Havana has three indispensable city center neighborhoods that travelers with more than a couple of days on their hands should visit. 

There’s beautifully restored Habana Vieja (Old Havana), a celebrated Unesco World Heritage site; gritty Centro Habana, where theatrical street life plays out alongside palatial civic buildings and nationally important museums; and the more modern commercial hub of Vedado, whose faded 1950s glamor is reflected in its boxy skyscrapers, former mafia-run hotels and musical nightlife. Dip into all three, and you’ll get a little closer to understanding what this enigmatic city is all about.

If you’re staying longer, you’ll have time to seek out beaches, street art projects and unusual architecture in a scattering of outlying districts.

Here are the seven Havana neighborhoods that you must visit.

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Habana Vieja

Best neighborhood for a history lesson

Anchored by four diminutive squares around which the original walled city grew up in the early 1500s, contemporary Habana Vieja is the result of a dynamic historical renovation project that was achieved against the odds during a time of great economic scarcity starting in the 1990s. Today, the 4 sq km (1.5 sq mile) Unesco World Heritage site is akin to a neighborhood-sized museum, but with one big difference: people live here – 100,000 of them.

The cityscape is at once grandiose and gritty. Schools and maternity homes overlook cobbled, tourist-packed squares. Meticulously restored pharmacies still hand out prescriptions to qualifying locals, while rehabilitated buildings like the deconsecrated…

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