World Heritage Sites in the Caribbean

Cuba’s capital preserves the largest colonial old town in the Caribbean, a lattice of baroque and neoclassical squares, colonnaded streets and the harbour forts that once guarded Spain’s treasure fleets. Old Havana blends faded grandeur with living street life under a careful restoration effort.

This lush limestone valley in western Cuba is dotted with dramatic karst hills called mogotes rising above tobacco fields worked by traditional ox-drawn methods. Recognised as a cultural landscape, Vinales showcases centuries-old agricultural techniques amid one of the island’s most beautiful settings.

Dominica’s rainforest interior earns the Caribbean’s premier natural inscription, protecting the world’s second-largest boiling lake, steaming fumaroles, the Valley of Desolation and dozens of waterfalls. Rugged volcanic peaks cloaked in mist make it one of the wildest landscapes in the region.

The massive stone fortresses of El Morro and San Cristobal, together with La Fortaleza governor’s residence, guard the entrance to Old San Juan. Built between the 16th and 20th centuries, they form one of the finest examples of Spanish military architecture in the Americas.

Perched 230 metres above the sea on St Kitts, this vast 18th-century British fortress was dubbed the Gibraltar of the West Indies. Built by enslaved Africans, its bastions and barracks command sweeping views over neighbouring islands and testify to the fierce imperial rivalry over Caribbean sugar.

The Dutch colonial capital of Curacao lines its harbour with rows of pastel-coloured gabled townhouses reflecting three centuries of European and Caribbean influence. This well-preserved trading port remains a vibrant, lived-in city and one of the region’s most photogenic World Heritage towns.

The Valley of the Sugar Mills near Trinidad, Cuba, preserves the ruins of dozens of 19th-century sugar estates, mills and a distinctive plantation tower. Together with the colonial town it forms a moving testament to the wealth and human cost of the Caribbean sugar economy.

On Cuba’s remote southeastern coast, this park protects some of the world’s most spectacular coastal limestone terraces, sea cliffs and marine platforms rising from the Caribbean Sea. It is named for the 1956 landing that launched the Cuban Revolution.

Founded by French settlers in 1819, Cienfuegos boasts a rare neoclassical urban ensemble around its elegant central plaza. Its harmonious 19th-century architecture and planned grid make it one of the finest early examples of modern town planning in Latin America.

Camaguey’s tangled, maze-like street plan, unusual for a Spanish colonial city, was designed to confound pirates. Its winding lanes, hidden plazas and the large clay tinajones that collect rainwater give this well-preserved Cuban town a distinctive and atmospheric character.