Havana

by Christopher P. Baker

Moon Spotlight Havana offers focused travel information and the unique perspective of award-winning travel writer Christopher P. Baker. In this easy-to-carry guide, you'll find sightseeing highlights, handy maps, and shopping, restaurant, and hotel recommendations. Included are options from casas particulares (room rentals) to retro-1950s grande dame hotels, and humble home-based paladares or five-star restaurants. Walking tours take you through some of Havana's most interesting neighborhoods and streets such as The Prado, Zulueta and Monserrate, Calle Obispo, and Plaza Vieja. Packed with great ideas and advice, Moon Spotlight Havana is all you'll need for a memorable getaway to this fascinating city.

This Spotlight guidebook is excerpted from Moon Cuba.

Genres: Travel

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Christopher Paul Baker (born in Yorkshire, England, on 15 June 1955) is a travel writer and photographer currently specializing in the Caribbean and Central America. He is a contributor to magazines and other publications worldwide, and is the author of travel guidebooks (for publishers such as Lonely Planet and Moon Publications) and a literary travelog.

Baker was educated at Rastrick Grammar School, in Brighouse, Yorkshire. In 1976 he received a BA (Honours) in Geography from University College London, during which time he participated in a university exchange program at Krakow, Poland; and in two Sahara research expeditions. The following year he attended the graduate Centre for Latin American Studies, at the University of Liverpool, where he received a Masters. He returned to the University of London, received a teaching diploma from the Institute of Education in 1978, and spent brief periods teaching at schools in London between periods of travel in Europe and North America. His first travel article appeared in the Brighouse Echo as dispatches from the United States.

The Lowell Thomas Award 2008 ‘Travel Journalist of the Year,' Christopher P. Baker is one of the world's foremost authorities on Costa Rica and Cuba. He has authored and photographed guidebooks to Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Panama in the National Geographic Traveler series, as well as five other guidebooks on Costa Rica and Panama, plus the Costa Rica Pura Vida! travel app. He is also the author of the award-winning Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba, published by National Geographic Adventure Press. His more than 20 other books include the coffee-table book Cuba Classics: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles. He has also written and photographed for more than 200 publications, from National Geographic Traveler to Newsweek, and has given talks about Cuba at National Geographic headquarters, the National Press Club, and the World Affairs Council, among other prestigious organizations. Christopher has been profiled in USA Today and featured on the National Geographic Channel, NPR, and dozens of other radio and TV outlets.