The 50 percent of the visitors of the nearly three million foreigners who come to Cuba each year enter from Havana. Its rich history of tradition and the fame of many of its sites explain the growing interest of foreign vacationers in the capital of the largest island of the Antilles.
Among the mythical places of Havana is the Malecon. This concrete wall divides a generously blue sea from a city of nearly five centuries that moves into the future.
Those who chose their
holidays to Cuba may enjoy a wonderful ride watching the ocean, and at the same time, the historical part of the city, modern hotels and restaurants or small shops and several places to rest.
Emblematic tourist facilities as the Hotel National or more contemporary as the Melia Cohiba, Havana Riviera, or more intimate, like Deauville, are distributed in perfect harmony with the coastline.
The Malecon is a symbol of Havana and a fully emblematic cultural space where you can find everything: the troubadours with guitars in hand, people enjoying the tropical island breeze from the sea -especially at night- and fishermen. It is the ideal place to enjoy a simple and yet great a show, which is the unique view of a Caribbean sunset or, during the brief winter season on the island, watching the sea furiously throw over the walls.
This great balcony of the city lies four miles from "Castillo de la Punta", in Old Havana, at the entrance of the bay, to the shores of the Almendares River, at the gates of the distinguished suburb of Miramar. Along the street, its six lanes -three in each direction- connect in a fluid manner the colonial Havana to the eclecticism of the Vedado neighborhood.
Building this promenade was an initiative in 1863 of the military engineer Francisco de Albear, known as "The Lord of the Waters." The initial idea was to build a high embankment, which would have a path to railroads. During those years Havana was one block away from the sea. Only a strip of rough rocks separated the city from the onslaught of the ocean.
The construction of the current Malecn was begun in the early nineteenth century under the U.S. intervention in Cuba. The first plans were conceived by American engineers and designed with a style of Riverside Drive in New York.
At first it was named the Gulf Avenue but over time, Cubans decided to re-baptize only as Malecon. In order to protect this vital site of Havana from the rough of seas and time, it is constantly remodeled by the Office of the Historian of the City.
The Malecon is without doubt one of the main arteries of Havana and has grown to become an obligatory reference site to anyone for its
Cuba holidays and bets on the Caribbean island as a destination for rest and recreation.
