Optional Activities that can be added to your itinerary
Below are optional activities that can be inclueded in your itinerary some are free and others have a cost.
Visit to Finca Vigia - Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum
Your transportation will await you at Regla for the short drive to Ernest Hemingway’s home in the rural village of San Francisco de Paula, also just east of Havana. Named Finca Vigia or “Lookout Farm”, the home was built in 1866 and purchased by Hemingway in 1940. This property, emerging from a lush tropical flora and fauna, was his primary home from 1940 until his death in 1961. Hemingway loved Cuba and according to close sources, he spent more time there during those two decades that any of his homes around the world. Here, Hemingway wrote his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, “The Old Man and the Sea”, and his famous fishing boat, El Pilar, is also on display here. In 1962, Finca Vigia was turned into a museum making it the first institution in the world devoted to Ernest Hemingway and his work. Recently, the feature film, “Papa” was filmed on location in Cuba and much of it at Finca Vigia.
Visit to Bellas Artes Museum- Cuban Art Collection
Very near El Prado, still in the heart of Havana’s urban center where La Habana Vieja meets Centro Habana, is a notoriously modern structure, housing the largest permanent collection of Cuban art in the world dating from the 16th Century to present. The collection boasts extensive works of the Cuban masters from the 1920s through the post-modernists of the 1980s who influenced a worldwide movement and hang in museums and private collections worldwide.
Arts & Crafts Market - Almacenes San Jose in Old Havana
Almacenes San Jose, the vast craft market right on the docks at the Port of Havana, offers an impressive diversity of goods and artwork crafted by artists and artisans in Cuba. You can walk up and down the aisles between stands, while the vendors play their maracas and claves in the morning breeze coming off the bay, and find everything from traditional souvenirs, original paintings, .
Cigar Factory Tour
A guided tour of one of the Cuba’s cigar factories, will give you a first-hand look at the manufacturing of the Habano. You will also have the opportunity to meet and speak with the master rollers that have inherited and will pass down the fine art of rolling the best cigars in the world.
Visit to Casa de Africa (Africa Museum house)
It exhibits sub-Saharan and African people cultures and unique elements of the wide variety of Afro Cuban religions.
Visit to Christopher Columbus Cemetery - Necropolis Cristobal Colon
Founded in 1876, the Colon Cemetery is one of the great historical cemeteries of the world, and is held to be the most important in Latin America in historical and architectural terms. Located in the Vedado district, it was built by the Galician architect Calixto Arellano de Loira y Cardoso, who became Colón’s first occupant when he died before his work was completed.
Visit to Beth Shalom Synagogue
Known as the Patronato, Cuba’s major Jewish community center, which was founded in 1953 and maintains its beautiful facade with the symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel and modernist arch rising to the heavens.
Artist Studio & Gallery Visits
Impressive art galleries have sprung up all over the colonial center of the city, in Modern Havana, where you can see the work of Cuba’s top artists and often housing their private studios. As you stroll through Havana you will happen by many galleries and studios where you can view and purchase original art.
Bacardi Building
The Bacardí building is located on the Avenue of Belgium No. 261, Stoned San Juan de Dios, in the historical center of Havana. It is an excellent example of the decorative arts, the first building built in Art Deco Havana. The work was completed in 1930 and at the time was the tallest structure in the city. This building was erected in order to establish in it the offices of the company Bacardi in Havana.
Barrio Habana (Community Organization/Social Project)
BarrioHabana.Org is a community organization based in Old Havana that is dedicated to the betterment of the quality of life of children, teens and the elderly. They are extremely active in the community and will do anything from clean up and put to use an empty lot for exhibitions and performances, food drives for the elderly or developing opportunities for kids to engage in workshops with famous athletes, artists and musicians.
Cabaret Parisien
Parisien Cabaret offers a great show "Cuban, Cubano. It is a fusion of Indoamerican, Hispanic and African cultures, that led to the Cuban culture. Every day from 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. the show starts at 10:00 p.m. and afterwards from 12:00 a.m. you can learn how to dance.
Cooking Class at Ajiaco Café
Ajiaco Cafe offers one of the best cooking classes in Havana. The morning begins by visiting the organic garden, where you learn about the fresh ingredients that go into Cuban cooking. Then you will go into the kitchen and learn the preparation of Cuban cuisine and learn how to prepare a couple of dishes. you will also learn how to make the perfect mojito. Finally, you will enjoy a feast consisting of the food you helped prepare.
El Cañonazo Ceremony
Visit the cabaña fortress where you will see a recreation of the Cañonazo Ceremony. During the colonial period when La Habana was a walled city the ceremony at 9PM every night would announce the closing of the city gates.
El Morro Castle & Lighthouse
Built on the high rock entrance to the Bay and completed in the early 1600s, El Morro Castle guards the Port of Havana, complete with dungeons, cannons, and the iconic lighthouse. The group will stop here for a brief visit to take in the breathtaking views of Havana from across the mouth of the harbor.
Visit to El Capitolio
The Capitol of Havana is located in the center of the capital, between the streets Prado, Dragoons, Industria and San José. It is an important building constructed in 1929 under the direction of architect Eugenio Raynieri Stone, intended to house and host of the two chambers of Congress or legislative body of the Republic of Cuba. Inspired by the classic Roman Capitol, the building has a neoclassical facade and a columnar dome reaches 91.73 m high. El Capitolio was recently renovated.
Visit to City Museum-Old Havana
Located in the Capitan Generales Building in Plaza de Armas, this museum chronicles the history of La Habana, from Spanish colonial times into the 20th century. Furniture, uniforms, weapons, photographs and paintings are exhibited.
Visit to Colonial Art Museum -Havana
It is the former house of Count Casa Bayona, built by 1720 and located in a privileged area across from The Havana Cathedral. This museum has an important representation of the decoration and furniture of the biggest colonial mansions of Havana from the l7th to the 19th centuries, Furniture, Glassware, Porcelain and Grille.
Visit to Decorative Art Museum Havana
Since 1964 this magnificent eclectic-style Havana mansion, once owned by María Luisa Gómez Mena, countess of Revilla Camargo has been home to a collection of over thirty thousand works of art, including Louis XV and XVI period furniture; 17th to 19th-century Chinese decorative arts, Chantilly, Meissen, Sevres, Limoge, Staffordshire, Wedgwood and Faenza porcelains, and numerous clocks, precious metals, paintings, and tapestries.
Visit to Havana Club Rum Museum-Havana
The Rum Museum is a symbol in the historical heart of Havana. The museum is situated in an elegant eighteenth-century colonial house, totally renovated some years ago.
The rooms used by the museum are built around a spectacular courtyard decorated in authentic and classic style. The guided tour in the museum shows each step in the development of the Havana Club rum with a reconstruction of the original Havana Club distillery and aging vessels. The tour ends with a tasting of the rum.
Visit to John Lennon Park
He John Lennon Park is a park located in El Vedado , Havana , Cuba , exactly on 17th Street, between 6th and 8th streets, so renamed from the placement of a life -size statue of the famous English composer. member of the legendary quartet The Beatles . The statue is the work of the Cuban sculptor José Ramón Villa Soberón .
Ernest Hemingway Room at Ambos Mundos Hotel.
The room is triangular in shape and the corner is covered by windows that look out onto the rooftops of Old Havana through to Castillo Morro Fort on the other side of the harbor. The breeze brings with it sounds of the streets below and the not-so-distant smell of the ocean. In front of the window, in the center of the room, is a small table and chair and upon the table, ensconced in a glass box, lies Hemingway’s typewriter. The view from the windows is breath taken but maybe the sight of the typewriter makes your heart stop. It is magnificent. A writer’s weapon has never before been so gloriously displayed.
Ferry Ride Across Havana Bay to Regla
When driving or strolling along Havana’s “malecon”, the coastal avenue that hugs the city of Havana along its majestic port and iconic sea, you have a constant view of the iconic lighthouse that stands proud atop a cliff guarding Havana’s spectacular natural harbor. The towns of Casa Blanca sits at the end of the promontory, across the harbor from La Habana Vieja and home to the famous statue of Christ, the Blanco Cristo.
Fidel Castro Suite in Havana Libre
Following the entry of Fidel Castro into Havana, on January 8, 1959, the Hotel Habana Hilton became his headquarters for 3 months. He took the suite 2324 as his central office. you will have the opportunity to visit Fidel's suite just as it was when he stayed there.
Fusterlandia Community Project
Fuster has made a major contribution over 10 years of work of rebuilding and decorating the fishing town of Jaimanitas in the outskirts of Havana, where he lives. Jaimanitas is now a unique work of public art where Fuster has decorated over 80 houses with ornate murals and domes to suit the personality of his neighbors, he has built a chess park with giant boards and tables, The Artists’ Wall composed of a quilt of dozens of tiles signed and donated by other Cuban artists, a theatre and public swimming pools.
Hotel Nacional Visit
Prior to 1959, Cuba was a favorite destination for the “mob”. The Hotel was the favorite hotel of the era, founded in 1924 and located high on a coral rock bluff looking out over the Caribbean and the opening of Havana Harbor.
Jewish Cementeries in Guanabacoa and Holocaust Memorial
The cemetery is arranged as required by the Jewish tradition. At the entrance there is a building used to wash the body of the deceased. Just outside the door there is a tap for visitors to wash their hands after a visit. The tombstones, known as matzevots in Hebrew, are aligned to look directly east or west. We note inscriptions in Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish, English and Russian. The universal Jewish symbols, the Star of David, the menorah, the lion and the lampstand were observed, to name a few. Many stones have in peace desonse or rest in peace carved in them.
La Bodeguita del Medio
La Bodeguita del Medio is a famous tourist destination because of the personalities which have patronized it: Salvador Allende, the poet Pablo Neruda, the artist Josignacio and many others.
Museo de la Revolucion,
Description: Visit Museo de la Revolucion to learn about the rich history of Cuban culture and Plaza de la Revolucion to see iconic Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos monuments. Then take a walk along El Malecon, the famous Atlantic Ocean promenade and observe the local artisan Cuban fisherman line fishing. Contact Details:
Visit to Museo del Automóvil
One block east of the plaza, the State-run Museum of Automobiles, previously known as the Depósito del Automóvil, showcases a collection of almost 50 vehicles from 1905 to 1989, includes cars, trucks, special-purpose vehicles, and classic American autos once owned by famous personalities.
VIsit to Museo del Ferrocarril (Train Museum)
Opened on November 19, 2002, the Railway Museum is housed in the former Cristina railway station, headquarters of the Western Railway of Havana. Cuba was the sixth country in the world to develop a railway network–the first in Spanish America and second in the American continent, only after the railway in the United Stated. Highlights in the museum include several locomotives, passenger coaches and freight cars used for public transportation and in the sugar industry.
Visit to Museum of the Revolution
The Museum of the Revolution, located in the former Presidential Palace, chronicles the history of the Revolution from its beginning at the University of Havana to the modern period. Many artifacts from the process, including the Granma Boat which brought Fidel Castro and his forces from Mexico to begin the major offensive of the Revolution, can be seen in this building located at the heart of La Habana Vieja.
Visit to The Camara Oscura
Located on the top floor of the eclectic-style early 20th-century Edificio Gómez Vila—the plaza’s tallest building (35 meters/115 feet)—on the northeast corner, the Cámara Oscura provides a 360-degree panoramic view of much of Old Havana in real time, projected at 30X magnification through a peephole camera onto a pitch-dark screen.
Salsa Lessons
Learn all about the many traditional and modern Cuban dances such as the Cuban Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Son, Mambo, etc. Participate in a custom class based on your skills, we provide the classes at the beginning so that you may practice your new steps throughout your trip.
Tropicana Night Club
The Tropicana was the most famous nightclub in the world from 1939 to 1959. Built in the gardens of an early 20th-century residence, it contains one of Cuba’s most significant modern buildings, the Arcos de Cristal (1952), a thin-shell concrete structure by architect Max Borges Recio. The club continues to operate and is the only one of Havana’s famed clubs to survive the revolution.
Visit Callejon de Hamel
This Alley is located in the working class Cayo Hueso quarter that serves as an open-air Afro-Cuban Religion Sanctuary, the work of local artist Salvador Gonzalez who has adorned its walls with evocative Santeria murals paying homage to religious cults and currents of African origin. It hosts the famous Afro-Cuban rumbas that take place every Sunday afternoon.
Visit Christ of Havana
This majestic representation of Jesus Christ, only four decades old, is part of the landscape that characterizes the entrance to the Havana harbor. It is 20 meters tall, weighs 320 tons and consists of 67 different pieces, and made in white Carrara marble, contrasts with the gray rocks around it. The monument was made in Italy by Cuban artist Jilma Madera, who didn’t use any male model and instead based her work on her masculine beauty ideal.
Visit Farmers Market
Cuba is known for its fertile lands, diversity of ecosystems and its agricultural productivity. The local farmer's markets are strategically located throughout the towns and cities are the source of this spectacular selection of products for the Cuban population. Daily, folks purchase their fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and other produce at the local market in local currency. Your guide will escort you to one of the best of these markets in the heart of the Vedado district on 19th St. and B. Pick up some fresh fruit for your room or just feast your eyes on the tropical delights that grow on the island.
Visit Muraleando community project
When local artists Manuel (Manolo) Diaz Baldrich and Ernesto Quirch Paz began teaching art workshops in the neighborhood school in 2001, they had no thoughts of starting a community development project. They quickly moved the workshops into the streets, and there the seeds of Muraleando (literally "muraling" or mural-making) were sown. The murals that started springing up throughout the neighborhood were a natural outgrowth of the art classes.
