Hotel Capri

One of the most magical things about Havana is the feeling that you’re stepping through time — from the colonial era to the glamorous 1940s and 1950s. Here in Vedado, historic hotels like the one in front of you — the Hotel Capri — take you back to the golden age of the Havana mafia. In 1955, Cuban president Fulgencio Batista passed a new hotel law, offering generous tax breaks and government loans to anyone willing to build luxury hotels and casinos in Vedado. The American mafia quickly saw an opportunity. Meyer Lansky, known as the “Mastermind of the Mob,” arrived with his associates. One of them, gangster Santo Trafficante Jr., founded the Hotel Capri in 1957. With over 200 rooms and a rooftop pool that’s appeared in several films, the hotel also includes a casino-cabaret. Profits from gambling, and even prostitution, were funneled back to the U.S., untaxed by the Cuban government. Hollywood stars like George Raft and Frank Sinatra were regulars here. Nationalised by the government in 1960, the Capri Hotel remained closed for decades before reopening in 2014 under the management of the Spanish NH Hotel Group.