Things to do in Santa Clara
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Club Mejunje
Set in the ruins of a roofless building given over to sprouting greenery, Club Mejunje is Havana-hip and more. Among the plethora of nighttime attractions here is Cuba’s only official drag show every Saturday night – a must-see! Other items on an eclectic entertainment menu include regular trova, bolero and son (Cuba’s popular music) concerts, children’s theater and disco nights. If you’ve only got one night, this is the place.
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El Sabor Latino
Santa Clara’s only real paladar is easily trumped by many of the city’s casa particular chefs, but still lures plenty of clients into its well-maintained midst with its improbable Rolling Stones’ ‘Glimmer Twins’ logo. The menu offers complete pork or chicken meals with rice, salad, tostones (fried plantain patties) and bread for CUC$10 (or fish for CUC$12).
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Monumento Ernesto Che Guevara
The site of many a Che ‘pilgrimage, ’ this monument, mausoleum & museum complex, 2km west of Parque Vidal via Rafael Tristá, is in a vast square guarded by a bronze statue of ‘El Che.’ The statue was erected in 1987 to mark the 20th anniversary of Guevara’s murder in Bolivia, and the sublime mausoleum below (entry from the rear) contains 38 stone-carved niches dedicated to the other guerillas killed in that failed revolutionary attempt. In 1997 the remains of 17 of them, including Guevara, were recovered from a secret mass grave in Bolivia and reburied in this memorial. Fidel Castro lit the eternal flame on October 17, 1997. The adjacent museum collects the details an…
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Fábrica de Tabacos Constantino Pérez Carrodegua
Santa Clara’s tobacco factory is one of the best in Cuba and makes a quality range of Montecristos, Partagás and Romeo y Julieta cigars. Tours here are lower key than in Havana and, as a result, the experience is a lot more interesting and less rushed. Rather than turn up you should book tickets through the Cubatur office. Across the street you’ll find La Veguita, the factory’s diminutive sales outlet that is staffed by a friendly team of cigar experts. You can also buy cheap rum here and the bar out the back brews good coffee.
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Boxcar Museum
History was made here on December 29, 1958, when Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and a band of 18 rifle-wielding revolutionaries barely out of their teens derailed an armored train using a borrowed bulldozer and some homemade Molotov cocktails. The battle lasted 90 minutes, and it effectively sealed the fate of the Batista dictatorship and ushered in 50 years of Fidel Castro. The event is remembered with a boxcar museum east on Independencia, just over the river, which marks the spot where the train derailed and ejected its 350 heavily armed government troops.
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La Casa de la Ciudad
The pulse of the city’s progressive cultural life is at La Casa de la Ciudad, northwest of Parque Vidal. If you want to see another side to Santa Clara aside from the obligatory Che memorabilia, get chatting to the young artists here. The historic building hosts art expositions (including an original Wilfredo Lam sketch), Noches del Danzón and a film museum; but the real buzz of this place is hanging out with the local culture vultures and finding out what makes this most unprepossessing of Cuban cities tick.
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Museo Provincial Abel Santamaría
Not actually a memorial to Señor Santamaría (Fidel’s right-hand man at Moncada), but rather a small provincial museum quartered in a former military barracks where Batista’s troops surrendered to Che Guevara on January 1, 1959. It contains a room on natural history and a room dedicated to Cuban women throughout history. The museum is situated on a hilltop at the north end of Esquerra, just across the Río Bélico in Reparto Osvaldo Herrera.
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Parque Vidal
Named for Colonel Leoncio Vidal y Caro, who was killed here on March 23, 1896, Parque Vidal was encircled by twin sidewalks during the colonial era, with a fence separating Blacks and Whites. Today it is one of Cuba's busiest and most vibrant parks with old men gossiping on the shaded benches and young kids getting pulled around in carriages led by goats. Since 1902, the municipal orchestra has played in the park bandstand at 20:00 every Thursday and Sunday.
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Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen
The city’s oldest and most interesting church, the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen, four blocks north of Parque Vidal, was built in 1748, with a tower added in 1846. During the First War of Independence it was used as a jail for Cuban patriots. A modern cylindrical monument facing the church commemorates the spot where Santa Clara was founded in 1689 by 13 refugee families from Remedios.
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Monumento a la Toma del Tren Blindado
This boxcar museum, east on Independencia just over the river, marks the spot where 18 men under the command of Che Guevara, equipped with rifles and grenades, captured a 22-car armored train containing 350 heavily armed Batista troops. Amazingly, this battle, which took place on December 29, 1958, only lasted 90 minutes. The bulldozer that the guerrillas used to cut the railway line is on a pedestal nearby.
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Catedral de Las Santas Hermanas de Santa Clara de Asís
The Catedral de las Santas Hermanas de Santa Clara de Asís was constructed amid huge controversy in 1923 after the demolition of Santa Clara’s original church in Parque Vidal. It contains a fantastic collection of stained-glass windows and a mythical statue of Mother Mary known as La Virgen del Camino (Traveler’s Virgin).
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Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales
Independencia, between Maceo and JB Zayas, is the pedestrian shopping street called the Boulevard by locals. It’s littered with all kind of shops and restaurants and is the bustling hub of city life, especially at weekends. Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales sells handicrafts and is the main tourist shop here.
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Casa del Gobernador
Push your way through the swinging saloon-style doors and you’ll uncover one of the city’s most understated go-local gathering spots. More noted for its throat-warming rum than its piping hot cuisine, the Gobernador (yes, it was once a provincial government office) is Santa Clara in a bottle in more ways than one.
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Estadio Sandino
The Estadio Sandino, is the venue for baseball games from October to April. Villa Clara (La Villa) plays a central role in the history of Cuban baseball, but they're like the Boston Red Sox of Cuba: they have rabid fans and are super fun to watch, though victory has tended to elude them.
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Palmares Café
For the best burger in town head to this congenial city-center classic where excellent snack food and great coffee is served in a perfectly air-conditioned microclimate. It will make you feel as if you're back in Habana. This place also has two computer terminals.
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La Veguita
Sales outlet for Fábrica de Tabacos Constantino Pérez Carrodegua that is staffed by a friendly team of cigar experts. You can also buy cheap rum here and the bar out the back sells good coffee. It's located across the street from the tobacco factory.
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Restaurante Colonial 1878
Hold onto the table when you cut your steak here, or you might lose it on the floor. Tough meat aside, 1878 is an amiable enough place, even if the food struggles to emulate the dusty colonial setting. Pop in for a cocktail or a light lunch.
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El Castillo
This peso find cooks up quality meals of pork, chicken or liver with congrí (rice flecked with black beans), and salad. The twist is that you eat standing at a counter flanked by marble pillars, stained glass and mosaic tiles.
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Universidad Central Marta Abreu de las Villas
Santa Clara boasts Cuba’s second most prestigious university, Universidad Central Marta Abreu de las Villas. Non-Cubans have, on occasion, been able to study Spanish here. Check the website for current details.
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Dinos Pizza
Smarter than the average Dinos, the Santa Clara branch has three computer terminals for internet access (CUC$5 an hour), a pleasant bar, air-conditioning and friendly, helpful staff. Oh – and it serves good pizza, too.
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Paladar Bodeguita del Centro
Voluminous dishes on offer include red snapper. The dimly lit atmosphere and graffiti-covered walls here mimic Habana's Bodeguita although once seated you'll feel more like you're in someone's front room (you are!).
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Panadería Doña Neli
This joyous bakery amid the austere shopfronts of Calle Maceo will have your stomach rumbling with its aromatic fruit cakes, bread and pastries. Arrive early and celebrate breakfast.
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El Bar Club Boulevard
A nexus for Santa Clara’s musical youth, this much-talked-about cocktail lounge has live bands, dancing plus the odd humor show. It generally gets swinging about 11pm-ish.
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Teatro La Caridad
The 1885 Teatro La Caridad, one of the three great rural theaters of the colonial era, has an imposing front facade and frescoes inside by Camilo Zalaya.
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Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Buen Viaje
To the east of the center lies the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Buen Viaje, a riotous mix of Gothic, Romanesque and neoclassical architecture.
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