Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Havana
Vedado and the necropolis in six hours
The revolution square, the university steps, the great cemetery and the Malecón back at dusk.
The three-hour route walks Habana Vieja. Vedado is the 20th-century city west of it — a grid of mansions, 1950s towers and the university — and it holds Colón cemetery, which is 140 acres of marble and one of the most extraordinary burial grounds in the Americas. Walk back along the Malecón at sunset; the whole city sits on that wall.
The route, stop by stop
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Plaza de la Revolución
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
The José Martí memorial on one side and the steel outlines of Che and Cienfuegos on the ministries opposite. Enormous, exposed and where a million people have gathered at once.
40 min here Walk here → -
Colón Cemetery
Fifty-six hectares laid out in 1876 with more than 500 major mausoleums. La Milagrosa's tomb is the one Cubans visit, walking away backwards.
75 min here Walk here → -
University of Havana
The 88 steps and the alma mater statue at the top, where Cuban student politics has played out for a century. Founded 1728.
40 min here Walk here → -
Hotel Nacional
On the cliff above the Malecón since 1930, with a gun emplacement in the garden from the missile crisis and a wall of photographs of everyone who has stayed.
45 min here Walk here → -
Callejón de Hamel
An alley painted floor to roofline in Afro-Cuban imagery by Salvador González since 1990. Rumba on Sunday afternoons, and busy.
40 min here Walk here → -
Malecón
Eight kilometres of sea wall built from 1901. No bars, no stalls, just the wall and everyone in Havana sitting on it after dark.
40 min here Walk here →
More in Havana
Every walking route in Havana, or the full Havana guide for where to stay and what a day costs.