Havana Rum and Cigars Tour: The Complete Guide to Doing It Right

The claim that Cuban cigars and rum are simply the best in the world is a marketing position as much as a product reality. The more accurate framing: Cuban tobacco and Cuban rum are distinct products with specific characteristics that come from specific conditions — the terroir of the Vuelta Abajo valley west of Havana for tobacco, the specific sugar cane varieties and fermentation methods of Cuba’s rum producers — and those characteristics cannot be replicated elsewhere. Whether that makes them “best” depends on what you prefer. What’s certain is that they’re specific.

The Vuelta Abajo region in Pinar del Río province produces tobacco with characteristics — particularly the wrapper leaf from Vuelta Abajo’s red soil — that cigar blenders globally describe as having a specific richness and smoothness that other tobacco-growing regions don’t replicate. This isn’t nationalism; it’s the reason why cigar brands moved their production out of Cuba after 1959 but continued to source Cuban-grown tobacco leaves for the next several decades because they couldn’t find an adequate substitute.

Cuba’s cigar factories are state-operated enterprises (under the Habanos S.A. umbrella, which controls all Cuban cigar production) and factory visits are regulated rather than freely available. Not all factories accept tourists, the ones that do have limited capacity, and individual walk-in visits to the major Havana factories are not possible — they must be arranged through official channels or through your accommodation.

🏆 Most famous factory Cigar factory

Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás

📍 Current location: Calle Industria near Centro Habana (moved from the original Capitolio location — confirm current address before visiting)

Tour: $10–15 per person Factory tour Mon–Fri, morning sessions only Book ahead required

Partagás is the most famous cigar factory in Havana and the one most visitors want to see. Founded in 1845 and producing some of Cuba’s most prestigious brands including Partagás, Ramón Allones, and Bolivar, the factory tour takes you through the tobacco preparation, sorting, rolling, and quality control floors. The torcedores work in relative silence — a reader (lector) was traditionally employed to read newspapers and books aloud to the workers, a practice that began in the 1860s and continues in modified form in some Havana factories. The rolling room, where expert torcedores produce hundreds of cigars per day by hand, is the centrepiece of the visit. Photography policies change periodically — confirm whether cameras are permitted at the time of booking. The factory shop sells directly after the tour; prices are official MSRP and not negotiable but are lower than airport duty-free.

Historic Old Havana factory Cigar factory

Fábrica H. Upmann — Old Havana

📍 Calle Agramonte 520, Old Havana

Tour: $10 per person Factory tour + shop Mon–Fri mornings

The H. Upmann factory in Old Havana produces Montecristo — the most widely recognised Cuban cigar brand globally — alongside H. Upmann and José L. Piedra brands. The location in Old Havana makes it more conveniently accessible than the Partagás factory for visitors staying in the colonial quarter. The tour structure is similar to Partagás: rolling room viewing, quality control observation, and factory shop access. The combination of Montecristo production and Old Havana location makes this the slightly more convenient first-timer option compared to Partagás, though both deliver the essential torcedor experience. Book through your casa host or through the official Habanos S.A. visitor booking channels — independent walk-in visits are not permitted.

The Museo del Ron Havana Club (Havana Club Rum Museum) at Avenida del Puerto 262 in Old Havana is the anchor experience for rum tourism in Cuba. Unlike the cigar factory tours which require advance booking and limited access, the rum museum is a purpose-built tourist facility that operates daily, accepts walk-in visitors, and delivers a comprehensive rum education experience alongside its required tasting.

🥃 Top rum experience Rum museum

Museo del Ron Havana Club

📍 Avenida del Puerto 262, Old Havana — facing the harbour

Entry: $7 per person, includes tasting Museum + guided tour + tasting bar Daily 9am–5pm No advance booking required

The rum museum takes you through the complete story of Cuban rum production — from sugar cane cultivation and pressing, through fermentation and distillation, to ageing in American oak barrels and blending. The centrepiece is a scale model of a working Cuban rum distillery that demonstrates the production process with moving parts and sound effects that are more engaging than they sound. The museum includes a well-curated section on Havana Club’s history, the pre-revolution Arechabala family production, and the joint venture with Pernod Ricard that produces the current product. The included rum tasting at the end of the tour gives you a glass of 7-year Havana Club alongside a Havana Club Especial. The museum shop sells the full Havana Club range at prices comparable to official shops; the Maximo Extra Añejo (15+ year aged expression) is the special-occasion purchase worth making here. The adjacent bar — El Patio del Ron — is one of the better rum bars in Old Havana and worth staying for after the museum tour.

Havana’s bar culture is inseparable from its rum and cigar identity. The two most famous bars in the world for Cuban cocktails — La Bodeguita del Medio (mojitos) and El Floridita (daiquiris) — are both legitimate in their historical claims and both absolutely rammed with tourists who saw them on the same travel programme you did. Here’s the honest assessment of what to expect at each and what else is available.

Historic — see at least once Famous bar

La Bodeguita del Medio

📍 Calle Empedrado 207, Old Havana — north of the cathedral plaza

Mojito: $5–7 Mojito bar + restaurant Daily 10:30am–11:30pm

La Bodeguita del Medio is famous for two things: the mojito and a handwritten quote attributed to Ernest Hemingway on the wall (“My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquiri in El Floridita”). Both are legitimate claims with complicated histories. The mojito here is genuinely excellent — mint muddled correctly, Cuban rum at the right proportion, not over-sweetened, delivered in a proper glass rather than a plastic cup. The setting is atmospheric: the walls covered in decades of handwritten messages from visitors, the tight space, the music from the street. The honest problem: it is extremely crowded from about 11am until late evening, the restaurant component is mediocre and overpriced, and the staff are efficient in the way that only people who serve 600 drinks a day can be. Go for one mojito in the late morning before the crowds peak. Experience it. Then go somewhere better.

Hemingway’s daiquiri bar Cocktail institution

El Floridita

📍 Calle Obispo 557, Old Havana — corner of Obispo and Monserrate

Daiquiri: $7–9 Daiquiri bar Daily 11:30am–midnight

El Floridita has the Hemingway connection authenticated in every possible way: his regular bar stool is preserved with a bronze statue of him sitting on it, photographs of him at the bar from the 1940s and 1950s line the walls, and the Papá Doble daiquiri (double rum, no sugar, double grapefruit, double lime) that he drank in quantities that remain impressive by any standard is still on the menu. The daiquiris at El Floridita are better than average — properly balanced, the papaya daiquiri variation is particularly good — and the setting, a narrow red-lit bar with a serious bartending culture, is one of the more atmospheric drinking rooms in Old Havana. As with La Bodeguita, the tourist density from noon onwards is significant. The bar opens at 11:30am; being there in the first 30 minutes gives you a genuinely pleasant experience rather than a crowded one.

Best cigar-friendly terrace Rum + cigars

Best Rooftop Bars for Rum and Cigars

📍 Multiple locations in Old Havana and Vedado — Hotel Ambos Mundos rooftop, Hotel Telegrafo bar terrace

Cocktails $5–10, cigars $5–15 each Outdoor terrace bars Late afternoon–midnight

The combination of rum cocktails and a premium cigar is best enjoyed outdoors — the smoke that makes the experience pleasurable indoors becomes suffocating, and the cigar ban that applies in many indoor venues in Cuba isn’t consistent or enforced, but the outdoor terrace format resolves it cleanly. Old Havana’s boutique hotel rooftops — particularly the Hotel Ambos Mundos on Calle Obispo (the hotel where Hemingway began writing A Farewell to Arms) and several Vedado rooftop bars — allow cigars on the terrace, serve the full rum range, and give you the sunset view over the colonial roofline that turns a cocktail-and-cigar session into a proper Havana moment. Purchase cigars from a nearby Casa del Habano before arriving; most bars don’t sell them but none will object to you smoking one you’ve brought yourself.

Rum Worth Buying in Havana

Cigars Worth Buying — Official Sources Only

Buying cigars in Havana from official sources (La Casa del Habano stores, Habanos-authorised hotel cigar shops, factory shops after tours) gives you authentic product. Street vendors and informal approaches from strangers offering cigars at “factory prices” or “direct from the torcedor” are almost universally selling counterfeit or low-grade tobacco regardless of how convincing the packaging looks. More on this in the fakes section below.

The cigars worth buying from official sources in Havana:

• Cohiba Siglo range — The premium Cuban brand. Siglo II and Siglo III are the most accessible sizes; the Behike range is the luxury tier. Cohiba is the most counterfeited brand — only buy from official sources.
• Montecristo No. 2 — The pyramid (figurado) shape from Cuba’s most recognised brand internationally. The torpedo shape distributes the filler tobacco differently than a parejos and produces a specific smoking experience worth trying if you have cigar experience.
• Partagás Serie D No. 4 — A medium-full bodied Robusto that represents the Partagás house style at an accessible price point. Very consistent quality from the official source.
• Romeo y Julieta Churchill — One of the classic large ring gauge Cuban cigars with the brand’s characteristic smooth, slightly sweet profile. The Churchill size is 2+ hours of smoking; the Petit Churchill at 50mm is more accessible for those without extensive cigar time.
• H. Upmann Magnum 50 — A newer addition to the range and one of the more consistent H. Upmann offerings. Medium body, accessible for occasional cigar smokers.

Counterfeit Cuban cigars are one of the most sophisticated and widely operated scams in global tourism. Unlike most tourist scams, which are obvious to anyone paying attention, the fake Cuban cigar industry produces products that can fool experienced cigar smokers in the early stages, uses genuinely convincing packaging, and operates through a social engineering approach that’s been refined over two decades to exploit the specific vulnerabilities of the typical cigar tourist.

How the Scam Works

A friendly approach — usually from a well-dressed Cuban who speaks reasonable English — begins with a social interaction that builds trust before transitioning to an offer to take you somewhere special, know someone at the factory, or access “direct from the source” premium cigars at a fraction of the Casa del Habano price. The destination is usually an apartment where the “factory worker” or “cousin who works at Cohiba” produces boxes of cigars with convincing packaging. The price feels reasonable relative to the official store — because it is. What’s in the box is not what the packaging claims.

The cigars sold through these channels are typically one of: (a) low-grade tobacco rolled by informal workers outside the official system, (b) cigars assembled from rejected factory floor sweepings — technically Cuban tobacco but not the premium leaves that go into official production, or (c) non-Cuban tobacco rolled in Cuba using stolen or replicated packaging. All three categories smoke poorly, have unpredictable draw and construction, and waste both money and the time you spent smuggling them through customs.

Cuban customs on exit and destination country customs on arrival both have rules about rum and cigars. Understanding both sets of rules before you go shopping prevents the situation of having to decide at the airport whether to abandon a box of Cohiba Behike or pay duty on a declaration that exceeds your allowance.

More Havana food and drink guides

Rum

Cuban Rum Guide: The Best Bottles to Drink and Bring Home

Cigars

Cuban Cigar Factories You Can Actually Visit in Havana

Bars

The Mojito Trail: Best Bars in Havana Ranked by Their Signature Drink

Food

Best Paladares in Havana: Where Locals Actually Eat

Bars

Best Rooftop Bars in Havana for Sunset Cocktails

Drinks

Havana Craft Beer Scene: Where to Find It (and If It’s Worth Seeking)