The tremendous setting next to El Morro fort is counterbalanced by the usual humdrum Islazul hotel-chain foibles: flowery curtains, ancient mattresses and furnishings salvaged from a 1970s garage sale. But there's a pool and the view is stunning. Get a room inside the complex, not a grottier external cabin. It's located 10km from the city center, making transport a headache.
Hotel Balcón del Caribe
Santiago de Cuba
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro
0.4 MILES
A Unesco World Heritage site since 1997, the San Pedro fort sits impregnably atop a 60m-high promontory at the entrance to Santiago harbor, 10km southwest…
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5.03 MILES
The museum inside the Cuartel Moncada is the best in town and one of the best in Cuba. Sometimes gory exhibits catalogue the details of the 1953 attack by…
5.02 MILES
Nestled peacefully on the city's western extremity, the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia is second only to Havana's Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón in its importance…
Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
4.38 MILES
Santiago's most important church is stunning both inside and out. There has been a cathedral on this site since the city's inception in the 1520s, though…
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5.07 MILES
Santiago's famous Moncada Barracks, a crenelated art deco building completed in 1938, is now synonymous with one of history's greatest failed putsches…
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Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano
4.4 MILES
The oldest house still standing in Cuba, this arresting early colonial abode dating from 1522 was the official residence of the island's first governor,…
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4.17 MILES
This gorgeous yellow colonial-style building houses a museum detailing the underground struggle against Batista in the 1950s. It's a fascinating, if…
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16.26 MILES
The hub of the Unesco World Heritage site bestowed in 2000 upon the First Coffee Plantations in the Southeast of Cuba is this impressive two-story stone…
Nearby Santiago de Cuba attractions
1. Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro
0.4 MILES
A Unesco World Heritage site since 1997, the San Pedro fort sits impregnably atop a 60m-high promontory at the entrance to Santiago harbor, 10km southwest…
0.98 MILES
A small, populated key near the jaws of the bay, Cayo Granma is a little fantasy island of red-roofed wooden houses – many of them on stilts above the…
4 MILES
Santiago's old French quarter was first settled by colonists from Haiti in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Set on a south-facing hillside…
4.16 MILES
Across the street from the Museo de la Lucha Clandestina is the house where Fidel Castro lived from 1931 to 1933 while a student in Santiago de Cuba…
4.17 MILES
Below the Tivolí quarter, this narrow park embellishes a dockside promenade opened in 1840 and redesigned in 1893. Refurbishment for the 2015…
6. Museo de la Lucha Clandestina
4.17 MILES
This gorgeous yellow colonial-style building houses a museum detailing the underground struggle against Batista in the 1950s. It's a fascinating, if…
4.22 MILES
The picturesque Padre Pico steps are almost 100 years old and still hosting rousing games of dominoes; the steps lead to the Tivolí neighborhood.
4.22 MILES
At the north end of Parque Alameda you'll see the old clock tower, aduana (customs house) and cigar factory. A curious mix of smart architecture and port…