Fodor's Expert Review Jardín Botanico Orquideario Soroa

Covering 35,000 square meters, this hillside botanical garden is a wild tangle of flowering vines, fragrant gingers, waist-high begonias and epiphyte-laden trees growing out of rocks. The centerpiece is a tidy greenhouse filled with blooming orchids. Back in the 1940s, a wealthy Havana lawyer and orchid fancier hired a Japanese gardener to design this glorious garden in his daughter's memory. Stone pathways bordered by plant-covered rocky outcroppings wind uphill to a lookout. The footing is a little precarious and the garden is quite wild, but beautiful. Birds abound, so be sure to bring along binoculars. The garden is also a study center for budding botanists and there is an expert guide on hand.