Looking for a casa particular in Havana? Take a look here, you'll find the complete list of what we're offer.
Havana, one of the 7 wonder cities of the world
The Havana city is a "federal" capital. It's just an analogy, because the Cuban ruling system is not federal, like in Venezuela. Cuba is a republic. Despite of that, its provinces and municipalities are divided as they where a federation. For this reason, it's quite frequent to ear about a zone you think is a district and it's really a borough. Old Havana is an eloquent example.
Therefore even if in the past, Havana was officially called City of Havana, it was and it is a province, despite that everybody consider it a city. According to that, Old Havana and Centro Habana, for example, are two self-managed "cities" just like Brooklyn in New York is one of the five boroughs of New York. And there is a unification project between Old Havana and Centro Habana, but currently it was never put into practice.
Havana, suspended in the history
«If I get lost, find me in Cuba» wrote García Lorca. And if you visit Havana you'll understand why. Havana is one of the few places in the world that still keeps a singular and unique charm. It is the only capital city which still looks like an old b&w postcard with only a few, sporadic modern elements that bring you back into reality. It's like if you were dreaming and someone touch you to wake up, and it costs to you to take again the full consciousness. This is what one feels when visiting Havana for the first time.
Havana city represents today the perfect compromise between history and circumstances. 90% of the capital has a 1950s look that remains invariable. The only Latin American capital similar in some aspects to Havana is Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic. There, people speak with an accent very similar to the one existing in the province of Santiago of Cuba. But similarities end here.
You will see the street with old classic cars, from the oldest Ford T to the 1959 Chevrolets and not only American cars, also many European first and second generation vehicles, and several other you never saw in your life, all of this beside Soviet Lada and Volgas, recent Asian cars, some few modern vehicles and the exotic ones such as Coco Taxis or even bike taxis (invented tricycle without engine). Recently street became filled by electric motorcycles and bicycles (but not electric cars yet). You'll also see many buildings and also classical and modern hotels, surrounded by other structures, some of which are next to crash.
An environment where heat and humidity make the air asphyxiating and a kind of lifestyle shared between the pedant protocol attitude and the excessive négligé, all this will complete the big picture with a singular charm impressing you.
It's really difficult to assist, in other places than Havana, such an ultimate triumph of essence over appearance. Graham Greene and Ernest Hemingway drank deep and (and countless), cocktails in all the places that inspired them. Ava Gardner and Winston Churchill are popularly associated with Cuban tobacco and rum, to the point that the Churchill name marked an entire generation of habanos puros, representing a standard size of these cigars, which are an absolute must have of any respectable and die hard cigar smoker.
Havana is a province which, in administrative sense, has 15 boroughs, and among them, the most important are Centro Habana, Old Havana, Plaza (a borough containing El Vedado and Nuevo Vedado), Playa (which contains the Miramar district) and the Cerro, a borough having the Casino Deportivo neighborhood, not very known by tourists, but very residential. Further, we also have to mention the East Havana borough, which contains places such as Las Villas and the Vía Panamericana (Paramerican Way?), also near to the El Morro Fortress. And finally the Playas del Este borough, where you will find most Havana famous beaches such as Santa María del Mar, Boca Ciega, Brisas Del Mar and, last but not least, Guanabo, maybe the most tourist's frequented beach after Varadero. Marianao is also gaining popularity and finally Playa Baracoa, a sea town (with a little beach), 20 km away from Havana, a featured place not only because it is similar to a small Greek city, but also because it's near to the Latin American School of Medicine.
Contrary to the vision most Occidentals have about socialist cities, Havana has a sense of typical Caribbean joy and fun and the city has a great vibe even overnight.
Havana in general
Located in the north western coast of Cuba, the Havana city is built around a deep harbor and it may be proud of an authentic colonial architecture, difficult to find in other countries, having squares decorated with coconut trees that shadows from a jaguar sun. Gates from other times, enchanted patios, façades in "1001 nights" style, ancient and modern buildings, vibe, people, uniqueness.
Lots of Havana boroughs, especially the historic ones are being restructured. In 1982, the importance of the city was recognized by the UNESCO and Havana was declared as a patrimony of humanity.
Being one of the oldest cities of Americas, Havana is today a colonial city in the most part. Cuba was a Spanish colony and, for this reason, we often talk about a colonial epoch. But it also was a sort of "colony" of the United States and Soviet Union that is, after its independence from Spain, Cuba was for a time under the political control and then the economic influence of the United States. And from 1959 to 1991, after its socialist revolution, Cuba had a great socio-economic dependence on the Soviet Union. Thanks to all this, Havana can boast of a series of achievements that don't correspond, anyway, to what some haters say about what happened in Cuba before 1959 (there are pages on the Internet that are making this propaganda but with many inaccuracies and false data). In Cuba and in Havana, many achievements have been done, but this has happened in all historical stages, including under the government of Fidel Castro.
Sure, being under the influence of many world powers without being a colony of nobody (except at the beginning with Spain), this brought many advantages to the country, making Havana City a metropolis, fixed in time, but quite developed, with plenty of heterogeneous architectures, including occasional and exuberant baroque structures. The Old Havana, which is the historic center, was also declared by the UNESCO as a world heritage. With the help of this organization and some other private contributions, including the income of several hotels in the historic center, the Habaguanex enterprise, whose aim is to preserve the heritage of Old Havana, has already restored many places in the territory, although today the work is not yet fully completed.
By arriving in Havana, one of the first things you will notice is the vibrancy and vitality of the people, even at night where you'll ear music everywhere and see people dancing in the street.
The historic and cultural legacy of Havana is rich, this is reflected in the face of the people, whose origins are heterogeneous. There are also some Chinese minorities, as well as Arabs (a broad Muslim community is present in Havana but most of them are Cubans), Jews and French, without counting these coming from native Indians, which come almost all from the Eastern provinces of Cuba.
Havana is a dynamic city for night life and a perfect place for live music, there is not an official time to have fun. Nevertheless, a lot of places close before midnight, even disco clubs, except Dos Gardenias and a very few others, will close no later than 3 AM.
At first sight, Havana is a city that seems faded, but its historic center reveals a great colonial past, restored in the most part. The tourists remain charmed when they walk in the narrow streets of Old Havana, today full of distractions, restaurants and other places, because the historic center has known a great commercial development after the 2011 opening. Taking all this into account, tourists will have the impression to moving into a living museum when visiting Havana.
The hotels in Havana are in theirselves one of the biggest attractions, because most of them have historical value, such as the National Hotel of Cuba, the Riviera Hotel, the Parque Central Hotel (Central Park Hotel), the Los Frailes Hotel, without forgetting the Ambos Mundos Hotel which has hosted the American writer Ernest Hemingway in many occasions and where the chamber he always rented is today a museum. Also, among the historic places, we have to mention the Floridita Cabaret where the Daiquirí cocktail was first invented, or the Tropicana Cabaret, in the Playa borough, internationally famous, and finally the Bodeguita del Medio, a bar which has many imitations around the world.
Also it worths mentioning the Prado Avenue, which has a park in the middle and divides Centro Habana from Old Havana; Prado is very popular, because during the IXX century, the high society of Havana met there. Now it's a craft men place, sometimes there are expositions and, paradoxically, is now where the lowest Havana society is meeting. Restaurants and paladares (small family managed restaurants in private homes), where you can find plenty of Italian or Spanish dishes. But you will also find many Chinese restaurants and even an Iranian one in the Vedado district, beside the park of 23th and D crossroads. We finally have to mention the China Town where you will find many Chinese businesses and restaurants.
Most tourists, especially Europeans, arrive in Cuba at night. It may be a cultural shook arriving in Havana after the sunset and smell its characteristic odor made from a mix of heat and humidity, waking up the next day and being into a society which has nothing to do with what you always knew and which, according to some, it's a masterpiece of humanity. You will see old, often very fat black women smoking big cigars and clothed in a traditional way, fleets of classic cars that look like they just came out of a factory and with a shine they didn't have even in their prime, when they were new for real, girls in motley dresses and butts you always assumed existed only in Brazil, kids in school uniforms, Chinese bicycle cabs, plenty of police, housing that has known better times and so on.
But, don't forget to visit the Morro Fortress, assist there at the great coup of canon which happens every night at 9 PM, make a tour along the popular Malecón, which begins from the Morro tip and finish into the 5th Avenue the tunnel of Miramar. But, especially the Centro Habana portion of the Malecón has a great sea view, when, during the summer without wind and with calm sea, you can see a big moon reflecting to the water. A warm weather all along the year, with some fresh breezes, wonderful beaches of white sand everywhere in Cuba and not only in Varadero and a charming history... For all these reasons, Havana is one of the seven wonder cities in the world.
Only in Havana you'll feel you're living in a different, parallel world. What are you waiting for?
