THEN AND NOW: Photos show how Cuba went from a 1950s tourist destination to a country plagued by blackouts

A street leading to the Malecon, the waterfront esplanade in Havana, Cuba, circa 1959. — Fidel Castro took control of Cuba in 1959; since then, life on the island has changed dramatically.
Archive Photos/Getty Images

Cuba transitioned to a communist state in 1959, altering its tourism and economic landscape.
Today, Cubans face shortages and power outages, yet tourism remains a key economic driver.
Private businesses are re-emerging in Cuba, but many still depend on government rations.

On New Year's Day 1959, Cuba woke up to a new reality.

By then, the island had established itself as a tourism hot spot and cosmopolitan travel destination, thanks to its entertainment, hospitality, and proximity to the US.

Before dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Havana and revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro transformed the country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba's social and economic fabric had already begun fraying.

The glamour of Havana hospitality masked political repression, corruption, and sharp divides between the capital and vulnerable rural communities.

Today, Cubans on the island struggle with shortages of food, water, fuel, and medicine, as well as recurring power outages. Yet some scenes look remarkably similar to those from the midcentury.

Historic buildings dot the island, vintage cars preserve a distinctive streetscape, and tourists still come for its beaches, hospitality, and nightlife.

Since 1962, the US has maintained a trade embargo with Cuba, restricting most US commerce aside from limited exceptions for food, medicine, and humanitarian exports.

Decades of economic animosity and restricted access to US markets have deterred foreign trade and investment in the country and contributed to the island's economic isolation.

On January 29, 2026 — shortly after the US captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and blocked Venezuela's oil shipments to Cuba — US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a process to impose additional tariffs on imports from countries that directly or indirectly provide oil to Cuba.

Recent reforms have begun to open Cuba to more private businesses and imports, and the government has announced broader measures to attract investment. But the authoritarian state remains central to the island's fragile economy, and daily life for most Cubans is far more difficult than the island's nostalgic imagery can suggest.

See how life on the island has changed since the 1950s, from flashy tourism centers to vulnerable rural communities.

In the 1950s, Cuba was a cosmopolitan tourist destination for foreign travelers.

A group of sailors stand outside a cafe at the end of a narrow street in Old Havana, Cuba, 1950s — Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Old Havana drew visitors in the 1950s with its historic architecture, hotels, restaurants, and nightlife.

Today, there are visible reminders in Havana of that bygone era.

Crumbling and damaged residential buildings line the streets of Havana, showing years of deterioration and lack of maintenance amid ongoing economic hardship in Havana, Cuba, on May 9, 2026. Cuba continues to face severe electricity shortages and fuel scarcity amid a deepening economic crisis. — Magdalena Chodownik/Anadolu via Getty Images

Deteriorated historic buildings and vintage American cars remain part of the daily landscape in Havana, though they reflect decades of repair, scarcity, and preservation efforts.

Fulgencio Batista seized power in 1952 and ruled repressively.

Motorists in Havana were surprised to see a 35 foot figure of Cuba's President Fulgencio Batista smiling down on them from a small park, and below the figure the words "This is the man." It's Batista's campaign slogan in the presidential campaign. At right in the background is the American Embassy. 1954 — Bettmann/Getty Images

Batista took control in a 1952 military coup and led a government widely associated with corruption, censorship, and violence against opponents.

Even after his 2016 death, Fidel Castro's legacy still shapes Cuba.

Old cars ride past a billboard with the portrait of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro that reads in spanish 'Socialism or Death' in Havana on August 11, 2025. — Yamil LAGE / AFP via Getty Images

Cuba remains a one-party state led by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who is also the top official of the Communist Party. Fidel's brother Raúl Castro stepped down as the party's top official in 2021.

The 1950s saw a rapid expansion of Cuba's hospitality infrastructure.

A magnificent view of the modern building recently erected in the Vedado facing Malecon Drive in Havana, Cuba. — Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images

The Malecón and nearby Vedado neighborhood became focal points for midcentury hotel, apartment, and entertainment development as the government pursued tourism revenue.

Development has continued in Havana's tourist districts, even as historic buildings deteriorate.

Storm clouds hang over Havana during a nationwide power outage on July 10, 2026. Cuba suffered its second nationwide blackout in five days on July 10 as twin energy and economic crises, compounded by a six-month US fuel blockade, caused the electricity grid to collapse. — Yamil LAGE / AFP via Getty Images

The capital's skyline now combines historic buildings with newer hotels and high-rises, underscoring the government's continued focus on tourism amid a wider housing and infrastructure crisis.

Luxurious hotels like the Riviera attracted tourists from all over the globe.

The Hotel Habana Riviera on the Malecon coastal road in Havana, Cuba, circa 1959. — Archive Photos/Getty Images

The Hotel Riviera opened on Havana's Malecón in December 1957 and became one of the city's best-known casino hotels.

Today, the high-rises remain, but tourism is largely state-run and strained.

Buildings stand in darkness during a nationwide blackout in Havna, on July 14, 2026. Cuba's power grid failed for the third time in less than 10 days, sparking another nationwide blackout, the national electricity company said. — ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP via Getty Images

Cuba nationalized foreign-owned hotels after the revolution, and state enterprises still control much of the industry.

Recurring blackouts have disrupted businesses and hotels since 2024, as severe fuel shortages and frequent failures in the country's aging, deteriorating power plants strain the energy grid.

American tourists flocked to Cuba in the 1950s.

American comedienne, actress, singer and businesswoman, Edie Adams (1927-2008) (left), poses for a portrait with a friend at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, Sun Club Cabana circa 1950 in Havana, Cuba. — Edie Adams and Ernie Kovacs Estate/Getty Images

American celebrities were among the many visitors Cuba welcomed in the midcentury, when the US was the island's largest tourism market.

Americans cannot travel to Cuba freely today.

Tourists pose for photos with an American classic car in Havana on March 18, 2026. — YAMIL LAGE / AFP via Getty Images

Tourists from other countries still support the industry. Countries like Canada and Russia are among the top sources of international visitors to Cuba today.

The Hotel Nacional de Cuba, which opened in 1930, became a symbol of the island's international prominence.

The Hotel Nacional de Cuba on the Malecon in Havana, Cuba, circa 1959. — Archive Photos/Getty Images

The hotel hosted celebrities, politicians, and organized crime figures in the '50s.

The Hotel Nacional remains open as a luxury hotel.

General view of Havana, including the Hotel Nacional, on June 21, 2026. — Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP via Getty Images

It survives alongside food shortages, blackouts, and deteriorating housing that shape daily life for Cubans.

In the '50s, golf courses such as the Havana Country Club catered largely to affluent foreign visitors and Cuban elites.

HAVANA, CUBA - MAY 1946: A woman putts during a golf game in Havana, Cuba. — Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Americans often came to Cuba to golf.

After the revolution, Castro's government shuttered most of Cuba's golf courses.

HAVANA, CUBA - 1962: Che Guevara (1928-1967) putts as Fidel Castro (1926-2016) watches, during 1962 golf game at Havana's Colinas de Villarreal golf course, following the Cuban missile crisis. — Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Castro's government closed or repurposed many of Cuba's courses after 1959, as golf was treated as an elitist sport. For decades, Cubans were also barred from staying in many tourist hotels.

Today, few courses remain open, though tourism remains vital to Cuba's economy.

Tourists play golf in front of a hotel in Varadero beach, 130 km east of Havana on April 6, 2008. The lifting, by Cuban President Raul Castro, of the prohibition to Cubans of staying at tourism hotels, created expectations on their arrival to Varadero. Still, only few Cubans visit nowadays Varadero because of the high prices. — ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images

Cuba has two operating golf courses, in Varadero and Havana, aimed largely at visitors. A 2008 reform allowed Cubans to stay in tourist hotels for the first time since the revolution, though the cost remains out of reach for many.

Havana was synonymous with gambling in the midcentury.

Tourist Attractions. Havana, Cuba: Even the slot machines in the casino seem to have a modern look. The walls of the casino are embellished in gold leaf with large-scale designs reminiscent of Mayan jewelry. 1958 — Bettmann/Getty Images

Havana was a major casino destination in the 1950s, attracting travelers looking to gamble and organized crime figures looking to profit from the city's tourism boom.

The revolutionary government outlawed casinos shortly after taking power, and gambling remains illegal today.

A woman checks on a mobile app the winning numbers of the "La bolita" lottery in Havana on April 14, 2025. "La bolita," the clandestine lottery that multiplies its followers in the midst of the strong economic crisis in Cuba, has survived 66 years of prohibition on the communist island. With the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, all gambling was banned and casinos were closed, sanctioning any kind of game for money until the present day. — ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images

"La Bolita," a popular clandestine lottery in Cuba, has survived for nearly 70 years since gambling was outlawed, reflecting the role of the underground economy in daily life.

Several restaurants and bars in Havana's tourist center became internationally recognizable.

Sloppy Joe's in Havana was one of the most popular bars with American tourists and celebrities in the mid-century. The bar had over 80 cocktails on its menu and offered its own brand of 12-year-old rum.

The Print Collector/Getty Images

Sloppy Joe's was among the city's most popular bars with American tourists and celebrities in the midcentury. It offered more than 80 cocktails and its own brand of 12-year-old rum.

Havana's restaurants and bars are still operating, but daily operations are increasingly difficult.

23 June 2019, Cuba, Havana: Tapas Restaurant La Vitrola at the Plaza Vieja (Old Square) at evening. Havana is home to Latin America's largest preserved colonial old town. Havana celebrates the 500th anniversary of its founding in 2019 — Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images

Restaurants like La Vitrola are still open in Havana, keeping the hospitality scene alive amid shrinking tourism numbers.

Cabarets like the iconic Tropicana nightclub became symbols of midcentury Cuba.

Exotic dancers at the Tropicana nightclub in Havana, Cuba, circa 1955. — Archive Photos/Getty Images

The Tropicana nightclub in Havana has attracted high-profile guests since its 1939 opening, thanks to lavish performances that helped define Havana nightlife.

The Tropicana has endured with state support.

Cabaret Tropicana, Havana, Cuba — Dukas/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The iconic Tropicana remains open and continues to stage its signature over-the-top performances for visitors and Cubans who can afford to attend.

Outside the capital, life was far less glamorous in the 1950s.

circa 1950: Children play outside their shanty homes in Oriente Province, Cuba. — Elizabeth Frey/Three Lions/Getty Images

Much of eastern Cuba faced poverty, seasonal unemployment, poor roads, and limited access to schools, healthcare, and other public services as the capital flourished.

Many rural communities still face disproportionate hardship today.

CUBA. TYPICAL BOHIO PEASANT RANCH IN THE ORIENTE EASTERN REGION — Julio Etchart/ullstein bild via Getty Images

The revolution extended state services beyond Havana, but food, fuel, transport, and power shortages often hit rural areas especially hard.

Access to water in the 1950s was limited in many rural regions.

circa 1950: Cuban farmworkers take a drink of water from a water pump used for irrigating the land. — Graf/Three Lions/Getty Images

By 1952, most rural homes lacked indoor running water, and many also lacked electricity, paved roads, and nearby schools.

Today, water shortages have made access unreliable even in urban areas.

Residents carry containers while queuing for potable water from a water tanker in a neighbourhood of Matanzas, Cuba, on August 6, 2026. Recurring water shortages and power outages have forced many residents of Matanzas to rely on water deliveries and public water distribution points. — AFP via Getty Images

Residents in cities including Matanzas have faced water disruptions as aging infrastructure and electricity shortages affect pumping and distribution.

Education in 1950s Cuba was not equally accessible.

CUBA - CIRCA 1959: Library of Yaguajay (Cuba), about 1960. — Gilberto Ante/Roger Viollet via Getty Images

By 1953, Cuba had a high literacy rate in Latin America, but rural illiteracy was far higher than in urban centers.

Today, state-run education is widespread, though strained by shortages.

Children raise hands in their classroom on their first day of school in Havana on September 4, 2023. — YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images

Cuba's broadly accessible free public school system follows a state-directed curriculum that emphasizes the revolution, socialism, and loyalty to the Communist Party, though teacher shortages, power cuts, transportation problems, and a lack of supplies often disrupt classrooms.

Public healthcare in Cuba was unevenly available in the 1950s.

CUBA - CIRCA 1959: Cuba. Maternity hospital, about 1960. — Gilberto Ante/Roger Viollet via Getty Images

In the mid-century, private, public, and charitable hospitals provided modern care to some urban Cubans, but medical services were far less accessible in rural areas.

Today, Cuba's universal health system is under intense pressure.

Children remain hospitalised in a room of the Pepe Portilla Paediatric Hospital in the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba on July 25, 2026 — YAMIL LAGE / AFP via Getty Images

Cuba still sends medical personnel abroad through international missions to allied countries, even as hospitals on the island face shortages of medicine, equipment, staff, and reliable power.

Midcentury Cuba relied heavily on healthcare imports that did not reach all regions equally.

A clinician examines a patient's ear with an otoscope in a black-and-white medical scene. — Keystone-France\Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Havana was home to more than half of the country's hospital beds at the time.

Isolation from the US pushed Cuba to strengthen its domestic health science.

Workers of the National Center for Biopreparations (BioCen), move vials of the Cuban-made VA-Mengoc-BC vaccine for meningococcal disease as they are prepared for packaging in Bejucal, Cuba, on July 15, 2022. — YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images

Cuba invested in state-run medical research partly to reduce its dependence on imported medicines and equipment. In 2021, the country developed its own COVID-19 vaccines.

Private businesses, including grocery stores, were common in 1950s Cuba.

A group of men chatting near a shop counter inside a greengrocer and food shop, Havan, Cuba, circa 1950. — Max Haas/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images

The pre-revolutionary economy included privately owned shops, pharmacies, restaurants, factories, and other small businesses.

Recent reforms have expanded legal private business, but state rationing remains essential.

A resident holds up an open 'libreta de abastecimiento' (ration book) used to track subsidized food allocations in Havana, Cuba, on June 09, 2026. Delays in state shipments and severe shortages of staples like rice, beans, and milk have drastically weakened the decades-old rationing system, forcing people to rely on expensive private markets. — Pablo Miranzo/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Cuban government began rationing food and basic necessities in the early 1960s.

In the midcentury, Cuba was a major importer of US-made cars.

Havana (Habana) Policeman regulating the traffic, standing at a crossroad under an umbrella - 1949 — Gircke/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Havana streets were full of modern cars of the day in 1949, in part thanks to the island's close commercial relationship with the US.

Today, fuel shortages and high vehicle costs have pushed many Cubans toward alternatives.

A bicycle taxi rides through an intersection with nonfunctioning traffic lights during a power outage in Guantanamo, Cuba, on August 3, 2026, highlighting the transportation and infrastructure challenges caused by the blackout. Cuba's power grid failed on August 2, 2026, causing another nationwide blackout, a state utility said in a social media post. State-run UNE said there was a "total disconnection" of the national electricity system, plunging the country, including the capital, into abrupt darkness. — AFP via Getty Images

Bicycles, pedicabs, and other forms of transport have become especially important on the island as fuel shortages and unreliable buses make travel more difficult.

The import of American cars in the midcentury defined the look of Cuban streets for decades to come.

circa 1955: Cuban car importer Celestino Gondar supervising the unloading of American cars from a ferry in Havana harbour. — Evans/Three Lions/Getty Images

American-made vehicles were especially common on the island before the revolution, which suspended imports of US cars and helped preserve many older vehicles on its roads.

Since 2014, newer imported cars have begun to alter Cuba's once stuck-in-time image.

A car passes in front of an old house along the Malecon in Havana on June 16, 2026. — Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP via Getty Images

Modern Chinese, European, and other imported cars now share the road with classic American vehicles and Soviet-era Ladas, though they remain unaffordable for many Cubans.

The cigar industry was central to midcentury Cuba.

Men work in rows of benches at a cigar factory in Havana,Cuba. 1950 — Lionel Green/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Cigar-rolling factories employed thousands of workers in Havana, while tobacco grown in western provinces such as Pinar del Río was a major export.

Today, the cigar industry remains state-controlled and valuable.

The former Upmann cigar factory, now used as a residential building, is seen in Havana, Cuba, on June 22, 2026. The facility was nationalized following the Cuban Revolution and has since been repurposed to provide housing for local residents. — Magdalena Chodownik/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Upmann cigar factory was nationalized after the revolution.

Cuba's lively culture drew international interest in the midcentury despite domestic troubles.

HAVANA, CUBA - JANUARY 1946: People dance in traditional costumes at the Havana Cathedral in Havana, Cuba. — Earl Leaf/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Dancers in traditional costumes grabbed the attention of visitors in the streets of Havana in 1946.

Even with widespread blackouts and hardship, Havana's nightlife remains alive.

People gather at bars and along the streets as nightlife continues during ongoing blackouts in Havana, Cuba, on May 9, 2026. Cuba continues to face severe electricity shortages and fuel scarcity amid a deepening economic crisis. — Magdalena Chodownik/Anadolu via Getty Images

Despite its hardships, Cuba is still lively today. People continue to gather in downtown clubs and bars even as energy and fuel shortages cause blackouts and difficult conditions.

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