Photo of Hemingway’s farm by Brian Jewell

Before communism turned Cuba on its ear, the island nation was a favorite getaway for wealthy Americans. Perhaps the most famous expat resident was the legendary novelist Ernest Hemingway, who had permanent residences in Cuba in the 1930s and 1940s.

Today, groups can visit Hemingway’s farm, Finca La Vigia, which is the site of his largest and most luxurious home in Cuba. You can’t walk inside; instead, visitors tour the house from the outside, looking through the open windows to see each of the home’s interior rooms. From this vantage point, you see the house almost exactly as Hemingway left it, decorated with dozens of hunting trophies and 9,000 books from Hemingway’s personal library stored in various places throughout the home.

A short walk from the home, the farm has a small Hemingway museum, as well as a pavilion that houses the writer’s beloved boat, Pilar.