Sven was lucky enough to have discovered Cuba in his childhood. He often told me about dancing and happy people in the park and music from every corner. That alone was enough to make Cuba pretty much at the top of my bucket list as a destination 😊

Unfortunately, I was only able to realize this dream for myself in 2019.

We have a big advantage because of our job! We can work from anywhere, we only need our laptop and internet, but we have to work every day (even on vacation) 😔 Therefore, we are always dependent on a strong and stable internet on our travels.

In 2019, however, the time had come on the Caribbean island that the 4G network was slowly being expanded. This is an advantage for us, since we could finally travel to Cuba, but it also has a negative side for the country itself… more about that later 😉

When we arrived in Havana, we felt immediately transported back in time. Everywhere you looked, colorful vintage cars and horse-drawn carriages drove around, also the buildings were showing their age. We moved into our accommodation in the heart of Havana, the Iberostar Parque Central. The hotel offers a rooftop pool & bar with a fantastic view of the city 😍

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As you know, I rarely leave anything to chance on our travels and have therefore already booked a full-day excursion at home. We wanted to learn as much as possible about Havana. We spent the morning on a guided walking tour through the old town.

We started our exploration in Callejón de Hamel, here you can marvel at Afro-Cuban art and wall paintings. Many of the designs come from the Cuban artist Salvador González Escalona. On Sundays, this alley can even be seen from afar, because then rumba rhythms can be heard and there is drumming and dancing in this street.

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We went on to the Plaza de la Catedral – one of my favorite places in Havana 😍 You immediately feel transported back to the Middle Ages. The cathedral “La Catedral de la Virgen María de la Concepción Inmaculada de La Habana” forms the central element of the square.

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… and another favorite place in Havana … Plaza Vieja 😍 As you can see, I have a preference for old buildings and places where you can still get the feeling of how it was a few centuries ago 😉

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After an extensive lunch and of course a delicious mojito 😋, our tour in a vintage car began. On the way we explored many sights such as the Capitol, the Castillo de la Real Fuerza and the Plaza de la Revolución.

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A real classic car meeting took place at the Plaza de la Revolución – of course staged for the tourists 😉🤣

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After so much horsepower and the hustle and bustle in the city, the next stop was extremely quiet and relaxing – the Havana Forest. Within minutes you actually had the feeling of being in the middle of a jungle, the park had something mystical about it.

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Our tour was almost over, so we definitely deserved a cocktail 😉 We were chauffeured to the famous Hotel Nacional de Cuba, where we were served the absolutely strongest mojito we had ever drunk 🙈

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These were the highlights of Havana which you could do in one day. We stayed in this exciting city for 2 more nights and explored the streets of Havana and the nightlife on our own … there were definitely a few more mojitos 🤣

Take a look at our Havana video 😍😍😍

Our personal opinion about Havana:

• a trip back in time
• interesting history
• hot rhythms on every corner

Best travel time:

The winter months from November to March are considered the best time to travel to Cuba. During this time, pleasant temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius can be expected.

Hotel recommendation:

Iberostar Parque Central

Restaurant recommendation:

Mojito Mojito

More tips & recommendations:

A good alternative to the often expensive hotels in Cuba are the Casas Particulares. These are private family accommodations in Cuba that can be compared to a bed and breakfast accommodation.

Usually we always explore a city on foot, as this is, in our opinion, the best way to get an impression. In Havana, however, it is a must to cruise along the Malecón (Havana’s famous waterfront) at least once in a vintage convertible.

To enter Cuba you need a compulsory foreign health insurance. The document / confirmation (must be in Spanish) must be taken with you when you travel.

We booked our day trip (sightseeing on foot & by vintage convertible) on the following page and can absolutely recommend it:

https://www.getyourguide.com/

The Internet in Cuba is such a topic of its own 🙈 For the Cubans it is of course a great step forward to finally have access to mobile Internet, but of course a lot has changed with this. Instead of Cubans dancing salsa and making music, you saw a lot of young people sitting around with their smartphones. However, since we are dependent on the mobile Internet every day due to our job, we were very happy about this enormous progress.

We have had rather bad experiences with the hotel internet, the bandwidth is very poor, apart from that the tariff per hour is relatively expensive. The best thing to do is to buy a prepaid card (1 GB) in an ETECSA shop. The lady in the shop was very helpful and immediately helped us to activate the card.

However, the data volume of 1 GB can be used up quickly. For frequent surfers or if you stay in Cuba for more than 2 weeks, it is advisable to buy more prepaid cards.

The card is available for $ 25 and includes (facts from 2020):

• 1 GByte Internet
• Call for 20 minutes (national and international)
• 20 SMS (national und international)

Here is more information:

https://www.etecsa.cu/telefonia_movil/cubacel_tur/

Means of transport in Cuba: Whether an organized round trip in a group, rental car or taxi depends on the way you like to spend your vacation. A group trip was out of the question for us, as we like to be flexible and prefer to organize the day ourselves. However, since we hardly speak a word of Spanish, we were strongly advised not to drive around by rental car. By bus it was too tedious for us. So we only had the option of getting from A to B by taxi. In retrospect, it turns out that this was absolutely the best solution for us personally. We could decide for ourselves when we wanted to leave, the hotel organized a reputable driver for us and settled a fixed price in advance and the bottom line was that all taxi transfers were not much more expensive than a rental car with good insurance.

Crime in Cuba: Officially, the country is very safe. However, caution and healthy distrust never hurt. The Federal Foreign Office urges you to be particularly careful with flat tires and at petrol stations. Thieves could use the distraction of vehicle occupants to steal valuables and luggage unnoticed. Unfortunately, my sister and brother-in-law also had to experience this in Cuba 😔 a scam that is not only found in Cuba.