Havana: 9 Things Worth Doing (and 3 to Skip)
Havana does not care about your itinerary app. Cards do not work here in 2026, the power grid drops out for hours most days, and half the paladares on any list you find online are out of at least one dish tonight. None of that is a reason to skip it. It means treating this as a cash trip, not a swipe trip, and arriving with realistic expectations about what “open” and “available” actually mean on the ground. Do that and Havana delivers four intact colonial plazas, a Malecon sunset that costs nothing, and a 1950s convertible ride that is a cliche worth doing anyway. Nine things below earn a place on your list. Three do not.
| Days needed | Best months | Daily cash budget | Booking warning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 to 4 for the city itself | December to April, dry season | $40 to 90 a day for a casa room, paladar meals and local transport | Cards and ATMs are not a backup in 2026, bring every dollar you will need in cash |
Money in Havana: why your card is dead weight
Cuba’s only currency is the Cuban Peso (CUP). The old dual-currency CUC was abolished in 2021, so drop it from your planning entirely. US-issued cards have never worked here, blocked by the same sanctions regime that governs American travel to Cuba generally. As of 6 June 2026, Cuba’s central bank suspended all Visa and Mastercard transactions islandwide, including cards issued outside the US, after a foreign processing partner cut ties under expanded US sanctions. Verify the current status close to your travel date, but plan as though no card of any kind will work while you are there. Our Havana travel tips guide covers more of this ground.
The practical fix: bring every dollar of trip cash with you in clean, small, unmarked USD or EUR bills, and change it informally through your casa host, an established paladar, or a hotel desk rather than a street changer, who is the classic source of a mid-count short-change trick. The informal rate has run around 670 CUP to the dollar in mid-2026, far better than the official CADECA rate and highly volatile, so check it close to travel rather than trusting last month’s number.
Getting around Habana Vieja and beyond
The four plazas of Old Havana sit close enough to walk between in 15 to 20 minutes, and there is no Uber or ride-hailing app anywhere in Cuba. For anything past walking distance, a private classic-car ride is the default: agree the route and the price, roughly $35 to 80 an hour depending on haggling, before you get in. Book a classic car tour on GetYourGuide if you would rather lock in a driver and a route before you land. Coco-taxis, the small three-wheeled scooter cabs, run $3 to 5 for a short hop or $10 to 15 for an informally narrated hour loop, same negotiate-first rule. Skip the public buses; see below.
9 things actually worth doing in Havana
All nine sit inside the city. If you want Vinales, Varadero or Trinidad, that is a different trip, covered separately in our Havana as a base guide.
- Walk the four plazas of Habana Vieja. Plaza de Armas, Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza Vieja and Plaza San Francisco de Asis form the core of the UNESCO-listed Old Havana , free to enter and dense enough to fill a full morning. Our Habana Vieja page and things to do in Havana guide cover the rest of the neighborhood.
- Watch the Malecon at sunset. Eight kilometres of seawall, free, and the closest thing the city has to a shared living room.
- Take a classic-car loop. Genuinely fun despite being the most photographed cliche in Havana, as long as you negotiate the fare and the stops before you climb in. Book a Habana Vieja walking tour on Viator if you want a guide to fill in the history between rides.
- See Fusterlandia in Jaimanitas. Jose Fuster’s mosaic-covered barrio is free to wander; expect an optional tip of a dollar or two where an artisan is working.
- Catch the Sunday rumba at Callejon de Hamel. Free Afro-Cuban art alley and free live music; tip the musicians $3 to 5 cash.
- Go inside the Museo de la Revolucion. The former Presidential Palace holds one of the more direct museum accounts of the 1959 revolution anywhere; the posted CUP price is a leftover figure, so expect to pay a small cash sum in USD or EUR on site.
- Do the Havana Club Rum Museum tour. A real, popular stop with a tasting at the end; prices circulating online vary too much to trust, so budget a few cash dollars and confirm on site.
- Wander the Hotel Nacional grounds. The 1930 landmark’s gardens 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.
- Eat at a paladar, sleep at a casa particular. Privately run restaurants and homes are where independent-minded travelers should spend most of their trip, and it is the spending pattern most US visitors need anyway. More on that below.
3 things to skip in Havana
- Street currency changers. The mid-count short-change trick is the single most common Havana scam; change money with your casa host, a paladar, or a hotel desk instead.
- Public buses (guaguas). Infrequent, packed, exact-CUP-change-only, and increasingly unreliable during the 2026 fuel crunch. Not worth the savings for a short stay.
- Street cigar sellers. Anyone offering “discounted” cigars, often with a “there’s a cigar festival today” line, is almost always selling counterfeit or stolen stock. Buy from a state shop, a hotel humidor, or the Partagas factory tour itself.
Havana travel questions
Do credit cards work in Havana?
No. US-issued cards have never worked under the sanctions regime, and since 6 June 2026 Cuba’s central bank has suspended Visa and Mastercard processing islandwide for every card, regardless of issuing country. Bring all your trip cash in USD or EUR and verify the current card situation again close to your travel date.
Can Americans legally travel to Havana?
Not as a “tourist.” US law requires the trip to fall under one of twelve OFAC general-license categories, most commonly Support for the Cuban People , which means staying at casas, eating at paladares, and keeping trip records for five years. Verify current OFAC rules before booking; this is a politically live area.
Does a Havana trip affect my ESTA?
Not if you are a US citizen; Americans do not use ESTA to enter their own country. It matters for travelers from other Visa Waiver Program countries (the UK, EU states, Australia and similar): anyone who has been in Cuba on or after 12 January 2021 becomes ineligible for ESTA and needs a full US visa for a later US stop. Check the US State Department’s Cuba advisory for the current picture.
Where to stay in Havana
A casa particular beats a hotel for most visitors: the money goes directly to a Cuban family, hosts hand out better local knowledge than any front desk, and it is the category of spending US travelers under Support for the Cuban People are supposed to prioritize. The one real trade-off is power: hotels run their own generators through the blackouts, casas vary, so ask your host directly whether they have backup power before you book. Our best places to stay in Havana guide has specific picks; search casas and hotels on Booking.com to see what is currently listed. Ready to plan the days themselves? Start with our Havana 3 day itinerary .
Bring more cash than your budget math says you need, in bills clean enough that a suspicious cashier will not reject them. That is the one Havana rule with no workaround.