Over 300 top-notch beaches, either along the large island or around the surrounding keys, well-preserved coral reefs and lovely sites for the practice o scuba diving and other water sports make Cuba the perfect sun-and-sand travel destination, a fascinating option even for the most skeptical visitor.

However, the largest Caribbean island is a whole lot more than that. Its varied offer as a travel destination is coupled with a network of comfortable hotels, restaurants and other establishments that meet the needs and desires of vacationers from anywhere under the sun. In addition to that, the island nation boasts an assortment of cultural, historic and natural allures that makes every nook and cranny an ideal spot to visit, relax and learn.

Its many beaches have a few standouts, like well-known Varadero, a gorgeous foreshore that joins Havana as the country’s two major travel circuits. A dozen miles of powder-thin, white sands and the balmy temperature of its crystal-clear waters are things no visitor can simply pass up.

A mesh of lodgings and resorts, built on the premises by some of the world’s top hotel chains and travel companies, is waiting for those who pick Varadero. Near the cities of Matanzas and Cardenas, in the northwestern part of the island, Varadero combines its beach charms with attractions like the Varahicacos Ecological Park, a haven for lovers of green and nature.

Moving eastbound along Cuba’s northern shore, visitors get to central Cuba, a region with a few must-sees like Las Brujas, Ensenachos and Santa Maria, a place brimming with beautiful beaches, efficient lodging services, fancy hotels and expansion programs in progress.

Following this imaginary trip, far to the east but without leaving the central part of the island, we make out the well-known Jardines del Rey archipelago. Word has it that Governor Diego Velasquez named these paradise-like keys in honor of the King of Spain. The two main tourist spots there are no doubt Coco and Guillermo keys, both featuring a magnificent mesh of hotels that respect nature preservation law currently in force.

In addition to its breathtaking beaches, Jardines del Rey is home to the El Baga Nature Park, named after an endemic tree. The region is famous for its flocks of pink flamencos and ibises –a bird known in Cuba as coco, the name of the islet. El Baga provides shelter to a wildlife of 200 plants and 300 animal species. Flamencos and ibises hang out with iguanas, jutias, lizards and crocodiles –the latter confined to a restricted area so that they pose no threat to trippers. The park is also home to the Museum of Piracy, a pier for nautical activities and the replica of an aboriginal village.

The northern shore of Camaguey province is dominated by the lovely and excellent beach of Santa Lucia, also boasting great sand, a jaw-dropping coral reef –easily spotted from the ground and ideal for scuba diving buffs.

Now in the northeastern part of the island, in the Holguin province, out top choice is Guardalavaca, another fabulous beach near the likes of Esmeralda and Pesquero, this one featuring Cuba’s largest hotel, a 900-plus-room establishment fit to meet the most demanding guests.

In the south lies Los Canarreos archipelago, northeast of the Isle of Youth, home to the paradisiacal Cayo Largo del Sur, a wonder of Cuba’s nature. “The Last Paradise,” as it was deservedly nicknamed, shows off beaches, amazing sea bottoms –featuring 33 diving sites- and a set of fancy hotels, let alone an exclusive and faraway location that’s easy to reach by plane or by boat, with nonstop flights from many parts of the world.

Scuba Diving in Cuban Waters Either professional divers or enthusiasts are getting increasingly interested in the spectacular beauty and varied wildlife of Cuba’s underwater havens. The large island is hemmed in by some 4,000 keys, most of them close to coralline formations that stand aloof from the hefty marine undercurrents.

Visibility here for passive, contemplative scuba diving –the only practice authorized by the environmental protection laws- is pretty good all along Cuba’s insular platform of shallow waters and average temps in the neighborhood of 24 to 28,5 degrees Celsius.

Coralline formations are admirable, especially their motley shapes of striking beauty, not to mention the eye-popping rocky formations that jut out in the vicinity. This site is home to roughly 500 marine life species, 200 types of sponge, countless mollusks, shellfish, gorgonians and seaweeds.

Diving enthusiasts have state-of-the-art equipment and experienced trainers at their beck and call, all of them certified by the World Confederation of Underwater Activities and other prestigious institutions from around the world. These sites are tied up to a national network of medical services and hyperbaric chambers to secure emergency attention to divers.

Over 30 scuba diving centers operate in the country. Maria la Gorda Beach alone, a World Biological Reserve in the western peninsula of Guanahacabibes, has some 39 diving sites of its own. This is a private area of see-through waters and whose sea bottoms contain the island nation’s largest black coral colonies, gorgonian gardens and sponges, plus a long wall pocked with numerous caves.

The National Marine Park of Punta Frances, in the southern Isle of Youth, is another gem of Cuba’s insular platform. There’s abundant wildlife in a surface of approximately 2.3 miles, while the walls and tunnels are adventurous temptations too hard to resist for anybody. And prices are simply fabulous.

In Varadero Beach, other 32 diving sites stretch out from the Matanzas City bay area all the way to the western side of Jardines del Rey. A number of coralline formations, scattered all around the platform, slopes slowly to the depths. Trapped in the sea bottom are a frigate armed with cannons, a freight airplane and a gunboat, all of them intentionally sunk for the pleasure of scuba divers.

In Jardines de la Reina, to the south of the central-eastern province of Ciego de Avila, there’s a magnificent coral reef inhabited by chelonians that remains one of the few meeting grounds for spawning turtles in the western Caribbean Sea. And the boldest tourists can choose one of the most thrilling underwater experiences: to swim with sharks.

Santiago de Cuba, with 73 scuba diving sites, is simply irresistible. The sea bottoms close to Cuba’s most Caribbean-accented city, shelter several of Admiral Cervera’s celebrated fleet, sunk in July 1898 by the powerful gunboats of the U.S. Navy during the Spanish-American War.

And we can’t pass up Marea del Portillo and its 16 sites perched on the Sierra Maestra National Park, in the province of Granma. Its heritage boasts a couple of ships from Admiral Cervera’s fleet, an old 36-cannon galleon (including the cannonballs), and the Christopher Columbus vessel, all of them well preserved. The beauty and colorfulness of the coral reefs, natural walls and caves are guaranteed to pack a wallop.

Visitors may also find great scuba diving centers in Levisa Key, Havana, Cayo Largo, Bay of Pigs, Cienfuegos, Santa Maria Key, Trinidad and Cayo Coco.

Fancy Nature One of the top-priority objectives of Cuba’s leisure industry is to quickly turn the island nation into one of the major nature-oriented travel destinations of the Caribbean Basin, an effort that has been dramatically stepped up in recent years since the country has been holding the International Nature Tourism Convention –the 2006 edition will take place in the province of Matanzas.

Cuba boasts plenty of virtues as a nature travel destination, including the evergreen landscapes of Pinar del Rio’s Viñales Valley –trapped between the mountains of the Sierra de los Organos, some 100 miles west of Havana. Its famous round-top hills make Viñales one of the country’s most extraordinary landscapes, coupled with a valuable fortune of flora, wildlife and traditions worth stealing a long look at.

The Zapata Swamplands National Park –penciled in as the largest wetlands of both Cuba and the Caribbean- embraces 1,930 square miles of the Zapata Peninsula, on the south coast of the Matanzas province. Its plain relieve harbors the basins of two major rivers, not to mention countless ecosystems that now exist in this neck of the woods.

The marshlands are also home to 17 different vegetable formations. Scholars have labeled as many as 1,000 floral species there. As far as the wildlife is concerned, there are 37 reptile species and 13 amphibians. In the case of endemic species, the Cuban rhombifer crocodile –with the world’s most restricted habitat- has made this place home.

In the heart of the island nation, the Sierra del Escambray captivates visitors with its eye-opening scenery and pleasant weather conditions all across the region. The mountains are run through by a maze of caverns, like the Martin Infierno Cave and the Hanabanilla Dam, both places hedged with mountains and charming waterfalls like Carco Azul and El Caburni.

Those landscapes are dominated by the rainy vegetation of the mountains, marked by abundance of trees. There are seven different treelike fern species and some 60 types of wild orchids. As to the wildlife, the odd white-collar swift, the long-tail hawk and the extraordinary glass butterfly are standouts.

The Sierra del Escambray is inhabited by numerous communities of farmers who have traditionally worked in coffee plantations, the replanting of trees and the local travel industry. The Hanabanilla offers great conditions for trout and bass catching, with a record or two in this particular fishing category.

The Sierra Maestra, in eastern Cuba, consists of three major regions: the Turquino National Park, the Desembarco del Granma National Park, and La Gran Piedra.

The Turquino National Park has the country’s highest mountains, the Real del Turquino Peak, and the Mella, Cuba and Suecia peaks. The zone has witnessed great historic events, like the guerrilla warfare led by Fidel Castro and the establishment of his rebel army’s headquarters in La Plata.

The Desembarco del Granma National Park id dotted by marvelous stacks and vertical outcrops. Archeologists have found caves with dregs of aboriginal life and primitive drawings, as in the case of the El Guafe archeological site. This site has increasingly caught on as a mountain climbing site, supported by an excellent hotel infrastructure built along the south coast of Santiago de Cuba and in the city.

The easternmost tip of the island is home to Baracoa, a larger-than-life village founded on August 15, 1511, the oldest hamlet in Cuba. Its domains encompass some 385 square miles. The mountains are steep, so verticality dominates the landscape and the crags are called knives by the locals. Two famous knives are Toa and Baracoa, declared as a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

The city, crowned by the humongous El Yunque Rock, is nestled in a bucolic environment teeming with a peculiar wildlife. A good case in point is the polymite picta, a gaudy snail sought after by scholars that can only be found in this region. This zone enshrines the greatest biological diversity of the entire Cuban archipelago and the whole insular Caribbean, and it’s also home to the best-preserved ground ecosystems of the island nation.

A Restless Cultural Life The Cuban people’s cultural heritage is huge and generates a vast array of activities too hard to describe in just a few words. There are offers galore for just about anybody, from big-time musicals in theaters and nightclubs and play presentations to movie festivals, fine arts exhibits, dancing, handicrafts, ballet functions, museums of all kind, popular celebrations, academic meetings and a whole lot more.

January kicks off with the Casa de las Americas Literary Awards, an event of well-deserved prestige both in an out of the Western Hemisphere. This ceremony is followed by the International Book Fair in February, gathering the best publishers of the region and that has lately moved out of Havana –the traditional host city- to reach out to other provinces as well. The result is the massive sale of millions of books in just a short period of time.

Another major event is the International Poor Cinema Festival and the International New Cinema Festival in Havana, always scheduled for the last two weeks of December. This particular event has made the island nation’s capital one of the biggest platforms for the launch of movies produced in Latin America and the rest of the world.

Equally prestigious are the International Ballet Festival, the International Fine Arts Biannual in Havana, the Golden Boleros Festival and CUBADISCO, the number-one show of Cuba’s recording industry that comes around every year in May. That same month also welcomes the Mayflower Festival in the eastern province of Holguin, host of the Iberian American Cultural Celebration in October.

The summer brings EXPOCARIBE and the Fire Celebration to the city of Santiago de Cuba, a peerless threshold to the much-anticipated carnivals that lure scores of tourists and partygoers to the magic of the famous conga beat. October is also a historic timeframe for the city of Bayamo as the burg celebrates the Party of the Cuban Identity every year.

As far as festivals are concerned, visitor may find information about the performing arts, guitar concerts, contemporary music, casino dancing, jazz and hip-hop. And when it comes to major celebrations, the Santiago de Cuba Carnival is the undisputed big bash of all, with the Havana Carnivals, the Remedios Parrandas and the Bejucal Charangas trailing slightly behind.

In the case of institutions, nobody could fail to mention the National Museum of Fine Arts, home to the most complete collection of Cuban arts from all epochs, together with an amazing sample of the best universal art. Old Havana, the historic center of the nation’s capital, gives visitors the chance of taking a peek at Cuba’s colonial past. The zone is riddled with remodeling and refurbishment works, while visitors may drop by the nearby museums, watch the colonial mansions, the squares, the churches, the theaters and the old-timed fortresses. Both Old Havana and Trinidad, a city of central Cuba, are part of UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites.

Health Tourism Counts, Too The good numbers Cuban medicine has put on the board have now reached outside its borders and there’s an ever-growing amount of tourists who come to the island nation looking for medical treatments and rehab programs.

Cubanacan Tourism & Health guarantees foreign visitors a good deal of medical treatments. The “Camilo Cienfuegos” International Ophthalmologic Center in Havana, for instance, provides the world’s most effective treatment to fight back nightly blindness (retinosis pigmentaria), created by the late Dr. Orfilio Pelaez.

In the field of neurology, Cuba figures on high-tech neurological restore treatments that are up to par with the most advanced ones offered in the industrialized world. Under that policy, patients from over sixty countries have come to Cuba to soothe ailments like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, as well as traumatic marrowbone lesions, multiple sclerosis, tumors and paralyses.

Other successful treatments in Cuba help patients improve their life quality, as in the case of leukoderma, psoriasis, alopecia and rheumatic arthritis, diseases that are treated by dedicated physicians and researchers from many of Cuba’s top medical institutions and scientific centers.

In this particular field –a top priority for Cuban authorities- the island nation’s doctors not only dish out their knowledge for the sake of mankind, but they also march to faraway places and areas around the globe to cure the ill and train physicians there. A good case in point is Operation Miracle, a program that seeks to restore eyesight to over 100,000 people in the course of a decade.