Gran Hotel Camagüey At the beginning, the hotel had multiple uses: In the ground floor, several trade houses operated while in the other floors, hotels were mainly found. Among its many names, the hotel was also known as Casa Roura. This building housed the oldest hardware shop of the city and a famous store of garments. The upper floor housed for years the offices of Batallón de Cazadores Voluntarios of Puerto Príncipe (Camagüey’s Battalion of Voluntary Hunters , the Casino Español and the Civil Guard Headquarters. At present, after intense restoration works completed in 1997, the whole building has been dedicated to be a hotel with a watchtower on the roof from where one can see the whole city of Camagüey. Address: Maceo No. 67 e/ Ignacio Agramonte y General Gómez, Camagüey. Phones: 80322 9-2093, 9-2314 and 9-3933.

Plaza Hotel Built in 1907 by the Grosman family on the occasion of the railroad construction that linked Camagüey with the capital. For many years, this was an apartment building until 1989 when it was determined that the facility were turned into a hotel. Since 1994, Islazul Company operates the hotel. Address: Van Horne e/ República y Avellaneda. Phone: 8-2413.

Colón Hotel Inaugurated in 1926, the hotel was the property of Llamas Brothers, of Catalonian origin. It’s distinguished by its eclectic style and its most outstanding attribute is the stained glass with the Great Admiral’s countenance with which the main hall is decorated. Address: República No. 472. Phone: 8-3368.

Wonderful Nature

The Cuban plains extends all over Camagüey like a powerful empire, areas that eagerly expand, thus turning this territory in the most extensive province of Cuba. Plains extending over 16,000 km2, diverse attractions, including those favorite by risk lovers, over 100 km of beaches where the vegetation and the surroundings offer fabulous tropical panoramas while the combination of coasts and cays, endowed this province with a special physiognomy. This spot has the exclusivity of having the largest coral reef of the western hemisphere, long in a section split by 30 km that, seen from the air resemble a fine and winding necklace of pearly beads. This wonder expands over Peninsula de Hicacos (Varadero) beyond the eastern boundaries of Camagüey province with over 400 km long, only preceded by the Great Coral Reef of Australia with 200 km. The reef garden is shaped by diverse types of corals in the form of colonies with a wide range of colors. The coral reef, all over its extension, presents cliffs or ravines that are used by recreation and leisure boats to moor at different spots of the shore. Camagüey’s natural routes are toured with the enjoyment of the perfumed breeze of the forest smell. Major reserves are located at Sierra de Cubitas with large forests of trees as cedar and local varieties as jía, ocuje and ceiba. Along with these vegetable giants and all over 260 km comprised by the sierra, a vigorous flora grows comprising over 300 species among which orchids are abundant. Limones-Tuabaquey Ecological Reserve, situated in Sierra de Cubitas at 27 km away from the city, extends over 20 km2 and is characterized by over fifty caverns with aboriginal pictography like Cueva del Agua, which is simply 200 m of flooded galleries. La Belén, located at 56 km of the city, is one of the major areas for birds where over 130 species have been reported, many of them have already disappeared from the rest of Cuba. The outstanding biodiversity given by the existence of endemic birds and others in danger of extinction, indicates the presence of a superior biological quality. Out of 23 species of Cuban endemic birds, 17 are reported in the area. This place is the shelter for birds and a sample of the Cuban typical plateau forests where fossil tree trunks have been found and thus named "Fossil Forest". Pedro Regalado Ruiz, a biologist from Camagüey has informed us that before the place was named Sierra del Chorrillo and that the place belong to an orographic group and that its name emerged from the many water springs there found that like pure fresh water fountains emerged from the land almost everywhere. It was an area that served as a shelter for black slaves of the neighboring haciendas and it is also said that there were several "palenques" (run-away slaves’ hidden establishment) located in the very heart of the sierra. Camagüey also has the ecological reserve of Nuevas Grandes, located in the North coast of the province in the midst of the bay of similar name. This place is characterized by the presence of coastal and marine ecosystems. The fauna is abundant fundamentally in birds, the presence of endemic species is significant. The manatee, a specie in danger of extinction is found there. Refugio Fauna Río Máximo (Máximo River Fauna Shelter) is located in low areas of Máximo and Cagüey river mouths, on the North coast of Camagüey province, on the southeast area of Cayo Sabinal. This is the site where more nests of pink flamingo are found in the Antilles and the Caribbean. This is also the shelter of water birds and a resting place for many migratory birds and the habitat of crocodiles.

Camagüey and its culture

Cultural expressions are other reasons that make Camagüey, a place to remember since it houses a prolific community of plastic arts professionals, ceramists, artisans, groups of scenic arts and dance that have as an scenery the Main Theater. This theater inaugurated in 1850 is today’s headquarters of Camagüey’s Ballet Company, the second major city after Havana. Letters and arts flourish in this city, from Camagüey are the celebrated names of Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, one of the captivating female personalities of the 19th-century Hispanic literature. In addition to Enrique Loynaz del Castillo and Nicolás Guillén whose works are always lectured, and exposed at the Cultural Center which operates in the very house of the latter, Cuban National Poet, Nicolás Guillén. One of the known-master of the Cuban plastic art is Fidelio Ponce, and he was born in Camagüey. The province exhibits an intense cultural life. History is also present in the house where Mayor Ignacio Agramonte and Loynaz was bornæthe celebrated fighter for Cuban independence against Spanish rule in this province, highly praised also in the field of literature for the love letters he wrote to his wife, Amalia Simoni, while on the battle fieldæanother interesting place is Quinta Amalia Simoni, a neoclassic house, witnessed of the most beautiful love between the above-mentioned patriot and his wife. Today this place turned into a historic museum which houses, not only the Manual and Plastic Arts Workshop, but some special activities as the weddings which are celebrated every August 1st, paying homage to the memory of that great love between Ignacio and Amalia. Ceramists from Camagüey are well-known by their highly skill shown in this art, widely exhibited in galleries, workshops and hotel facilities. Its talented artists have renovated a tradition that started by the makers of the first earthen big jars.