Explore Santiago de Cuba's Historic Highlights
Pick up from your accommodation and visit Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, one of Santiago's most famous landmarks. Lined in white marble, it is the burial place of Fidel Castro, former leader of the Cuban Revolution. Enjoy a tour of the cemetery and watch the changing of the guard at Marti's tomb, which takes place every 30 minutes.
Drive to El Morro Castle, a World Heritage Site dating from the 1600s and one of the best-preserved and most complete examples of Spanish military architecture in the world.
Continue to San Juan Hill, the site of the last battle of the Cuban-American-Spanish War of 1898, led by Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders.
Visit the Vista Alegre neighborhood, an upscale suburb that was home to wealthy families before the 1959 Revolution, including the Bacardi and Bosch families.
Enjoy a panoramic tour of Revolution Square and Moncada Barracks, the symbolic "trigger" of the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
(Optional) Savour lunch at a local restaurant serving traditional food in the centre of Santiago, just two minutes from the city's foundational square.
Walking/car tour of the historic centre:
Visit Plaza de Marte and walk or drive downhill along the pedestrian street Enramadas (Jose Antonio Saco), full of colour and Cubans going about their daily lives.
Arrive at Parque Cespedes, a throbbing kaleidoscope of walking, talking, hustling, flirting, and guitar-strumming humanity. Surrounded by colonial and eclectic architecture, this most ebullient of city squares is a sight to behold by day or night.
See the bronze bust of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, who kick-started Cuban independence in 1868, and visit the House of Diego Velazquez, the oldest and best-preserved house in Cuba. Also see the Cathedral, originally Baroque and now eclectic after the ravages of pirates, hurricanes, and earthquakes, as well as City Hall, Hotel Casagranda, and more.
(Optional) Have a mojito or daiquiri at the Casagranda roof garden, with a lovely panoramic view of the old city centre and the bay of Santiago.
