Baracoa Five centuries after its establishment, Baracoa still hasn’t lost the exquisite beauty that impressed Christopher Columbus. The first village to be founded by Diego Velazquez feels and looks like an antique with a mix of hills and valleys that makes it one of the loveliest scenes in the world. It is the oldest colonial…
Camagüey Camagüey is the capital city of the province with the same name. Located 570 km east of Havana, Cuba’s third largest city, it’s full of restored plazas and buildings, which gained it the condition National Monument and more recently a World Heritage Site. It was one of the seven villages founded by Diego Velázquez…
Trinidad This colonial town is tucked into the southeast corner of Sancti Spiritus. It was the fourth village founded by Diego Velazquez in 1514. Considered a jewel of colonial architecture, Trinidad is preserved as a living museum and a must-see on a traveler’s list. The town reached its peak during sugar boom of the 19th…
The Belen Neighborhood In the area near Plaza Vieja, east of Avenida de Belgica (Egido) between the streets of Teniente Rey and Merced, you will find the neighborhood of Belen, which was the great religious center of colonial Havana, full of churches and convents. The 18th and 19th centuries witnessed a wave of ecclesiastical construction,…
Three places in Old Havana are very much linked to American novelist Ernest Hemingway. The Hotel Ambos Mundos, on the corner of Calle Obispo and Mercaderes, at Room 511, was Hemingway’s home on and off throughout the 1930’s, and it was where he shaped the plot of For Whom the Bell Tolls. His room has…