• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 07 / 24 / 2011

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By: Nigel Richardson. Santiago. Live music nightly in Casa de la Trova (Calle Heredia), Casa de las Tradiciones (Calle Rabi) and other venues including, often, the main square, Parque Cespedes. Casa de Diego Velasquez on the main square, now a museum. Moncada Barracks, birthplace of the revolution. Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, resting place of revolutionary heroes, of Compay Segundo of Buena Vista Social Club fame, and of the father of modern Cuba, Jose Martí.

Granma Province

This remote region to the west of Santiago is where Fidel Castro's cabin cruiser, Granma, landed in 1956. Playa las Coloradas, marked by a museum, is where the expeditionaries came ashore. Comandancia la Plata, in the Sierra Maestra, is where they set up. The little towns of Granma, such as Bayamo and Media Luna, have great charm.

Trinidad

Live music again, this time at Casa de la Música on steps alongside the church in Plaza Mayor. Museo Romantico, just off Plaza Mayor, an 18th-century palace stuffed with gorgeous 19th-century furniture. But the greatest pleasure is just to wander the cobbled streets, gazing through the open windows into time-capsules of belle époque grandeur.

Santa Clara

The monument to Che Guevara, in Plaza de la Revolución, of course, is a key place to visit for an understanding of the Che cult in Cuba. His remains lie in a mausoleum with other South American guerrilla fighters, and there's also a museum.

Havana

Museo de la Revolución, in Habana Vieja, the Old Town, which contains the actual boat Granma, housed as a kind of zoo exhibit in a glass enclosure. Wandering the Old Town, especially the streets that haven't yet been restored and prettified, such as Amargura and Plaza del Cristo. Eating at La Guarida paladar (privately run restaurant) at the top of a crumbling palace in Central Havana: an unforgettable experience for both food and atmosphere.

What to read

Lonely Planet's Cuba (£14.99); The Island that Dared: Journeys in Cuba by Dervla Murphy (Eland, £12.99).

How to do it

The Ultimate Travel Company (020 7386 4646; www.theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk) can tailor-make a two-week, east-west "revolutionary" tour of Cuba, taking in the cities and sights mentioned, from £2,275 per person, based on two sharing, including private transfers, accommodation on b & b basis, car hire, a Cuba Tourist Card and private guided tours in Santiago and Havana. Flights with Air Canada, via Toronto, arrive in Santiago and leave from Havana.

Source: /www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/centralamericaandcaribbean/cuba/8624942/