Give Havana four nights, because the old town, Centro and Vedado are three different cities and the walk between them is the point. Then head west or east. West: Viñales for the tobacco valley and the limestone hills, two hours further to Pinar del Río if you want the cigar factories. East along the spine: Cienfuegos for the French-planned waterfront, Trinidad for the cobbles and the sugar valley behind it, Santa Clara for the revolution’s decisive battlefield. Keep going and Camagüey, Bayamo and Santiago de Cuba hold the older, more Caribbean half of the island, with Baracoa at the far end for anyone with the days to spare. Beaches sit alongside all of it: Varadero for the resort strip, Cayo Coco for the cays. March, April and November are dry without the winter crowds.
2 Cuba city guides
Fun fact
The bee hummingbird, the smallest bird on earth at about 6 cm and under 2 grams, lives only in Cuba.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThe cars are real and so is the peeling paint, but the country has changed twice over since. The dual currency was scrapped in 2021, private micro, small and medium companies were legalised the same year, and mobile data reached ordinary phones in 2018. What looks like preservation is mostly scarcity, and the last few years have moved faster than the four decades before them.
The realityThere was, and there is not. The convertible peso (CUC) was withdrawn in 2021 and the Cuban peso is now the only legal currency. Since then the country has partly dollarised instead, so some shops price in US dollars and almost everything else in pesos, and what you actually need is cash you brought with you.
The realityThey can, and thousands do. What US law restricts is the reason: travel has to fall under one of the twelve general licence categories the Treasury publishes, and pure beach tourism is not one of them. Most independent visitors travel under "Support for the Cuban People", which means staying in private homes, eating in private restaurants, and keeping records of it for five years.
The realityIt is not, and the reason is worth understanding before you book. Shortages mean much of what a visitor buys is imported and priced accordingly, and the payment system is unforgiving: cards issued in the United States have never worked, and foreign-issued cards have become unreliable too. Budget in cash, and expect a private guesthouse dinner to cost what it would in southern Europe.
The realityThe best meals, the best rooms and most of the interesting shops are private. Casas particulares have been legal since 1997 and paladares since the early nineties, and the 2021 reform let both incorporate properly. State hotels and state restaurants still exist and are rarely the better choice.
Cultural notes that actually help
- Bring every peso you plan to spend, in cash, in clean and undamaged notes. Cards issued in the United States do not work at all, other foreign cards have become unreliable, and there is no way to fix a shortfall once you are there.
- Power cuts are part of the day, not an emergency. The national grid has collapsed repeatedly since 2024 and rolling blackouts are routine outside the resort strips. Carry a power bank and a torch, and choose a guesthouse with a generator if you need one.
- Stay in casas particulares. A licensed private room costs less than a state hotel, the breakfast is better, and your host is the person who will find you a colectivo, a mechanic or a doctor.
- Ask before photographing people, and expect to be asked for something in return by anyone in costume in Old Havana. That is a job, not a scam, and a small note settles it.
- Tip in cash and in the local currency. Ten percent covers a sit-down meal, and small notes matter more than the amount because change is genuinely hard to come by.
- Do not drink the tap water anywhere, including Havana. Bottled or properly filtered water only, and that includes the ice outside established restaurants.
- Politics is discussed freely with visitors and carefully in public. Listen more than you push, and never put someone’s name to an opinion online.
Famous Cuban faces
José Martí
Celia Cruz
Fidel Castro
Compay Segundo
Alicia Alonso
Javier Sotomayor
Wifredo Lam
Ana de Armas
Benny Moré
Ibrahim Ferrer
Omara Portuondo
Chucho Valdés
Arturo Sandoval
Silvio Rodríguez
Ernesto Lecuona
Gloria Estefan
Camila Cabello
Teófilo Stevenson
Mijaín López
Ana Fidelia Quirot
Omar Linares
Andy García
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Alejo Carpentier
Guillermo Cabrera Infante
Nicolás Guillén
Reinaldo Arenas
Amelia Peláez
René Portocarrero
Carlos Acosta
Lizt Alfonso
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes
Camilo Cienfuegos
Vilma Espín
Must-try Cuban food
Ropa vieja
Beef stewed until it shreds, with peppers, onion and tomato. The plate most kitchens call the national dish.
Lechón asado
Whole pig roasted slowly over coals, the centre of Christmas Eve and of any celebration worth the name.
Picadillo a la habanera
Ground beef with olives, raisins and capers, spooned over white rice.
Vaca frita
Beef boiled, shredded, then fried crisp with lime and raw onion.
Fricasé de pollo
Chicken braised with potato and olives, the standard weekday dinner.
Ajiaco
Root vegetables and several meats in one pot, the oldest dish on the island.
Tamal en cazuela
Fresh corn cooked down to a soft mash with pork. The tamal without the husk.
Moros y cristianos
Black beans cooked with the rice so the grains come out dark. The side that arrives with everything.
Congrí
The eastern version, red beans and rice cooked together with pork fat.
Arroz con pollo
Rice and chicken cooked in one pot, gold with annatto.
Tostones
Green plantain smashed flat and fried twice, salted while hot.
Maduros
Ripe plantain fried soft and sweet, the counterweight to everything salty.
Yuca con mojo
Boiled cassava under garlic, sour orange and hot oil.
Pan con lechón
Roast pork in a bread roll with raw onion, eaten standing up anywhere on the island.
Frita cubana
A beef and chorizo patty under a nest of shoestring potatoes, in a bun.
Croquetas
Ham or chicken béchamel, breaded and fried, sold from every counter.
Pan con timba
Bread, a slab of guava paste and white cheese. The cheapest snack there is.
Langosta a la plancha
Caribbean spiny lobster grilled with garlic butter, easiest to find on the south coast.
Camarones al ajillo
Shrimp in garlic and oil, with bread to finish the pan.
Pargo frito
Whole red snapper fried, usually with rice and tostones alongside.
Enchilado de mariscos
Seafood in a light tomato and pepper sauce. Despite the name, not hot.
Flan
Caramel custard, the default dessert and rarely a bad one.
Arroz con leche
Rice pudding heavy with cinnamon and lime peel.
Cucurucho
Coconut, honey and fruit packed into a palm-leaf cone. Made around Baracoa and almost nowhere else.
Guayaba con queso
Guava paste and white cheese, eaten in the same mouthful on purpose.
Dulce de leche cortada
Milk curdled with lime and cooked down with sugar, an old country dessert.
Mojito
White rum, lime, sugar, mint and soda. Havana’s most successful export after the cigar.
Daiquirí
Rum, lime and sugar, shaken cold. El Floridita froze it and never looked back.
Cuba libre
Rum and cola with a squeeze of lime, named for the independence slogan.
Café cubano
Espresso whipped with sugar as it brews, served in a thimble and drunk in one.
Guarapo
Sugar cane pressed to order and drunk cold, with lime if you ask.
Ron añejo
Aged rum drunk neat. The reason the cocktails work.
Malta
Sweet, dark, non-alcoholic malt drink, sometimes cut with condensed milk.