Havana

Havana is Cuba's capital and the largest city in the Caribbean — a port founded by the Spanish in 1519 that grew rich as the gateway between the New World's treasure fleets and Seville, and has been the island's capital since 1552. Five centuries later the city is gloriously layered: Baroque and Art Deco facades in fading pastels, 1950s American cars rumbling past colonnades, son and rumba drifting out of doorways. It rewards slow exploration, and a self-guided audio tour is the natural way to take it in — you set the pace along the cobblestones while the stories behind each weathered balcony and harbor fortress unfold in your ears.

The historic core, Habana Vieja, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1982 together with its fortification system — more than a thousand buildings of historical importance in a district that, unusually, grew around four main squares rather than one. Plaza de Armas was the military heart, Plaza Vieja the marketplace, Plaza de San Francisco served the port, and Plaza de la Catedral the church — its cathedral of San Cristóbal is counted among the finest works of Cuban Baroque. Streets like Obispo and Mercaderes thread the squares together past palaces, rum bars, and tiny museums; each landmark along the way carries its own audio guide, so the walk becomes a chain of short, vivid histories.

Every evening the city gravitates to the Malecón, the eight-kilometre seafront esplanade where musicians, fishermen, and couples gather to watch waves break over the wall at sunset. Across the harbor mouth rise El Morro's lighthouse castle and La Cabaña — the largest fortress Spain ever built in the Americas, where a cannon ceremony still fires at nine each night. Inland, the 92-metre dome of El Capitolio crowns the skyline beside the Gran Teatro, home of the Cuban National Ballet, while the Museo de la Revolución — set in the former Presidential Palace — and the Museum of Fine Arts tell the story of Cuba's turbulent, creative twentieth century.

Havana is a city you listen to as much as look at — let the audio guides supply the history while the streets supply the soundtrack.