Cheap Flights to Havana in December
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Weather & Crowds in December
Dry season returns and Christmas-New Year period brings the biggest crowds of the year. Book accommodations months ahead for the holiday weeks.
Havana in December
Split personality month: early December (1-15) is excellent — good weather, reasonable crowds, the Film Festival happening in Vedado. Then Christmas through New Year transforms Havana into its most festive and most expensive period. Casas double in price the last two weeks, Old Havana is mobbed with Cuban-Americans returning to visit family, and the Malecón on December 31 is one of the hemisphere's great New Year celebrations — free, chaotic, magnificent. Book six months ahead if traveling December 26-January 2.
Events This Month
The premier Latin American film festival held each December across Havana's classic mid-century cinemas, particularly the Yara and Chaplin theaters on La Rampa in Vedado. Screenings are open to foreign visitors, tickets run 1-2 USD, and the week transforms Vedado into the most cinephile neighborhood in the Caribbean. The opening night street party on La Rampa is free and spectacular.
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Quick Reference
Daily Budget in Havana
$25 casa particular dorm or basic private room, $15 food (street pizza 50 CUP, paladar lunch specials), $8 transport (shared almendrones colectivo taxis), $12 activities (Callejón de Hamel, Malecón walks, free museums on Sundays)
$65 solid private casa particular in Old Havana or Vedado, $45 food (two meals at mid-tier paladares with mojitos), $20 transport (classic car taxi for a morning tour + colectivos), $20 activities (Rum Museum, Cohiba cigar factory tour, live music venue cover)
$180 Hotel Nacional or Meliá Cohiba room, $80 food (La Guarida dinner, Hotel Nacional pool bar, rooftop cocktails), $50 transport (private classic car driver for the day — 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air), $40 activities (private salsa lesson, Fábrica de Arte Cubano entry + drinks, premium Cohiba box from La Casa del Habano)
Bring two wallets. Keep a 'decoy wallet' with $20-30 USD and your expired cards for your back pocket or outer bag — if anything is ever grabbed (rare but possible), you hand that over. Your real cash stash of $200-400 USD should be split: half in a money belt under your clothes, half locked in your casa particular's room safe. More importantly: the best cigar deal in Havana isn't La Casa del Habano (official state store) or a street vendor — it's asking your casa particular host to connect you with a factory worker friend who sells genuine factory-second Cohibas and Montecristos (with minor wrapper imperfections) for 20-40% of retail. This is technically a gray market but universally practiced, the cigars are real Cuban tobacco, and it directly supports a Cuban individual rather than the state monopoly.
Where to Stay
The UNESCO World Heritage colonial core is where most first-timers stay and eat, centered on Plaza de Armas, Plaza Vieja, and Plaza de la Catedral. Casas particulares here run $40-80/night and put you within walking distance of the best paladares like La Guarida (book weeks ahead) and San Cristóbal Paladar. It gets noisy and touristy during the day, but evenings when the tour groups leave reveal a genuinely beautiful, lived-in neighborhood.
The mid-century leafy grid neighborhood where Cubans actually live, work, and socialize — far less touristy than Old Havana. The Hotel Nacional and Hotel Riviera are here, along with the famous jazz club La Zorra y El Cuervo on Calle 23 (cover charge about 200 CUP). Casas particulares in Vedado run $35-65/night and you'll get a much more authentic street-level experience of Havana than in the colonial core.
The embassy district west of the Almendares River, featuring wide boulevards, newer construction, and the best-maintained mansions in the city. The Meliá Cohiba and Meliá Habana hotels are anchored here. Further west into Siboney and Cubanacán you'll find higher-end private villas and restaurant complexes like El Ajibe (famous for roast chicken). Quieter and safer for families, but requires taxis to reach everywhere.
The gritty, densely populated neighborhood between Old Havana and Vedado — the real Havana that tourists mostly skip. Budget casas here run $20-40/night. The famous Callejón de Hamel (a psychedelic Afro-Cuban art alley with rumba performances on Sunday mornings starting around 11am) is here and completely free. Not polished, but authentic in ways that Old Havana increasingly isn't.
Other Good Times to Visit Havana
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