# Havana: map, what to do and when to go

In Havana, buildings from the early 20th century are still standing and lived in, and only part of them have been restored. Founded in 1514 and moved to its current bay in 1519, it's the capital of Cuba and the largest city in the Caribbean, with about 2 million people.

Canonical: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/
Language: en. Extended author commentary and itinerary notes may remain in Portuguese. Dates below belong to individual sources; this is not live availability.

## Direct answer
- **Havana: Can you count on a card or ATM?** No: American cards never work, other cards often fail and ATMs are usually out of bills, so bring the money for your first days from home.
- **Havana: How do you get from the airport to downtown?** 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 to 35 to Habana Vieja or El Vedado (2026), or a transfer arranged through your casa particular, which tends to be cheaper and more reliable.
- **Havana: How long does it take to get to Playas del Este?** Playas del Este, Santa María del Mar and Guanabo, are 20 to 30 km east via the Vía Blanca, 30 to 45 minutes by car.

## Habana Vieja and the waterfront
Start at 9am at Plaza de Armas, with the Castillo de la Real Fuerza still empty, then head to Plaza de la Catedral before the heat sets in.
- Plaza de la Catedral
- Castillo de la Real Fuerza
- El Morro and La Cabaña
- Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

## Centro Habana, El Vedado and the night
Walk up the Paseo del Prado to the Capitolio and the Gran Teatro, then head into the Barrio Chino and along calle Zanja.
- El Capitolio
- Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso
- Malecón
- Fábrica de Arte Cubano

## Revolution, the cemetery and the east side
Start at Plaza de la Revolución before 10am, while there's still shade at the edges, and take a close look at the two wire portraits.
- Plaza de la Revolución
- Necrópolis de Cristóbal Colón

## Plaza de la Catedral
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-plaza-de-la-catedral
Havana Velha
An early-18th-century square closed off by the Catedral de San Cristóbal, completed in 1777 in coral stone with visible fossils in the façade and two towers of different widths: asymmetrical Cuban baroque. The remains attributed to Columbus stayed here between 1796 and 1898.
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## Castillo de la Real Fuerza
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-castillo-de-la-real-fuerza
Havana
A fortress from 1558–1577 at the harbor entrance, the oldest stone fort still standing in the Americas. On its turret spins the Giraldilla, a bronze weathervane cast in 1632 and symbol of the city; the original is in the museum and the one on top is a copy.
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## El Morro and La Cabaña
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-el-morro
Havana
Across the channel, the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro (1589–1630) and the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña (1763–1774), the largest Spanish military work in the Americas. Every day at 9pm, soldiers dressed in 18th-century uniform fire the cañonazo, which once announced the closing of the walls.
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## El Capitolio
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-el-capitolio
Havana · Up to half an hour
Inaugurated in 1929, designed by Eugenio Rayneri Piedra, with a 91.7-m dome and a diamond set into the floor of the central hall marking the zero-kilometer point of Cuba's roads. Restored between 2013 and 2019, it now houses the National Assembly of People's Power.
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## Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-gran-teatro-de-la-habana-alicia
Havana
Home of the Cuban National Ballet, inside the 1915 Centro Gallego, with a neo-baroque façade and four sculptural groups up top. The company, founded by Alicia Alonso in 1948, keeps Giselle and Don Quixote in repertoire.
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## Malecón
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-malecon
Havana · Half a day or more
An 8-km seawall avenue, begun in 1901 during the American occupation and finished in the 1950s. It works as a promenade, a lookout, a fishing spot and a meeting place after sunset; with no shade, it's unbearable at midday.
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## Plaza de la Revolución
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-plaza-de-la-revolucion
Havana
An esplanade of about 72,000 m² used for rallies of hundreds of thousands of people. The José Martí memorial has a 109-m tower shaped like a five-pointed star, and the facing façades carry the wire portraits of Che Guevara (“Hasta la victoria siempre”) and Camilo Cienfuegos (“Vas bien, Fidel”).
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## Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-museo-nacional-de-bellas-artes
Havana
Two buildings three blocks apart: Arte Cubano, a 1954 modernist building with Wifredo Lam, Amelia Peláez and René Portocarrero; and Arte Universal, in the 1927 Centro Asturiano, with European painting and antiquities. A combined ticket covers both.
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## Necrópolis de Cristóbal Colón
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-necropolis-de-cristobal-colon
Centro Habana · Up to half an hour
A cemetery opened in 1876, spanning 56 hectares on a grid of named streets with about a million burials. The most visited tomb is that of Amelia Goyri, “La Milagrosa”, who died in 1901: those asking for something knock three times on the bronze ring and walk away backward.
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## Fábrica de Arte Cubano
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/havana/#g-lugar-fabrica-de-arte-cubano
A former cooking-oil factory in El Vedado converted into a cultural center in 2014 by musician X Alfonso, with galleries, cinema, shows and bars on the same ticket. It opens Thursday through Sunday nights; you're handed a spending card at the door, paid on the way out.
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**Havana: Can you count on a card or ATM?**
No: American cards never work, other cards often fail and ATMs are usually out of bills, so bring the money for your first days from home.

**Havana: How do you get from the airport to downtown?**
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 to 35 to Habana Vieja or El Vedado (2026), or a transfer arranged through your casa particular, which tends to be cheaper and more reliable.

**Havana: How long does it take to get to Playas del Este?**
Playas del Este, Santa María del Mar and Guanabo, are 20 to 30 km east via the Vía Blanca, 30 to 45 minutes by car.

**Havana: What's the currency, and which exchange rate matters?**
The currency is the Cuban peso (CUP), the only legal one since 2021, but the exchange rate that matters in practice is the informal one: on September 1, 2026, near 675 to 680 CUP to the dollar and 765 to 770 to the euro, against about 120 at the official rate of banks and CADECA booths. Change money with whoever hosts you, in small amounts and more than once; stores that only sell in dollars accept cash dollars or the MLC card, not pesos.

**Havana: What's the real risk for visitors?**
Violent crime against visitors is rare in Havana, and police presence in the historic center is high. The real risk is theft and scams: bags and phones snatched in Centro Habana, on the Prado and on the streets of El Vedado, mainly at night and during blackouts; wrong change; an inflated bill at restaurants with no prices on the menu; street currency exchange with counterfeit bills; and the classic jineterismo, where someone strikes up a conversation in English, leads you to a bar “of friends” and disappears when the bill arrives.


## In the Nilo app
- Plan these 3 days on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/guide/havana/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-itinerary
- Mark your hotel on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/map/havana/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-stay

## Full editorial guide (Portuguese)
https://nilopelomundo.com/llm/havana.md