The Malecón

One of  Havana things to do is Havana’s evocative 7km-long sea drive, is one of the city’s most soulful and quintessentially Cuban thoroughfares,and the Cuba’s most famous sea-side avenue. The Malecón’s atmosphere is most potent at sunset when the weak yellow light from creamy Vedado filters like a dim torch onto the buildings of Centro Habana, lending their dilapidated facades a distinctly ethereal quality.

The Malecón, first named Avenida del Golfo, The project was undertaken by Don Francisco de Albear, Cuba’s greatest engineer at the time. Albear came up with a complex but smart design for the seawall, which was to be a lot more than just a promenade. According to historical records, the avenue was supposed to be constructed 4 meters above sea level. The whole project would cost 850,000 pesos, but the Spanish government didn’t bring itself to issue the construction permit and Albear’s proposal was postponed.

Finally laid out in the early 1900s as a salubrious oceanside boulevard for Havana’s pleasure-seeking middle classes, the Malecón expanded rapidly eastward in the century’s first decade with a mishmash of eclectic architecture that mixed sturdy neoclassicism with whimsical art nouveau. By the 1920s the road had reached the outer limits of burgeoning Vedado, and by the early 1950s it had metamorphosed into a busy six-lane highway that carried streams of wave-dodging Buicks and Chevrolets from the gray hulk of the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta to the borders of Miramar. Today the Malecón remains Havana’s most authentic open-air theater, sometimes dubbed ‘the world’s longest sofa,’ where the whole city comes to meet, greet, date and debate.

Havana things to do

A walk along the Malecon will give you the real feeling of Havana things to do,  you must get while visiting Havana. In specific at sunset the buildings get this magical touch when the sun shines on the old buildings.
On stormy days the waves attack the seawall and you will see boys playing not to get slammed to the ground by the waves. These storms are inspiration for Santaria religious people, they consider it as the revange of the goddess Yemaya.

But beyond the architectural values of the buildings, its greatest charm lies in being somewhere to stroll or hang out on a stiflingly hot day. It is a place where couples come to make amends, especially at sunset, in the company of children and fishermen. It is Havana’s outdoor lounge, definitely  one of Havana things to do.