GET THE CUBAN FEEL
With sun, cocktails, clubs and art and communism, make the most of your time in this sizzling city, says Claire Boobyer
Sun, slinky dancing, icy cocktails in bars fashioned from backyard wrecks and slumping colonial ruins, designer buys, avant-garde art, and a dose of communism draw visitors to the tropical nation island of Cuba. Havana’s seven year economic revolution has revived the spirit of this glamorous sea-facing city. From 26 February to 2 March Havana lights up with the annual Habanos Cuban cigar festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2018; and from 22 to 24 March Havana World Music stages concerts across city venues.
What to do Spanish grandeur in the old town
The Spanish colonial core of Old Havana is the city’s stellar attraction brimming with frescoed churches, cobbled plazas, civic mansions and nobles’ homes turned museums, galleries and restaurants. Admire the
ecclesiastical interior beauty of Nuestra Señora de la Merced and the detailed exhibits at the Museum of the Revolution (9.30am-4pm) charting Fidel Castro’s rise to power amid the Tiffany interiors of this erstwhile Presidential Palace.
Behind the palace sits the Museum of Fine Arts (Tuesday to Saturday, 9am-5pm; Sunday, 10am-2pm). Go for the pop art of Raúl Martínez, the homo-eroticism of Servando Cabrera, the African symbolism of Manuel Mendive and Wifredo Lam, and the avant-garde works of Cuba’s thriving contemporary art community.
Seaside exploration
Amble Havana’s wind-whipped ocean boulevard, the Malecón, and admire the facades of its sun-bleached buildings as the sun slopes down behind fishermen, lovers, swimmers and trumpet players.
Pedalling through Havana
To fall in love with Havana walk, dance and dally along her dramatic, slouching streets. For a broader view of her maritime and sugar history - which saw the city bulge and bust through the ancient defence wall corralling the old city and spill west - explore by bike.
Two companies offer new city tours cycling 20km of mainly back roads through the plush suburb of Miramar, leafy Vedado with its villas-cum-galleries, restaurants and bars, Havana’s tree-entangled forest Bosque de la Habana - and the magical wonderland that is the jungle-choked Jardines de La Tropical beer grotto fantasy.
Cubanía pedals out every Wednesday morning with a bonus walking tour of the old town’s four plazas thrown in (£35pp), while Cubyke, using Cuba’s first electric bikes, lets cyclists with a mojito hangover lean back and cruise (£35pp).
Painting the city
Ever since street artist JR and Cuban American artist José Parla honoured 25 Cuban senior citizens by crafting enormous impressions of their faces across the flaking shards of the city walls for Havana’s Biennial art fair in 2012, street art has been creeping across the city. See work by Fabián López, Yulier Rodríguez and Luis Casas, among others, and meet the artists on a street art tour. Tours cost US$140 (£99) including transport.
Where to Stay
Film director Stephen Bayley and Cuban theatre director Jazz Martínez-Gamboa have opened an elegant three-roomed town house, Economía 156, in southern Old Havana. It comes complete with roof terrace and the most sumptuous of tropical breakfasts. Ask about their behind-the-scenes theatre tours and soirées with Cuban actors; 220CUC (£156). Doubles from 145CUC (£103), B&B.
A&A, Amaury’s top-floor independent apartment, is decorated with contemporary Cuban art and features two balconies. It’s in the heart of the lively café, gallery, and restaurant-filled northern Old Havana. Doubles from 120CUC (£85), B&B.
Handsomely furnished in Spanish colonial and antique French style with themed rooms and a parasolshaded roof terrace for dining and drinking, La Maison is a steal. Three bedrooms from 200CUC (£142), B&B.
For the coolest of Cuban Fifties glamour, check into one of Artedel’s three penthouse rooms, sip cocktails on the sun-soaked terrace and recline in the jacuzzi. Doubles from 100CUC (£71), B&B.
Where to eat
La Maison is in a beautiful Old Havana townhouse
For pancake breakfasts and pulled-pork, yucca, and orange salsa sourdough sandwiches, pull in at El Café; 9am-6pm.
Artisanal scoops of ice cream - try the mojito flavour - can be bought at Helad’oro (Aguiar St No.206; 11am-10pm).