Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás
- Address
- Industria No 520 btwn Barcelona & Dragones
- Price
- tours CUC$10
- Hours
- every 15min 9-10:15am & noon-1:30pm
Lonely Planet review for Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás
One of Havana's oldest and most famous cigar factories, the landmark neoclassical Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás was founded in 1845 by a Spaniard named Jaime Partagás. Today some 400 workers toil for up to 12 hours a day in here rolling such famous cigars as Montecristos and Cohibas. As far as tours go, Partagás is the most popular and reliable factory to visit. Tour groups check out the ground floor first, where the leaves are unbundled and sorted, before proceeding to the upper floors to watch the tobacco get rolled, pressed, adorned with a band and boxed. Though interesting in an educational sense, the tours here are often rushed and a little robotic, and some visitors find they smack of a human zoo. Still, if you have even a passing interest in tobacco and/or Cuban work environments, it's probably worth a peep.