Havana (pop. 2.2 million), political, cultural, and industrial heart of the nation, lies 150 kilometers (93 miles) due south of Florida on Cuba’s northwest coast. It is built on the west side of a sweeping bay with a narrow funnel entrance—Bahía de la Habana—and extends west 12 kilometers to the Río Jaimanitas and south for an equal distance.

Countless writers have commented on the exhilarating sensation that engulfs visitors to this most beautiful and beguiling of Caribbean cities. The potency of Havana’s appeal is owed to a quality that “runs deeper than the stuff of which travel brochures are made. It is irresistible and intangible,” writes Juliet Barclay. The city’s ethereal mood is so pronounced that it is impossible to resist the city’s mysteries and contradictions. Setting foot one time in Havana and you can only succumb to its enigmatic allure.

Havana has a flavor all its own; a strange amalgam of colonialism, capitalism, and Communism merged into one. One of the great historical cities of the New World, Havana is a far cry from the Caribbean backwaters that call themselves capitals elsewhere in the Antilles. It is obvious that Cuba was wealthy years ago to a degree that most South American and Caribbean cities were not.

At the heart of the city is enchanting Habana Vieja (Old Havana), a living museum inhabited by 60,000 people and containing perhaps the finest collection of Spanish-colonial buildings in all the Americas. Baroque churches, convents, and castles that could have been transposed from Madrid or Cádiz still reign majestically over squares embraced by the former palaces of Cuba’s ruling gentry and cobbled streets still haunted by Ernest Hemingway’s ghost.

The heart of Habana Vieja has been in the midst of an impressive restoration for over a decade, and most of the historically important structures have been given facelifts, or better. Some have even metamorphosed into boutique hotels. Nor is there a shortage of 1950s-era modernist hotels steeped in Mafia associations.

And hundreds of casas particulares provide an opportunity to live life at least partially alongside the habaneros themselves. There’s something for every budget, although most hotels are overpriced, some outrageously so. As for food, Havana is the only place in Cuba where you can dine well every night of the week (for a price).

Then there’s the arts scene, perhaps unrivaled in Latin America. The city offers some first-rate museums and galleries. Not only formal galleries, but informal ones where contemporary artists produce unique works of amazing profundity and appeal. There are some tremendous crafts markets, and boutique stores selling hand-made Cuban perfumes.

Afro-Caribbean music is everywhere, quite literally on the streets. Lovers of sizzling salsa have dozens of venues from which to choose. Havana even has a hot jazz scene. Classical music and ballet is world class, with numerous venues to choose from.

The Best of Havana

• Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes—Cuban Art section
• Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes—International Art section
• Capitolio Nacional
• Museo de la Revolución
• Plaza de la Catedral
• Plaza de Armas
• Plaza Vieja
• Hotel Nacional
• Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón
• Parque Histórico Militar Morro-Cabaña
• Tropicana