and take roughly half an hour into Habana Vieja or Vedado, longer in traffic; there is no train or airport bus worth using with luggage. Most casas and hotels will arrange a pickup instead.
Coach
Viazul terminal, Nuevo Vedado
Air-conditioned Viazul coaches are the standard way in from Vinales, Trinidad, Santa Clara and Santiago, arriving at the terminal in Nuevo Vedado, a short taxi ride from the centre.
Cruise
Sierra Maestra terminal
Ships tie up on the harbour front in Habana Vieja, minutes on foot from Plaza de San Francisco. Whether cruises call at all has swung with United States policy, so check before counting on it.
Train
Estacion Central
The national railway still runs long, slow and unpredictable services from Santiago and the eastern provinces into the central station; very few people arrive this way by choice.
Getting around
Walking
The old city, Centro and Vedado run in a line along the sea and are flat; Habana Vieja is best covered entirely on foot.
Free
Almendrones (shared taxis)
Classic American cars run fixed routes along the main avenues, picking up as they go; you pay the driver in local pesos as you get out.
TBC
Private taxis
Yellow state cabs and private cars will take you anywhere, but meters are largely decorative - agree the fare before you get in.
TBC
Coco-taxis
Yellow three-wheeled scooter pods, good fun for a short hop along the Malecon and no quicker than a car.
TBC
Habana Bus Tour
An open-top double-decker loops the old city, Vedado and the Plaza de la Revolucion, with a separate route out to the eastern beaches.
TBC
Harbour ferry
Small launches cross to Regla and Casablanca from the old-city dock: a working commuter boat and the best view back at the city.
TBC
Day trips from Havana
Vinales
Full dayTobacco valley
Limestone mogotes standing over red tobacco fields, ox-drawn ploughs still in use, farms that walk you through the whole cigar process, and caves you can walk or boat into. Long in a single day and much better as an overnight.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
About 3 hr each way west by car, coach or organised tour
Finca Vigia and Cojimar
Half dayHemingway's Havana
Hemingway's hilltop house is kept as he left it, books, typewriter and hunting trophies included, with his boat Pilar under a shelter in the garden. Cojimar, the fishing village behind The Old Man and the Sea, is a short hop on.
Getting there
car | tour
About 30-40 min by taxi southeast, then on east to the coast
Playas del Este
Half dayCity beaches
Santa Maria del Mar and its neighbours give Havana white sand and warm water within half an hour: packed with habaneros at weekends, close to empty midweek. No resort strip and few facilities, so take what you need with you.
Getting there
car | bus | tour
About 30 min east by taxi or the beach bus
Las Terrazas and Soroa
Full dayForest hills
A sixties reforestation community in the Sierra del Rosario, with walking trails, a river swimming hole, ruined French coffee plantations and a zipline over the valley. Soroa nearby adds an orchid garden and a waterfall.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1.5 hr west by car or organised tour
A little history of Havana
Havana was founded on the south coast in 1515 and moved to its present harbour within a few years, and the harbour made it. From 1561 Spain's treasure fleets gathered here before crossing the Atlantic together, so the city grew forts, walls and money. The British took Havana in 1762 and held it for eleven months, threw the port open to trade, then handed it back in exchange for Florida - by which time the city had learned what free trade and slave-worked sugar could earn.
Sugar built the nineteenth-century city, the walls came down, and the wars of independence ended with the USS Maine exploding in the harbour in 1898 and the United States stepping in. The republic that followed brought casinos, mob-run hotels and Detroit cars alongside the poverty that fed the revolution, and Castro's columns entered Havana in January 1959. Soviet subsidy sustained the city; its collapse brought the Special Period, when almost nothing was built or repaired. That neglect is why so much of the old city survived, and why so much of the rest is propped up.
Havana is founded on the south coast and moves to its present harbour within a few years
Spain makes Havana the assembly point for the treasure fleets, and the city is fortified
A British fleet captures Havana and holds it eleven months before trading it back for Florida
The city walls are demolished and Havana spreads west beyond the old town
The USS Maine explodes in the harbour, drawing the United States into the war with Spain
The Cuban republic is proclaimed with Havana as its capital
Castro's forces enter Havana in January and the revolution takes power
Habana Vieja and its fortifications are inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site
The Soviet collapse begins the Special Period, and building and repair all but stop
Know before you go
Payment
Cash only
English
Limited
Wifi
Limited
Power
Type A / B
120 V, 60 Hz
Dialing
+53
Bring cash. Foreign cards and ATMs are unreliable to unusable here, so plan on carrying what the trip needs and changing money on arrival.
Cyclones & hurricanes risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
FAQs about Havana
▸ When is the best time to visit Havana?
The dry season from December to April is the pick: warm days, lower humidity and the music and cultural calendar at full stretch. May holds up well before the rains settle in. Summer is hot and sticky, and the hurricane season runs June to November, with the highest risk from August to October.
▸ How many days do you need in Havana?
Three full days covers Habana Vieja, Vedado, a night of live music and one of the forts or museums. Five lets the city set the pace and leaves room for the eastern beaches or the Hemingway house, or a long run out to Vinales.
▸ Is Havana expensive?
Not the cheap Caribbean bargain many expect. Foreign visitors effectively pay a tourist-facing tier for rooms, taxis and restaurants, while state services are nominally cheap and often unavailable. Casas particulares and private kitchens give better value than hotels and state restaurants, and shortages mean some things cannot be bought at any price.
▸ Is Havana safe?
Violent crime is rare and the city is comfortable to walk, including on the main streets at night. The nuisances are jineteros steering you to a bar or a cigar deal, short-changing and taxi overcharging. Fix a fare first, watch your bag in crowds, and expect streets to go dark when the power does.
▸ Can I use my bank card in Havana?
Assume not. Cards issued by United States banks do not work at all, other foreign cards are unreliable and cash machines cannot be counted on. Most visitors bring enough hard cash for the whole trip and change it as they go. Bring more than you think you need, because there is no fallback.