Cuba's tourism industry, a fast-growing economic sector, is based on the country's historic, cultural and natural wealth.

Dozens of kilometers of excellent beaches, tropical climate and pristine sites are complemented by places of high cultural and historic value to create one-of-a-kind recreational options.

Coastal resorts such as Varadero, Santa Lucía, Guardalavaca, the eastern Havana beaches and the keys off Ciego de Avila's north coast are some of the options available for tourists.

In central Cuba, on the northern keys off Villa Clara province, Villa Las Brujas, on the islet of the same name, offers 24 cabanas and a long sand strip of nearly two kilometers.

A causeway over the sea connects the main island with Cayo Santa María (13 kilometers long and two kilometers wide), where visitors can practice several nautical sports, including scuba diving and snorkeling.

Cuba combines recreation and medical treatments to improve the quality of life, including such procedures as thalassotherapy, considering that Cuba is an island.

That medical modality benefits from the island's marine environment – air, water and climate – and other natural resources such as mud, sand and algae.

Many facilities specialize in promoting health tourism, particularly at hotels where medical treatments are provided and at resorts where mineral-medicinal water is used to treat several ailments.

In San José del Lago, in central Sancti Spiritus province, medicinal water is diuretic, and is rapidly absorbed and eliminated by the human body.

In western Pinar del Río province, the fame of San Diego de los Baños dates back to 1632. Experts there treat several diseases with acupuncture, medicinal mud, apitherapy and natural medications, among other methods of traditional medicine.

In addition to international clinics, pharmacies, optician's shops and specialized institutions in major tourist resorts, Cuba also has a broad infrastructure made up of more than 280 hospitals, 400 polyclinics, 116 dental clinics and 1,500 establishments of different kinds that can meet the most complex demands from human health.