The 10 Best Travel Experiences in Cuba

Pastel colonial facades line the streets of Old Havana, many crumbling in ways that somehow add to the city's atmosphere rather than detract from it.

Vintage American cars from before the 1959 revolution, kept alive through decades of improvised repairs, still work as everyday taxis along the seafront Malecon.

Live salsa and son music spills from bars most nights.

Cobblestone streets in this 16th-century sugar-trade town are lined with candy-coloured colonial houses, many still lived in by the families who've owned them for generations.

Vintage American cars from the 1950s, kept running through decades of improvisation, cruise past pastel facades and a crumbling bell tower overlooking the town.

Live music spills from open doorways most evenings.

The Vinales Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage landscape in western Cuba, where massive limestone mogotes rise dramatically from the flat valley floor like green-covered fortresses.

The traditional tobacco farms, red earth roads, royal palm trees, and brilliant blue skies make it one of the Caribbean's most distinctive landscapes.

Cuba's premier beach resort stretch runs for roughly 20 kilometers along a narrow peninsula east of Havana, its powder-white sand and calm, clear turquoise water backed by a dense strip of all-inclusive resorts.

It's a more polished, tourist-oriented side of Cuba than Havana or Trinidad, built primarily around sun, sand and watersports rather than culture or history.

A causeway connects this low-lying coral island to the Cuban mainland, its shoreline mixing resort beaches with mangrove lagoons and salt flats that host large flamingo colonies, giving it noticeably more wildlife interest than Varadero's more developed strip.

Birdwatchers come specifically for the flamingos and other wading birds alongside sun-seekers drawn to its calm, shallow waters.

Cuba's second city and historic revolutionary heartland has a distinctly different feel from Havana — hillier, hotter, and steeped in Afro-Cuban culture that shows up in its music, religion and the country's biggest Carnival celebration each July.

Landmarks include the Moncada Barracks, site of Castro's failed 1953 attack that kicked off the revolution, and the hilltop Castillo del Morro fortress guarding the harbor mouth.

One of Cuba's oldest towns, founded in the 1500s, Remedios is a pocket-sized colonial gem that sees a fraction of the visitors that flock to Trinidad.

Pastel-painted arcaded buildings ring a central plaza dominated by two churches, including one with an extraordinary gilded baroque altar.

Its quiet daily calm gives no hint that it hosts Las Parrandas, one of Cuba's wildest festivals, every Christmas Eve.

Founded by French settlers rather than the Spanish, Cienfuegos carries a distinctly different architectural character from the rest of Cuba, its neoclassical Parque José Martí and grand Tomás Terry Theatre earning it the nickname 'Pearl of the South' and UNESCO status.

Set on a wide, protected bay, the city has a more orderly, less weathered feel than Havana's crumbling grandeur, with a genuinely pleasant waterfront Malecón for evening walks.

A string of sandy beaches just 20 minutes east of Havana, Playas del Este is where the capital's own residents go to swim, making it a far more local scene than Cuba's resort-heavy north coast.

Santa María del Mar is the best-known stretch, with warm shallow water, beach shacks selling grilled fish, and none of the all-inclusive walls found at Varadero or Cayo Coco.

It's an easy half-day escape without leaving the Havana area.

A mountain nature reserve in the Escambray range above Trinidad, Topes de Collantes offers a cooler, greener contrast to Cuba's coastal scenery, with hiking trails leading to waterfalls, natural swimming pools and coffee plantations tucked into the hills.

Caburní Falls is the reserve's best-known hike, a steep trail down to a swimmable waterfall pool, while the area's coffee-growing history adds a working-landscape element beyond pure scenery.