Havana

You can have a great time just outside of the Hotel Inglaterra near the Capitólio Building, drinking good daiquiris and mojitos at an affordable price 2CUC in September 2005.

There are two types of establishments you can go to to drink in Havana: Western-style CUC bars with near-Western prices, a good selection of quality drinks and sometimes food, nice decorations, semi-motivated staff and often live music, typically found around tourist hot-spots such as Old Havana and tourist hotels. Here you will mostly meet other tourists, expats and a few Cubans with access to hard currency, but don't expect a 'local' experience.

The alternative is to seek out local neighborhood bars where you can choose from a quality, but limited, selection of drinks mainly locally produced rum by the bottle, beer and soft drinks, very rarely will you be able to get cocktails such as mojitos, cigars of dubious and cigarettes of only slightly better quality, and sometimes snacks. Local bars accept CUPs and are dirt-cheap, although bar keepers will often ask you for CUCs instead - it's up to you to negotiate an acceptable price, but keep in mind that local bar staff are state employees and literally paid a pittance. These bars are also a good way to meet locals who may even open up a bit and talk about their lives after a couple of drinks.

Local bars are not that hard to find despite typically having no prominent signs displayed outside. Just ask or walk around a local neighborhood and look out for a bare-walled, neon-lit run-down room without any decorations or furniture, save for a bar and a few rickety chairs and tables, sullen staff and depressed/bored/drunk-looking customers, almost always men. Contrary to Cuba's reputation as a music and fun loving nation, these places are not boisterous affairs - they are quiet, almost subdued, music is rarely played if at all, it will come from a radio but never be live, and have the charm of third-world railway station waiting rooms.

Nonetheless, they make for a fascinating experience especially if you make the effort to speak to some locals - offering to buy a drink will get a conversation going, no surprise there, and they provide a good insight into what life must be like for ordinary Cubans without hard currency. As a foreign visitor, you will be generally welcomed. Discussing politics over a drink is a tricky, and typically lose-lose proposition: speak negatively about the Cuban political system and you may put your Cuban drinking companions into a very difficult position as they may very well be informed on for hanging out with subversive foreigners; enthuse about the Revolution, Che, Fidel, Cuba's health care system, sticking it to the Gringos, etc., and people will assume that you are at best naive or at worst not in full possession of your mental faculties. Cheers!

Los Buccaneros Hanoi

Calle brasil. with the front of the capitol building on your right from the main street, walk about two blocks to the left on the road that runs parallel to the capitol. there are two bars called hanoi. go to the first one los buccaneros. this bar serves very good mojitos for 1$cuc.