Walking La Cabaña, the fort ridge above Havana Bay

The cannon ceremony at La Cabaña

La Cabaña is an immense low bastion of stone and earth, 18th-century work laid along the ridge above the harbour. Arrive by 20:00 if you want a place at the parapet, where a line of black iron cannon points over the water at the city. Tour groups come nightly for the ceremony, but there is nothing to reserve: you buy a ticket at the window. Entry is $$.

Spend the hour before the guard appears inside the walls, where the galleries run long and vaulted under barrel roofs. February normally brings the Havana book fair into these moats. The 34th edition was postponed indefinitely from its dates of 12 to 22 February 2026, so check its status before you build a February visit around it.

Museo de la Comandancia del Che

Che Guevara commanded this fortress in 1959, and his headquarters is now Museo de la Comandancia del Che, a plain 19th-century building inside La Cabaña's walls. It reopened in 2016 after restoration, and it is the best-curated museum in the district. The office has been left spartan, a wooden desk and a case holding the olive-green beret and jacket. Banknotes signed 'Che' sit among the exhibits, and black-and-white photographs cover the walls floor to ceiling.

The rooms are small, and the harbour shows through the open doorway as you pass. Do not mistake the museum for Casa del Che (Carretera del Cristo), the separate cultural centre in the house he actually slept in, behind the fort.

El Morro and its lighthouse

Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro holds the black rock headland at the mouth of the harbour, squat and sand-coloured, finished in 1589. Waves break on the reef below the walls, and the Malecón curves away across the water. It is the most photographed silhouette in Cuba. The castle opens 10:00 to 19:00, so it belongs to the daylight half of a day here. Walk it first, then climb the ridge to La Cabaña for the evening.

A small extra charge takes you up the lighthouse, a white-and-ochre banded tower of 1845 whose lantern room still works. The beam turns every 15 seconds. The spiral stair is single-file and sometimes roped off, so a large party should split and go up in turns. Maritime and navigation rooms fill a run of chambers inside the fortress, and they are worth the time before you leave the headland.

Cristo de La Habana above Casablanca

Cristo de La Habana stands on a grassy hilltop above Casablanca village, 20 metres of white Carrara marble on an 8-metre pedestal, the arms held low and the head slightly bowed. Jilma Madera carved it in Rome in 1958, and Pius XII blessed it. The walk up from the village takes 10 minutes, and minibuses park on the access road for anyone who would rather ride.

The terrace is open 08:00 to 18:00 and costs nothing. It is the best platform over Havana for sunset. The bay and the harbour cranes lie 51 metres below the hilltop, with the Old Havana skyline across the water. Closing time at 18:00 still leaves you on the fort parapet in good time for the ceremony.

Tables over the harbour channel

La Divina Pastora sits at the foot of La Cabaña on a waterside terrace built around a 1726 cannon battery, the iron guns still pointing down the harbour channel between the white tablecloths. The wine cellar occupies the old powder magazine. Locals know the place as the balcony of Havana, and it has the single best table in the city for the skyline and the cannon.

It serves 12:00 to 00:00, so you can eat here after the ceremony as well as before it. Mains run 1,800 to 2,520 CUP a head. Order the lobster and take a table facing Old Havana lit up across the water. The cooking holds no surprises. Salon tables and event buffets can be reserved in advance. Bring cash, because CUP is accepted and cards are unreliable.

Los Doce Apóstoles is wedged under El Morro's lighthouse at water level, the twelve colonial cannon of the Apostles battery in a row beside the tables. Ships pass an arm's length away in the channel. It opens at midday and runs into the evening. Recent diners rate the food poorly. Have a mojito while the ships go by, and eat elsewhere.

Paladares below the ramparts

Paladar Doña Carmela is two minutes' walk from the La Cabaña ticket gate, down in the fishermen's community below the fort, where the rampart wall closes the end of the street. Tables are set out in a leafy back garden, a trio plays in the corner, and the pork comes off a charcoal roast. It opens daily 12:00 to 23:00. This is the classic criollo lunch before the cannon, and it has hosted celebrity parties over the years. Mains run 260 to 640 CUP a head. Several recent reviewers found it pricey for what arrives, so confirm prices before you order seafood. Reserve by phone.

Hostal y Paladar El Cañonazo is the friendliest of the private houses by the forts, a family place at Morro-Cabaña with the dining area out in the garden and the fortress walls visible beyond the fence. Animals wander the yard. A son band of three or four players performs with dancers for tips per song, so agree the music and the price up front. It serves 12:00 to 00:00 at 260 to 640 CUP a head, and the kitchen cooks Cuban home food. Order the pork. A rum-and-cigar counter stands inside, and a few rooms upstairs let you sleep on this side of the bay.

El Polvorín at the El Morro gate

El Polvorín fills an old vaulted powder magazine right at the El Morro entrance, with colonial artillery displayed outside the door and rum bottles and speakers under the stone ceiling. After dark the lit fortress walls are the view from the tables. It is a karaoke club with a strong local following and a mix of Cuban and international music, and it is the district's only real nightlife. It opens in the morning and runs to 22:00, which covers a drink either side of the cannon.

Staying in Casablanca

Hostal CasaBlanca (Calle E #12 between Primera and Carretera del Asilo) is a three-storey white house on a quiet Casablanca street directly behind the marble Christ. Four rooms are en-suite. A charcoal-oven ranch in the grounds handles events, and the whole house can be booked at once. The yard holds a heated pool, the roof carries gym gear and a billiard table, and the balconies look straight down onto Havana Bay. This is the one proper place to stay inside the district, at $$$. Book by WhatsApp, and do not confuse it with the unrelated Hostal Casablanca in Vedado.

Hours and booking

Nothing in the district keeps a weekly closing day. Daylight shapes the visit instead: El Morro and the Christ terrace by day, the ceremony at La Cabaña in the evening. Book the restaurant tables and the room before you arrive. See the Havana guide and the Havana hotel search.