Must-see attractions in Havana

  • Old graveyard, Havana; Shutterstock ID 19926790; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; GL account no.: 56530; Netsuite department name: Online Design; Full Product or Project name including edition: Digital Content/Sights

    Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón

    Vedado

    Havana's main cemetery (a national monument), one of the largest in the Americas, is renowned for its striking religious iconography and elaborate marble…

  • Vintage car passing modern bar nestled between dilapidated Art Nouveau buildings along the Av de Malecon.

    Malecón

    Havana

    The Malecón, Havana's evocative 7km-long sea drive, is one of the city's most soulful and quintessentially Cuban thoroughfares, and long a favored meeting…

  • Capitolio Nacional

    Havana

    The incomparable Capitolio Nacional is Havana's most ambitious and grandiose building, constructed after the post-WWI boom ('Dance of the Millions')…

  • Plaza de la Catedral

    Habana Vieja

    Habana Vieja's most uniform square is a museum to Cuban baroque, with all the surrounding buildings, including the city's beguiling asymmetrical cathedral…

  • Fusterlandia

    Havana

    Where does art go after Antoni Gaudí? For a hint, head west from central Havana to the seemingly low-key district of Jaimanitas, where artist José Fuster…

  • Plaza Vieja, bustling with restaurants and cafes in evening.

    Plaza Vieja

    Habana Vieja

    Laid out in 1559, Plaza Vieja is Havana's most architecturally eclectic square, where Cuban baroque nestles seamlessly next to Gaudí-inspired art nouveau…

  • Courtyard in National Museum of Fine Art (El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes).

    Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

    Havana

    Spread over two campuses, the Bellas Artes is arguably the finest art gallery in the Caribbean. The Arte Cubano building contains the most comprehensive…

  • Parque Histórico Militar Morro-Cabaña

    Regla, Guanabacoa & the Forts

    This unmissable military park, included in the Habana Vieja Unesco World Heritage site, is arguably the most formidable defensive complex in Spain's…

  • In the courtyard area of the Museum of the Revolution in Old Havana, Cuba...Cuba, February 2015 before changes in U.S.-Cuba relations began. Trip via UCLA Alumni Travel

    Museo de la Revolución

    Havana

    This emblematic museum is set in the former Presidential Palace, constructed between 1913 and 1920 and used by a string of Cuban presidents, culminating…

  • Calle Mercaderes wall mural.

    Calle Mercaderes

    Habana Vieja

    Cobbled, car-free Calle Mercaderes (Merchant's Street) has been extensively restored by the Office of the City Historian and is an almost complete replica…

  • Nuestra Senora de Regla Church, Havana, Cuba; Shutterstock ID 176550071; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; GL account no.: 56530; Netsuite department name: Online Design; Full Product or Project name including edition: Digital Content/Sights

    Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla

    Regla, Guanabacoa & the Forts

    As important as it is diminutive, Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla, which sits close to the dock in Regla, has a long and colorful history. Inside on…

  • Cuba, Havana, Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana

    Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña

    Regla, Guanabacoa & the Forts

    This 18th-century colossus was built between 1763 and 1774 on a long, exposed ridge on the east side of Havana harbor to fill a weakness in the city's…

  • Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso

    Havana

    The neobaroque Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso, erected as a Galician social club between 1907 and 1914, features highly ornate and even exuberant…

  • Catedral de San Cristobal de la Habana in Plaza de la Catedral.

    Catedral de la Habana

    Habana Vieja

    Described by novelist Alejo Carpentier as 'music set in stone,' Havana's incredible cathedral, dominated by two unequal towers and framed by a theatrical…

  • Museo Hemingway

    Outer Havana

    In 1940 American novelist Ernest Hemingway bought the Finca la Vigía, a villa on a hill in San Francisco de Paula, 15km southeast of Havana, where he…

  • Museo de la Ciudad

    Habana Vieja

    Even with no artifacts, Havana's city museum would be a tour de force, courtesy of the opulent palace in which it resides. Filling the whole western side…

  • Museo Napoleónico

    Vedado

    Without a doubt one of the best museums in Havana and thus in Cuba, this magnificently laid-out collection of 7000 objects associated with the life of…

  • Havana

    Hotel Nacional

    Vedado

    Far more than just a hotel, the Nacional, built in 1930 as a copy of the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, is a national monument and one of Havana's…

  • Plaza de San Francisco de Asís

    Habana Vieja

    Facing Havana harbor, the breezy Plaza de San Francisco de Asís first grew up in the 16th century when Spanish galleons stopped quayside on their passage…

  • Paseo de Martí

    Havana

    Construction of this stately European-style boulevard – the first street outside the old city walls – began in 1770, and work was completed in the mid…

  • Castillo de la Real Fuerza guarded the entrance of the Havana Bat back in the 16th Century.

    Castillo de la Real Fuerza

    Habana Vieja

    On the seaward side of Plaza de Armas is one of the oldest existing forts in the Americas, built between 1558 and 1577 on the site of an earlier fort…

  • Museo de Artes Decorativas

    Vedado

    One of Havana's best museums dazzles like a European stately home. It's replete with all manner of architectural features, including rococo furniture,…

  • El Ojo del Ciclón

    Habana Vieja

    Just when you think you've seen Havana's strangest, weirdest, most surreal and avant-garde art, along comes the 'eye of the cyclone' to re-stretch your…

  • Edificio Bacardí

    Habana Vieja

    Finished in 1930, the magnificent Edificio Bacardí, once the HQ of Cuba's erstwhile rum dynasty, is a triumph of art deco architecture, with a host of…

  • Statue of Cuban poet Plácido at the Plaza del Cristo.

    Plaza del Cristo

    Habana Vieja

    A little apart from the historical core, Plaza del Cristo hasn't benefited from a full restoration yet and this adds subtly to its charm. Here you can…

  • Museo del Ron

    Habana Vieja

    You don't have to be an Añejo Reserva quaffer to enjoy the Museo del Ron in the Fundación Havana Club, but it probably helps. The museum, with its…

  • Plazuela de Santo Ángel

    Habana Vieja

    This lovely, intimate plaza behind the Iglesia del Santo Ángel Custodio has benefited from a recent beautification project that has installed several…

  • Memorial a José Martí

    Vedado

    Center stage in Plaza de la Revolución is this monument, which at 138.5m is Havana's tallest structure. Fronted by an impressive 17m marble statue of a…

  • 500px Photo ID: 106306455 - The artwork of Jose Fuster at his studio in Havana, Cuba...Cuba, February 2015 before changes in U.S.-Cuba relations began. Trip via UCLA Alumni Travel

    Taller-Estudio José Fuster

    Havana

    The centerpiece of Fusterlandia is artist José Fuster's own house. It contains his workshop, where you can view his paintings and ceramics and sometimes…

  • Palacio del Segundo Cabo

    Habana Vieja

    Wedged into Plaza de Armas' northwestern corner, this beautiful baroque building was constructed in 1772 as the headquarters of the Spanish vice-governor…

  • Callejón de Hamel

    Havana

    There are at least four reasons that you should incorporate this community-driven back alley into any serious Havana outing: 1) it’s the unofficial HQ of…

  • Iglesia Jesús de Miramar

    Havana

    Despite its modernity, Playa cradles Cuba's second-largest church, an aesthetically pleasing neo-Romanesque structure topped by a giant dome. Built in…

  • Plaza de la Revolución

    Vedado

    Conceived by French urbanist Jean-Claude Forestier in the 1920s, the gigantic Plaza de la Revolución (known as Plaza Cívica until 1959) was part of Havana…

  • Universidad de la Habana

    Vedado

    Founded by Dominican monks in 1728 and secularized in 1842, Havana's university began life in Habana Vieja before moving to its present site in 1902. The…

  • Statue of Cesepedes in the centre of the  Plaza de Armas Old Havana Cuba

    Plaza de Armas

    Habana Vieja

    Havana's oldest square was laid out in the early 1520s, soon after the city's foundation, and was originally known as Plaza de Iglesia after a church –…

  • Old City Wall

    Havana

    In the 17th century, anxious to defend the city from attacks by pirates and overzealous foreign armies, Cuba's paranoid colonial authorities drew up plans…