Old Havana

The houses in Old Havana (68)

Vacation Rentals in Old Havana (La Habana Vieja)

The Old Havana is surely one of the most requested areas in terms of vacation rental, either in hotel and in casas particulares. Is there where most tourists want to stay, Old Havana is the old downtown of Habana City and therefore the vacation house rental is highly featured. About house sales as weel, nowadays is the right time to buy a house, because a lot of people is selling and the prices are still affordable for a house in an historic downtown. In the future the value of those houses will multiply, first because house value increase with the time and second because the area is a patrimonial center. Old Habana is probably the only historic downtown left that is still affordable in the world!

General Description of Old Havana

Even if many people tend to confuse the boundaries between Old Havana and Havana Central (Centro Habana), Old Havana is officially the area portion starting from Egido/Monserrate street and ending with Port Avenue.

La Habana Vieja (Old Havana) is the historical downtown of the city, declared by UNESCO as the humanity heritage and it's the first absolute and ultimate destination of any non-beach tourism in Cuba. It's unthinkable to visit Havana without knowing the Bodeguita del Medio, the Revolution Museum, the Planetarium, the Plaza de Armas place, the Ambos Mundos hotel where Ernest Hemingway lodged, the El Morro fortress, symbol of Cuba (Santiago de Cuba city also has one), the National Capitol (very similar to the US one), the National Ballet, the Arts Museum, the Prado and the Old Port avenues, the Obispo, Oficios and O'Reilly streets, the Salsa, Rhum and Malta Houses, the Floridita (cradle of daiquiri), the Cathedral, the Music Museum, the City and Colonial Art Museums, the General Capitans Palace, the Real Fuerza Castle, without counting the Malecon littoral and most buildings and historical monuments as other places of interest that made and make the history and future of Cuba. The Old Havana is the starting and final point of the Capital, in sum, if you have not visited the Old Havana, you know nothing about Cuba.

If you are looking for the most absolutely classical downtown, you have to go in Old Habana. Sure, there are drawbacks too. Sure, you will not always find the peacefulness, the space and the comfort, you can't travel in car in most of the streets that are pedestrians, but you will find bicyce-taxis, which will easily transport you from one place to another. In Old Havana you will always see movement of tourists and people, you will always see some event, so it will hardly be silent, nevertheless vacation rentals are quite silent and comfortable.

If you come to Cuba looking for events and life, if you want to stay at the middle of everything and you don't know Cuba well, this is the neighborhood of choice. But, if you want the peacefulness because you are intellectually active and you only want to see the world moving when you go out, so you have to go to Miramar. While if you want to be in a place which is centric and modern at the same time, so you should choose the Vedado neighborhood.

A walk to La Habana Vieja will not delay to reveal its glorious past colonial architecture, much of it restored. In fact, all the profits from Habaguanex, state company who own most hotels and restaurants of Old Havana, are destined to restore the historical center. Thus, it's edifying to dinner at the exclusive and very fine El Café del Oriente restaurant, knowing that the Havana historiographer may come at any time and seat in his reserved place, or knowing that all the money you will spend there is devoted to restore some column or to paint some façade. Really, when you are moving in the Old Havana, your will have the impression to move in a living museum.

For a complete description of the monuments, places of iterest and cultura sites of Old, please visit this link.