48 hours or a lifetime
Havana not understood in a day … But 48 hours is a good start to start falling under its spell. Let yourself be seduced.
SATURDAY
09H00. She wakes up with the incessant hodgepodge of Old Havana : This is the tourist and vital center of Havana, the beginning and end of any trip to the Cuban capital (partly because you may stay here).
Leave the map in the room and let chance guide you through the bare but electrifying streets and flood your senses: the Havana cigar smell lurks around every corner, the smell of Caribbean Sea that hides nearby, the live music sound or that soaks the city from the early hours of the morning.
Old Havana is the Cuban spirit encapsulated , the ideal way to prepare for the adventure that will be the next two days.
Havana Cathedral
11:30 a.m. keep walking towards Central Havana , where you can spend a few minutes admiring the National Capitol before heading towards Central Park along the Paseo de José Martí.
After a quick coffee in the Louvre Cafe of the legendary Hotel England , it is time to choose a museum. Fine Arts, Cuban wing? Fine Arts, international wing? Museum of the Revolution?
If you prefer the performing arts, the National Ballet School it's also close by. With any luck, you'll make it in time to catch a performance (or at least tickets to that night's performance). Otherwise you can try to sneak in and spy on a rehearsal: it's worth it.
1:00 p.m. When hunger strikes, don't hesitate and go for a traditional Cuban feast in one of the city's most beloved and recommended paladares (typical dining rooms): Dona Euthymia , back in Old Havana. In this small but intimate restaurant, the secret to success is to have no secrets: the food is simple but tasty (the Cuban picadillo will make you want to dance), the attentive service, and the very reasonable prices. Nothing more and nothing less.
After eating, take advantage and take a look at the exhibitions of the Experimental Graphic Workshop , where you can see contemporary artists in action and even become a patron buying original Cuban art.
And visit him in a taxi like this
6:00 p.m. Take advantage of the afternoon to replicate the steps of one of the most admired adoptive sons of Havana. american writer Ernest Hemingway he was a confessed lover of Cuba in general and its capital in particular, reaching make Havana his home and his sacred space.
Old Havana was his favorite neighborhood, where he lived for a while at the Hotel Ambos Mundos. In the room 511 it was where he came up with the plot for For Whom the Bell Tolls and it is rumored that guests staying at the hotel dream of Hemingway characters.
With what he earned for the novel, the writer built the Finca La Vigia , which he turned into his permanent address in Havana. Today the Finca is open to the public and can visit , but being 15 kilometers south of the city, we better write it down as (one) reason to return.
Dreaming of Hemingway
8:00 p.m. End your first day in Havana as Hemingway used to: at the bar-restaurant Floridita , the famed birthplace of the daiquiri. Take one (or several, Papa Hemingway is a classic), and accompany it with some shrimp enchiladas. It's official: welcome to Havana.
A must for Hemingway lovers
SUNDAY
09H00. On your second day in Havana, get on a cocotaxi and head to the forbidden . If Old Havana is the poetic side of the Cuban capital, Vedado is its revolutionary face.
Start the tour at Revolution Square , the impassive setting for many of Fidel Castro's speeches. Here you will be received by the attentive gaze of the Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos , inseparable companions of Fidel, immortalized in two iron sculptures that cover the facades of the Ministries of the Interior and Communications. Also here you can visit the Monument to José Martí and gather strength for the walk that awaits you.
History, history and more history
11H00. From the plaza, start walking north along the Independence Avenue , for a tree-lined walk through the neighborhood. Vedado is a Residential area like many others, yes, but with the difference that it is in Cuba, and there they meet difficulties and resistance that make this country unique.
And so you are a stone's throw from the Hamel Alley , a music and dance show that vociferously celebrates the afro-cuban culture . If you pass through here on a Sunday, be prepared not to go out all day. We have warned you.
Hamel Alley, you know when you enter but not when you leave
1:30 p.m. After a good dance, hunger begins to set in. Retrace your steps to Calle 23, where there is a good selection of paladares and restaurants to welcome you with open arms. The Palate Meson Sancho Panza is a good option for a good plate of old clothes and a TuKola . If you are looking for something different, go to topoly , the first Iranian restaurant in Havana offers you lamb skewers and baba ganoush.
Like at home
3:30 p.m. And after eating, dessert: the Coppelia ice cream parlor is one of the sweetest corners of Havana and well worth the (possibly) long wait to get with a glass of the flavors of the day . If the queue discourages you, don't despair: this is where Strawberry and Chocolate's love story began... You never know.
5:00 p.m. Go back to Avenida 23 and let yourself be guided by the caribbean glitter : at the end of the street is the sea and, next to it, the boardwalk . Walking this eight-kilometre seafront promenade is a must-do in Havana and an experience you cannot miss.
The Malecón is a meeting point for musicians, lovers, fishermen, philosophers and artists of melancholy that look beyond the Caribbean Sea towards Florida, which hides behind the horizon. The Malecón is a real work of manners, a "I'll go to the poor" in which to see and a unique opportunity to contemplate Cuban life unfold before your eyes in the most authentic open-air theater on the island.
El Malecón, that place where you can see Cuban life go by
7:00 p.m. The Malecón ends right at the pier, where you can take a ferry to your next destination: the other shore. Across the bay is the Morro-Cabaña Historical Military Park , which, in addition to offering unbeatable panoramic views of Havana, hides the Castle of the Three Magi Kings of Morro and the Fortress of San Carlos in La Cabaña , in a time immemorial mausoleum of battles for the sovereignty of the island between Spain and England .
It is worth spending a couple of hours at this end of Havana, especially since every day at 9:00 p.m. cannon shot ceremony , in which actors dressed in the old military uniform recreate the firing of a cannon over the port.
Castle of the Three Magi Kings of Morro
10:30 p.m. Say goodbye to Havana as you greeted it: with a good atmosphere and a generous glass of Havana rum. The Bodeguita del Medio will receive you with a smile and a good mojito. Looking for something more alternative and less traveled? the racketeer , on Brasil Street, is proud that "Hemingway was never here" on the waiters' shirts, and it is one of the most frequented by locals. Join us for a Bucanero beer, and let yourself be convinced to come back… if you weren't already. Havana is like that: it permeates your skin, and it won't let you go.
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Hemingway wasn't here and they don't care