This Hotel used to be the Hilton, opened by Paris's grand father in 1958. Castro drank here, Delores Del Rio stayed here as did Carmen Miranda. The wonderful aspect of this property is that it by-passed the refurb phases of the 70's & 80's and now has stepped graciously out in the 21st century wonderfully original & architecturally fascinating.
The rooms & bathrooms are huge, if not dated (but we know that), all room also have a balcony that overlooks the city or the bay. It is also almost the highest building in Havana.
Food is mediocre, hey it's Cuba & the food is terrible anyway, and the Receptionists are all cheeky, surly, moody women.
Anyway this Hotel is a sheer delight, so, go and enjoy, step back to1959 and buy a cigar!

We have just returned from a fantastic honeymoon in Cuba. Whilst in Cuba, we decided to go on the Havana overnight trip. This was an excursion booked through our tour operator First Choice. We ended up staying at this "5*" hotel.

Where do we begin? This hotel was not our option, it was allocated on arrival. When we were driving around to it, it was apparent from the appearance outside that this hotel was in need of work as you could see the rust on the fire escape and balconies! Before entering the room the carpet outside was covered in a white powder obviously to kills bugs! There were also big black marks where things have been spilled over the years.

The hotel room we stayed in was 1211 This was in an awful state when we arrived there. To begin with the room was generally unclean, with a brown stain on the wall. We had dirty bed linen, with the cover looking more like a colouring book as someone had coloured in the pattern with biro pen! There were brown stains on the towels, and the fridge had 2 mouldy glasses, that had obviously been there for sometime. The glasses that we had been provided with, claimed they had been sterelised and were wrapped in cellophane. Once opened they were full of what looked like toothpaste. The mattress on the second bed was completely broken and dipped down so we was unable to use this bed.

The batrhroom was in a terrible state. The first thing that hit you was the strong smell of damp and mould. This was becaise it was everywhere! In fact when I took a shower, I wasn't just showered with water but by bits of flaked damp that fell from the shower rail. This leads me on to my next point, the taps and shower head were covered in limescale. The shampoo holder was that rustry it looked like it might disintigrate if anything was put on it, the tiles were cracked and the foot bath was loose on the wall.

In the main room the skirting board was coming away from the wall and the floor tiles near the window were loose and moved as you walked over them, as well on the floor there were sticky labels stuck to floor where people have removed barcodes and price labels off things. The last thing in the room was the curtains they were too were dirty and the nets were all ripped.

Moving out of the room the lifts take a long time to come even though there are 6 to a floor and there are no stairs you can take as an option so you are stuck there until they eventually arrive. Once inside the lift the mirrors are cracked and look very unwelcoming.

During our stay we were unfortunately subjected to the use of the hotels buffet restaurant. This too was unclean, with table clothes and napkins not being changed. We know this as we sat at the same table for tea and breakfast! The food is not kept properly as salads and seafood are left to get warm as no chilling aid was provided. To make sure we didn't get ill or anything, we only had pasta and bread!! At breakfast, we noticed that behind the toaster on the floor was food that had been dropped days earlier and a thick layer of black dirt covered the floor at the back.

The staff didn't seem to care or bother with anything and just stood around. Also the maid just let herself into our room at 8.00am without knocking.

Overall this hotel is dirty and is in desperate need of a refurbishment, this was done 10 yeras ago, as someone we met on the trip did stay there when the hotel was 5* However since then, this hotel has been left to get into the state it is in now.

We would not recommend this hotel for twin centres or overnight trips.However, overall our trip to Havana was fantastic.We would definately reccommend going to Havana if you ever go to Cuba. Our tour guide was excellent, extremely knowledgeable and the visit to the Club Tropicana is a must, and an amazing experinece. We loved Havana, but NOT this hotel!!!

I don’t think you travel to Havana for luxury so the faults of the hotel kind of added to the whole fun of the experience. I don’t normally approach hotels like this but I guess it was all quite humorous and what you come to expect everywhere in Cuba, which really is poor and underprivileged.

The hotel rooms are large, but mine was past its best. Old furniture, there were woodlice all over the place, the television didn’t work, the bed linen and towels smelt musty, there were, the side-board was broken, there was dirt on the floor. But the bed was comfy and the shower water hot. The views over Havana from the 15th floor were also spectacular. The lifts were great; you could spend 20 minutes in the morning just waiting for one.

The hotel lobby must have been impressive in its day and is like I have seen in a lot of hotels. The bars were fine, the staff here I found good especially Maria who seemed to take it upon herself to continually offer us more drinks and make us have a good time. The rest of the staff were rather unfriendly but did what they needed to.

Food, well breakfast is large with a lot of choice. I thought the breakfast was quite nice. The dinning room isn’t great but sufficed for 30 minutes a day. I ate at the Italian restaurant once; my pasta was overcooked and cold. At the Polynesian restaurant I asked for Fajitas, which missed one key ingredient, the tortillas. Don’t miss the entertainment on the 25th floor though; it is pretty cool for a fun evening of music and dance. Be there by12 a.m. and you’ll have a big surprise.

The pool was again nice to cool down in. Okay, the surroundings aren’t great but if you’re going to Havana to sit by a pool then you are in the wrong place.

Overall, don’t come here expecting too much. Yes, there probably are better hotels, and it doesn’t meet western standards, but when the living standard of most Cubans is poor and people’s access to goods and services so limited, I don’t think you can expect luxury. Maybe I should be more critical, Sol Melia is an international chain, but ultimately you are travelling to Havana, which is fantastic, and the hotel cannot detract from this.

If for whatever reason you do find yourself staying in the Tryp Havana Libre, it is best NOT to visit the Hotel Nacional, just a couple of blocks away; you will find yourself disgruntled and spend the rest of your stay wondering why on earth you've been plonked in the Havana Libre and not the Nacional. From the mostly grumpy staff to the shadeless and unwelcoming swimming pool, via the dodgy food, it's hard to find a good reason to stay in this hotel, other than Havana itsef is so worth a visit that untimately it doesn't really matter where you sleep. On the plus side,- the rooms were large and clean and the beds comfy, the fridge was cold and the aircon worked. The views were great from the fifteenth floor and if you like that sort of thing then the lifts were the only ones I've known to leave your stomach behind and make your ears pop. But there is no doubt that there are far nicer hotels in Havana for the same price and next time we'd stay in one of them instead. One of our party came down with a stomach bug and whilst it would be hard to prove that he picked it up at the Havana Libre, the fact that on one occasion the breakfast milk was (very) sour and that for every good pat of butter you have to discard a rancid one...causes us to have our suspicions, namely the whitebait at breakfast which he alone ate (thank goodness said the rest of us). Still as I've said Havana is so interesting that anywhere is better than nowhere and the Havana Libre was just about OK for the four nights we stayed there.