VanDam's 2020 StreetSmart Havana maps all of the capital's cultural attractions, neighborhoods, beaches, hotels, resorts and more at an immensely legible scale of 1:12,200. The map features the latest restaurants, hotels, bars and supper clubs in celebration of Havana’s 500 anniversary. Clear information design allows you to read the map from three feet away and has earned VanDam maps a place in the MoMA Collection. The map is film-laminated, accordion folded and pocket size. Coverage: Havana City Street Map 1:20,000; Old Havana Detail Map 1:12,000 Havana Overview Map: 1:115,000; Playa del Este Map: 1:61,000 Dimensions: 4” x 9” folded, 9” x 24” unfolded, fits into shirt pocket or purse. StreetSmart Havana is so legible you will instantly understand how La Habana Vieja connects with Vedado and Miramar, Havana Centro with Barrio Chino, Habana del Este with Siboney, Playa with Plaza de la Revolución , and the Malecón with Parque Lennon. From God's perspective to the most minute callejón our map will be your treasured companion during your stay. StreetSmart Havana let's you experience the authentic Havana with confidence. Hike our recommended self-guided tours of the Malecón, Havana’s musical history, its famed museums, and its cutting edge art galleries and gardens which are all clearly marked. Then indulge in a cocktail at El Floridita or Sloppy Joe’s, the old haunts of Ernest Hemingway or savor a mojito with a view from the roof top of the Saratoga Hotel. What makes Cuba different from most other places in the world is the absence of advertising, that constant tease we Westerns take for granted. Havana is uniquely rich in history as all shipments from the new world had to travel through Havana to Sevilla in Spain. Cuba is a world superpower of music and Havana an architectural treasure trove without equal. No American city can match its variety of styles ranging from the Plateresque to Cuban Baroque, Neoclassical to Art Nouveau, Deco to Mid-Century Modern and Soviet Brutalism. Cuba conjured a music so powerful it went around the world three times in the 20th Century alone. Classical composers such as Samuel and Cervantes invented Danzas and Contradanzas that with syncopation laid the foundation for “Danzon, Rumba, Ragtime, Salsa and Latin Jazz.” Live music can be heard and danced to impromptu on almost every corner. We recommend you visit the spectacular reinvention of Fábrica de Arte Cubano in Vedado to experience the creative Cuban juices first hand. StreetSmart Havana is updated yearly and most current. Simplicity reigns supreme in information design to make complex cities clear and understandable. This is the smartest and easiest to use map of Havana. Remember web access in Cuba is limited to hotels, excruciatingly slow and up-to-date information simply unavailable. So, let StreetSmart Havana be your key to understanding the new world's oldest city. This sexy laminated city map package refolds easily to 4 x 9 inches (24 x 9 inches open) and snuggly fits into your pocket. Buy this map to become an instant StreetSmart Habanero. "A New Look at Cuba" by Rachel Lee Harris You ve booked a flight from Miami and have your approved travel visa in hand. You re ready to see Cuba. Now what? Cue Stephan VanDam, a cartographer, graphic designer and president of the map company that bears his name. Though practical, his witty, origami-like physical maps and sleek 4-D interactive digital maps can also carve a historic or cultural path through a city (like his History Mapped presidential series). The company has now turned its attention to Cuba. 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. As an amateur mambo dancer and Latin Jazz aficionado, Mr. VanDam has always had a fascination with Cuba and its connection to the Latin jazz scene in New York, he said on the phone from his office there. Musically, it's a world power. I remember my parents doing the mambo in the 1950s and their parents in the 30s. So the maps focus a lot on those aspects of Cuba s culture. It s also a treasure trove of architecture, he said. Cuba is totally cohesive in its urban fabric since there was no money after the revolution to replace buildings with modern structures. The company also has produced StreetSmart Cuba, which maps out the network of Spanish Colonial towns and Unesco World Heritage sites on country roads from west to east, and guides travelers through beach towns along the shores both north and south. The Havana map is $8.95, the Cuba map $9.95 --The New York Times, Travel "In Cuba, Maps Make a Comeback" by Steve Helle