Cuba - Lonely Planet [172]
Sleeping
Hotel Mirador (Islazul; 77-83-38; s/d CUC$34/41; ) In contrast to the usual ugly two-star Islazul establishments, the Mirador is a low-key gem. Predating the Revolution by five years, the hotel was built in 1954 to accommodate spa-seekers headed for the adjacent Balneario San Diego. The rooms are comfortable with fridges (some have views) while downstairs there’s a pleasant swimming pool and an outdoor grill that does whole roast pig. Inquire with the helpful front desk staff about bird-watching trips to the Parque La Güira.
There are two or three decent casas particulares in San Diego de los Baños. Another highly recommended place is the house of Carlos Alberto González (Calle 21A No 3003 btwn 30 & 32; r CUC$20). If this is full, the owners can point you in the direction of a few others.
Eating
Hotel Mirador restaurants (Islazul; 77-83-38; meals under CUC$8) The open-air parrillada (grill restaurant) at the Hotel Mirador is rather good and it’ll barbecue whole roast pig on a spit if it can muster up enough people. There’s also a proper restaurant inside serving Cuban cuisine.
Getting Around
There’s a Servi-Cupet gas station at the entrance to San Diego de los Baños from Havana. The road across the mountains from Cabañas Los Pinos and Che Guevara’s cave is beautiful, but precariously narrow and full of potholes. That said; a brave driver or superfit (and careful) cyclist should make it.
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SOROA
Soroa, 95km west of Havana, is the closest mountain resort area to the capital and makes a popular day trip. It’s above Candelaria in the Sierra del Rosario, the easternmost and highest section of the Cordillera de Guaniguanico. Soroa is nicknamed the ‘rainbow of Cuba,’ and the region’s heavy rainfall (more than 1300mm annually) promotes the growth of tall trees and orchids. The area gets its name from Jean-Pierre Soroa, a Frenchman who owned a 19th-century coffee plantation in these hills. One of his descendants, Ignacio Soroa, created the park as a personal retreat in the 1920s, and only since the Revolution has this luxuriant region been developed for tourism. This is another great area to explore by bike.
Sights & Activities
All Soroa’s sights are conveniently near Hotel & Villas Soroa, where you can also organize horseback riding and a couple of otherwise impossible-to-find hikes into the surrounding forest. Next door to the hotel is Orquideario Soroa ( 57-25-58; admission CUC$3, plus camera CUC$2; 9am-4pm), a labor of love built by Spanish lawyer Tomás Felipe Camacho in the late 1940s in memory of his wife and daughter. Camacho traveled the world to amass his collection of 700 orchid species (the largest in Cuba), 6000 ornamentals and various growing houses and research facilities. Though he died in the 1960s, the Orquideario lives on with guided tours in Spanish or English; although some orchid enthusiasts have expressed disappointment at the quality and quantity of what’s on show. The Orquideario is connected to the University of Pinar del Río.
Down the road is the entrance to a park featuring the Salto del Arco Iris (admission CUC$3), a 22m waterfall on the Arroyo Manantiales. It’s at its most impressive in the May-to-October rainy season, otherwise it’s a trickle. You can swim at the foot of the falls. Entry is free for Hotel & Villas Soroa guests.
On the opposite side of the stream from the waterfall car park is the Baños Romanos (per hr CUC$5; 9am-4pm), a stone bathhouse with a pool of cold sulfurous water. Ask at Villas Soroa about the baths and massage treatments. It’s a half-hour steep scramble up the hill from the bathhouse to the Mirador, a rocky crag with a sweeping view of all Soroa.
Castillo de las Nubes is a romantic castle with a circular tower on a hilltop above the Orquideario. There are good views of the Valle de Soroa and the coastal plain