The Hotel is a grand building with a wonderful view and heaps of history, in my opinion the staff are not proud to work at this hotel, and offer little or no customer service, being rude and uncooperative. Having come from a wonderful hotel (Paridisus Rio de Oro), I was very dissappointed. Do not expect 5*, it is a 3* at best. Breakfast was a joke with little or no choice.

On a plus side do go and visit the hotel, and have a drink, as it has heaps of history and charm.

this hotel is above average for havana and is a good insight into how havana must have been in its hayday.
food is very mediocre but this is cuba!
stylish old hotel which boasts the who's who of former famous guests.
bit ragged round the edges now but this adds to much of its charm..good location with great sea views if your lucky enough to get a front room.
rooms were big and the bathrooms huge....generally clean with decent amenities.
staff could have been more attentive but this place is humid!!
i liked this hotel for its history and fading granduer.
good mojito's to be had here and the building still has some shell damage from their fracas with the usa.....at the front of the hotel they still have the original battlement defences that you can enter.
the nacional still stands proud and well worth a visit.

We just returned from a 15 day package (4 days Havana/11 days Varadero) in December, 2005.

The Hotel Nacional is a wonderful, historic hotel that everyone should stay in at least once. Our room was large and clean although the furniture was surprisingly plain.

While the chambermaids were quite nice, we found the front desk staff to be stand-offish and not terribly helpful.

The cafe is ok for burgers, the restaurant in the garden behind the hotel (La Baracca?)is great for traditional Cuban fair. The buffet restaurant was disappointing and over priced.

We would highly recommend the show at the Cabaret Parisienne at the hotel. It was fabulous and very reasonably priced ($50.00 CUC for the show and dinner).

We took a 1/2 day tour of Old Havana for $20.00 CUC and it was definitely worth it. Best mojitos in Cuba are at O'Reilly's pub. You absolutely have to visit Old Havana to get the flavour of the country. Old Havana alone was worth the price of the vacation for us!

We also took a taxi ($7.00 CUC) to Colon Cemetery and spent a couple of hours there. It was so beautiful. They offer tours by donation.

FOR THE BEST PRICE AND SELECTION, BUY YOUR CIGARS AND ALCOHOL IN HAVANA! For example, Monte Cristo petitos tubos cigars are about $26.00 USD each in Vancouver, $5.00 USD in Havana and $9.00 USD in Varadero. Booze is a couple of CUC cheaper in Havana than Varadero. Also, the best selection of handicrafts and paintings is in Havana.

If you want nostalgic atmosphere this is the place to stay at, but don't expect the luxury of a 5 star hotel - this is a government-run hotel and after all you know in which country you are ! Don't ask for any special treatment or service : that simply does not exist here, room-service takes 2 hours, the telephone operator will never answer, voice-message inexisting and written messages will get to you the next day, the receptionists or concierges NEVER even give you a smile and are particularly unfriendly (I confirm some critics I read before)which is so surprising in Cuba, the numerous waiters in the breakfast-buffet room look bored and only collect the empty dishes...the only ones who ALWAYS greet you are the maids because they are the ones who get big tips; but once again: it's the mythic NACIONAL. I stayed 6 nights during the Film Festival, and it was quite extraordinary. Food, room, pool: OK