Havana 6 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Six days keeps the 5 day itinerary ’s full route, Habana Vieja, Vedado, Fusterlandia, Callejon de Hamel, cigars, Centro Habana and Miramar, and adds a sixth day built entirely around live Cuban music, plus a slower morning to catch anything the first five days rushed.
Cash first, always. Cuba’s only currency is the CUP, US cards have never worked, and since 6 June 2026 Cuba’s central bank suspended Visa and Mastercard processing islandwide, for every card regardless of issuing country. Bring all six days of cash in clean, small USD or EUR bills and change it through your casa host or a hotel desk, never a street changer. Our Havana guide has the full breakdown; the US State Department’s Cuba advisory covers the current safety and infrastructure picture.
Book these before you go
- A casa particular or hotel room: search Havana casas and hotels on Booking.com ; a six-night stay in a good room needs booking ahead in 2026.
- A classic-car loop with a locked-in car and price: browse GetYourGuide’s Havana tours .
- A guided Habana Vieja walking tour: check Viator .
- The Partagas cigar factory tour is not bookable online; reserve it a day ahead through your hotel’s tour desk once you land.
| Day | Focus | Money note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Habana Vieja’s four plazas, Capitolio exterior | Free to walk; $10 to 15 for dinner |
| 2 | Malecon, Hotel Nacional, classic-car loop | $35 to 80 an hour for the car, cash |
| 3 | Fusterlandia, Callejon de Hamel, rum museum | Free to wander; tip musicians $3 to 5 |
| 4 | Partagas cigar factory, Museo de la Revolucion, Centro Habana | About $10 for the factory tour |
| 5 | Miramar, Capitolio interior tour | $20 to 30 cash for the Capitolio |
| 6 | Old Havana catch-up, live music night | Tip musicians $3 to 5, guides around $8 a day |
Day 1: Habana Vieja on foot
The four plazas, Plaza de Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza Vieja and Plaza San Francisco de Asis, are free, walkable in under 20 minutes, and the heart of the UNESCO-listed Old Havana . Give them the morning. The Capitolio’s exterior and Parque Central are free; the interior tour waits for Day 5.
Eat your first paladar meal near Plaza Vieja, $10 to 15 per person, cash only, and expect the occasional unavailable dish as a normal feature of 2026, not a bad sign. Close with a free sunset walk on the Malecon.
Day 2: Vedado, the Malecon and a classic car
Walk the Malecon in the cooler morning hours; the full seawall runs 8 kilometres into Vedado. The Hotel Nacional’s grounds and Missile Crisis-era bunker museum are open to non-guests, and a Malecon-view cocktail at the terrace bar runs a few dollars cash.
Agree the route and hourly rate for your classic-car loop, roughly $35 to 80, before you climb in. Lock in your cash-changing plan for the rest of the week today.
Day 3: Fusterlandia, Callejon de Hamel and rum
Fusterlandia in Jaimanitas is free to wander, small tip expected for artisans on site. Callejon de Hamel’s mural alley is free daily, with live rumba on Sunday afternoons.
Finish with the Havana Club Rum Museum tour and tasting; prices online vary too much to trust, confirm on site. Dinner at a paladar, same $10 to 15 band as Day 1.
Day 4: Cigars, the Revolution Museum and Centro Habana
Book the Partagas Cigar Factory tour through your hotel’s tour desk a day ahead; about $10, 30 to 35 minutes, weekday mornings only. Follow it with the Museo de la Revolucion in the former Presidential Palace; expect a small cash sum in USD or EUR on site despite the low posted CUP figure.
Spend the afternoon in Centro Habana, grittier and less restored than Habana Vieja, with the city’s densest concentration of budget casas particulares.
Day 5: Miramar and the Capitolio interior
Miramar needs a taxi or a classic car, not a walk: quiet, residential, full of neoclassical and 1950s mansions now serving as embassies and boutique hotels. Give it a slower morning.
Take the Capitolio’s guided interior tour in the afternoon, roughly $20 to 30 cash, Tuesday to Saturday, four fixed daily slots; verify the current schedule before you go. Make this a splurge dinner night, $20 to 30 or more at a well-known paladar.
Day 6: Old Havana catch-up and a live music night
Use the morning for anything the first five days left out: a second pass through a museum, the booksellers around Plaza de Armas, or simply sitting in a plaza with a coffee instead of rushing through it.
Make the evening about live music. Paladares and casas across Centro Habana and Vedado regularly host live son, and Callejon de Hamel’s rumba is free on Sunday afternoons if your dates line up any other day. Tip musicians $3 to 5 cash, guides around $8 a day if you have used one, and taxi drivers roughly 10% of the fare; tipping makes up a meaningful share of income here given the broader economic strain, not an optional extra.
What do the extra 2 days over the 3 day itinerary add?
The Partagas cigar factory, a deeper Museo de la Revolucion visit, Centro Habana, Miramar, the Capitolio’s interior, and a full evening built around live music instead of squeezing it into a single dinner.
Is Miramar worth a special trip on a 6 day schedule?
Yes, if you have already covered Habana Vieja and Vedado properly; it is a genuinely different Havana, quiet and residential, and a useful change of pace on a longer stay. On a shorter trip it is the first thing worth cutting.
Spread your cash-changing across at least three separate days rather than one big exchange; it is both a safety habit and a hedge against a volatile informal rate.