The Cannon Blast ceremony (El Cañonazo de las Nueve) is one of the oldest and attractive traditions of Havana. In colonial days, the shots signalled the closing of the gates of the walled city and the rising of the chain across the entrance to the harbour. The tradition of firing a cannon every night at 9:00 pm was kept even after the wall was torn down and is still used for checking your watch.

Situated in the former Presidential Palace (1920-1960), the Museum of the Revolution is a colorful building of a large dome and a mixture of styles. A detailed panorama of the struggle undertaken by the Cuban people in order to obtain its freedom is available in its 38 rooms. Its outdoor areas feature the Granma Memorial, where visitors can see, protected by an enormous glass case, the boat on which Fidel Castro and more than eighty combatants returned to Cuba from exile in Mexico to recommence the fight for the country's independence.

The José Lezama Lima House Museum is located in the former house of the Cuban writer José Lezama Lima, in Centro Habana. The museum exhibits several objects belonging to the writer, placed in the same way Lezama had them. The visit to this museum is compulsory for those who wish to get into Cuban literature. In this place were written worldwide known novels, like Paradiso and Oppiano Licario.

The Museo del Ferrocarril (Train Museum) of Havana is located in the old Cristina Station, built in 1859. The museum exhibits a great collection of old locomotives, photographs, and signaling materials, as well as an interesting review of the Cuban trains history. Cuba was one of the first countries in the world to build a rail network, and the trains on the island began to run at least a decade before those in Spain. In this museum you’ll find steam engine locomotives for broad and narrow rails, as well as diesel and electric locomotives. One of the most important items in the museum is the La Junta de Fomento Locomotive, bought in the US in 1842. The museum also houses an area which reproduces the operations room of a train station in the first half of the 20th century; and a Railway Modelling Room which exhibits scale models of stations and railway equipments.