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Cuba Old Havana Hotels
Old Havana Presentation and Overview
Old Havana is a network of narrow streets opening out into small squares fringed by grand houses and glorious churches. Although much of it is crumbling, Havana is now being preserved, as UNESCO has recognised the city as a World Heritage Site, especially talking about.
Old Havana (La Habana Vieja) was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, kicking along a restoration process that had begun two decades earlier in the wake of the revolution. Many of Havana's finest buildings have been converted into museums and there are enough churches, palaces, castles, revolutionary monuments and markets here to sate the most ravenous culture. The renovations haven't extended to residential areas, however. Nearly half the housing in the city is in bad repair - about 300 buildings collapse each year - and thousands of city residents have had to be evacuated.
Hotels in Old Havana range from the grand to the grungy. Prado, the 19th-century meeting place of Havana society, is now a strip of lovingly restored hotels and scurf-infested apartments, laurels, marble benches and habaneros genially begging for soap. Private rooms of varying standards are available in the area - have a look before you commit yourself. As well as the state-run restaurants, there are a lot of paladares (private restaurants of 12 seats or less) in Old Havana.
The exquisite architecture of Old Havana is very reminiscent of Seville with its narrow, cobbled streets, shady plazas, grilled windows and grand, if in many places, crumbling buildings. Tantalising glimpses of cool courtyards and wrought iron balconies, where whole families sit to observe the world are round every corner.
As most flights arrive after dark, it can be quite a culture shock to step outside the following next morning and be immediately swept up in a tide of humanity. Big, black, cigar-smoking mammas with Carmen Miranda head-dresses, statuesque models sprayed into their lycra outfits, as well as women of not-so-model-like proportions also sporting-hugging costumes, children in maroon or mustard school uniforms darting from side to side of the street, Chinese bicycle bells constantly ringing as cyclists nip in and out of the traffic, taxis, Ladas and 1950s Chevies all jostling for position on the road – all accompanied by pulsating Cuban rhythms from every window, doorway and balcony. The island’s rich history is no more apparent than in the mix of beats that make up Cuba’s own music and the diversity in the faces of its people. This mix of European, Asian and African peoples has created a race of warm, lively and ingenious people, which has helped them to survive forty years of shortages and deprivations.
All of these aspects are particulary evident and amplified in Old Havana, the true historical and cultural hearth of Havana.
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