Cuba is an incredible country. It is at the top of many lists of travelers, and for good reasons.
It is one of those places that invades you: because different, difficult and sometimes just frustrating, I found it, I could not help falling completely in love with it.
Since we left the country, Claudia and we want to go back! As Claudia says, "One place I would like to go back to is Havana."
When you arrive in Havana, book a classic car tour to discover all the major sites. These impeccable classic cars are the best way to see Havana.
Havana is known for its classic cars. Isolated from the world because of the US embargo, time has stopped since the 1950s, when America left its old cars and left them to the local people.
We booked with Cubatur and had fantastic guides to take us from our hotel to the Iberostar Grand Packard throughout the city.
The tour takes you through all parts of Havana.
We drove along the five-mile waterfront known as Malecon in the residential area of Vedado to the Miramar embassy. This is where the diplomats and the rich live and the architecture is beautiful.
A walk through the forest was a nice walk before returning to the main road of Old Havana through Central Park and the buildings of the capital. For a glimpse of the city, it's a great tour to start.
If you do not want to go for an organized tour by car, you can easily take a taxi, especially. For about $ 5 to $ 10, you can take a classic taxi to take you from point A to point B, as did Claudia.
All taxi details are not equal. Some of these classic cars are always perfect and brilliant. Others are just old and rusty. But all are incredibly tall.
Taxi rides (private taxi) are shared taxi rides. Which means that when I got one, other people also participated.
If they go in the same direction, you will have company. It's a good way to meet locals!
We have taken some clarification ourselves about taxis and drivers are proud of their cars. One of the drivers we informed about this taxi was his grandfather's car. He inherited it and has just redo the trim and restore the engine.
3. El Floridita for Hemingway Daiquiri
Hemingway frequented El Floridita so often, there is a statue of him sitting at the end of the bar with his namesake on the bar.
As you walk from Parque Central towards Old Havana, you will easily notice El Floridita. It is full of tourists visiting day trips, but leave later at night and you can enter with fewer people.
Ernest Hemingway attended El Floridita where the daiquiri was invented. He has a cocktail named after him called Papa Doble which is a sugar free daiquiri and doubles the rum
4. The Bodeguita del Medio
La Bodeguita is another Hemingway bar.
There is a note from Hemingway where he apparently wrote "My Mojito at La Bodeguita, My Daiquiri at El Floridita"
There are many cocktail spots in Vieja Havana (Old Havana) and I'm sure Hemingway has been a lot of them.
Claudia said: "It's almost impossible to miss a day in Cuba without a mojito."
The mojitos were invented in Cuba and are one of the oldest cocktails on the island. It's old considering that Havana is about to celebrate its 500th anniversary!
5. Mojito Mojito
We recommend the Mojito Mojito restaurant, we were told that its claim to fame is that the Mojito was invented there!
We had lunch here with an excellent group entertaining us. The food was good and the atmosphere was great. It was much bigger than most of the bars we visited in Havana.
We had one of their mojitos and they were good, but not as delicious as our favorite bar in Old Havana, Van Van.
We loved the Los Van Van bar and it seemed everyone did it too! We stayed two nights in a row and ended up seeing a lot of people the night before.
Mojitos were delicious and strong. (and yet there was no hangover) and the live music was outstanding and entertaining.
The whole bar was dancing.
Los Van Van is located in Old Havana.