Havana

The currency is the Cuban peso (CUP), the only legal tender since the 2021 unification that abolished the CUC. In practice, three exchange rates coexist on the same block: the official one, around 120 CUP to the dollar at banks and CADECA booths; the informal one, which on September 1, 2026 stood near 675–680 CUP to the dollar and 765–770 to the euro; and that of stores that only sell for cash dollars or with an MLC card. Cards issued by US banks never work, other cards work intermittently, and ATMs are often empty. Approximate 2026 ranges: street coffee, 50–150 CUP; pizza de peso or cajita, 300–600 CUP; lunch at a paladar, US$8–15; full dinner with a drink, US$15–30; casa particular, US$25–45 a night; chain hotel, US$80–200. A 10% tip is customary at restaurants and welcome in CUP or foreign currency. Change only what you plan to spend, because the peso can't be converted outside the island and the informal rate shifts from one week to the next.

José Martí Airport: 15 km south, no train and no bus

José Martí International Airport (HAV) is in Boyeros, 15–18 km south of downtown, and almost all international flights arrive at Terminal 3. With no train or practical city bus to the terminal, your options are a taxi, with the price agreed before you get in, at around US$25–35 to Habana Vieja or El Vedado (2026), or a transfer arranged through your casa particular, which tends to be cheaper and more reliable. There's no Uber or international ride-hailing app, and the local apps, such as La Nave and Yosi, only work when there's internet and fuel at the same time. Bring cash for the taxi and the first few days, because the exchange lines at the airport are long.

Line P guaguas: a few pesos, diesel shortages

Getting around the city means combining whatever is available, so take whatever passes nearby. The articulated P-line guaguas, the state buses, cost about 5 CUP, but they run packed and have had their frequency cut by the diesel shortage since 2024. The almendrones, private shared taxis, follow fixed routes along the main downtown streets, stop for a raised hand and charge per stretch, but on many days they vanish for lack of fuel. Tourist and private taxis charge per ride, negotiated in advance, and the lanchita across the bay is the cheapest ride of all, with a view of the city. Habana Vieja, Centro Habana and El Vedado are walkable, in stretches of 20 to 40 minutes, but expect broken sidewalks, open manholes and unlit streets during blackouts, so carry a flashlight. Bicitaxis and electric tricycles cover short trips and are replacing the stranded almendrones, although there's no bike lane anywhere in the city.

Violent crime against visitors is rare in Havana, and there's a heavy police presence in the historic center. The real risks are theft and scams: bags and phones snatched in Centro Habana, on the Prado and on the streets of El Vedado, especially at night and during blackouts; wrong change; inflated bills at restaurants with no prices on the menu; street money changers passing counterfeit bills; and classic jineterismo, where someone strikes up a conversation in English, takes you to a bar “run by friends” and disappears when the check arrives. Carry little cash, leave your passport at the house and bring a copy. Physically, the dangers are broken sidewalks, uncovered manholes, exposed wiring and the risk of balconies collapsing on the propped-up buildings of Centro Habana. After heavy rain, don't walk close to the façades: walk down the middle of the street, as locals do. Residential neighborhoods such as Cerro, Diez de Octubre and Alamar aren't no-go zones, but they have less lighting and fewer landmarks, so at night choose a prearranged taxi. Health insurance is an entry requirement, care for foreigners is billed in foreign currency and pharmacies are poorly stocked, so bring your own medication.

Ask “¿el último?” on arrival

The line isn't a physical row: whoever arrives asks who's last, memorizes the person who answered, and can wait sitting in the shade. Cutting in without asking is the one truly serious offense in a Cuban line.

Greet before asking

“Buenos días” or simply “buenas” comes before any question, including to an official or a street vendor. Getting straight to the point sounds rude.

“Compañero” and “señor” aren't interchangeable

“Compañero/a” is the institutional form and still works in government offices; “señor/señora” is normal on the street and in private commerce. Use “asere” only after someone uses it with you.

Don't photograph uniforms, military works or government lines

Avoid photographing uniforms, military sites or lines at government offices, including at airports, ports and ministry buildings. Ask before photographing people; costumed performers and musicians downtown charge for photos, and you agree on the price first.

Politics: let your host bring it up

Cubans criticize the government harshly among themselves, but the conversation changes once a foreigner starts it in public. Listen, don't lead, and don't record or publish the name of whoever spoke.

Practical gifts matter more than money

Painkillers, common antibiotics, soap, batteries, clothes and school supplies are scarce and the gift a host expects. Leave what's left in your suitcase instead of taking it back.

Counting on a card or ATM

Arriving without enough cash, counting on cards or ATMs. American cards never work, other cards often fail and ATMs are frequently out of bills, so bring the money for your first days from home.

Exchanging money with someone offering a “buena tasa”

Exchanging money on the street with someone offering a “buena tasa” on the Prado or Obispo. The count comes out wrong, and bills out of circulation turn up. There's also the trick of a conversation interrupted by a supposed police officer. It only serves to make you tuck the wad away fast, without checking it.

Cigars offered on the street

Buying cigars offered on the street as “straight from the factory, from a friend who works there”. They're counterfeit, and customs requires an official receipt to carry out more than 20 units. It's the same line, repeated by different people every few blocks.

Assuming everything is open

Planning the day assuming everything is open. A museum closed by a blackout, a restaurant missing half the menu and a shop with no stock are routine. Always keep a backup a few blocks away. Don't build a day that depends on three doors opening in sequence.

Counting on stable internet

Counting on stable internet. Buy an ETECSA Nauta card or a local eSIM and download offline maps, because your phone can go without signal for hours. Set meetings for a fixed time and place, which is how people find each other without confirming by phone.

¿Quién es el último?

Secures your place in a line that never shows on the ground, only in the memory of whoever was already in it;

Asere, ¿qué bolá?

“Hey, what's up?”: informal Havana greeting between acquaintances

No es fácil

“It's not easy”: the standard answer about everyday life; it sums up and closes the subject

Está en candela

“It's on fire”, meaning it's terrible, complicated, with no solution in sight

¿Cuánto es en pesos?

“How much is it in pesos?”. Always ask, because the same price shifts with the currency

Voy a resolver

“I'll figure it out”: resolver means getting through unofficial channels what the shop doesn't have

The bay and its two shores

Havana occupies about 20 km of limestone coast on Cuba's northern edge, at 23° latitude, with the bay splitting the city into two uneven shores: the west holds almost everything; the east, Casablanca, Regla and the housing blocks of Alamar. The terrain is low: stepped marine terraces, almost nothing above 60 m except the hills of La Cabaña and Marianao, and the only urban river is the Almendares, which separates El Vedado from Miramar and is crossed by bridges and a tunnel; the bay has its own tunnel, from 1958.

The grid changes with each layer

The street grid changes with each historical layer: Habana Vieja is irregular and tight, organized around four colonial squares; Centro Habana is a dense grid from 1860–1900, with three- to four-story buildings pressed against each other and almost no public space; El Vedado, laid out in 1859, has regular blocks, streets numbered in pairs to the north and lettered to the west, and a mandatory front garden, which explains its shade; Miramar follows wide, tree-lined avenues starting from Quinta Avenida.

The climate and the hurricanes

The climate is tropical savanna, with a dry season from December to April and rain from May to October, and the city lies in the path of hurricanes: when seas come from the north, water washes over the Malecón, closing the road several times each winter.

Almost every Atlantic rhythm passed through here

Almost every rhythm danced in the Atlantic world passed through here. The danzón was born in Matanzas in 1879 and became a ballroom dance in Havana; son arrived from the east of the island in the 1910s and gave rise to the septet, Pérez Prado's mambo and Enrique Jorrín's chachachá in the 1940s and 1950s; rumba (guaguancó, yambú and columbia) is courtyard and dockside drumming, which you can hear at the Callejón de Hamel at noon on Sundays. In the 1990s the timba of Los Van Van and NG La Banda ruled the dance floors; today what you hear most in the street is Cuban reggaeton. The 1997 Buena Vista Social Club album, recorded at the Egrem studio in Centro Habana, and Wim Wenders's 1999 film exported one version of that story and brought a whole generation of musicians out of retirement.

Carpentier, Padura and ICAIC cinema

The city produces more literature than its size would suggest. Alejo Carpentier coined the “marvelous real”, José Lezama Lima published Paradiso in 1966, Guillermo Cabrera Infante rebuilt Havana speech in Three Trapped Tigers (1967), Reinaldo Arenas told of the repression in Before Night Falls, and Leonardo Padura has narrated the city since 1991 through detective Mario Conde. ICAIC, created in March 1959, gave Latin American cinema Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) and Strawberry and Chocolate (1993), both by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. The Havana Biennial has existed since 1984 and was conceived for artists of the global South; in the visual arts, Wifredo Lam is the bridge between European surrealism and Afro-Cuban iconography.

Catholic and Afro-Cuban at once

Popular religion is Catholic and Afro-Cuban at the same time: the Regla de Ocha (santería), Bantu-rooted Palo Monte, and the all-male abakuá societies coexist with devotion to the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. Initiates spend a year dressed in white from head to toe and are part of the street scene. The sport is baseball: Industriales plays at the 1946 Estadio Latinoamericano in Cerro, and the argument over the team happens every day at the Esquina Caliente, in the corner of Parque Central. Nightlife splits between live-music houses, the Fábrica de Arte, and the Malecón, which charges no entry.

Memories of Underdevelopment (1968), by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

A bourgeois man decides to stay in Havana when his family leaves. It blends fiction with 1961–62 archival footage and is the best way in to what the revolution did to the city's daily life.

Three Trapped Tigers (1967), by Guillermo Cabrera Infante

A novel built from Havana's nighttime speech in 1958, moving among cabarets, cars and wordplay. It rebuilds the city's accent and humor on the eve of 1959.

Buena Vista Social Club (1997 album; Wim Wenders film, 1999)

Recorded at the Egrem studio in Centro Habana, with Compay Segundo, Rubén González, Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo. It explains the origin of the repertoire heard in any bar of the historic center.