Where to buy in Cuba
Cuba is surely the wrongest place to go shopping: there is very little variety of products and goods, including items of basic need. In addition, the few available things are usually low quality and expensive, far above their real value. Even cigars, that are perhaps the only star product in Cuba are utterly overpriced. Of course, some products and some services are compliant to the international market, for example, a brand of perfume in a store in Cuba is cheaper than the same product in a duty free in the Cancun airport, the same goes for products that are usually sold in local currency. But in general, the above rule is valid: Cuba is the last place where you could go shopping, maybe only Venezuela beats it, at least at present times.
But if you are a frequent visitor of Cuba and you need to find some necessary products, perhaps it would be very useful to know where you can find them. Every year, tourists who come to Cuba and especially the Cubans living outside who come back from vacations always arrive with overloaded suitcases, because of the shortage. With the recent return of stores in US dollars, the availability of products has increased, but this is just an early enthousiasm, and yet, these places are still far from providing everything one would expect. Despite all this, it is still better to buy some products in Cuba rather than import them as long as they are available.
The purpose of this article is not only to list the best places to shop, but also to reveal key points where there is a likelihood of finding products that are commonly believed to be unavailable in Cuba. This article limits itself to describing only the places in Havana, it does not cover other cities or provinces. However, we accept contributions to suggest places in other provinces, so please write to us. We can mention the name and links of the contributors, if you wish
Fruits and Vegetable Markets
Havana city if full of these markets, but most of them are lacking of variety and they are often limited to season products. Therefore, we will mention here only the markets which are worth visiting which have more food than most others.
The municipalities that historically contain these markets are mainly Old Havana, Plaza (Vedado) and Playa (Miramar). Vedado has two interesting agricultural markets. The most famous is 19 and B, considered the boutique market of Havana. It does not have as many products as any other agricultural market in other countries, but it is surely the market in Cuba with the most varieties of food. Here you can find the most exclusive fruits and vegetables (for Cuba). It is one of the few markets where you can find cucumbers and tomatoes all year round and lettuce even at times when this would be unthinkable anywhere else. The disadvantage is that sometimes the prices are higher than in other places, but there is the advantage that it is possible to find everything in one place. Besides, it is possible to get potatoes, fish, seafood and red meat because outside the farm there are sellers of these products that are scarce in Cuba most of the time. In any case, there is a fishmonger's shop a little further away, at 19 and 4, which sells fish and shrimp, of course, when these things are available, which is almost never the case. However, it is always worth checking availability at 19 and 4 before buying anything on the street, as state prices are always better, while quality is quite similar wherever you go. The same goes for the meat and any other product.
The other interesting agricultural market which is found in the Vedado, but less known, is the 17th and G market. It is not as supplied as the one of 19th and B, but it features the best pork meat of the entire city and, in general, prices are more affordable, therefore, when tomatoes are available in 17th and G, it's better to buy them there than in 19th and B. In this market you can also get fish sometimes and for better prices than in 19th and B.
The Playa municipality has the 19th and 42th market, which is another "boutique" similar to 19th and B, with similar prices and choices. Maybe it is not as important as the 19th and B in the Vedado, but sometimes you can find there foods which are not available in this latter and also the inverse may happen. However the meat in 19th and 42th is much better than the one in 19th and B, but not as good as the one in 17 and G (Vedado) either in terms of price and quality. Also, in 19th and 42th, you can find several products from the black market and sometimes they will be the only available option, although the black market in 19th and B is better in prices.
And finally, we must mention another featured market in Old Havana, that of Egido between Corrales and Apodaca.It is not as important as the markets of Vedado but it has enough variety. And finally it is worth mentioning the one in Blanco and Trocadero, Centro Habana. In all three cases the prices are much better than in the "boutique" markets, but in the latter is where you find the best relationship between variety and prices, of course, in this case the earlier you go in the morning, the greater the variety and quality of the products.
Supermarkets, Stores and Shopping Centers
Here too, it's the same story as with the agricultural markets: not all shopping centers in Havana are worth mentioning. But we will described the most outstanding of them.
Palco
For many years, the best supermarket in Havana has been the Centro Comercial Palco, located at 188 and Avenida Primera, Playa municipality, in the Flores neighborhood, next to Club Habana. The mall not only has a supermarket, but also a perfume store, a hardware store and several shoe and variety stores. Although in the last years it has lost a lot of quality and variety, it continue to be a top featured place for the Cuban standars.
Flores
The Flores store belongs to the same company as Palco. In 176 between 1ra y 5ta, municipality of Playa, Flores neighborhood. A supermarket and an appliance store much less known than Palco, but no less important.
3ra and 70
This was a store that has always looked like a place that sells wholesale. Very prestigious when it started in the '90s, it has been losing all the prestige in the course of the next years until it became the first food store in MLC (freely convertible electronic currency) in Havana. Now that it is in dollars again, it rivalizes with the new mall just in front of it, that only accept dollars since its inception and it was the first of the new store in dollars in Havana.
Carlos III Mall
Another store that, when it started in the 90's, made a big sensation. For many years, it has been the commercial center of the Cuban family. It also has a children's park and dining facilities on the basement floor and has many stores on its various levels. This store has remained closed throughout the course of the covid-19 pandemic and today, even if it accept dollars, never revitalized.
El Palenque
El Palenque is a shopping center with various restaurants and grills. It has a supermarket quite well-stocked, a baker which we can define as the best in Havana and an ice-cream parlor which is very well (for the Cuban standards). It's located in the Siboney neighborhood, in the Playa municipality, 17th street from 5th Avenue, aside from the Pabexpo.
Comodoro Shopping Center
This shopping center has two entrances, one from the Comodoro hotel in 3th and 84th and the other from the street aside to the Meliá Habana hotel. It's a complete shopping center, which lost lot of its past glory, but it still counts many boutiques, a beer place, a cafeteria, a sportive & SPA center, a supermarket and other miscellaneous stores. You can also find a sport store, several clothes boutiques and a specialized shop about glasses and trendy watches. To sum it up it's one of the few centers reuniting several places into one, without considering the Comodoro hotel itself.
Miramar Business Center or Miramar Trade Center
This place contains several stores, an international pharmacy, travel agencies, banks, offices, airline offices, recreation places like two cafeterias and a store for buying and tasting wine, a jewelry store and finally an Etecsa center and an internet room (always from Etecsa). The Trade Center is a shopping center, but also a business center, as the name indicates.
5th and 42 Shopping Center
The shopping center at 5ta and 42 is characterized by a supermarket that, over the years, has proven to be of decent quality, several cafeterias and some number of convenience stores, as well as a furniture, hardware and appliance stores. While on the top floor, you will find several boutiques. This is surely one of the places to visit when you are looking for something specific and can't find it (something very common in Cuba).
La Copa Shopping Center
It's located on the same 42th street in Playa municipality, but between 1st and 3rd. Once more, it's a supermarket, and hardware and household shops and miscellaneous one. It's quite supplied and when you are looking for something specific, you usually include this place in the list of the places to visit, before or after the one in 5th and 42.
La Puntilla Shopping Center
It seems a suburb shopping center, but, be aware, the supermarket can sometimes surprise you, something similar it may happen with the Focsa shopping center (see below). The supermarket has often products impossible to find elsewhere. At the same time, the shopping center has several boutiques and recreational places in the second floor. A wide parking and a nice view over the western spot of the Malecon complete the frame.
Galerías Paseo and Galerías Cohiba Shopping Centers
A classic of classics, that place used to have everything, but today it is a matter of luck, sometimes it has everything you need, other times it is the first place to be short of products due to the fact that it is one of the most visited. It is located next to the Meliá Cohiba and Riviera hotels and at the intersection of Paseo Avenue and the Malecón (Vedado). The center, as in the case of others, has several boutiques, two perfume stores, a second-hand store, a sports store, a furniture store and the famous Jazz Café bar. On the first floor, there is a hardware store, a car accessory store, an appliance store and a seedy coffee shop.
Focsa Shopping Center
Just like La Puntilla, this is sometimes a surprising place, especially talking about the supermarket. You will also find an hardware and household shops, a bank and two restaurants, the Emperador fine restaurant and La Torre restaurant, in the highest building of Havana City's last floor (The Focsa indeed, I'm not sure if the new hotel Iberostar Selection, popularly called Torre K, beats it in height). The center also features a postal office, an Etecsa center and several other facilities, including the Café TV (disco-club/restaurant).
La Epoca Shopping Center
It's said that in Centro Havana there is everything, and La Epoca shopping center is one of the places that confirms this quote. The supermarket is impressive, even if, as any other place in Cuba, it has its steps of product lacking. It has several clothes and general interest shops.
Other Centro Habana and Old Havana shops
We have to mention La Manzana de Gómez (Central Park), the English Bazaar (Galiano 352), Transval (S. Miguel and Galiano) and Yumurí (Velasquaín 601) in Centro Habana, while in Old Havana the Harris Brothers shopping center (Avenida de Bélgica 305), The Handicraft Palace (El Palacio de La Artesanía), located in Cuba and Cuarteles streets and the Bodegón O'Reilly (in O'Reilly 466). Without counting the San Rafael (Centro Habana), Obispo (Old Havana) and Oficios (Old Havana) streets, which are exclusively pedestrian and offer a great variety of shops and sometimes really exclusive boutiques.
Sparse Shops
There are isolated shops which have prestige and offer gourmet products. For example, the wine shop of Galerías Cohiba, aside from the Meliá Cohiba hotel. Or the Licorama shop in 23th and 12th or the shopping center in front of the Spanish House, in 7th and 26th (Miramar) which features more than one boutique of interest, as well as a quite supplied international drug store. The little market of the Kohly hotel, beside an interesting clothes shop.
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