Havana travel guides & articles
All 36 in-depth pieces we’ve published on Havana — newest first.
Getting to Viñales from Havana When the Fuel Runs Short
The valley is still two hours west of the capital, and the hard part in 2026 is arranging the drive home before you arrange anything else.
Havana After Dark in Its Jazz Rooms and Dance Halls
Jazz cellars in Vedado, timba halls out in Marianao and a bolero bar that still fills at midnight: the rooms worth your evenings, with covers, curtain times and what the door is really like.
Havana Is Worth the Trip If You Plan Around the Grid
The blackouts are real, so are the water cuts and the thinned-out menus, and there is still an honest case for going to Havana, with the venues that keep working when the power is off.
Planning a Havana Trip Around Blackouts and Empty Menus
How to build a first Havana itinerary in a city where the power drops, the taxi doesn't come and the kitchen is down to three dishes.
Two Nights in Havana Without Wasting One
A two-night route through Habana Vieja, Centro and Vedado built to survive blackouts, thin taxis and reservation-only doors, with what each place costs and who it actually suits.
Fifteen Places to Look Down on Havana
The tallest bar in Cuba, a camera obscura on Plaza Vieja, a fortress wall across the harbour: they show very different parts of Havana. This guide covers what you see from each one, what it costs and who it suits.
Playas del Este When Havana Wears You Out
Nine kilometres of sand half an hour east of the tunnel, taken beach by beach: what each one costs, who it suits, and how to get back.
Getting Around Havana Without a Car When Fuel Is Short
Shared máquinas, a one-peso ferry, bicycles and the days the Viñales bus actually runs: how to move around Havana, and out of it, without ever queuing for fuel yourself.
Havana Airport to Your Casa Without the Scramble
Change money, buy a SIM, agree the fare: the twenty minutes inside Terminal 3 decide how your first night in Havana goes.
Havana This Fall Is Worth It If You Plan Hard
The heat breaks, the crowds thin and the rooftops stay open, but the grid, the cash and the restaurant bookings all need sorting before you fly.
Havana Runs on Cash and a Backup Plan
How to plan a first Havana trip around rolling power cuts, rationed fuel and card terminals that do not work, and which places keep going anyway.
Havana Still Works If You Plan Around the Blackouts
The grid fails, the taps run dry and the taxis thin out. A Havana trip can survive all three and still be worth the flight, if you plan around them.
Landing in Havana with Enough Cash and Enough Patience
What the first ninety minutes at Terminal 3 ask of you: the exchange window, the SIM counter, the ride into town, and a bed with a host who knows when the power returns.
How to Cross Havana Without a Tank of Petrol
Ferries, e-trikes, shared Ladas and a bike bus through the bay tunnel: the honest mechanics of moving around a city where fuel is the scarcest thing on the street.
Where to Stand Above Havana and See It Whole
Nine rooftops, two forts and a pair of empty hilltops, ranked by what each one shows you, with prices, opening hours and the door realities that decide your evening.
What to Settle Before You Book Havana on a US Passport
The visa, the licence category, the cash and the blackouts: everything a US traveller has to fix before the flight, and the private houses, paladares and workshops that fill the record for you.
Eating Well in Havana When the Cash and the Fish Run Out
Which Havana kitchens still cook properly when the supply chain narrows and your small change disappears: sixteen addresses, with prices, door rules and the questions to ask the waiter.
Packing for Havana When the Lights Go Out
A blackout-proof packing list for Havana, plus the hotels, cafés and paladares that stay lit when the grid drops.
Planning Havana Around the Blackouts and Empty Streets
Havana has thinned out, the grid is unreliable and the buses barely run. Here is how to build a week around the buildings and kitchens that still work.
The Havana Hotels That Stay Cool When the Power Cuts
Havana's blackouts are scheduled rather than random, and a handful of hotels are built to sleep straight through them: the Nacional on its hill in Vedado, the diplomatic circuits of Miramar, a few small houses with oversized generators.
Havana in October, When the Heat Finally Lets Go
The month Havana's rooftops, ballpark and Sunday rumba all work at once, and how to plan a first trip around the afternoon rain.
Two Nights in Havana and One Day in the Viñales Valley
A tight, walkable Havana itinerary built around Habana Vieja, a Vedado night and a day trip west into the tobacco country, with real prices, door realities and what to book before you land.
Havana's Casas Particulares Keep Their Own Lights On
Havana's private houses buy their own fuel, cook their own breakfast and fix their own problems. Here are fourteen worth booking, from a three-room family B&B to a sixteen-sleeper villa with a generator.
Planning Havana Around Blackouts, Heat and Cash Shortages
How to book, eat, sleep and get around Havana when the power is rationed and the roof tank has run dry, with a card that won't pay for any of it.
How Havana Turns Fifteen-Year-Old Girls Into Queens for a Day
A tour through the photo studios, classic-car garages and party venues that turn Havana's fifteenth birthdays into a citywide production, and how to watch, or plan, one for yourself.
How Havana Fell Back in Love With the Bicycle
Cuba's fuel crisis turned Havana into a city of cyclists, and a scrappy network of mechanics, organizers, and rental shops is keeping it rolling in 2026.
Havana's Cigar Trail: From Factory Floor to Lounge Chair
A walkable route through Havana's working cigar factories and the lounges where the same leaf ends up in your hand, with honest notes on booking, crowds, and price.
The Malecón at Twilight: Havana's Five-Mile Seawall and the City That Lives on It
Havana's real living room isn't a plaza or a park — it's five miles of crumbling limestone wall where fishermen, lovers, trumpet players and tourists all claim the same stretch of stone at sunset.
Fusterlandia: The Gaudí of the Caribbean and Havana's Most Surprising Neighbourhood
In the fishing village of Jaimanitas, one artist covered his home and half his neighbours' walls in mosaic — here's how to see it, eat well afterward, and turn it into a proper half-day out of Havana in 2026.
The rum trail: from cane field to aged barrel and the bars that pour it
A stop-by-stop route through Havana's rum culture, from the still that explains everything to the rooftops, dockside bars and paladar send-off that make sense of it after dark.
From Kitchen Window to Table: Havana's Paladares and the Home-Restaurant Revolution
How a handful of illegal home kitchens during Cuba's hungriest decade grew into Havana's best restaurants — and where the grandmothers are still cooking for six strangers a night.
Where Havana Still Plays Unamplified: Inside the City's Living Son Cubano Underground
A walkable route through the Sunday rumbas, troubadour houses and basement jazz clubs where Havana still plays the rhythm that conquered the world without a single microphone.
Santeria in Havana: The Drums, the Saints and the Religion That Outlived the Revolution
A neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood route through the drum ceremonies, museums, churches and private consultations where Havana's Afro-Cuban faith is still practiced, not performed.
The Rolling Museum: Havana's Classic American Cars and the Mechanics Who Keep Them Alive
A street-level guide to riding — and understanding — the pastel Chevrolets and Buicks that turned an economic accident into Havana's most photographed inheritance.
Riding Shotgun: A Local's Classic-Car Tour Through Havana's Neighborhoods
How to pick a 1950s convertible tour in Havana that actually runs, actually talks, and quotes you a price you understand — operator by operator, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.
Havana's classic car tours: riding in style through the city
A calm, honest guide to Havana's classic-car operators in 2026 — who suits couples, who does convoys, and how to book a beautiful old Chevrolet without getting stung.