Café París

Style of place: Traditional bar

Ambience
Popularity
Entertainment
Service

Best for: Great live band

Worst for: Has become beautified and lost some of its old gritty atmosphere

Obispo esquina San Ignacio, Old Havana

8am-1am daily

Although about as Parisian as Middleborough, Café Paris remained for many years one of the highlights of any bar crawl around Old Havana. It is also somewhere you may find yourself coming back to again and again. If first appearances are underwhelming, its real charm is in the brilliant house band along with a consistently good small intimate atmosphere where you cannot fail to meet interesting characters. Unfortunately, over the last year or two the tourist buses seem to have discovered the place and now drive out any interesting characters.