It was three in the morning and I was somewhere in Camaguey province. Beyond the small spotlight in which I stood, the night was black.

As a travel writer specializing in Cuba, I often get asked about the best things to see and do. Here's my ideal two-week itinerary.

Eating a freshly made breakfast from antique porcelain plates beneath a teardrop chandelier in an old colonial house while being treated like an old family friend would be considered an experience possible in only hotels of the rarest kind. In Cuba, however, it's practically normal.

Here, there are no billboards. Instead, it's a constant interplay between state-sponsored murals and guerilla graffiti artists.

All I wanted was to tell my family that I hadn't passed out on the Cuban pavement in a rum stupor. I didn't know it was possible to run out of internet.

You don't come to Cuba for the food. Well, you never used to come to Cuba for the food.

A great many flout the ban and travel here illegally, flying to Mexico or Canada from where they can buy a ticket to Cuba. And the chance of getting caught is slim.