One of Santiago’s most delightful people-watching spots is Plaza Dolores, a shady plaza lined with colonial-era homes (several now house restaurants). Avenida José A. Saco (more commonly known as Enramada) is Santiago’s main shopping thoroughfare. Its faded 1950s neon signs and ostentatious buildings recall more prosperous times. Cobbled Calle Bartolomé Masó (also known as San Basilio), just behind Heredia and the cathedral, is a delightful street that leads down to the picturesque Tivolí district.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the Patron Saint of Cuba, can be found 27 km from the city centre, in a mining town founded in 1830. The Basilica stands on a gentle hill and contains display cases with items such as the medal received by the writer Ernest Hemingway on being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. The story of the Virgin dates from the early 1600s, when three men in a boat first saw her floating on water during a storm; tradition holds that the Virgin saved the men from certain drowning. Records show that the statue was most likely brought from Spain on order of the then-governor of Cuba, but don't play iconoclast with the millions of faithful who take seriously the Virgin's reputed miraculous powers. Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre was crowned by Pope John Paul II in 1998, during his visit to Cuba. Every 8th of September, her feast day, thousands of pilgrims come here to give thanks and beg favours of the blessed virgin.

Located in front of the Céspedes Park, the Museum of Historical Cuban Atmosphere is one of the most important museums in Santiago de Cuba. The museum is constituted by two antique houses that were built in different times. One is from the 16th century while the other is from the 19th century, and both show the way of life of the centuries in which they were built. The oldest house was built in 1515 and is a gem of the colonial architecture. It was the Governor Diego Velázquez’s home and the Casa de Contratación y Fundición de Oro (Hiring House and Golden Foundry). After several changes, the house was restored in 1965 and the space was dedicated to show the way of life of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The most modern house dates from the first third of the 19th century and belonged to a local family named Quesada. This house is set in the way of life of the 19th century through a series of rooms like the hallway, the 19th century patio and the garage.

Constructed in 1516, this structure is reputed to be Cuba's oldest house one of the oldest in the Americas, although many historians now doubt that claim. Noticeable for its black-slatted balconies, it is one of Santiago's top attractions. Diego Velázquez, the Spanish conquistador who founded the city and was the island's first governor, lived upstairs. At the moment this old house works as Cuban Historical Colonial Environment's Museum, its rooms overflow with period furniture and carved woodwork and encircle­ two lovely courtyards. Inside you'll find period beds, desks, chests, and other furniture. On the first floor is a gold foundry. Memorable are the star-shape Moorish carvings on the wooden windows and balconies, and the original interior patio with its well and rain-collecting tinajón vessel. An adjacent house is filled with antiques intended to convey the French and English decorative and architectural influences—such as the radial stained glass above the courtyard doors—in the late 19th-century.