Cuba resembles a Hollywood film set with a melange of architecture - Colonial to Moorish, Baroque to Art Deco. Its capital, Havana, straddles a splendid bay, caressing the Tropic of Cancer, casting a median between North and South America, the gateway to the New World.

Chevvies, Cadillacs, Dodges, Fords and Packards trundle along Havana's boulevards and traverse the island's impressive, almost deserted, highways – 800 kms to the east, a land with up to 6000 feet high mountains interspersed with verdant valleys.

Cuba is to explore with time and patience. Ideally a Cuba holiday requires 10 days to view the western and central parts, including the capital, Havana, Vinales to the west with its unique landscapers redolent of Vietnam and its famous cigar plantations and Trinidad to the south, a colonial gem town built on the wealth of sugar cane planters, plundered by English and French pirates during the 17th and 18th centuries.