Hotel Nacional de Cuba

A landmark hotel opened in 1930 on a bluff overlooking the seafront boulevard, blending art-deco and neoclassical styles by the architects of New York's Plaza. It has hosted heads of state, film stars and, notoriously, a 1946 gathering of American crime bosses. Cannons and tunnels in its clifftop garden date from earlier coastal fortifications. Guests and visitors stroll the palm-lined terrace overlooking the strait, and a corridor of historic photographs documents its famous clientele across nearly a century of Cuban history.