Cuba Guide
Havana
With five times as many inhabitants as the country's next biggest city, Santiago de Cuba, Havana is in a class by itself. Nowhere else are the contradictions which have come to characterize Cuba – particularly since the advent of mass tourism and the introduction of a dual currency system – as pronounced as they are in the capital. The emerging middle class, most of whom have made their money through the latest wave of tourism, drift around the brand-new shopping malls, while just down the road long queues of people clutching ration books form outside the local bodega. Restoration projects have returned some of the finest colonial architecture in the Caribbean to its original splendour, even as overcrowded and dirty neighbourhoods wait for their first coat of paint since the early 1990s. There is a sense that Havana is on the move, with tourist money pouring in, new nightspots appearing regularly and an increasing variety of products in shops that not long ago either didn't exist or stood empty. Yet on the other hand, time stands still, or even goes backwards, in a city where 1950s Chevrolets, Buicks and Oldsmobiles ply the roads, locals fish from tyres floating near the ageing seawall and many people seem to spend most of the day in the street or on their crumbling nineteenth-century doorsteps.
Highlights
1 Hotel Nacional This luxurious, twin-towered flagship hotel, built in the 1930s, still embodies the glamour of that bygone age.
2 Fábrica de Tobacos Partagás See the time, skill and effort that go into the production of Cuban cigars at this illustrious factory.
3 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes One of the few international-calibre museums in Cuba, where two buildings – sights in themselves – house a lively art collection.
4 The Malecón All the idiosyncrasies of Havana are on display here: the crumbling Baroque buildings, beatbox salsa, kissing couples and jineteros.
5 Che Memorial Head for the Plaza de la Revolución to pose for the ultimate Cuban photo opportunity.
6 La Guarida This unmissable paladar, with its out-of-the-ordinary menu, film-set heritage and fantastic food, has no equal in Cuba.
7 Tropicana Max out on glittery kitsch at the country's most lavish cabaret, an open-air venue with a hint of pre-Revolution hedonism.
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