43 Best Nightlife in Cuba

This time warp of a restaurant was known to have been a hangout of Ernest Hemingway and prides itself as being the "cradle of the daiquiri." In 1953, Esquire even dubbed the bar one of the seven most famous in the world. It's always jam-packed with tourists dancing away to a hot Cuban band any time of day or night. The atmosphere is dark and austere, with oversize waiters dressed in undersize red-and-white formal wear plying away daiquiris or other cocktails. A life-size sculpture of Hemingway overlooks the bar eternally.

At the eastern end of El Boulevard sits Santa Clara's most popular live-music venue; shows start nightly at 10 pm.

Adjacent to the Hotel Sierra Maestra is the Cabaret Bayamo, where high-stepping, costumed dancers perform at dinner shows several evenings a week. Another cabaret is inside the hotel, but it isn't as highly charged as the Bayamo.

The ever-popular and always hopping Hotel Nacional, offers up another winning performance with its wild cabaret show. The lively show is followed by equally wild dancing by the audience.

If you don't want to fork out for the Tropicana, then this is the place to come.

The cover charge is CUC$35; CUC$50 gets you both dinner and the performance.

On the upper edge of Vedado near the Plaza de la Revolución, this lively disco-bar often has musical performances and dance or comedy shows. It's very popular with locals and is a great place to experience nightlife away from the touristy Havana Vieja venues.

Local musicians perform nightly at this friendly music club, where you'll hear a few hits that the region's best-known musician made famous. Do not confuse this place with the Disco Club Benny Moré, which, as its name suggests, is essentially a disco.

This 24-hour standby usually offers entertainment by one of the city's excellent trios. No matter how many times you have heard "Guantanamera," these performers always give it new meaning. If you can't find much else going on in Havana Vieja at night, you can guarantee something will be happening here. This place has become so popular, in fact, that it's hard to find a seat either inside or out.

Named after its one-time owner Juan Bautista Taberna, this was Havana's first café when it opened at the very same spot in 1772. The rhythms of in-house band Conjunto Roberto Faz and their guests are some of the best you'll hear in Havana Vieja. The tall ceilings, retro atmosphere, and impressive wooden cocktail bar give this resto-bar a notable place among Havana Vieja establishments.

Tickets for a dinner and performance must be booked in advance.

Pop into Canchánchara, a lively bar in an 18th-century building. There's frequently a live band playing in the shady patio, and there are always plenty of soft drinks, cold beer, and such Cuban cocktails as the mojito and the local specialty canchánchara (rum, lime juice, and honey)

This is the best spot to hear live music. It's open nightly until about 2 am. Listen for el nengen or el kiribá, two styles of music that predate the Cuban son.

The two blocks east of the Plaza Mayor, Trinidad's Casa de la Trova has live music in the afternoon and after 10 pm.

It's impossible to pin down what one of Cuba's most famous nightspots exactly is. Sometimes gay and always Bohemian, the Mejunje offers a mix of poetry readings, drag shows, interpretive dance, live theater, and karaoke on rainless nights.

The place has no roof, so plan accordingly.

Dance the night away deep inside a cave at what must be Cuba’s most unusual nightspot. Locals call the place La Cueva (“the cave”). Although it is cool (as in "trendy"), it gets very warm and humid here with the throngs of people. About an hour is all most visitors can take.

Despite bearing Benny Moré's name, you're unlikely to hear any of his music here. (For that, you need to visit the Café Cantante Benny Moré.) This spot is a disco, and really little more, but a good place to dance to the hottest Latin tunes.

Located next to the Museo del Ron, you'll step back in time when you walk through the door, and get the feel for life along the wharf. This, too, was once a Hemingway haunt, and it was also frequented at one time or another by Marlon Brando and Federico García Lorca.

This historic bar, across from the Parque Agramonte's northeast corner, is a convenient stop for a little liquid refreshment. Dating from 1909, this proletarian watering hole has a wild interior paint job, ceramic work by local artists, stone floors, and a simple wooden bar.

Just steps from the Hotel Nacional, this dark and smoky bar offers live boleros-style music downstairs and a less than average restaurant upstairs. It can be a great option once the tunes get going later on into the night.

The historic bar overlooking Parque Martí usually has live music in the afternoon and evening, with killer mojitos to boot.

In the downstairs lobby of the Hotel Meliá Cohiba, this nightclub and cabaret offers a show with a torrid mix of live music and red-hot dance performances. When the main performance is over, patrons and professional dancers both join in the fray. It also offers an à la carte menu from 9 pm to 2:30 am.

The bar on the roof of the venerable Hotel Unión has live jazz on Tuesday and Thursday and traditional Cuban music Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; shows start at 9:30 pm.

Situated in a shopping complex across the road from the Meliá Cohiba hotel is Havana's other jazz place, and a good one it is. The many jam sessions and the introduction of new jazz groups mean there's lots of improvisation and hot young musicians, as well as big-name acts. It acts like a jazz-cum-supper club, where tickets include dinner and a cover charge for the music.

Don't be alarmed. You must enter through an old English red phone box, before you descend into the city's premier jazz venue. Unlike most of Havana's music venues, the sounds make you snap your fingers and shake your head instead of everything else. Shows are held nightly, and the great-value CUC$10 cover includes two cocktails.

Havana's best-known bar is a great place to hoist one for Hemingway. It's always packed with tourists looking expectantly toward the door as if Papa himself were about to swagger in and belly up to the bar. According to the man himself, this is theplace to order a mojito, as seen by the author's quote written on the wall "My mojito in La Bodeguita, My daiquiri in El Floridita." In reality the mojitos are no better here than anywhere else, but it's the atmosphere that counts. There's also an upstairs restaurant serving up typical criollo fare. Walls here are pasted with visitors' notes and pictures of the many notables that have passed through over the years, including Nat King Cole and Harry Belafonte.

This dinner and show spectacle has a feather-clad chorus, who dance to incandescent salsa. The place goes disco between and after performances and also hosts a lot of good bands. It's mainly frequented by tour groups.