Best General Cuba Travel Guides

Interwoven with descriptions of Hokule'a's experiences in port are the voices of the master navigators and crew members, who guide the ship along the ocean's trackless path using only stars, birds, wind, and seas -- non-instrumental wayfinding techniques-- and the local pioneers -- scientists, teachers, and children touched by Hokule'a' -- who work tirelessly to weather the many environmental challenges in our modern lives. “Malama Honua: Hokule'a - A Voyage Of Hope is a luxurious and content-rich hardcover book that will inspire Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians to explore the enchantments of nature, through one of the ultimate symbols of Polynesian culture.” ―Surfer Today.

A narrative and visual feast from James Beard Award–winning writer Anya von Bremzen and photographer Megan Fawn Schlow—with more than 100 vibrant recipes. Paladares is a fascinating culinary and visual journey through the new Cuba. (José Andrés chef and owner, minibar by José Andrés and ThinkFoodGroup ). “Cuban food authorities call their home ‘this country of inventors,’ and this exhaustively researched and gorgeously photographed book reveals how necessity sparked culinary magic. (Ted Allen host of Chopped on Food Network ). “Filled with intimate sketches of the people behind paladares, and beautifully photographed food you can’t wait to make, Anya von Bremzen and Megan Fawn Schlow capture the surreal and confounding contradictions of present-day Cuba with remarkable insight. (Ana Sofía Peláez author of The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors, and History ). “In Paladares , Anya von Bremzen and Megan Fawn Schlow show us the unique intersection of cultures, history, and geography that define the home cooking of Cuba as elevated within a closed-door restaurant.

The book features iconic places such as the tobacco plantations in Pinar del Río, the fortresses and palacios, Hemingway’s home outside of Havana, Xanadu (the DuPont mansion), the old French Triolet Pharmacy in Matanzas, and the Sugar Mill Valley in Sancti Spíritus. Michael Connors , an expert in Caribbean antiques and architecture, has more than thirty years of experience in writing, consultation, and teaching in fine and decorative arts.

Published to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, this is the first major publication to make full use of the extensive holdings of the Fondation Cartier-Bresson―including thousands of prints and a vast resource of documents relating to the photographer's life and work.

VanDam's best-selling Havana StreetSmart maps all of the capital's cultural attractions, neighborhoods, beaches, hotels, resorts and more at an immensely legible scale. Using his signature StreetSmart series design for printed maps (Internet connections are still scant in Cuba), Mr. VanDam points out Havana s restaurants, hotels, resorts and the home-based restaurants known as paladares and offers five self-guided tours that wind through the city s many plazas to contemporary galleries, music venues and gardens, along the Malecón coastal road and as far as the beaches of Playas de Este. "In Cuba, Maps Make a Comeback" by Steve Heller Old-fashioned navigation is enjoying a renaissance on the island, where Internet access is still scant. When Stephan Van Dam began designing two detailed tourist maps of Cuba in 2014, he couldn t have known that one year later, the prospect of renewed relations between the country and the U.S. could effectively create a whole new market for them. Walking Havana from one end to the other gave Van Dam a sense of the urban fabric, which is, by his description, frozen in time and brimming with period-specific architectural jewels buildings that reflect Plateresque, Cuban baroque, Neoclassical, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, Mid-century modern, and Soviet Brutalist architectures. With the prospect of sanctions being lifted in the near future, Van Dam is already planning more Cuba projects across new media, starting with a website mapping the influence of the clave, an instrument that figures widely in Cuban music, around the world. With Internet coverage at a scant 5 percent across the country and download speeds reminiscent of the pre-dial-up era, Cuba doesn t yet have the digital infrastructure to support cell phone cartography. Which leaves room for a handy paper copy renaissance: This is a fleeting moment, Van Damm notes, when the trusty laminated map trumps Google views.