Havana is a great city for nightlife, whether you like dancing, music or people-watching. Nearly every restaurant has a band playing on weekend nights, so you can enjoy a wide variety of music just by eating dinner! There’s also a wide variety of nightclubs and dance clubs. After spending a month in the city I definitely had some favorite spots, and I’d like to share them below!
1. The FAC
The Fabrica de Arte Cubano (FAC) is an awesome club in Havana that’s full of art, music, and fun young people. There are lots of different rooms to explore and art exhibits to look at–I’m told they change pretty frequently too. There will be multiple different music acts going on every night in different performance spaces, outdoor patios, and multiple bars at which to buy delicious rum-based drinks. I really enjoyed our night out here and I think it’s definitely worth a stop if you’re in Havana. The atmosphere is very artsy and youthful–lots of Cuban college students hang out there and it was a favorite among our cosmopolitan university friends too.
2. Cafe Miramar
Cafe Miramar is a jazz club in the Miramar neighborhood of Havana. We went there for one of our first nights out in Cuba and had a lot of fun! Like most nightlife in Cuba, the party doesn’t really get started until around 10 or 11pm, but when it does it’s great! We really enjoyed our drinks and snacks para picar there, as well as the drummer-saxophone duo who performed for us.
3. Submarino Amarillo
Before heading to Submarino Amarillo (“Yellow Submarine”), the Beatles-themed club near Parque John Lennon, I had assumed that the crowd inside would be mostly tourists. Not so. The club was full of Cubans jamming out to British and American rock music. They play music videos and then a cover band performed. They played everything from Pink Floyd to P!nk to Bon Jovi to Maroon 5 to (of course) the Beatles! Everyone inside was having a fun time dancing and singing along (even if they didn’t quite get the English lyrics right) and it was a really fun way to spend an evening in Havana!
4. 1830
Club 1830 is a really fun salsa dance club located in Havana. It’s right along the bay so you can watch the sunset over the ocean as you sit and enjoy some drinks at the rustic wrought-iron tables on the patio. Then as night sets in the music picks up and everyone starts dancing! They have some professional dancers on stage at one point during the night, but the rest of the time everyone dances, and if you want a quick salsa lesson or to practice your skills a friendly Cuban dance partner is never far away!
The sea breeze off the Malecon makes it a great spot to hang out on a stifling night in Havana, and many Cubans while away their weekend nights at the Malecon, perhaps splitting a bottle of rum among friends. Make a memorable night at the Malecon yourself by heading there to people-watch, enjoy the sound and breeze of the ocean, and maybe even tap into a bottle of rum yourself.