10 things to do in Havana: Tips from WTTW’s Geoffrey Baer

WTTW producer and host Geoffrey Baer got to know Cuba’s capital city last year while making the upcoming PBS special “Weekend in Havana,” premiering Tuesday.

Here is Baer’s curated list of 10 things to do in Havana:

1. El Malecon. This is the broad street and wide promenade along Havana’s waterfront. Go at sunset when it feels like the whole city comes out to stroll, listen to street musicians and just enjoy life.

2. Cannon firing ceremony at the Fortress of San Carlos de la Cabana (across the harbor from Old Havana). Feels touristy, but every night for hundreds of years, soldiers have fired a cannon from the battlements to signal the closing of the harbor. Arrive early for two reasons: to catch the soldiers in 18th-century uniforms marching by torchlight to the site of the elaborate ceremony. And also because it gets crowded with locals and tourists, and you want a good view! (If you don’t like loud noises, be prepared to plug your ears as I did.)

3. Cathedral Square and Havana Cathedral. Of the four main squares in Havana, this one is my favorite. Lovely outdoor dining at several cafes and beautifully restored colonial buildings made from the local limestone encrusted with fossilized sea creatures. And the cathedral itself is breathtaking. A baroque exterior (in the same rustic stone) gives way to what I would describe as a Romanesque interior. A rather austere and contemplative soaring vaulted space with wonderful statuary, including a startling likeness of Pope John Paul II that looks as if it could turn its head and start giving you a blessing at any moment.

4. La Guarida. This is one of Cuba’s private restaurants called paladares. Paladares operated illegally until the 1990s, when the government slowly started allowing them. And this one is not to be missed. It’s on the roof of a ruined palace built for a single family in the early 20th century. As Cuba fell into isolation, as many as 40 families once crowded together in this building. The owner is slowly restoring the building, but you still climb up through several floors of once-opulent ruins to reach the restaurant. The food is wonderful, but it’s the view that is truly spectacular. Be sure to climb the spiral stairway two levels above the rooftop restaurant (and one floor above the bar) for a sweeping view of crumbling Havana Centro and the waterfront in the distance. This is another place that’s great to visit around sunset.

5. La Fabrica de Arte and El Cocinero. This is an ultra-hip art gallery and nightclub housed in an old cooking-oil factory in the Vedado neighborhood. Stylishly dressed young people line up and down the block to get in. I described it as an art gallery with bouncers. I’ve been told that such museums as MoMA in New York send people here to scout out the art. And adjacent to La Fabrica in another part of the old factory is a super-cool paladar, El Cocinero. Be sure to climb the metal stairs from the rooftop dining area into the base of the old smokestack and look up! When I was there, a dazzling LED light art installation was inside.

6. Take a ride in a coco taxi. Yes, everyone wants to ride in the 1950s ubiquitous 1950s convertibles. And that’s definitely fun. But I liked these even better. They are essentially motorized rickshaws with a driver sitting behind handlebars and just enough room for three people in back. They’re shaped like yellow fiberglass coconuts (hence the name). A great view from the open sides with the added bonus of being a bit of a thrill ride as your driver speeds through traffic.

7. Hershey Train. If you like trains (and I do!), you’ll love this. It’s a rusty old streetcar-looking contraption built decades ago by the Hershey company to serve its refinery several hours outside of Havana. When we visited to scout locations in August 2016, the train was standing in the station waiting for a scheduled departure so I got a chance to roam around inside and take pictures. But when we went back to film in November, the train was broken down, and we were told it wouldn’t be operational again for several months! So I never got to actually ride it. You’ll need to ask a local for details on how to ride (schedule, where to get on and off, etc.).

8. Ernest Hemingway’s room at the Hotel Ambos Mundos. Hemingway lived in room 511 in this hotel throughout the 1930s. The room is now preserved as a tiny museum with Hemingway’s typewriter under glass (at least they claim it was his typewriter) and the actual telegram framed on the wall notifying him that he won the Nobel Prize for literature. He received it in 1954, long after he moved from the hotel to a country home outside Havana called Finca Vigia (also definitely worth a visit).

9. Russian Embassy (built by the Soviets). This has to be seen to be believed. It is a looming concrete building on swanky Fifth Avenue in Miramar built in the 1970s and ‘80s in a style appropriately called “brutalism.” It looks like a giant guard tower from which Cuba’s Soviet patrons could survey the city. The bizarre ornamental top looks to me like it could easily have once concealed all manner of surveillance equipment. But that’s just my imagination, right? Speaking of Soviet history, another site worth seeing is a display of Soviet missiles and jets pointed at the U.S. on a grassy hill near the Fortress of San Carlos de la Cabana. A stark reminder of the Cuban Missile Crisis and how close the world came to nuclear Armageddon in October 1962.

10. More paladares:

La Esperanza. Many paladares were in private homes back before they were legalized. This one still feels like you’ve walked into someone’s living room! It’s in a lovely early modernist house with eclectic decor in the Miramar neighborhood, and the food is great.

Rio Mar. This lovely waterfront eatery has a great view from the back terrace seating area of the small bay where the Almendares River flows into the sea.

Vista Mar. This is an actual oceanfront restaurant, and you can hear the sound of waves crashing from the back terrace dining area. It’s in a once-glamorous modernist building that will make you feel like you’ve stepped right back into the 1950s.

“Weekend in Havana” debuts at 8 p.m. Tuesday on WTTW-Ch. 11.

For more of Baer’s insights into Cuba, visit wttw.com/weekendinhavana.

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