Havana Attractions
Cuba Pictures

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Havana accommodation is roughly found in three areas:
- Habana Vieja is the liveliest region of the city though dilapidated and noisy in places.
- El Centro, Central Havana, is less attractive and some parts can be unsafe after dark.
- Vedado is calm and lush and home to many of the best hotels and a good selection of guest houses/B 'n' Bs known as Casas particulares. More Casa particular. Note Vedado's John Lennon Park and Cuba's only statue of a western musician.

The Partagas cigar factory

Partagas is Cuba's biggest cigar producer and visits/tours are popular. It's also the place to buy guaranteed authentic cigars as opposed to the stuff that is endlessly touted on the streets of Havana.

The uniquely asymmetrically baroque Catedral de San Cristobal in old Havana.

A back street leading to Cathedral plaza.

Tourists strutting their stuff in a small Havana bar.

Havana sees plenty of live music action from small but energetic local bands around the old and new town and big name shows at the Hotel Nacional or the Tropicana. And if you don't want to see music and dance in a bar or hotel, try the street.

Many Havana restaurants feature live music, even at lunchtime. At cafés Cuban-Americans leave their husbands and plates of chicken or pork to spontaneously sway their hips to a Salsa band.
At El Floridita, Hemingway's hang-out and now a tourist trap billed as the home of the daiquiri, a mambo singer accompanies the slurping of over-priced cocktails.

Ernest Hemingway's villa outside the city is another tourist magnet. A homage to the great man it's preserved in time, with booze bottles still on his trolley, stuffed animals overhead and his weight scribbled on the wall over the bathroom scale.

More Habana Vieja street action.

Dancing under the mangoes in the old city. Next, Cuba Beaches.

It wasn't clear to us if this troupe were practicing for an event or just enjoying themselves, but there weren't any tourists around so raising money wasn't the raison d'etre.

Jineteros are one of Havana's most irritating species. Touts and hustlers they buzz around any meandering tourist offering fake cigars, their sisters for rent, tickets for nonexistent Buena Vista concerts and so on. Jineteros are illegal so keep walking, ignore them and they will go elsewhere.

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