The section of the 23rd street that runs downhill from the street L to the Malecón, is known as La Rampa (the Ramp). Hotel Habana Libre and Cine Yara indicate the beginning of this slope.

Even though La Rampa occupies only five blocks, La Rampa is an extremely lively center with the hotels, clubs, restaurants, shops, offices, cinemas and theater, and even radio and television studios in terms of social life and economic activity. Cubans prefer La Rampa also for its intense nightlife.

Important buildings and popular entertainment venues, as well as hotels and restaurants, located on La Rampa are as follows:

Hotel Habana Libre and its facilities: El Turquino (disco & cabaret), the restaurant Polinesio and the Cafetería La Rampa.

Cine Yara: It was built as the front section of the Radiocentro CMQ building at the corner of L street on La Rampa by the architects Emilio del Junco, Miguel Gastón and Martín Domínguez. It was inaugurated under the name of Teatro Warner Radiocentro in 1947 and it was operated by Warner Bros at that time. It has 1.650 seats in the main hall, like at the time of its opening, and three rooms for video presentation upstairs, each with 30 seats. Every December, it hosts the International Festival of the new Latin American Cinema. Classic films can be watched, as the cinema retained one of the 35-mm projectors.

Radiocentro CMQ Building: It is a complex building, consisting of a radio and television production studios and its offices and the current Cine Yara, located in the block, bordered by La Rampa, L and M streets. The first mixed-used building of Cuba was inspired by the Rockefeller Center in New York, built in 1933. The project was executed by the prestigious North American firm Purdy & Henderson and designed by the Basque architect Martín Domínguez Esteban. At that time, it was prohibited by law to construct buildings of more than three floors in Vedado, but it became necessary to expand the construction up to four floors. Thus, the statute was modified later, and the building could be completed in 1947. The administrative offices of CMQ were moved to the FOCSA building in 1952 that was built with the aim to provide housing for its workers and additional radio stations. The FOCSA building with its modernist design was the second largest residential concrete building on the world of the time.

The Radiocentro CMQ Building is remembered by its role in the plan to kill the bloody Fulgencio Batista by attacking the Presidential Palace in March 13, 1957. According the plan, a group, headed by José Antonio Echeverría, the President of the Federation of University Students (Federación Estudiantil Universitaria) would occupy the 24-hours news radio station, Radio Reloj, at the CMQ complex to announce the death of the President. Exactly at 15.21 Cuba heard the news about the attack of the President by the words of José Antonio Echeverría: “People of Cuba, in these moments the revolutionary Fulgencio Batista has just been executed in his own burrow at the Presidential Palace. The people of Cuba have gone to settle accounts! “ . After these sentences, his speech was interrupted, without he could encourage the people of Havana into a general strike and call the civils to gather in the University of Havana, as the broadcasting had gone off the air by the intervention of an employee in another place. 

Today, the Radiocentro CMQ Building is used by the Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión (Cuban Institute of Radio and Television; ICRT).

One of the biggest attractions of the area is the sidewalk along Calle L and Calle 23 in front of Cine Yara, decorated with poly-chrome mosaics repeated over several blocks. They are the reproduction of the works of fifteen Cuban plastic artists that presented their originals in Salón de Mayo.  Salón de Mayo was an art exhibition in Havana that took place in 1967. It took its name from the Salon de Mai, an artists’ collective founded during the Nazi occupation of France. Salón de Mayo was organized by Carlos Franqui with the assistance of the artists, such as Wifredo Lam, René Portocarrero, Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso.

The Cuban artists, such as such as  Wifredo Lam, René Portocarrero, Hugo Consuegra, Mariano Rodríguez, Cundo Bermúdez, Cundo Bermúdez, Amelia Peláez, Luis Martínez Pedro, Salvador Corratge, Raúl Martínez, Antonio Vidal, Mariano Rodríguez and Sandu Darié, embedded the reproductions of their works into granite sidewalk in front of Cine Yara. The mosaics with different designs are made of polished cement, colored with fine gravel of crushed marble and framed by bronze sheet. The mosaics are approximately 35 cm to 45 cm in size and there are 180 mosaics in total that one can still find in the area.

Mandarin, the state-run Chinese Restaurant is located on La Rampa at the corner of M street.

Another attraction of La Rampa was the handicraft market, located on La Rampa between M and N streets. There you could find many symbolic objects of the island, such keyholders in the shape of cigar or rum bottle, necklaces made of wood, dried seeds or plastic material, humidors, coasters with the labels of Cuban rum brands or Cuban cigar brands, magnets of the vintage cars or the iconic places of Havana like the castles, as well as baseball sticks, sombreros, sandals, among others. Walking through the stalls was a good opportunity to have an experience about Cuba. Currently the handicraft market is closed for an unknown reason.

Edificio del Seguro Médico (Building of Medical Insurance): The modernist building is located on La Rampa between N and M streets. It was designed by the architect and landscape designer Antonio Quintana Simonetti as a mixed use for apartments and offices of the headquarters of the National Medical Insurance Company. He designed two blocks of dissimilar proportions: the lower block contained the Seguro Médico offices and the upper block was consisted of 18-storey residences. It was built in the period of 1955-1958. The work was awarded with National Prize for Architecture. Today it houses the Ministerio de Salud Pública (Ministry of Public Health). The 90-meters high building has 23 floors.

Pabellón : The cultural center Pabellón is located on La Rampa at the corner of N street. It was built on the occasion of the 7th Conference of the Unión Nacional de Arquitectos (National Union of Architects) in 1963. It was designed by the Cuban architects Evelio Govantes and Félix Cabarrocas.

The building is constructed on 7 to 14 meters high, reinforced concrete columns consisting of an open area and two exhibition halls, connected to each other on the third floor.

The cultural center was built for fairs, exhibitions and larger events of every kind, such as poster and painting exhibitions, interviews with artists, afternoon ballad-music, jazz performances, concerts on weekend nights, shows for children, symposiums on cultural topics and recreational activities for children and youngsters, theatre pieces, fashion shows and book sales.

La Zorra y El Cuervo Jazz Club: The underground jazz club is located on La Rampa at the corner of O street.

Cafeteria Sofía: The moderate, but busy Cuban restaurant is located on La Rampa at the corner of O street. 

Pico Blanco: The cabaret is at top floor of the Hotel Vedado (former Hotel St. Johns), located on the O street, between 23 and 25.

Cine La Rampa (Cinema Milan): It is located on La Rampa between N and O streets. The building was built as bowling alley in 1955. Later it was renovated and converted into a complex, consisting of a café, a bar, some offices and a cinema with 900 seats. It has high quality sound and digital projection system. Access to the auditorium, which is on the first floor, is via a ramp, rather than by stairs, like the street La Rampa.  It also houses the Cuban film archives.

La Gruta: It is located on La Rampa at the corner of O street. It is a mix of disco and cabaret.

Bim Bom: The ice cream shop was located at the beginning of La Rampa at the corner of Hospital street. It was selling 20 different flavors for a cheap price. It is permanently closed.

If you would walk on La Rampa, starting from Malecón, the waterfall flowing into a pool from the cliffs at the foot of Hotel Nacional will catch your attention. This place is one of the preferred meeting points for the Cubans that want to take fresh air on the Malecón.