50 Beautiful Places to Visit in Caribbean

Heritage museum in Havana, Cuba. The José Martí Memorial is a memorial to José Martí, a national hero of Cuba, located on the northern side of the Plaza de la Revolución in the Vedado area of Havana. It consists of a star-shaped tower, a statue of Martí surrounded by six columns, and gardens. It is the largest monument to a writer in the world.

The 109 m (358 ft) tower, designed by a team of architects led by Raoul Otero de Galarraga, is in the form of a five-pointed star, encased in grey Cuban marble from the Isla de Pinos. The design was eventually selected from various entries put forward from a series of competitions beginning in 1939. Entries included a version of the tower topped with a statue of Martí, and a monument similar to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. with a statue of Martí seated within. The fourth competition held in 1943 resulted in the selection of a design by the architect Aquiles Maza and the sculptor Juan José Sicre. In order to proceed with construction of the monument, the Monserrat Hermitage, which occupied the proposed site, had to be demolished. Various impediments to the acquisition of the Hermitage by the state led to delays in the demolition and the start of building work, so by 1952 – when Fulgencio Batista seized power in a coup – work on the construction had still not begun.

Eager to garner popular support after seizing power, Batista committed to pushing ahead with the construction of a monument to Martí; but rather than proceeding with the competition winner, he selected the design that had come third in the competition, created by a group of architects headed by Raoul Otero de Galarraga, a 1905 graduate of Harvard University, and included Enrique Luis Varela, Batista's Minister of Works and his personal friend, and Princeton University Professor Jean Labatut. The monument was Raoul Otero de Galarraga's last major architectural and engineering project, and proudest accomplishment. The base was huge and so deep that when looking from above, the men working below-grade looked like miniature men, and rebar was so heavy that six to eight men were required to carry each piece. The concrete, used to fill the base, took several days to pour.

The selection of this design caused something of a public outcry, and as a result the design was modified. The position of the statue of Marti by sculptor Juan José Sicre's statue of atop the tower was moved to tower base. Construction of the tower began in 1953 on the 100th anniversary of José Martí's birth. The marble was delivered to Havana from Isla de Pinos, then cut to the chief architect's specifications, and polished in Gallo's factory. Sicre sculpt the huge stones of marble one at a time. Marti's thoughts were set with gold glass mosaic which came from Venice, Italy, and was personally inspected by Architect and Engineer, Raoul Otero de Galarraga and his son, Raul Otero.

The right to compensation for local inhabitants forced to move to make way for construction caused further problems. The place was known as Catalan Hill (Loma de Los Catalanes) because the Chapel of the Virgin of Montserrat was built there by Catalan immigrants. The Chapel was finally demolished and the monument was completed in 1958 during the final days of the Batista dictatorship.

The selected design includes an enclosed observation deck on the top floor, the highest point in Havana, accessible by elevator which gives commanding views over the city in all directions. (As of August 2016, the observation deck is closed to the public, for replacement of the original elevator.) Housed on the ground floor of the tower which overlooks the city, the memorial features two rooms of correspondence, writings and items from the life of José Martí and displays relating his life story. A third room illustrates the history of the Plaza de la Revolucion, and a fourth room is used for displays of contemporary art. The centre of the tower houses the elevator and features walls decorated with quotes from Martí. Among other items on display is a replica of the sword of Simón Bolívar presented to Fidel Castro by Hugo Chávez during his visit to Cuba in 2002.

Outside, facing over the plaza and towards the mural of Che Guevara on the Ministry of the Interior on the opposite side of the square, is an 18 m (59 ft) white marble statue of Martí carved in situ by Sicre and surrounded by six half-height marble columns. The platform where the statue is located is used as a podium when rallies take place in the Plaza de la Revolución.

Tourists are able to ascend the memorial and enjoy the best panoramic view of Havana. However, many tourists have complained about the ad hoc charges that are administered by the memorial's officials, which varies wildly depending on the members of staff manning the ticket booths. Imposter groundspeople have been known to charge tourists to ascend the memorial steps.^[2]

Museum in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The Alcázar de Colón, or Columbus Alcazar is the first fortified Spanish palace built in the Americas. It is located in the Dominican Republic's colonial area of Santo Domingo city, and forms part of the Ciudad Colonial UNESCO's World Heritage Site. It was built between 1511 and 1514 mostly in a Gothic and Renaissance style.

It is the only known residence of a member of the Christopher Columbus family in the New World, his first-born son Diego Columbus, whose children Juana, Isabel, Luis and Christopher were born in the palace. Diego Columbus died in Spain in 1526 but María Álvarez de Toledo, his widow, remained there until her death in 1549. Three generations of the Columbus family inhabited the residence, possibly until the late 16th century.

The Tapestry collection (spanning from the 15th to 17th centuries) is particularly important and unique in the Caribbean, and includes pieces produced by the Flemish Van Den Hecke family from cartouches created by Charles Le Brun. The Alcázar is the most visited museum in Santo Domingo.^[6]

Museum in Frederiksted, U.S. Virgin Islands. Fort Frederik, also known as Frederiksfort, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in Frederiksted, United States Virgin Islands. It was built between 1752 and 1760 by Denmark-Norway to defend the economic interests of the natural deep water port of Frederiksted and to ward off pirates. It has red and white painted walls, making it quite different then yellow and white of Fort Christiansværn on the other side of the island. It is located at the north end of Frederiksted, in St. Croix, south of the junction of Mahogany Road and VI 631. It should not be confused with Frederiks Fort, Fortberg Hill, on St. John, which is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

According to Westergaard, "It was soon found that a customs house was not sufficient, but that cannon must be provided, and placed as to command the roads where the ships lay anchored. In lack of such a 'water battery', ships were accustomed to slip away in the night-time without securing papers of paying their dues."

In 1776, the first salute from foreign soil to the new nation of the United States of America was fired from the fort. The salute of Old Glory which had been raised on an American brigantine at port in Frederiksted was a violation of the laws of Denmark-Norway's neutrality however the islands had helped the British colonist in America sealing a friendliness between the two colonies, and the salute was therefore appropriate.

It is from this fort that Danish Governor-General Peter von Scholten emancipated the slaves on 3 July 1848. John Gottliff (also known as Moses Gotlieb, General Bordeaux, or Buddhoe) had led 8,000 blacks in a freedom march to Frederiksted. At the time, there were 17,000 slaves and 5,000 free blacks on St. Croix.

The fort includes a museum and art gallery, it is open weekdays from 8:30am to 4pm, and Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm. Admission is $3 (2015).

Fort Frederik was listed as a contributing property in the Frederiksted Historic District in 1976. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. It was further declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

Fort Frederik now stands guard over the Eliza James-McBean Clock Tower and Emancipation Park, a town park right in front of the Frederiksted fort and waterfront. The park contains statues of historically important Virgin Islanders. Small paths weave through dozens of large mahogany trees and fragrant flowers. This Federiksted park honors the slave revolt leader General Buddhoe and also serves to recall and honor the 1848 proclamation by Governor Peter von Scholten that emancipated slaves in the Danish islands. The park has many benches and a small gazebo and is the location for Jazz in the Park, every 3rd Friday of the month (2014).^[8]

Stadium in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Quisqueya Stadium Juan Marichal is a baseball stadium in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It is often used as a multi-use stadium. Football club Atlético Pantoja used the venue for their inaugural Caribbean football championship match. The Quisqueya holds about 14,469 people after its renovation. The Dominican League of Baseball Authority is in charge of its management.

It is the only stadium in the Caribbean region to host two different baseball teams, Tigres del Licey (Licey Tigers) and Leones del Escogido (Chosen One Lions). Its field dimensions are 335 feet at the foul poles, 383 feet at the power alleys, and 411 feet at center field. It was built in 1955 as Estadio Trujillo, during the Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina dictatorship, taking the Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium as the design base.

The stadium was renamed Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal, after the former Major League Baseball player and Hall of Famer Juan Marichal.^[10]

Major museum of art. Museo de Arte de Ponce is an art museum located on Avenida Las Américas in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It houses a collection of European art, as well as works by Puerto Rican artists. The museum contains one of the most important Pre-Raphaelite collections in the Western Hemisphere, holding some 4,500 pieces of art distributed among fourteen galleries.

Museo de Arte de Ponce is the finest art museum in Puerto Rico. The largest art museum in the Caribbean, it has also been called one of the best in the Americas. It was the first museum in Puerto Rico accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

It was founded in 1959 by industrialist and philanthropist Luis A. Ferré at a location in the Ponce Historic Zone. The museum moved to its current building location on Avenida Las Américas in 1965. In 2010, the museum increased its size significantly after a $30M expansion.^[12]

Pre-Columbian archaeological site. The Tibes Indigenous Ceremonial Center in Barrio Tibes, Ponce municipality, Puerto Rico, houses one of the most important archaeological discoveries made in the Antilles. The discovery provides an insight as to how the indigenous tribes of the Igneri and Taínos lived and played during and before the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the New World. Tibes is the oldest Antillean Indian ceremonial and sports complex yet uncovered in Puerto Rico. Within its boundaries is also the largest indigenous cemetery discovered to date – consisting of 186 human skeletons, most from the Igneri and the rest from the pre-Taíno cultures. Based on the orientation of the ceremonial plazas, this is also believed to be the oldest astronomical observatory in the Antilles. The museum was established in 1982 and restored in 1991.^[13]

Museo Castillo Serrallés, a.k.a. Museo de la Caña y el Ron, is an agricultural museum in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, that showcases the history of sugar cane, its derivative rum industry, and their impact in the economy of Puerto Rico. The most notorious feature of the museum is the building it occupies. The building is a large four-story structure built in the 1930s for the owner of Ponce's Destileria Serralles, one of Puerto Rico's largest rum distilleries. The distillery was once also home to Puerto Rico's largest sugar-factory called Central Mercedita, producers of the Snow White sugar brand. The building, known as Castillo Serrallés, was designed by Pedro Adolfo de Castro in 1930 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style.

The museum sits on a 2.5-acre lot and opened on 20 February 1991. Visitors can tour the refurbished home, which has been furnished to appear as it did in the 1930s. There is also a temporary exhibit area for local artists. The Serrallés Castle is now part of a large complex that includes the Cruceta El Vigía, a Japanese Garden, and a butterfly garden (Mariposario). By September 2010, the museum was receiving around 100,000 visitors per year.^[18]

Zoo in the Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The Emperor Valley Zoo is the only zoo in Trinidad and Tobago. It is located North of the Queen's Park Savannah and West of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Port of Spain.

The zoo was first opened on 8 November 1952 by Governor Sir Hubert Rance. At that time, there were 10 cages containing 127 animals, mainly indigenous species. It now has a collection of over 2300 individuals and over 200 species.

The zoo was named after the large, blue Emperor or Morpho butterfly which once frequented the valley in which the zoo is situated. It covers 7.2 acres.

There are both local and foreign animals: lions, ocelots, parrots, macaws and many more including snakes, caiman, wildfowl giraffes, tigers and others. The categories include small mammals, large cats, a reptile house, aquariums, a deer park, primates and ponds.

The zoo has undergone major upgrades over the past few years, both for upkeep to its existing infrastructure to bring it up to international standards as well as in preparation for additions to its animal stock. These upgrades have been undertaken by the Zoological Society of Trinidad and Tobago (ZSTT). with financial assistance from the government of Trinidad and Tobago to the value of TTD $56 Million.

During the upgrade period there has been the construction of a Giraffe enclosure, which was populated in December 2013 by two giraffes and the addition of a Tiger exhibit which received three tigers in 2014 - two white Bengals and a ginger Bengal. The White Bengals have successfully bred and have had two cubs in January 2015.

On 12 October 2016, the zoo announced that they had received six llamas from a nature park in Texas, USA. Zoo officials stated that of the six llamas, four are female.^[19]

Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science Foundation.

The observatory's main instrument was the Arecibo Telescope, a 305 m (1,000 ft) spherical reflector dish built into a natural sinkhole, with a cable-mount steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals mounted 150 m (492 ft) above the dish. Completed in 1963, it was the world's largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China. Following two breaks in cables supporting the receiver platform in mid-2020, the NSF decommissioned the telescope. A partial collapse of the telescope occurred on December 1, 2020, before controlled demolition could be conducted. The remains of the telescope are being removed as NASA evaluates plans for a replacement instrument.

The observatory also includes a smaller radio telescope, a LIDAR facility, and a visitor center, which remain operational after the telescope's collapse.^[20]

Cathedral in Campeche, Mexico. The Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral also called Cienfuegos Cathedral is a religious building is located opposite the Martí Park in the city of Cienfuegos in the province of the same name on the Caribbean island nation of Cuba.

The original building was completed in 1833 during the Spanish colonization, but expansions and improvements occurred in 1850, between 1852 and 1861, between 1866 and 1869 and between 1869 and 1875. It became an official cathedral in on February 20, 1903, following the Roman or Latin rite and is the mother of the Diocese of Cienfuegos (Dioecesis Centumfocencis) that was created by Pope Leo XIII by the apostolic brief "Actum praeclare".

The cathedral is part of the Historic Centre of Cienfuegos and, along with other historic buildings in the city center, was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005, because of its outstanding Neoclassical architecture.^[22]

Historic fort built by Denmark and Norway. Fort Christian is a Dano-Norwegian-built fort in Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Built 1672-1680, early in the first successful colonial establishment on the island, the fort served as a critical point of defense and government during the entire period of Dano-Norwegian, and later Danish, administration, which ended in 1917 with the sale of the islands to the United States. It currently holds the St. Thomas Museum, which holds artifacts and art of the Dano-Norwegian period. It was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1977.

The fort property was the Charlotte Amalie National Historic Site, also known as St. Thomas National Historic Site, which was a U.S. National Historic Site from December 24, 1960 until February 5, 1975, when it was disbanded and ownership was transferred to Virgin Islands, to be administered as a territorial park. It is a contributing property in the Charlotte Amalie Historic District.^[23]

Museum in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Fortaleza San Felipe is a historic Spanish fortress located in the north of Dominican Republic in the province of Puerto Plata. Is also known as El Morro de San Felipe and was used to protect the City of Puerto Plata from pirates and corsairs. It is located on a hill at the Puntilla Del Malecón, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean; its strategic location protected the entrance to the city's seaport. The construction of the fort was commissioned by King Felipe II of Spain in 1564, and it was completed in 1577 by Don Rengifo de Angulo, the fort's mayor.

Today, the Fortaleza San Felipe serves as a museum showcasing the important role it has played in the history of Puerto Plata, and the Dominican Republic. The Fortaleza houses military artifacts from the 18th and 19th centuries.^[28]

Aquarium in Bermuda. The Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo is a facility located in Flatts Village, Bermuda, about 700 mi east of the United States and at the geographic center of Bermuda. It was established in 1926 by the Bermuda government to enhance a growing tourism industry and "to inspire appreciation and care of island environments." The facility focuses on showing oceanic island species and in conservation, education, and research related to these species, and contains an aquarium, a natural history museum, and a zoo.

Support for the institution comes mainly from the Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS) and the Atlantic Conservation Partnership (ACP), both of which are supported primarily by donations and memberships.

The zoo has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) since 1993, and participates in four Species Survival Plans (SSP) as of 2009.^[31]

Park in Kingston, Jamaica. Emancipation Park is a public park in Kingston, Jamaica, Jamaica.

The park is in New Kingston, opened on 31 July 2002, the day before Emancipation Day. Prime Minister P.J. Patterson's address to open the park he acknowledged that the park is a commemoration of the end of slavery.

The six-acre park includes fountains and public art. The park is known for the large sculpture Redemption Song at the park's main entrance. Redemption Song, which takes its name from Bob Marley's song of the same name, is an 11 ft. (approximately 3m) high bronze sculpture by Jamaican artist Laura Facey. The sculpture features a male and female figure gazing to the skies – symbolic of their triumphant rise from the horrors of slavery. The statue was unveiled in July 2003, in time for the park's first anniversary.

The Adinkra symbols can be seen at many places in the park as a tribute to honour the ancestors of Jamaicans who were brought as slaves from West Africa. The architect Kamau Kambui has used these symbols in the perimeter fence, the walls at the entrance, the benches and garbage receptacles.^[42]

Lighthouse in West End, Jamaica. Negril Lighthouse was built in 1894 1.5 miles south south east of the westernmost tip of the island of Jamaica by the French company Barber & Bernard. It is one of the earliest concrete lighthouses.

Its foundation is a tank 14 feet (4.3 m) deep, which is kept filled with water to keep the 20-metre (66 ft) (27 metres (89 ft) according to Rowlett) reinforced concrete tower balanced and secured in the event of an earthquake. The tower is topped with a lantern and gallery.

An automatic white light 30 m (100 feet) above sea level flashes every two seconds. The light was operated by gas initially, switching to acetylene in 1956 and solar energy in 1985.

Several adjacent one-story frame keeper's houses are staffed.

The site is a well-known attraction of the Negril area.

It is maintained by the Port Authority of Jamaica, an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Works.^[46]