Things to Do in Havana (Cuba)

I landed in Havana expecting the postcards, the peeling paint and the vintage Chevrolets. What I did not expect was how the city grabs you from the very first block. I spent a week walking it from Old Havana to the Malecón, and here are the things to do in Havana that I would not skip on a visit.

Ride Malecón at Dusk in a Classic Car

You have to ride the Malecón at least once, and a classic car is the right way to do it. I haggled with a driver named Ernesto over his cherry red 1954 Chevy, agreed on about 25 dollars for a one hour spin, and we rolled westward as the sun dropped over the strait. The sea spray kicked over the seawall and every few blocks a fisherman or a saxophone player came into view. Ernesto told me the engines are mostly rebuilt Russian ones wearing American chrome, which somehow felt like the whole city in one sentence: beautiful on the surface, layered underneath.

Get Lost in Old Havana’s Plazas

Old Havana is four main squares and a thousand alleys between them. I started at Plaza Vieja, the liveliest, with its pastel buildings around a central fountain and cafés spilling onto the stone. From there I wandered to Plaza de la Catedral, where the baroque cathedral crouches in a courtyard laid with cobblestones worn slick by centuries. I never found a map useful here. I just turned when a doorway caught my eye and let the lanes double back on themselves. Twice I ended up at a spot I had passed before, and both times it looked entirely different from the new angle.

Watch a Sunset from a Rooftop Terrace

Around six in the evening the rooftops of Old Havana fill with people doing one thing: facing west. I climbed the terrace of the Hotel Inglaterra and ordered a mojito while the light went amber over the rooftops. Behind me the sound of a clave rhythm drifted up from a courtyard, and ahead the Malecón curved away toward the headland of El Morro. In Cuba they call this golden hour, and I get why. Every wall in the city goes soft and honey colored, and even the dullest balcony rail looks worth photographing. It costs nothing but the price of a drink.

Tour the Capitol and the Museum of the Revolution

I gave myself one morning for the two grand political buildings. The Capitolio, a white neoclassical dome modeled on Washington, reopened after a long restoration and the interior is sharper than almost anything I saw. I stood under its central statue of the Republic and craned my neck for a full minute. Across the park at the Museum of the Revolution, I walked a corridor lined with the old presidential cabinet offices, and on the second floor I found the small boat Granma behind glass, the vessel that carried Fidel and the others back from Mexico in 1956. It is tiny, about as long as a city bus, and it made the whole story feel closer and more human.

Eat Like a Local at a Paladar

Skip the hotel restaurant and find a paladar, a private family kitchen run out of a home. I ate my best meal of the trip at a small one in Centro Habana called La Cocina de Lilliam, where I paid about 18 dollars for ropa vieja over rice, fried plantains, and a coconut flan. The cook, a woman named Marta, came out afterward to ask if I had liked it and told me which market she bought her pork from. That kind of meal never happens in a chain restaurant. Paladares are how you actually taste Havana, not how you watch it from a menu.

Follow the Music to La Habana Vieja

Music is everywhere in Havana, but the best places are the small live venues strung through the old city. I wandered into the Casa de la Música one Tuesday on a tip from a taxi driver, paid a modest cover, and stood for an hour while a horn section played salsa so tight it hurt. On another night I found a trio of guitarists in a courtyard off Plaza de Armas playing for tips with no setlist and no hurry. I dropped a few pesos in the hat, and the lead guitarist nodded at me and started a song about his hometown. If you only do one thing on this list, let it be chasing live music to wherever it leads.

Feria de Artesanos and a Taste of Coffee

Before I flew home I spent a final morning at the Feria de Artesanos near the cathedral, a market of painted wooden birds, embroidered shirts, and jewelry made from seashells. I bought a small wooden peacock for about eight dollars and a bag of whole coffee beans from a stall that roasted them in the back on a charcoal flame. That coffee, dark and slightly smoky in a way I still think about, was the truest souvenir I carried out of Cuba. A few days back home it brewed up tasting nothing like the international stuff, and every cup brought me straight back to Old Havana.