Must-see attractions in Cuba

  • Old graveyard, Havana; Shutterstock ID 19926790; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; GL account no.: 56530; Netsuite department name: Online Design; Full Product or Project name including edition: Digital Content/Sights

    Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón

    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…

  • Cuba, Santiago de Cuba Province, Santiago de Cuba, Lighthouse at Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro

    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…

  • Vintage car passing modern bar nestled between dilapidated Art Nouveau buildings along the Av de Malecon.

    Malecón

    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…

  • Capitolio Nacional

    Havana

    The incomparable Capitolio Nacional is Havana's most ambitious and grandiose building, constructed after the post-WWI boom ('Dance of the Millions')…

  • Plaza de la Catedral

    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…

  • Fusterlandia

    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…

  • Plaza Vieja, bustling with restaurants and cafes in evening.

    Plaza Vieja

    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…

  • Palm trees on white sand at Playa Sirena on Cayo Largo.
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    Playa Sirena

    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…

  • Comandancia de la Plata

    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…

  • Cuba, Camaguey, Camaguey Province, Plaza Del Carmen, Iglesia de Nuestra Senora del Carmen and Unique life-sized sculptures of camagueyanos going about their daily life
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    Plaza del Carmen

    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…

  • Courtyard in National Museum of Fine Art (El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes).

    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 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…

  • Casa de Arte Jover

    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…

  • Playa las Tumbas

    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…

  • Moncada Museum

    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…

  • Salto del Guayabo

    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,…

  • Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Cuba; Cementerio Santa Ifigenia

 Shutterstock ID 727217770; your: Bridget Brown; gl: 65050; netsuite: Online Editorial; full: POI Image Update

    Cementerio Santa Ifigenia

    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…

  • In the courtyard area of the Museum of the Revolution in Old Havana, Cuba...Cuba, February 2015 before changes in U.S.-Cuba relations began. Trip via UCLA Alumni Travel

    Museo de la Revolución

    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…

  • Calle Mercaderes wall mural.

    Calle Mercaderes

    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…

  • Nuestra Senora de Regla Church, Havana, Cuba; Shutterstock ID 176550071; Your name (First / Last): Josh Vogel; GL account no.: 56530; Netsuite department name: Online Design; Full Product or Project name including edition: Digital Content/Sights

    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…

  • Cuba, Havana, Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana

    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…

  • CUBA, Isla de la Juventud, Nueva Gerona.Presidio Modelo. Model Prison where Fidel Castro was held prisoner between 1953-1955 by former President of Cuba Fulgencio Batista. Panopticon five story circular buildings  ..©Brian Moser / Eye Ubiquitous / Hutchison Picture Library

    Presidio Modelo

    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…

  • Catedral de San Cristobal de la Habana in Plaza de la Catedral.

    Catedral de la Habana

    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…

  • Statue of Perucho Figueredo at the Cespedes Park at the Bayamo, Cuba. Perucho Figueredo was a poet, musician and revolutionary in the 19th century. He wrote the cuban national anthem in 1867.

    Parque Céspedes

    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…

  • Alegría de Pío

    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

    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…

  • Interior of Teatro Tomas Terry, shot with fisheye lens, Parque Jose Marti, Cienfuegos, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Cuba, West Indies, Central America

    Teatro Tomás Terry

    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…

  • Museo Hemingway

    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…

  • Loma de la Cruz or Hill of the Cross in Holguin, capital city of the province of Holguin, Cuba.

    Loma de la Cruz

    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…

  • Museo de la Ciudad

    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…

  • Cuartel Moncada

    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…

  • El Yunque

    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…

  • Antiguo Cafetal Angerona

    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…