Overview

Escape the November doldrums and head to Havana for a long weekend soaked with music, cigars, mojitos and the warm Caribbean breeze. Havana has a thriving, varied music scene – music is an integral part of the Cuban experience, found everywhere from fast-food stands to open-air plazas to hopping nightclubs, and it is loud.

Itinerary Highlights

Rich and soulful, traditional Cuban music in all its varieties son, salsa, rumba, timba, mambo, charanga have spread their influence all over Latin America and were immortalized in the famous American movie The Mambo Kings.

Son is Cuba’s signature music, easily recognizable thanks to the emergence of world-famous bands like the Buena Vista Social Club, whose members are retired musical sages from the 40’s and 50’s.
Reggaeton, a blend of hip-hop and reggae sung in Spanish with African influences, is an increasingly popular form of musical expression among young people; lyrics are fast, forceful, and freestyle. Spot the locals dancing and singing enthusiastically along to reggaeton blaring from car radios.

Traditional bands (five to eight members featuring horn, guitar, upright bass and percussion) are ubiquitous, playing old standards and lively Afro-Cuban salsa at every tourist bar, from El Floridita (Ernest Hemingway’s Havana hangout on Obispo, graced by a huge bronze statue and framed photographs of the writer hobnobbing with Castro) to the Jazz Café at the corner of Calle 1 and Paseo, where enthusiastic jazz musicians belt out jazz standards that eventually erupt into timba (popular Cuban dance music).

“Sounds of Cuba” features three nights’ based out of the Hotel Conde de Villanueva, a four-star 18th century mansion s located in the historical center of Havana.  The Old Havana hotel offers a prime location to walk   the streets and drop into a few patios with a drumnmer on the batas (two-headed Cuban drums) and a beautiful female singing heart-rending tales of the lucha, the Cuban struggle.

HIGHLIGHTS: 

• Head down to the Malecon for lots of little places selling beer. Locals come here, buy a few cans of Cristal beer, sit on the wall, get out their guitars or CD players and suddenly you’ve got a party.
• Dusk-till-dawn partiers love the El Gato Tuerto, a chic bar where you can belt out boleros with the band.
• Patio de Maria offers head-banging Habaneros. Nightclubs in Havana include live music, table seating and often dinner check out the Habana Café on Paseo for big salsa acts and 1950’s memorabilia décor

Options

Add-On: Day Trip to Visit Beautiful Viñales Visit the quaint town of Viñales nestled between rolling green hills. Explore this UNESCO World Heritage site and it’s caves, traditional way of life, and music. Listen to street musicians on the central plaza while dining at the restaurant at the Patio Centro Cultural Polo Montañez or stroll heading north, towards the Cuevas del Indio, to dine with the locals. Visit the tobacco farms on the way home and pick up some inexpensive, high-quality cigars direct from the source.