Havana in 4 Days: Two Price Systems and a Wallet of Cash

Four things happen in this first hour and none of them can be done later. One: have the D'Viajeros QR code already on your phone. It is Cuba's mandatory online arrival declaration and current guidance splits between completing it within 72 hours and within seven days of travel, so do it a week out and screenshot the code, because you will be asked for it at check-in and at immigration. Two: have your entry document. Most nationalities still buy the paper tourist card through an airline or agency; United States citizens have needed an online eVisa since July 2025, and separately must travel under one of the twelve OFAC categories, of which Support for the Cuban People is the one that fits an itinerary of private restaurants and private guest houses. Three: buy the ETECSA tourist SIM at the airport counter, because ETECSA is a state monopoly and there is no competitor to switch to later. Cubacel Tur Básico is roughly 25 to 35 dollars for 7 days with about 4 GB; the 30 day version carries about 10 GB. Cubacel does not sell an eSIM to tourists, so if you want one it has to be a third party riding on the same network. Four: change a small amount only. Airport and hotel cadecas pay the official 120 pesos to the dollar and take an 8 percent surcharge on US dollars, which nets around 110; the informal rate was about 673 on 1 August 2026 and has run between 635 and 675 through the month. Change 20 or 30 dollars officially to have pesos in hand, then change the rest through your casa host, who will give you something close to the street rate. The taxi is 25 to 35 dollars, agreed before you get in. Declare cash over the equivalent of 5,000 dollars.

One of the longest-established casas particulares in the old town and the most heavily reviewed, ranked around #29 of some 2,736 Havana guest houses on about 1,324 reviews, though its star rating is a flat 4.0 rather than anything higher, so expect a warm, well-run, old building rather than a boutique hotel. Any licensed private house works and this one is a benchmark for what the money buys: a room in a casa particular runs 25 to 60 dollars a night in Havana, with 40 to 60 buying something good, breakfast usually 5 dollars extra. This is not only the cheaper option, it is the one that keeps money in private hands, which is the substance of the OFAC Support for the Cuban People category for American travellers. Book direct where you can: platform rates run 15 to 25 percent above the direct rate, and Airbnb stopped being able to pay Cuban hosts through their MLC accounts in February 2025. Pay cash on arrival or departure, in dollars or euros; almost no casa can take a card and since June 2026 essentially nobody on the island can. A casa host is also the most reliable place to change money at the informal rate and the most reliable source of what the blackout schedule is doing this week.

The most completely restored of the four colonial squares and the best short course in what the restoration programme has and has not reached: four sides of finished arcades, and streets running off it where the same buildings are propped up with timber. Free, open, and at its best in the first hours of the day before the heat and the cruise groups. The Cámara Oscura in the northeast corner and the microbrewery on the south side both charge in pesos.

Down a dead-end alley off Plaza de la Catedral, and the standard against which Havana ropa vieja is measured. Rated 4.5 across about 4,720 reviews, one of the largest review sets of any restaurant in the country. Small room, no reservations by phone that reliably work, so arrive at opening or expect to wait. Cash, in dollars or pesos. Around 20 to 30 dollars a head with a drink.

The 18th century governors' palace on Plaza de Armas, with the city museum inside and a courtyard of royal palms. Two honest warnings, because this is the weakest ticketed stop of the four days on its own merits. First, the labelling: recurring reviews report that almost nothing across the forty halls is translated into English, and visitors who did not read Spanish could not tell what they were looking at or why it mattered. Come for the building, the staircase and the courtyard, take an hour rather than the full stop if the rooms do not hold you, and no star average surfaced for it anywhere. Second, the price. Every figure you will find online for this museum, and for most state museums in Havana, is quoted in CUC, a currency withdrawn on 1 January 2021 that has not existed for over five years. No current source gives a reliable peso figure. Expect a foreigner rate posted in Cuban pesos at the door, somewhere in the low hundreds, and carry pesos rather than dollars because the ticket window will not want them. Budget three dollars and be pleased if it is less. Also listed as Museum of the City.

The best rated of the paladares in this itinerary at 4.7 across about 2,372 reviews, a small private kitchen doing Cuban cooking that has actually moved on from the 1950s repertoire. Eating early here is deliberate: it clears the evening for the fortress across the harbour, and an early sitting is also insurance against a blackout catching a kitchen mid-service. Reserve the day before by WhatsApp. Around 30 to 40 dollars a head.

There is no walking route: the fortress is on the far side of the harbour mouth and the only link is the road tunnel under it. Agree 8 to 10 dollars each way and agree the return before you get out, because taxis thin out on that side after the ceremony and the ones that remain know it.

The cañonazo de las nueve, a cannon fired from the ramparts at exactly 21:00 every night of the year by soldiers in 18th century uniform, marking the hour the city gates used to close. Arrive by 20:30 for a place on the wall and for the walk along the ramparts beforehand, which is where the view of Havana across the water is. This is the same pricing problem as the city museum: every published figure is in CUC, with the fortress commonly quoted at 6 to 8 and the ceremony at 14, all of them dead currency. Budget around 12 dollars in pesos for entry plus the ceremony and check at the gate. Outdoors, which is why it is the evening stop on the day you have just flown in.

The 1929 parliament building, restored and now seat of the National Assembly, and no longer visitable on your own: entry is by guided tour only, in small groups, 45 to 50 minutes, and daily capacity is limited. Twenty dollars including the guide, quoted and paid in hard currency, which makes it the single most expensive ticket in these four days and the clearest example of the dollar half of the city's pricing. Open Monday to Saturday, roughly 09:00 to 17:00. Buy ahead rather than turning up: the San Cristóbal travel agency on the corner of Plaza de Armas sells tickets, as does the tourist office facing the building. Worth knowing before you commit twenty dollars: the tour and the price are confirmed on operator pages, but no consolidated visitor rating surfaced for it anywhere, so there is no aggregate score to weigh it against.

Start in the Arte Universal building on Parque Central, a 1920s palace holding the international collection, including a Spanish and an ancient Mediterranean holding that nobody expects to find here. The pricing is the point of the day: 125 pesos for one building or 200 pesos for both on the same day, against 15 and 20 pesos for a Cuban. At the informal rate that 200 pesos is roughly 30 US cents; at the official rate it is about 1.67 dollars. Buy the two-building ticket now, because it only works on the day it is issued. Hours are genuinely disputed between current sources: one set says Thursday to Saturday 09:00 to 17:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 14:00, another says Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 18:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 14:00. Both readings work on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday, which is why this itinerary runs Thursday to Sunday. No consolidated star rating surfaced for the museum.

Directly opposite the Capitolio, upstairs and unmarked apart from the queue, a dining room run by the Asturian society since long before private restaurants were legal, doing enormous plates of lobster, lamb and paella for a fraction of paladar prices. It is the other half of the day's arithmetic sitting across the road from the 20 dollar tour. No consolidated star average surfaced for it in current searches despite it being one of the best known dining rooms in Havana, so this one rests on reputation and the queue rather than on a number. Cash, no reservations, expect to wait 20 to 40 minutes at peak.

Five minutes away and covered by the same ticket. This is the reason to come: the most complete collection of Cuban painting anywhere, and the twentieth century floors in particular explain more about the country than any museum of the revolution does. Give it the longer half of the day. If the earlier reading of the hours is the right one it closes at 17:00, so do not leave this until late afternoon.

The raised marble promenade running down to the sea between two lines of traffic, with laurel trees, bronze lions and stone benches, and in the late afternoon it belongs to children playing football, boxing coaches, dominoes and dog walkers rather than to visitors. Free, outdoors and unaffected by whether the power is on. Walk it as far as the Malecón and turn left along the seawall for the sunset.

Three flights up a monumental ruined staircase in a Centro Habana tenement, open since 1996 and the paladar that made the case that private restaurants could be good. Rated 4.4 across about 4,927 reviews, the largest review set of any restaurant in Cuba. The rating has softened as the field has filled out and part of what you are paying for is the building and the roof terrace. Book several days ahead, in high season a week. Around 40 to 55 dollars a head. This is by a distance the largest food line in the budget; Habana 61 and Doña Eutimia both cook as well for less.