The Hotel Nacional de Cuba, opened in 1930 and sitting on a low cliff above the Malecón in the Vedado neighbourhood, is Havana's most famous hotel — a Spanish-Colonial Revival building designed by the New York architects McKim, Mead & White with twin turrets, terraced gardens, and views across the Straits of Florida that make the Gulf of Mexico look larger than it is.
The hotel's guest list reads like a 20th-century celebrity index: Winston Churchill, Marlene Dietrich, Meyer Lansky, Ava Gardner, Ernest Hemingway, and Marlon Brando all stayed here. The gardens contain a bunker system built during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. You don't need to be a guest to visit: the terrace bar has good mojitos at tourist prices, the garden walk is free, and the interior with its original Art Deco fittings and historical photographs is open to anyone who wanders in looking purposeful.