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Museo del Carnaval (Map; 62-69-55; Heredia No 303; admission CUC$1; 9am-5pm Tue-Sun) displays the history of Santiago’s carnival tradition, the oldest and biggest between Río and Mardi Gras. Drop in for the occasional folklórico dance show on the patio. While nowhere near as informative as its Havana equivalent Click here, the diminutive Museo del Ron (Map; Bartolomé Masó 358; admission CUC$2; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat) offers a rough outline of the history of Cuban rum along with a potent shot of the hard stuff (añejo). Encased in a handsome townhouse on Calle Masó, there’s also less tourist tittle-tattle here.

Narrow Pío Rosado links Calle Heredia to Calle Aguilera and the fabulous Grecian facade of the Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau (Map; 62-84-02; admission CUC$2; 10am-6pm). Founded in 1899 by the rum magnate/war hero/city mayor, Emilio Bacardí y Moreau (the palatial building was built to spec), the museum is one of Cuba’s oldest and most eclectic. Artifacts amassed from Bacardí’s travels include an extensive weapons collection, paintings from the Spanish costumbrismo (19th-century artistic movement that predated Romanticism) school and the only Egyptian mummy on the island. Situated opposite, the equally Hellenic Gobierno Provincial (Poder Popular; Map; cnr Pío Rosado & Aguilera) is another building from Cuba’s 20th-century neoclassical revival. It’s still the seat of the provincial assembly.

Plaza de Dolores

East of Parque Céspedes is the pleasant and shady Plaza de Dolores (Map; cnr Aguilera & Porfirio Valiente), a former marketplace now dominated by the 18th-century Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Map). After a fire in the 1970s, the church was rebuilt as a concert hall (Sala de Conciertos Dolores; ). Many restaurants and cafes flank this square. It’s also Santiago’s most popular gay cruising spot.

Plaza de Marte

Guarding the entrance to the casco histórico, the motorcycle-infested Plaza de Marte was formerly a macabre 19th-century Spanish parade ground, where prisoners were executed publicly by firing squad for revolutionary activities. Today, the plaza is the site of Santiago de Cuba’s esquina caliente (hot corner), where local baseball fans plot the imminent downfall of Havana’s glory-hunting Industriales. Among the flowering plants rises a tall column with a red cap perched on top, symbolizing liberty. A block west is the Museo Tomás Romay (Map; 65-35-39; cnr José A Saco & Monseñor Barnada; admission CUC$1; 8:30am-5:30pm Tue-Fri, 9am-2pm Sat), a natural-science museum collecting natural history and archaeology artifacts, with some modern art thrown in.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA

Tivolí

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 overlooking the shimmering harbor, its red-tiled roofs and hidden patios are a tranquil haven these days, with old men pushing around dominoes and ebullient kids playing stickball amid pink splashes of bougainvillea. The century-old Padre Pico steps (Map), cut into the steepest part of Calle Padre Pico, stand at the neighborhood’s gateway.

Up the slope and to the right is a former police station attacked by M-26-7 activists on November 30, 1956, to divert attention from the arrival of the tardy yacht Granma, carrying Fidel Castro and 81 others. The gorgeous colonial-style building now houses the Museo de la Lucha Clandestina (Map; 62-46-89; admission CUC$1; General Jesús Rabí No 1; 9am-5pm Tue-Sun), detailing the underground struggle against Batista in the 1950s. It’s a fascinating, if macabre, story enhanced by far-reaching views from the balcony. Across the street is the house (Map; General Jesús Rabí No 6) where Fidel Castro lived from 1931 to 1933, while a student in Santiago de Cuba (not open for visits).

Downhill from the Padre Pico steps, on General Jesús Rabí, is the legendary Casa de las Tradiciones (Map; General Jesús Rabí No 154), known as ‘La Casona’ to locals. Once the savvy traveler’s alternative to the Casa de la Trova, it’s now pretty well known to all and sundry.