Mojitos, cigars, big old cars - cruise into the heart of Cuban culture

Together with Travelrite International, The Senior is offering a fully escorted 22-day tour that includes 11 nights in the country, seven of them on board the luxurious cruise ship Celestyal Cristal. There will be stops in New Orleans, Panama City, Montego Bay and Los Angeles as well.

For decades, Cuba - just 90 miles from the US at its closest point - was forbidden territory to Americans, whose country regarded Castro's communist state as a pariah.

That is now changing, with the ailing Castro's brother Raul now in charge and the two countries recently agreeing to renew diplomatic relations.

Not that there will be an influx of Americans just yet. Visitors must fall within one of 12 special categories, none of which include tourism.There are still no direct flights from the US and most visitors are in fact Canadian.

Not that there's any problem for Australians.

After flying out from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, travellers kick off the tour in New Orleans, where they will stay three nights in a four-star hotel in the heart of the French Quarter.

As well as taking in the jazz, you might choose to feast on some of the city's famous cuisine. Included is a cruise on the Mississippi, a visit to a grand old plantation house and a tour of the moss-draped bayous on an airboat.

Leaving the US, travellers head to Panama City for two nights. Famed for its glorious Spanish colonial streetscapes and buildings, the city is also a great jumping off point for the majestic Panama Canal, through which 14,000 vessels pass yearly.

Then it's off to the Cuban capital, Havana, for two days of exploring a city at once stunning, welcoming, beguiling and rundown.

With its grand squares and echoes of its days as a playground of the rich and famous, there is much to see and plenty of free time at your disposal.

Perhaps you drop in for a drink at the once-glamorous Hotel Nacional de Cuba, once the haunt of celebrities and mobsters like Meyer Lansky who played the tables in its casino.

Or maybe you would prefer to visit Finca Vigía, the longtime home of Ernest Hemingway, who wrote a large chunk of For Whom the Bell Tolls and all of The Old Man and the Sea while living there.

If music is more to your liking, you might seize the opportunity to take in a show at the Buena Vista Social Club.

On day nine guests board the Louis Cristal, with its elegant staterooms, fine restaurants and entertainments galore.

Leaving Havana, it sets sail for the the resort of Maria La Gordam, which is set in the Peninsula de Guanahacabibes national park, which is renowned for abundant wildlife, both on sea and on land.

The historic, World Heritage-listed Cienfuegos, the Pearl of the South, is next, followed by one-night visit to stunning, colourful and vibrant Montego Bay in Jamaica.

Sailing back to Cuba, guests spend a day Santiago de Cuba, the heart of Cuban literature, music, architecture and politics, where Castro launched the revolution that overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista.

After a day at sea, it's back to Havana, where the cruise ends, and on to the perfectly preserved city of Trinidade for two nights, visiting the Che Guevara memorial along the way.

En route to a final night in capital, guests drop in at the evocative Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the Sugar Mills), Cuba was once the world's biggest exporter of a sugar, an industry built largely on the backs of forced labour.

Its slave quarters and manor houses, such as Manaca Iznaga, evoke the social disparities of the time.

Finally, on day 20, visitors say goodbye to Cuba, flying to Panama City on the way to Los Angeles, where the group will stay for the night at hip and happening Venice Beach, with its shops, restaurants and street performers, before jetting back to Australia.

Exploration of Cuba, New Orleans and Jamaica, March 13 - April 3, 2016.

Prices start at $10,190. For details, call Travelrite on 1800-630-343.