The hotel has lots of interesting history, but I would recommend visiting during the day, rather than staying. My room smelt of cat pee
and was very tired, decor wise. It was massively over priced for the standard of accommodation.

The coffee at breakfast was disgusting and whilst there was plenty of quantity on the food side, the quality wasn't high. It was like eating
at a very busy motorway service station.

The bar is potentially nice, but during the day has constant traffic from the coach parties trampling through looking at the photos of former guests.

Added to this, location wise, the hotel is rather out on a limb. Much
better to stay in Havana Vieja and just come here for a visit.

We stayed at this hotel as part of a 2 centre holiday. Our last 2 days were in Havana just prior to Christmas. The hotel staff were rude and the majority of them did not speak English. The room was small, dirty and could have done with modernising several years ago. Breakfast was like going to the local zoo - The tables were all dirty with no staff there to clear them. There were far too many people for the number of tables and the size of the buffet. This was a 3 star hotel at best - the only reason for staying or visiting this hotel is because fo the history. If you want a proper hotel go to the Parque Cental in the old town. The Nacional was out of the way and near very few shops and restaurants. The majority of guests were european but very few english speaking. The Concierge were useless and extremely rude to my partner to the extent that the mager had to come over and we left to go and have dinner is a proper 5* hotel where they treat their guests with some respect. We would not go back to this hotel even if it was FREE! What a shame to end our holiday in such a dump.

Our first night in La Habana was at this Grand Dame. Our room was huge and it had a great ocean view. The bath was large and fully equipped. Breakfast included in our Eur 100 per night was plenty of choices, served next to the pool , buffet style. The outdoor bar is the perfect place to start the night with a drink, enjoying the cuban music and the awsome ocean view. DO NOT MISS THE SHOW! Le Parisienne, the cabaret-show located in the hotel, has the best show in Havanna. For Eur 58 each we had dinner, 2 drinks, full dinner and a fantastic show -better than Tropicana. We danced with other guests after show, enjoying the singer-comediant that performs right after.
A little troublesome to check-in due to understaffed, be sure to confirm by phone the day before your stay. Besides that, all the the staff was very attentive and friendly. I will stay there again.

Four of us arrived at the Nacional on Dec.22 for four nights as part of a split package.Our room was huge but my brother-in -law and his wife had a small room, so if you stay there, ask for a room with a number ending in 25. This gives you a ocean/Malecon view to boot. Their room was 465 and the bath had a huge crack in it.

The hotel and grounds are very elegant and are steeped in history. Do take the hotel tour and don't forget to relax on the terraces in the evening supping on a few Mojitos.

We found a great little restaurant right across the street from the hotel entrance called Monseignors, Prices range from CUC 4(approx $C4) for a chicken breast dinner thru CUC6 for a whole roast chicken to CUC18 for an awesome Lobster Thermidor. The restaurant has a resident pianist who will play almost anything. I have never heard a better version of Gershwin's Summertime.He could sure play the Blues.

Two blocks east of the restaurant is a little open air bar called Sofia's. Here also the staff are really friendly and so is the resident band.In both places some English is spoken.

There is lots to see and do in that area and to get a good insight of Havana and indeed, all of Cuba and its people, get the book Moon's Cuba.

If you want to go to the old town (Vieja Havana) a taxi is cheap but the best way to see it is to jump on a horse and carriage.

Another place to go is the north side of the river. To get ther you will need to go by taxi (CUC 5). There you will find the huge statue of Jesus of Havana (carved out of marble, the sculpturor is a woman),Castle Morro (the lighthouse castle)and also the Castle of Three Kings in which you will see many interesting things including Che's HQ after the revolution.

My final tip is: the normal Cuban Peso, at this time is 25 to the $Can,but you will never see them.Tourists get the CUC , so you are basically paying 25 times the price that Cubans pay. But everything is really cheap. Mind you, the average pay of the better off hotel staff in Varadero only get CUC1 per day .If you give tips, don't give canadian coins, Cubans can't change them.

All-in-all, Havana and its people are great and we will be going back again because there is so much to see and do.