222 Best Sights in Cuba

The city's bright yellow Neoclassical cathedral, with its high central bell tower reminiscent of a minaret, was consecrated in 1870. Its interior is less impressive than the renovated exterior, but it does feature a statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception—the city's patron saint—and stained glass windows from France that depict the 12 apostles.

The Parque Independencia is home to the Baracoa's cathedral, built in 1833. The church is best known for preserving the Cruz de la Parra that Columbus supposedly used when he came ashore in 1492 to claim Cuba for Spain and Christianity. Indeed, carbon dating has confirmed that the cross was fashioned in the late 1400s and is old enough to have been brought by the explorer. One pesky detail pokes holes in the story, though: the cross is made of hardwoods native to the island and could not have been brought here by Columbus. No matter. It can be stated with certainty that this is one of oldest crosses (perhaps the oldest) in the New World. For years, parishioners were permitted to carve slivers of wood from the cross to keep as relics. That practice is no longer permitted.

The twin towers and central dome of Santiago's Neoclassical cathedral loom over the southern edge of Parque Céspedes. Because this area is atop a hill, the cathedral's profile is visible from afar and creates a recognizable silhouette. Although it was first built on this site in 1523, the current building dates primarily from 1922. Inside, the painted ceiling has been beautifully restored, and there are several noteworthy works of religious art, including a sculpture of Cuba's patron saint, La Virgen de la Caridad. A two-room museum near the east entrance displays objects relating to the history of the Catholic Church in Cuba.

Camagüey's cathedral, on the southeastern edge of Parque Ignacio Agramonte, was built in fits and starts between 1735 and 1864. The most recent of several renovations took 15 years and included replacing the wood-beam ceiling. Its refurbished exterior is an attractive beige and yellow. The most impressive aspect of the spacious interior is the large wood-and-marble altar, behind which shine stained glass and a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Recently restored on the outside, this massive, Neoclassical church with two ornate towers is famous for its interior frescoes. In front of the church, there is a huge ceiba tree with a heavy, metal bell hanging from one of the branches, commemorating the bells that were rung to call in slaves from the sugar plantations. On the ground below lies a large, antique metal gear from a sugar mill.

A 45-minute boat ride southeast of the peninsula takes you to Cayo Blanco, with its white-sand beach and vast coral reef offshore. A tour is the easiest way to get here. Several boats visit the island on day trips offered by local hotels and tour operators.

The island was named for the white ibis, a pale wader called the coco in Cuba, but its mangroves and sandy shallows attract dozens of species, including flamingo (which gather by the hundreds in the shallow bay to the south), roseate spoonbill, tricolor heron, and reddish egret. The island's roughly 90 indigenous bird species are joined by another 120 migrants between November and April, and its forests are also home to everything from wild pig to anole lizard.

Despite its varied wildlife, most people visit Cayo Coco for its swaths of sugary sand shaded by coconut palms and washed by cerulean sea—the stuff of travel posters in Toronto storefronts or the daydreams of snowbound accountants. Nine beaches run for a total of 21 km (12 miles) along the northern coast, and only two of them have hotels. The most spectacular beaches are Playa Flamingo, with its extensive sandbars, and nearby Playa Prohibida (Forbidden Beach)—a protected area backed by dunes covered with scrubby native palms.

The island's beaches are narrow but still captivating. The ocean in front of them is so shallow that you can wade out more than 90 meters (290 feet). Its nicest beach is Playa Pilar, which was named after Hemingway's old fishing boat. Stretching along the key's northwest end, this beach is backed by 20-meter (66-foot) dunes and overlooks Cayo Media Luna, an islet where dictator Fulgencio Batista once had a vacation home. Cayo Guillermo has excellent skin diving, with 37 dive spots nearby.

Just west of the Bahía de Nuevitas, the island has deserted beaches, a working lighthouse, and the ruins of a Spanish fortress. A bumpy road and short causeway take you here; hiring a taxi is best, even if you have your own rental vehicle.

Dedicated to and named for the great Cuban Surrealist painter Wifredo Lam, who was known as the Cuban Picasso, this gallery and museum is just behind the Catedral de la Habana in the elegant, 18th-century Casa del Obispo Peñalver. The center hosts temporary shows with works by contemporary Cuban and South American artists. Lam, born in 1902, studied in Spain and fought with the republic against Franco. He later fled to France, where he was influenced by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and the poet André Breton, among others. He returned to Cuba to support the Revolution, and later returned to Paris, where he died in 1982. His best works hang in the Cuban collection of Havana's Museo de Bellas Artes.

The fishing village Hemingway described in The Old Man and the Sea is modeled after this sleepy maritime hamlet where the author's wooden sportfishing craft, El Pilar, was berthed. El Torreón, the small fortress built here after the English used Cojímar as a landing point in their 1762 attack on Havana, is the site of a Hemingway bust made of brass boat propellers donated by Cojímar fishermen.

Wander around town; Gregorio Fuentes—Hemingway's skipper and pal from 1935 to 1960—once lived at Calle Pezuela 209. Gregorio provided Hemingway with a great deal of inspiration. The writer, having based the novel on the then thirtysomething Gregorio, was at a loss for a title until Gregorio shrugged and commented that, as far as he could tell, it was just about "un viejo y el mar" ("an old man and the sea").

From the safety of wooden walkways, you can observe some 3,000 crocodiles in various stages of development at this breeding center-cum-tourist attraction. The original enterprise was the idea of Celia Sánchez, one of Fidel Castro's close companions and advisers, who was determined to restore the failing crocodile and caiman populations in the Cienaga Swamp. Today, buses crowd the parking lot bringing tour groups for the guided tour, which takes about 45 minutes. Along the way you can stroke a baby crocodile and have your photo taken cradling a three-year-old croc. The guides fill you in on such crocodilian factoids as: these naturally aggressive creatures can jump 1 meter (3 feet) high and run as fast as a horse for 80 meters (264 feet), reaching speeds of up to 60 kph (37 mph). So stay on the walkway! After visiting with the crocodiles, if you're not too sensitive, you can lunch on crocodile steaks at two on-site restaurants, La Boca and El Ranchón. The Ranchón is smaller and cheaper, and has live music to accompany your reptilian repast (CUC$10). The entrance fee to the breeding center includes a soft drink or glass of juice. Boat tours to the Laguna de Tesoro model village leave from a dock here.

Discovered in the 1960s, this cave contains aboriginal drawings of concentric circles and other pre-Columbian symbols, thought to be more than 3,000 years old. To get to the cave entrance, you must follow a shady path 300 meters (990 feet).

This spectacular and massive cave is named for the aboriginal Guanahatabey. Dripping with limestone formations, it's spooky enough to thrill even grown-ups. Visitors enter the cave through a narrow opening and follow a well-beaten, dimly lighted stone trail for 255 meters (842 feet), narrowing and widening until you reach a high-ceilinged grotto and an underground river. You board a boat here for a short cruise (300 meters [990 feet]) past illuminated stalagmites. The guide points a laser at shapes and if you really use your imagination you can just make out a champagne bottle, a skull, a crocodile, a sea horse, and even the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María. The boat takes you out of the cave through a narrow, vine-draped opening in the rock. Souvenir vendors await as you disembark. Don't miss the chance to have your photo taken atop Tomás, a huge, but placid, water buffalo. His handler will even lend you his straw hat so you can really look the part of a guajiro; a tip is expected.

This is a popular spot on the tour-bus circuit, so try to come early or late in the day for a chance to have the cave more to yourself.

About 60 km (38 miles) southeast of Nueva Gerona, this series of five coastal caves is famous for well-preserved, pre-Colombian wall paintings, sometimes referred to as "The Sistine Chapel of the Caribbean." Don't expect angels and human figures, but the colorful, geometric pictographs are intriguing. As the year proceeds, the sunlight that beams into the caves illuminates different parts of the aboriginal artwork, vestiges of the Ciboney culture, dating from around 900 BC, The Colony Puerto Sol hotel can arrange guides and visits to the site.

For a pleasant break from the beach, you can watch a troupe of acrobatic dolphins show off their tricks in a 35-minute show (CUC$20) and take photos (an extra CUC$5). If you want to dive in and swim with the dolphins, it costs an extra CUC$60. You can also have your photo taken with a dolphin in the background (CUC$5).

Down the small side street of Callejón del Chorro, just off the Plaza de Catedral, you'll find the cute Bianchini café and bakery. With its funky red walls, glass chandeliers, and mismatched shabby-chic furniture, it's the perfect stop to refuel with a coffee and a sweet treat. Very different from Havana's usual fare of sponge cakes laden with layers of multicolor cream, owner Katia Bianchini has taken inspiration from her Swiss and Italian ancestors to create a range of homemade cookies, cakes, and muffins. The chocolate soufflé is a must-try. Another branch of the café is at Calle Sol 12.

Built in 1930, the former Bacardí rum headquarters (the family elected not to brave the Revolution and now makes rum in Puerto Rico) is an Art Deco outburst best admired from the roof of the Hotel Plaza across the street. Its terra-cotta facade is covered with nymphs, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; its bell tower is capped with a brass, winged bat you'll recognize from the Bacardí rum label (or from the coat of arms of the House of Aragón, a clue to the family's Catalonian heritage). Visitors can't go inside, but it's worth a look at the outside nonetheless.

This fortress, which now houses the Hotel El Castillo, dominates a hill overlooking Baracoa. Although construction on it started in 1739, the fort wasn't finished until nearly 200 years later. Even if you don't stay here, stop by for the views of El Yunque and the city.

Sometimes referred to as El Cristo de Casa Blanca for the eastern Havana municipality above which it stands, the 18-meter (59-foot) Carrara-marble colossus by Cuban sculptress Jilma Madera is said to be the largest open-air sculpture ever created by a woman. It was unveiled in 1958, a year before the Revolution and a year after the student assault on Fulgencio Batista's Palacio Presidencial. It's said that Batista's wife, praying for her husband to escape the shootout alive, vowed to erect a statue of Christ like that in Rio de Janeiro if her prayers were answered. Batista survived, and the statue was built while he tortured and murdered political opponents—especially students—with renewed brutality. For this reason, there's a certain official coldness toward the site. Certainly the sculpture itself is less interesting than the views (from its base) of the harbor and La Habana Vieja and the ambience of the park—a popular local picnic spot—that surrounds it.

The dimly lighted, rough 140-meter (462-foot) tunnel piercing this mogote opens onto an eerily quiet open space ringed by high limestone rocks. There's a rather shabby replica of a Cimarron campsite with life-size figures of escaped slaves. But if you arrive before a tour group, it's quite peaceful here. The thatch-roof, outdoor bohío-style restaurant in this clearing has a huge brick oven to roast chicken and pork; a main course and dessert costs less than CUC$6. At the entrance to the cave, sheltered by the rock overhang is El Palanque de los Cimarrones, a popular disco/bar/restaurant that stays open late and all night on Saturday.

This Neoclassical, faux-Doric temple was built in 1828 on the site of the city's first Mass and its first cabildo (city council) meeting. The cabildo took place under a massive ceiba (kapok) tree, which was felled by a 19th-century hurricane. The present tree—planted in the little patio in front of El Templete in 1959, the year of the Revolution—is honored each November 19, the day celebrating Havana's founding. It's said during a special ceremony, if you walk three times around the tree and toss a coin toward it, you'll be granted a wish—provided, of course, that you keep your wish secret. El Templete is also the site of a triptych by French painter Jean-Baptiste Vermay portraying the first Mass, the first cabildo, and the municipal personalities who participated in the building's opening ceremonies. It's also home to the ashes of the painter and his wife, who—along with 8,000 other habaneros—were victims of the 1833 cholera epidemic.

A fragment of Havana's early ramparts commemorates the spot where eight medical students were unjustly executed for independence activism by the Spanish governors in 1871. At night the monument is beautifully illuminated, the work of the electrical engineer Félix de la Noval. You'll see amber light representing rifle fire; it can't, however, extinguish the white light (against the wall), which symbolizes the ideals of independence.

On a narrow side street south of the city center, this small distillery occupies a former rum factory. Just about every process is done by hand, from pouring the tiny guayabita berries into huge, wooden fermenting barrels, to bottle washing, to tapping corks into the bottles, to affixing the old-fashioned labels. Visitors can taste the finished product in the shop. The dry version, which ferments for three months, is a fiery blast of brandy; the sweet version is more like a plum eau de vie. A bottle costs around CUC$6. It's noisy, messy and often crowded with tour groups, but it's a glimpse of how a truly authentic Cuban product is still being produced.

It's not easy to find, so hire a pedal cab.

Cuba's oldest rum distillery, the former Bacardí family enterprise, now makes the Caney, Santiago, and Varadero brand rums. The on-site shop—which has a bar, live music, and free samples—is the central attraction. Unfortunately, there are no factory tours.

This traditional cigar factory, in a stately, colonnaded building that was the city jail until 1961, offers a more intimate visit than some of the major Havana cigar factories. You can watch a Montecristo in the making, as a guide explains the process. In a long, high-ceilinged hall, mostly young men—sporting trendy, shaved hair-dos—sit at old-fashioned, wooden tables, carefully destemming aged tobacco leaves, which look like thin strips of leather, then slowly rolling layers of different tobacco. The rolls are placed in plastic molds, pressed, then tested with an air compressor for the right consistency. You might hear the lector (reader) entertain the cigar rollers by reading newspaper articles from Granma or novels, but it's more likely you'll hear popular music from a radio. You purchase your ticket in the air-conditioned Casa del Habano across the street, where you can also buy cigars and souvenir humedors.

No cameras are allowed in the cigar factory.

Tobacco is a fundamental part of Cuban life, and a look inside a cigar factory makes for an interesting trip—despite the high entry fee and the pricey cigars. Now in its new location on Calle San Carlos, instead of the old iconic orange and white building behind the Capitolio, the Fábrica de Tabacos is a good place to learn about the cigar-making process.

Guided tours of the factory are only available on weekday mornings and must be booked in advance, which can be done at any of the major hotels in the city.

Although interesting and informative, the tours are fairly rushed and only last 15 to 20 minutes. Many of the rooms are also closed to visitors. Those who wish to purchase cigars at the end of the tour can do so around the corner at the H. Upmann Empresa de Tabaco Torcido store.

You can get a taste of country life at this replica of a typical Cuban plantation. A tour takes you past mango and coconut trees as well as coffee and cocoa crops. You'll also visit a typical bohío, or peasant's hut, where staff members actually live. A rustic restaurant serves a good comida criolla lunch for about CUC$10 per person.

At this casual farm-cum-zoo visitors can see two of Cuba's distinctive animals: the manjuarí, a primitive water creature with an alligator-like head and a fish body, and the jutía, a large-eared, muskrat-like tree rat, once prized for guajiro stews. Scattered around the farm yard there are deer, peacocks, rabbits, ducks, and guinea fowl. At the guarapa bar, you can buy a glass of fresh-pressed cane juice, with or without rum (CUC$2). The musical entertainment is provided by a caged Cuban Bullfinch, a small black bird, so prized for its song that Cubans organize bird-song competitions. There's no entrance fee to the farm but there are souvenir kiosks scattered around, and an open-air restaurant ($) mostly set up for tour-group buffets.

Baracoa's third fortress, Fuerte de la Punta, was built in 1803 on a spit of land over the entrance to the bay. The fortress now contains the Restaurante La Punta.