This fortress, which now houses the Hotel El Castillo, dominates a hill overlooking Baracoa. It is a former castle looking out over red-tiled roofs, the town’s expansive, oyster-shaped bay and the landmark mountain called El Yunque (The Anvil), named for its singular shape. Although construction on it started in 1739, the fort wasn't finished until nearly 200 years later. Even if you don't stay here, stop by for the views of El Yunque and the city.

Around Baracoa are several dozen pre-Columbian archaeological sites related to the two major indigenous groups that once inhabited the region. It is a marvellous facility for lovers of history and archaeology, situated in a colonial ambiance on the second terrace of Seboruco, known as Paradise Heights. The area in which it is located is rich in remains of our first population. The Paradise Cave Archaeological Museum contains a copy of the Taíno tobacco idol found nearby in 1903 (the original is in Havana).

This is the best spot to hear live music. You can listen to traditional Cuban music and also to typical music from the area of Baracoa attending to live performances from local and national groups. It's open nightly until about 2 am. Listen for el nengen or el kiribá, two styles of music that predate the Cuban son.

A peculiar elevation of vertical slopes and flat top located 8 km off the Baracoa city, Columbus described it in his diary notes of his first trip to Cuba in 1492. El Yunque de Baracoa, declared National Monument and symbol of the city of Baracoa, considered an ecological island that called the attention of Admiral Christopher Columbus in his first trip to the Americas, serving as an orientation feature due to its unusual characteristics (flat topped). The fauna of the Yunque is rich and diverse there are abundant woodpeckers, humming birds, jutias, lizards, reptiles. There is a natural viewpoint at 573 m, from which one can see a vast landscape of green mountains and rivers with the Bay of Baracoa as backdrop.