Two days is enough for one flagship gateway, and Vinales is the one worth spending it on: 2.5-3 hours west into a UNESCO tobacco valley, versus a closer but less distinctive beach at Varadero. Land, settle into a casa, then give day 2 entirely to the valley. Need more time to add Varadero or Las Terrazas? See the 3-day version of this same plan. Full destination-by-destination detail lives in our Havana Cuba guide .

Two days is enough to hit Havana’s two essential halves and nothing more: Day 1 walks Habana Vieja’s four plazas and the Capitolio, Day 2 covers Vedado, the Hotel Nacional and a classic-car sunset loop. Want more depth? Step up to the 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 or 7-day version, all built on this same spine. Book these before you go Casa particular or hotel: check current listings on Booking.

Same spine as our 2-day plan : arrive, take Vinales’s tobacco valley on day 2, then add a beach day at Varadero, 2 hours east, on day 3. Need a slower pace or more gateways? See the 4-day version . Full facts on every gateway are in our Havana Cuba guide . Cuba runs on cash, and Visa and Mastercard were suspended islandwide in June 2026, so bring everything you’ll spend across all three days before you land.

Three days gets you past the Habana Vieja and Vedado basics into the two stops that make Havana genuinely strange in the best way: Callejon de Hamel’s mural alley and Fusterlandia’s mosaic barrio. Started with less time? Drop to the 2-day version . Have more? Step up to 4 , 5 , 6 or 7 days . Book these before you go Casa particular or hotel: check current listings on Booking.

Same spine as our 3-day plan : Vinales on day 2, Varadero on day 3, now with the Las Terrazas eco-village added as day 4, just 75km from the city. Want Zapata and the Bay of Pigs too? See the 5-day version . Every gateway’s full detail is in our Havana Cuba guide . Cuba runs on cash, and Visa and Mastercard were suspended islandwide in June 2026, so bring everything you’ll spend across all four days before you land.

Four days adds the harbor side of Habana Vieja, the fortresses and the 9pm cannon ceremony, to the three-day core of plazas, Vedado, Callejon de Hamel and Fusterlandia. Need less time? Drop to 2 or 3 days . Have more? Step up to 5 , 6 or 7 days . Book these before you go Casa particular or hotel: check current listings on Booking.com Classic-car sunset tour: browse routes on GetYourGuide A Habana Vieja walking tour: search dates on Viator Day Focus Day 1 Arrival, Habana Vieja’s four plazas, the Capitolio Day 2 Vedado, Hotel Nacional, classic-car sunset loop Day 3 Callejon de Hamel, Fusterlandia, rum museum, FAC Day 4 Harbor forts, Museo de la Ciudad, cannon ceremony Day 1: Arrival and Habana Vieja

Same spine as our 4-day plan : Vinales, Varadero, then Las Terrazas, now with the Zapata Peninsula and the Bay of Pigs added as day 5, 160km from the city. Want a Trinidad overnight too? See the 7-day version . Every gateway’s full detail is in our Havana Cuba guide . Cuba runs on cash, and Visa and Mastercard were suspended islandwide in June 2026, so bring everything you’ll spend across all five days before you land.

Five days adds cigars, jazz and Miramar’s quieter mansion streets to the four-day core, and it’s the first version of this itinerary with real slack built in instead of a packed day every day. Need less time? Drop to 2 , 3 or 4 days . Have more? Step up to 6 or 7 days . Book these before you go Casa particular or hotel: check current listings on Booking.com Classic-car sunset tour: browse routes on GetYourGuide A Habana Vieja walking tour: search dates on Viator Day Focus Day 1 Arrival, Habana Vieja’s four plazas, the Capitolio Day 2 Vedado, Hotel Nacional, classic-car sunset loop Day 3 Callejon de Hamel, Fusterlandia, rum museum, FAC Day 4 Harbor forts, Museo de la Ciudad, cannon ceremony Day 5 Cigar factory, Miramar, San Jose market, jazz club Day 1: Arrival and Habana Vieja

Same spine as our 5-day plan : Vinales, Varadero, Las Terrazas, Zapata and the Bay of Pigs, now closing with an easy day at Playas del Este, just 20-30 minutes from the city. Want Trinidad’s colonial streets instead of a sixth beach day? See the 7-day version , which swaps this closer for a Trinidad overnight. Full gateway detail is in our Havana Cuba guide . Cuba runs on cash, and Visa and Mastercard were suspended islandwide in June 2026, so bring everything you’ll spend across all six days before you land.

Six days adds an actual slow day, ice cream, a salsa or cooking lesson, a second Malecon walk, to the five-day core, and it’s built for travelers who want to feel Havana’s daily rhythm instead of touring it. Need less time? Drop to 3 , 4 or 5 days . Have a full week? Go to 7 days . Book these before you go Casa particular or hotel: check current listings on Booking.

Same spine as our 6-day plan through day 5: Vinales, Varadero, Las Terrazas, then Zapata and the Bay of Pigs. The seventh day changes the math: instead of closing with another single-day beach trip, this version swaps in Trinidad, Cuba’s best-preserved colonial town, as a proper 2-day overnight on days 6-7. This is the longest version in the family; see our Havana Cuba guide for every gateway’s full detail. Cuba runs on cash, and Visa and Mastercard were suspended islandwide in June 2026, so bring everything you’ll spend across all seven days before you land.

A full week is the most complete version of this itinerary, covering every core sight from the six-day plan plus a genuine wrap-up day for last-minute shopping and a final unhurried paladar meal. Need less time? Drop to 4 , 5 or 6 days ; anything shorter than that, see the 3-day version instead. Book these before you go Casa particular or hotel: check current listings on Booking.com Classic-car sunset tour: browse routes on GetYourGuide A Habana Vieja walking tour: search dates on Viator Day Focus Day 1 Arrival, Habana Vieja’s four plazas, the Capitolio Day 2 Vedado, Hotel Nacional, classic-car sunset loop Day 3 Callejon de Hamel, Fusterlandia, rum museum, FAC Day 4 Harbor forts, Museo de la Ciudad, cannon ceremony Day 5 Cigar factory, Miramar, San Jose market, jazz club Day 6 Coppelia, a salsa lesson, a second Malecon walk Day 7 Last-minute shopping, a final paladar, departure Day 1: Arrival and Habana Vieja

Fusterlandia is the wildest thing you’ll see in Havana that isn’t a 1957 Chevy: an entire slice of the Jaimanitas neighborhood in western Havana that ceramicist Jose Fuster covered floor to roof in mosaic tile, starting with his own house in the 1990s and eventually pulling dozens of neighbors into the project. It costs nothing to walk through, though bring small cash for the on-site artisans and the guides who’ll offer to show you around, and budget a car or taxi to get there since it sits well outside Habana Vieja’s walking radius.

Havana works best as a base camp, not a finish line. Vinales sits 2.5-3 hours west by car, its tobacco valley UNESCO-listed since 1999. Varadero’s beach strip is 2 hours east. Trinidad, Cuba’s best-preserved colonial town, is a genuine 4-5 hour drive each way, an overnight, never a day trip, skip that plan if you’ve only got a weekend. The fact that overrides every itinerary here: Cuba runs on cash. Visa and Mastercard were suspended islandwide in June 2026, on top of the decades-old block on US-issued cards, so bring every dollar you’ll spend before you land.

Havana in 2026 runs on cash. The CUP is the only currency anyone spends day to day, and since Visa and Mastercard stopped processing transactions islandwide on June 6, 2026, there is no working card backup for foreign visitors, not even the non-US cards that used to work fine here. Bring every dollar or euro you plan to spend for the entire trip in clean, small bills before you fly. Past that one hurdle, this is one of the most rewarding cities in the Americas to walk: three days covers Habana Vieja’s four plazas and the Capitolio, five to seven adds Fusterlandia, live son music most nights and a slower run through the paladares instead of one rushed meal a night.