Vedado
Havana's main cemetery (a national monument), one of the largest in the Americas, is renowned for its striking religious iconography and elaborate marble…
Vedado
Havana's main cemetery (a national monument), one of the largest in the Americas, is renowned for its striking religious iconography and elaborate marble…
Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro
Santiago de Cuba
A Unesco World Heritage site since 1997, the San Pedro fort sits impregnably atop a 60m-high promontory at the entrance to Santiago harbor, 10km southwest…
Havana
The Malecón, Havana's evocative 7km-long sea drive, is one of the city's most soulful and quintessentially Cuban thoroughfares, and long a favored meeting…
Havana
The incomparable Capitolio Nacional is Havana's most ambitious and grandiose building, constructed after the post-WWI boom ('Dance of the Millions')…
Habana Vieja
Habana Vieja's most uniform square is a museum to Cuban baroque, with all the surrounding buildings, including the city's beguiling asymmetrical cathedral…
Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos del Morro
Regla, Guanabacoa & the Forts
This wave-lashed fort with its emblematic lighthouse was erected between 1589 and 1630 to protect the entrance to Havana harbor from pirates and foreign…
Havana
Where does art go after Antoni Gaudí? For a hint, head west from central Havana to the seemingly low-key district of Jaimanitas, where artist José Fuster…
Museo Conjunto Histórico de Birán
Holguín Province
Fidel Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, at the Finca Las Manacas near the village of Birán, south of Cueto. The sprawling ranch, bought by Fidel's…
Habana Vieja
Laid out in 1559, Plaza Vieja is Havana's most architecturally eclectic square, where Cuban baroque nestles seamlessly next to Gaudí-inspired art nouveau…
Isla de la Juventud & Cayo Largo del Sur
Cayo Largo's (and, perhaps, Cuba's) finest beach is the broad westward-facing Playa Sirena, where 2km of powdery white sand is wide enough to accommodate…
Granma Province
Topping a crenelated mountain ridge amid thick cloud forest, this pioneering camp was established by Fidel Castro in 1958 after a year on the run in the…
Camagüey
Around 600m west of the frenzy of República sits another sublimely beautiful square, one less visited than the central plazas. It's backed on the eastern…
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
Havana
Spread over two campuses, the Bellas Artes is arguably the finest art gallery in the Caribbean. The Arte Cubano building contains the most comprehensive…
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes – Arte Cubano
Havana
The Bellas Artes' 'Colección de Arte Cubano' houses purely Cuban art. Works are displayed in chronological order, starting on the 3rd floor, and are…
Museo Nacional Camilo Cienfuegos
Sancti Spíritus Province
This excellent museum was opened in 1989 and is eerily reminiscent of the Che Guevara monument in Santa Clara. Camilo fought a crucial battle in this town…
Parque Histórico Militar Morro-Cabaña
Regla, Guanabacoa & the Forts
This unmissable military park, included in the Habana Vieja Unesco World Heritage site, is arguably the most formidable defensive complex in Spain's…
Camagüey
Camagüey is home to two of Cuba's most creative and prodigious contemporary painters, Joel Jover and his wife Ileana Sánchez. Their magnificent home in…
Pinar del Río Province
If they gave out Academy Awards for Cuban beaches, Las Tumbas might just win, edging out Playa Sirena on Cayo Largo del Sur (too many tourists) and Playa…
Santiago de Cuba
The museum inside the Cuartel Moncada is the best in town and one of the best in Cuba. Sometimes gory exhibits catalogue the details of the 1953 attack by…
Holguín Province
At just over 100m in height, Guayabo (15km from the Villa Pinares del Mayarí) is considered the highest waterfall in Cuba. There's a spectacular overlook,…
Santiago de Cuba
Nestled peacefully on the city's western extremity, the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia is second only to Havana's Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón in its importance…
Havana
This emblematic museum is set in the former Presidential Palace, constructed between 1913 and 1920 and used by a string of Cuban presidents, culminating…
Habana Vieja
Cobbled, car-free Calle Mercaderes (Merchant's Street) has been extensively restored by the Office of the City Historian and is an almost complete replica…
Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla
Regla, Guanabacoa & the Forts
As important as it is diminutive, Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Regla, which sits close to the dock in Regla, has a long and colorful history. Inside on…
Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña
Regla, Guanabacoa & the Forts
This 18th-century colossus was built between 1763 and 1774 on a long, exposed ridge on the east side of Havana harbor to fill a weakness in the city's…
Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso
Havana
The neobaroque Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso, erected as a Galician social club between 1907 and 1914, features highly ornate and even exuberant…
Isla de la Juventud & Cayo Largo del Sur
Welcome to the island's most impressive yet depressing sight. Located near Reparto Chacón, 5km east of Nueva Gerona, this striking prison was built…
Conjunto Escultórico Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara
Santa Clara
The end point of many a Che pilgrimage, this monument, mausoleum and museum complex is 2km west of Parque Vidal (via Rafael Tristá on Av de los Desfiles),…
Habana Vieja
Described by novelist Alejo Carpentier as 'music set in stone,' Havana's incredible cathedral, dominated by two unequal towers and framed by a theatrical…
Bayamo
One of Cuba's leafiest squares, Bayamo's central meeting point is surrounded by pedestrian-only streets, making it a rare and peaceful spot. In addition…
Granma Province
Considered hallowed revolutionary ground, this is the spot where Castro's shipwrecked rebels were intercepted by Batista's army in 1956 and forced to…
Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago's most important church is stunning both inside and out. There has been a cathedral on this site since the city's inception in the 1520s, though…
Cienfuegos
Sharing French and Italian influences, this theater on the northern side of Parque José Martí is grand from the outside (look for the gold-leafed mosaics…
Outer Havana
In 1940 American novelist Ernest Hemingway bought the Finca la Vigía, a villa on a hill in San Francisco de Paula, 15km southeast of Havana, where he…
Holguín
At the northern end of Maceo, a stairway built in 1950 ascends 465 steps to top a hill (275m) with panoramic views, a restaurant and a 24-hour bar. It's a…
Habana Vieja
Even with no artifacts, Havana's city museum would be a tour de force, courtesy of the opulent palace in which it resides. Filling the whole western side…
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago's famous Moncada Barracks, a crenelated art deco building completed in 1938, is now synonymous with one of history's greatest failed putsches…
Parroquia de San Juan Bautista de Remedios
Villa Clara Province
One of the island's most interesting and oldest ecclesiastical buildings, Remedios' main church dates from around 1550, although much of the current…
Guantánamo Province
Baracoa's rite of passage is the 8km (up and down) hike to the top of this moody, mysterious mountain. Views from the summit (575m) and the flora and…
Artemisa & Mayabeque Provinces
The Antiguo Cafetal Angerona, 5km west of Artemisa on the road to the Autopista Habana–Pinar del Río (A4), was one of Cuba’s earliest cafetales (coffee…