Miramar is part of the smart residential area lying to the west of the Río Almendares river. Sumptuous private houses set in gardens line its broad shaded streets. In this district of hotels and embassies, the shops and restaurants cater for a cl..

Beyond Habana Vieja, by the Havana tunnel exit, two haughty forts stand guard over the bay. On the left is the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro (late 16C), a fine example of military architecture flanked by a more recent lighthouse, fom where t..

This excellent museum focuses on the subject of santería, a religion blending African ritual with Catholicism, its deities and liturgy. Guanabacoa is the ideal site for it; cradle of Afro-Cuban cults, this old colonial village now absorbed by Havan..

In 1939 Ernest Hemingway took up residence at Finca la Vigía in the hill village of San Francisco de Paula, 15km southeast of Havana. When he returned to the US in 1960, the house became a museum dedicated to him. Furniture and personal effects remai..

Northeast of Plaza de Armas stands the Castillo de la Real Fuerza , Havana’s oldest fortress built in 1558. The tower is surmounted by Havana’s emblem, la Giraldilla , a weathervane in the form of a female figure, by sculptor Jerónimo Martínez Pínz..

Lying to the west of the Prado, between the Malecón, Galiano Street and the Cazalda da Infante, Centro Habana can be unsettling: ruined buildings, pot-holes, decay. This state of abandonment, however, should not put visitors off, since this is an aut..