Carribean Islands

Havana

Founded by the Spanish in the 16th century, Havana, the capital of Cuba has always been the largest and most beautiful city in Cuba. Though poor in material terms, Havana's five centuries of existence have made it rich in history, culture, food and music.
The city has been inscribed in the Unesco World Heritage List in 1982, recognized for the importance of the old city – Havana Vieja - and its fortifications. Due to Cuba's political isolation, the historic areas have been better preserved, lacking the usual fast food chains and coffee shops. The city boasts some of the most diverse styles of architecture in the world, from neoclassical and baroque to art deco and modernism.

Havana's importance to the region's trade with Europe is evident in the many treasures in its wonderful museums. The capital of Cuba is the last place tourists would expect to find a marble bust of Marie Antoinette, but she is in the Museum of Decorative Arts, along with English furniture and paintings, Chinese screens and more than 30,000 European paintings. Tourists can find museums dedicated to fine arts, Afro-Caribbean religious artifacts and Arabic and Asian arts (House of Arabs and House of Asia). The must-see museums, however, are the Museum of the Revolution - the former Presidential Palace, the Ernest Hemingway Museum, or the National Museum of Fine Arts.
In total, Havana has around 50 museums, including the National Museum of Music, the Museum of Dance and Rum, the Cigar Museum, the Napoleonic, Colonial and Oricha Museums; the Museum of Anthropology, the Aircraft Museum.
Havana's most important festivals are the Havana Film Festival and the Havana International Jazz Festival.

Havana is not just about its museums and beautiful buildings. The city and its people have a vibrant character, as you would expect from a nation whose national drinks are rum and the mojito and whose national dance is the samba.

Cienfuegos

Also known as the Pearl of the South, Cienfuegos is a city and port on the southern coast of Cuba.
Since 2005, the urban historic centre of Cienfuegos has been added to the World Heritage List because it is a good example of urban planning in Latin America.

The city was settled by the French immigrants in April 1819, thus the surprising French feel to many of the old buildings.

Sitting within the Cienfuegos bay and guarded at its entrance by the Fortress Castillo de Jagua, the city is famous for its collection of neoclassical buildings, unrivaled in the Caribbean.
The neoclassical City Hall, with its impressive red domes, overlooks the Marti Park, named after Cuba's famous poet.

Other famous buildings in Cienfuegos include the Arco de Triunfo, the only one in Cuba, the Cathedral de la Purisima Concepcion, with beautiful French stained glass or the Palacio de Valle a neo-gothic palace built at the beginning of the 20th century.

Santo Domingo

The capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo de Guzman sits where the Ozama River meets the Caribbean Sea. It is the oldest European colonial city in the Americas and has officially been founded in 1498 by Bartolomeo Colombo, the younger brother of Christopher Columbus.

Tourists can visit the Catedral Santa María La Menor (Catedral Primada de América), the oldest cathedral in the Americas, begun in 1512 and completed in 1540.

Famous landmarks in Santo Domingo also include the Puerta del Conde, the Puerta de la Misericordia, the National Pantheon and the Alcázar de Colón, all of which are located within the Zona Colonial district of the city. This part was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990.
Together the late Medieval buildings make a perfect collection and one of the best city landscape tourists could find, in a maze of cobbled streets.

A more recent architectural addition is the Faro a Colon or The Columbus Lighthouse,a lighthouse built to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Americas.

Other tourist attractions in Santo Domingo are the Museum of Alcázar, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Arts .

Santo Domingo is also renown for its amazing nightlife and wonderful sandy beaches.

Kingston

Set on one of the largest natural harbors in the world, Kingston was founded in July1692 as a place for survivors and refugees of an earthquake that destroyed the pirate city of Port Royal. The south-east coast of Jamaica has been ravaged by other earthquakes and fires since, but is still a wonderful place to visit.

Two parts make up the central area of Kingston: the historic but troubled Downtown with brightly coloured buildings, and New Kingston where the new upmarket areas and shopping malls are.

The most famous museum in Kingston is the one dedicated to Bob Marley, in his former house on Hope Road, where he lived and recorded his music. Another museum tourists might be interested in, is the National Gallery on Ocean Boulevard which is devoted to the works of Jamaica's best artists, or The Jamaican People's Museum of Crafts and Technology.

The surviving old buildings in Kingston, Jamaica, include St James' Cathedral and the Old King's House.

A good time to visit Jamaica is in April, during the Kingston Carnival, one of the most vibrant and lively carnivals in the Caribbean, with elaborate costumes and dancing in the streets.

San Juan

San Juan, Puerto Rico was founded by Spanish colonists at the beginning of the 16th century, and is one of the oldest city in the Americas established by Europeans.
The forts of San Felipe del Morro and San Cristobal were constructed by the Spanish colonists and are some of the best monuments in San Juan.

The old city of San Juan is a World Heritage Site and is located on an island connected to the mainland by bridges. This historic area has almost 500 Spanish colonial buildings in little cobbled streets. There are also several wonderful parks, including the Pigeon Park.

The Fortaleza is another tourist attraction in Old San Juan, definitely worth visiting. It was designed as a fort in the 16th century and used as the governor's palace in the 19th-century.

Another important building is the San Juan Bautista Cathedral built in 1521. The cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in Puerto Rico and is the second oldest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere.

Tourists can enjoy video footage and many recordings of the renown cellist at the The Pablo Casals Museum.

San Juan, Puerto Rico features many hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, casinos, museums, expensive boutiques and wonderful beaches.

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Carribean Islands

Havana

Cienfuegos

Santo Domingo

Kingston

San Juan

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