Matanzas

Matanzas grew rich on sugar in the nineteenth century and built accordingly: a neoclassical theatre, a pharmacy museum with its original fittings, a cathedral and a set of bridges over the two rivers that cut through the city. It is also, with Havana, where rumba developed in the port and dockside neighbourhoods, and UNESCO's 2016 inscription of rumba names both cities. The Afro-Cuban traditions here are strong and continuous, and groups such as Los Muñequitos de Matanzas have carried them internationally.

What you actually see

• Teatro Sauto - a neoclassical theatre of 1863 with its original interior, still in use.
• The pharmacy museum - a nineteenth-century French pharmacy with its jars, fittings and ledgers intact.
• The bridges - crossings over the Yumuri and San Juan rivers that give the city its shape.
• The rumba - the tradition the city shares with Havana, performed in patios and cultural centres.

When to go

November to April is the dry season. Rumba performances happen at cultural centres and in neighbourhood patios, usually on set days, and asking locally is the only reliable way to find them. The Yumuri valley outside town is best in the morning.

Honest expectations

The city is run down and many of the fine buildings are in poor condition, some closed for restoration for years at a time. It is often visited as a stop between Havana and Varadero, which does not do it justice. Performances aimed at tourists are not the same thing as a neighbourhood rumba.

Nearby

The Bellamar caves are just outside town, Varadero is east and Havana is west along the coast.