Trip to Cuba - a country of indefinable magic

"Timeworn but magnificent, dilapidated but dignified, fun yet maddeningly frustrating" - Lonely Planet Cuba

Introduction
Cuba, the Caribbean's largest island, is a land of extraordinary beauty and amazing contrasts.  From white-sand beaches and teal-blue seas to lush valleys and cloud-draped mountains, Cuba is a kaleidoscopic in its terrains.  Steeped in history, this Communist nation is a time warp and brims with colonial buildings, pre-revolutionary 1950s cars, and rural villages.  The country's vivvious populace is a blend of Spanish, African, and indigenous peoples.

Expect the Unexpected
Cuba is like a prince in a poor man's coat: behind the sometimes shabby facades, gold dust lingers.  It's these rich dichotomies that make travel here the exciting, exhilarating roller-coaster ride it is.  Trapped in a time warp and reeling from an economic embargo that has grated for more than half a century, this is a country where you can wave goodbye to Western certainties and expect the unexpected.  If Cuba were a book, it would be James Joyce's Ulysses: layered, hard to grasp, serially misunderstood, but - above all - a classic.

Historical Heritage
Meticulously preserved, Cuba's colonial cities haven't changed much since musket-toting pirates stalked the Caribbean.  The atmosphere and architecture is particularly stirring in the Unesco-listed cities - Havana, Trinidad, Cienfuegos and Camaguey - where grandiose squares and cobbled streets tell erstwhile tales of opulence and intrigue.  Elsewhere many buildings lie ruined and tattered like aging dowagers waiting for a face lift.  With more funds, these heirlooms may yet emulate the colonial treasures in Havana and Trinidad, further proof that the safe-guarding of Cuba's historical legacy has been one of the revolution's greatest achievements.

Cultural Eclecticism
Cuba hemorrhages music, a dynamic mix of styles described by aficionados as a love affair between the African drum and the Spanish guitar.  Allowed to marinate for over 500 years, these diverse sounds have given birth to an intricate culture, coloring it with echoes of Africa, flickers of colonial Spain, ghosts of Taino tribes, and cultural idiosyncrasies imported from Haiti, Jamaica, France and even China.  The beauty lies in its layers and nuances.  It's an eclecticism that's mirrored in its dance, architecture, language, religion, and - most emphatically - its rainbow of people.

Beyond the Beaches
Although the attractive arcs of white sand that pepper its north coast are sublime, explore beyond Cuba's beaches and you're in a different domain, a land of fecund forests and crocodile-infested swamps, suburbia-free countryside an rugged mountains as famous for their revolutionary folklore as for their endemic species.  Cuba, once observed German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, is a kind of Caribbean Galapagos where contradictory curiosities coexist.

Elements factor in for this trip
1. Live Music Scene
In Cuba piped music is considered a cop-out.  Here in the land of son, salsa, rumba and trova everything is spontaneous, live and delivered with a melodic panache.  There's the romantic bar-crawling troubadour, the gritty street-based rumba drummer, the bikini-and-feathers cabaret show and the late-night reggaeton party.  Cuba's musical talent is legendary and rarely comes with the narcissistic 'star status' common in other parts of the world.  Matanzas and Santiago have the deepest musical roots, Guantanamo is full of surprises, while Havana belts out pretty much everything.

2. Havana's Malecón
Only a fool comes to Havana and misses out on the Malecón sea drive, 8km of shabby magnificence that stretches the breadth of the city from Havana Vieja to Miramar and acts as a substitute living room for tens of thousands of cavorting, canoodling, romance-seeking habaneros.  Traverse it during a storm when giant waves breach the wall, or tackle it at sunset with Benny Moré on your MP3, a bottle of Havana Club in your hand and the notion that anything is possible come 10pm.

3. Cuba's Casas Particulares (Private homestay)
Shrugging off asphyxiating censorship and bleak Cold War - style totalitarianism, these private homes reveal Cuba at its most candid.  Havan has he widest selection.

4. Eclectic Architecture
Cuba's architecture, sometimes extreme yet rarely constant, mirrors its ethnic heritage.  Take a muscular slice of Spanish baroque, then sprinkle in some French classicism, a generous portion of North American art deco and a hint of European art nouveau,  Now add the sweat of Afro-Cuban slave labor and the odd spark of creative modernism, and there you have it.  Visit the Unesco-listed cities of Havana, Trinidad, Cienfuegos and Camaguey to see for yourself.

5. Idyllic Beach Escapes
There's the big showy one in the resort: the wild, windswept one on the north coast; the sheltered palm-fringed one on a paradisical key;and the unashamedly nudist one on a secluded island.  Search around long enough and you're sure to find your own slice of nirvana.  Big resort areas such as Varadero have hijacked the best strips of sand, but isolated havens remain.

6. Bird-Watching
Crocodiles aside, Cuba has little impressive fauna, but the paucity of animals is more than made up for by the abundance of birdlife.  Approximately 350 species inhabit this distinct and ecologically weird tropical archipelago, a good two dozen of them endemic.  Look out in particular for the colourful tocororo, the tiny bee hummingbird, the critically endangered ivory-billed woodpecker and the world's largest flamingo nesting site.  The Peninsular de Zapata and the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve are bird-watching highlights.

7. Revolutionary Heritage
An improbable escape from a ship-wrecked yacht, bearded guerrillas meting out Robin Hood - style justice and a classic David-versus-Goliath struggle that was won convincingly by the underdogs: Cuba's revolutionary war reads like the pages of a Steven Soderbergh movie script.  Better than watching it on the big screen is visiting the revolutionary sites in person.

8. Time-Warped Trinidad
Soporific Trinidad went to sleep in 1850 and never really woke up.  This strange twist of fate is good news for modern travelers who can roam freely through the perfectly preserved mid-19th century sugar town like voyeurs from another era.  Though it's no secret these days, the time-warped streets still have the power to enchant with their grand colonial homestays, easily accessible countryside and exciting live-music scene.  But this is also a real working town loaded with all the foibles and fun of 21st-century Cuba.

9. Cienfugos' Classical Architecture
There's a certain je ne sais quoi about bayside Cienfugos.  Cuba's self-proclaimed 'Pearl of the South'.  Through hell, high water and an economically debilitating Special Period, this is a city that has always retained its poise.  The elegance is best seen in the architecture, a homogeneous cityscape laid out in the early 19th century by settlers from France and the US.  Dip into the cultural life around the city center and its adjacent garden suburb of Punta Gorda to absorb the Gallic refinement.

10. Baracoa
Over the hills and far away on the easternmost limb of Guantanamo province lies isolated Baracoa, a small yet historically significant settlement, weird even by Cuban standards for its fickle Atlantic weather, eccentric local populace and unrelenting desire to be, well, different.  Watch locals scale coconut palms, listen to bands play kiriba (the local take on son), and - above all - enjoy the infinitely spicier, richer and more inventive food, starting with the sweet treat cucurucho.