Havana "bar hopping" - middle aged style! ;)

[cpayne]

I posted this original thread nearly a year ago.  Just returning from our 8 nt Cuba cruise and reporting back.   

 

Had an “elaborate” night walking tour planned.  Put far more effort in to planning this than necessary, but was so little info posted.  Here’s my suggestion.  Get off ship and walk just a few blocks to Obispo Street. Up and down Obispo are a wide variety of bars/restaurants.  This street is their equivalent of New Orleans Bourbou Street or Austin’s 6th Street on a smaller scale.  Easy to find (listed on the cruise map they provide) or download the Havana map on google maps prior to arrival.  The map will work offline without internet access and easy to help you find your way around.    Also was safe.  

 

Music ended at 10:30 promptly.  Someone said they thought there was some type of curfew, but never confirmed this.   

 

Tip we learned while explorint Obispo:    Bars/restaurants with table clothes are government affiliated and those with no table clothes are not.  Non table cloth locations will have better prices as well.    Drink prices were usually half the price.   

 

Our departure time from Havana was extended the 2nd day from 8 pm to 1 am. This essentially gave us a 2nd overnight.  At 6 pm we walked right from the ship towards the Malecon to catch a CoCo Cab.    They are not allowed to park/wait directly in front of the ship.  Took a sunset drive down the Malecon to the Hotel Nacional.  Had a drink while watching the sunset and stroll thru the hotel.  Negotiated a price of 7 CUC’s per cab one way.    

 

Afterward the hotel we grabbed a convertible for a moonlight stroll back down the Malecon to the ship. 10 CUC’s per car.  Had to negotiate hard for this price and the CoCo Cab price but can be done!  

 

Im not one to “wing it” when we travel, but that’s my advice for an evening in Havana for music, dancing and drinking!  

 

Happy to answer any questions. 

[eltigre]

Thanks for follow up. We or should I say I planned a route on Google Maps offline but once we had explored during the day, we also did the follow the music and pop in to bars. So safe and so fun.At airport right now waiting for flight home

[karrus]

Our favorite was Azucar Bar and Lounge. Great drinks (order the strawberry daiquiri), service and people watching from the balcony where you can enjoy the music from square below  

La Vertola had outdoor seating and live music.  Santo Angel restaurants had fun friendly service (the waiter gave us an impromptu salsa lesson)outdoor seating and good drinks. All iwirhin walking distance of the port all right inside the main square. We had a great time. Enjoy!

[cruiserbrianj]

Thank you for all the research and ultimately, your review.  We're headed there in September and this looks like what I'd be looking for.  Question, and I'm assuming this is a yes, but the bars did not take US currency, correct?  Did you convert your money at the terminal or at a bank/hotel as I've heard mentioned before?  Any other tips are appreciated.

[KCmomof5]

12 minutes ago, cruiserbrianj said:

Thank you for all the research and ultimately, your review.  We're headed there in September and this looks like what I'd be looking for.  Question, and I'm assuming this is a yes, but the bars did not take US currency, correct?  Did you convert your money at the terminal or at a bank/hotel as I've heard mentioned before?  Any other tips are appreciated.

We exchanged our money for CUC  at the terminal.   The bars we went too did not take US currency.  

[cpayne]

31 minutes ago, cruiserbrianj said:

Thank you for all the research and ultimately, your review.  We're headed there in September and this looks like what I'd be looking for.  Question, and I'm assuming this is a yes, but the bars did not take US currency, correct?  Did you convert your money at the terminal or at a bank/hotel as I've heard mentioned before?  Any other tips are appreciated.

We did not specifically inquire about whether the places we visited took US $ or not.  We had converted to Canadian money prior to our departure and converted to CUC's upon arrival in Cuba.  We did find one craft vendor in Cienfuegos and one palador/restaurant in Havana who said we could pay them in either currency. 

 

We converted our $ at the terminal due to ease.  It's right there when you get off the ship.  Do not rely on converting at a hotel as you don't know when/where you may find a hotel.  Also, when we were at the Hotel Nacional their currency exchange window happened to be closed. 

 

If you have a late night or overnight in Havana be sure to know when the $ exchange closes.  Our ship departed at 1 a.m., but currency exchange closed at 8 p.m.  We all tried to gauge how much we would need for the last few hrs and converted the remainder just before closing.  We all ended with just a small amount of CUC's which we left on board for our cabin stewards.  They will be able to spend them when they go ashore. 

[cruizinfools]

I had been following this thread prior to our Cuba cruise in January. We had two overnights in Havana and had planned to do our own bar hop similar to what Dawn (KCmomof5) did. We ended up wimping out and booked the free Strawberry Nightlife walking tour. I highly recommend it! There ended up being 10 of us from our roll call in our party. I agree that Obispo is easy and there is much going on, but our tour guide took us to places that were a little more off the beaten path but still lively fun places. We all had a great time. We went to 3 bars. Original plan was to go to 4  bars but the first one was too crowded and didn't have room for our group. Went a couple of doors down to the Art Pub. Really good mojitos, very strong! 5 CUC each. Then to La ReliQuia, free salsa lessons! And the last place was The Tavern which had live music. It was only a couple of blocks from the pier, an easy walk back to the ship. Meeting time was 8 pm at the plaza across from El Floridita (far end of Obispo close to the Capitol building). Our tour didn't start until a little after 8 pm and I am very sure we were out later than 10:30. Maybe places stayed open later on Saturday evening? We tipped our guide 40 CUC for the two of us.

 

https://strawberrytours.com/havana/tours

 

Enjoy your time in Havana!