Sancti Spíritus Province
Six kilometers east of Trinidad on the road to Sancti Spíritus, this 192m-high lookout provides the best eagle-eye view of the valley with – if you're…
Must-see attractions in Cuba
Camagüey Province
Of Cayo Sabinal's 30km of beaches, this one has top billing. It's frequented by daily catamaran excursions from Playa Santa Lucía offering lunch at a…
Ciego de Ávila Province
The Florencia area's focal point is an artificial lake called La Presa de Florencia, formed when a dam was built on the Río Chambas in 1991. The lake and…
Trinidad
Trinidad's remarkably peaceful main square is located in the heart of the casco histórico and is the town's most photographed spot.
Holguín
In the southwestern corner of Parque Calixto García is this bright gallery, Holguín's best. It shares space with Biblioteca Alex Urquiola.
Vedado
Conceived by French urbanist Jean-Claude Forestier in the 1920s, the gigantic Plaza de la Revolución (known as Plaza Cívica until 1959) was part of Havana…
Vedado
Founded by Dominican monks in 1728 and secularized in 1842, Havana's university began life in Habana Vieja before moving to its present site in 1902. The…
Habana Vieja
Havana's oldest square was laid out in the early 1520s, soon after the city's foundation, and was originally known as Plaza de Iglesia after a church –…
Matanzas Province
Your closest bet for shore snorkeling in the Varadero area is Playa Coral, on the old coastal road, about 3km off the Vía Blanca, halfway between Matanzas…
Varadero
If you're set on sightseeing in Varadero, ensconce yourself in this pretty green oasis. These landscaped gardens date back to 1940 and take their name…
Havana
In the 17th century, anxious to defend the city from attacks by pirates and overzealous foreign armies, Cuba's paranoid colonial authorities drew up plans…
Iglesia y Monasterio de San Francisco de Asís
Habana Vieja
Originally constructed in 1608 and rebuilt in baroque style from 1719 to 1738, this church-convent ceased to have a religious function in the 1840s after…
Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta
Habana Vieja
One in a quartet of forts defending Havana harbor, La Punta was designed by Italian military engineer Bautista Antonelli and built between 1589 and 1600…
Havana
Diminutive Parque Central is a verdant haven from the belching buses and roaring taxis that ply the Paseo de Martí. Long a microcosm of daily Havana life,…
Havana
Leafy Parque de la Fraternidad was established in 1892 to commemorate the fourth centenary of the Spanish landing in the Americas. A few decades later it…
Habana Vieja
The brainchild of Gilberto Valladares, aka 'Papito,' this novel hairdressing salon is also a school and a small museum to the barber's art. Even better,…
Havana
Spare a glance for this white Carrara-marble fountain, carved by Giuseppe Gaggini in 1837 for the Count of Villanueva and now situated on a traffic island…
Varadero
At the peninsula's eastern tip, state-run Gaviota's impressive marina, built in the early 2010s, encompasses a wide malecón (main street), luxury…
Varadero
For something completely different in Varadero's tourist circus, decamp to this large cave 500m beyond the Club Amigo Varadero on the Autopista Sur. It's…
Habana Vieja
This large, box-shaped building on Plaza de San Francisco de Asís is a former commodities market erected in 1909. The building was completely renovated in…
Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás
Havana
One of Havana's oldest and most famous cigar businesses, the Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás was founded in 1845 by Spaniard Jaime Partagás. In 2013 the…
Iglesia del Santo Ángel Custodio
Habana Vieja
Originally constructed in 1695, this church was pounded by a ferocious hurricane in 1846, after which it was entirely rebuilt in neo-Gothic style. Among…
Baracoa
Southeast of town in the Parque Natural Majayara are a couple of magical hikes and swimming opportunities plus an archaeological trail in the grounds of a…
Habana Vieja
Making up a trio of sculptures in Plaza San Francisco de Asís, La Conversación was added in 2012, donated by the French ambassador as a gesture of Franco…
Catedral Ortodoxa Nuestra Señora de Kazán
Habana Vieja
One of Havana's newer buildings, this beautiful gold-domed Russian Orthodox church was built in the early 2000s and consecrated at a ceremony attended by…
Parroquial del Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje
Habana Vieja
This church dates from 1732, although there has been a Franciscan hermitage on the site since 1640. This was where sailors once came to pray before…
Iglesia de San Francisco de Paula
Habana Vieja
One of Havana's most attractive churches, this building is all that remains of the San Francisco de Paula women's hospital from the mid-1700s. Lit up at…
Finca El Pinar (Robaina Tobacco Plantation)
Pinar del Río Province
The famous Robaina vegas (fields), in the rich Vuelta Abajo region southwest of Pinar del Río, have been growing quality tobacco since 1845, but it wasn't…
Havana
One of the world’s more surreal Chinatowns, Havana’s Barrio Chino is notable for its lack of Chinese residents – most Chinese people left Havana as soon…
Pinar del Río Province
During the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara transferred the headquarters of the Western Army to this vast and spectacular cave,…
Habana Vieja
In Parque de los Enamorados (Lovers' Park), surrounded by speeding traffic, lies a section of the colonial Cárcel (aka Tacón Prison), built in 1838. Many…
Havana
Running along the banks of the Río Almendares, below the bridge on Calle 23, is this welcome oasis of greenery and fresh air in the heart of the chaotic…
Ciego de Ávila Province
This wild, foliage-covered loma (hill), the province's only real high ground, was turned into a flora-and-fauna reserve in 1985. With its fabulous coastal…
Cuba
The 94-hectare botanic garden, 17km east of Cienfuegos, is Cuba's oldest, established in 1901. (Decades later the botanical garden in Havana used its…
Iglesia y Convento de Nuestra Señora de Belén
Habana Vieja
This huge building dating from the early 18th century first functioned as a free school and convalescent home run by the Belemitas order. It was taken…
Castillo de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Jagua
Cienfuegos
Predating the city of Cienfuegos by nearly a century, this fort, to the west of the mouth of Bahía de Cienfuegos, was designed by José Tontete in 1738 and…
Sancti Spíritus
While not Cuba's shadiest or most atmospheric square, pretty Serafín Sánchez is full of understated Sancti Spíritus elegance. Metal chairs laid out inside…
Vedado
Arguably the world's most famous US embassy, this modernist seven-story building on the Malecón with its high security fencing first opened in 1953, but…
Holguín Province
Located just off the link road that joins Playa Turquesa with the other Pesquero resorts, this protected park in Parque Natural Cristóbal Colón offers the…
Santiago de Cuba
A small, populated key near the jaws of the bay, Cayo Granma is a little fantasy island of red-roofed wooden houses – many of them on stilts above the…
