My wife and I stayed at the Habana Libre for 3 nights. Like most hotels in Cuba it's a bit tired and dated, but it's only decor, there's much worse places you could be, like at the 'tuxpan' in Veraderoo!

Our room on the 5th floor was clean and comfortable, the only dodgy thing about it was the lining on the curtains were turning to dust as they were so old.

The bars in the lobby area are great, excellent mojita's, and all those historical photo's of when Fidel's revolutionaries took Havana are fascinating.

The restaurant is large and breakfast is superb (by Cuban standards anyway), the pool is great - you just need to leave a returnable deposit for the towels.

The area the hotel is in, is always very busy with locals day or night and seems to be quite a hive of activity, bars, the huge ice cream place, and govt shops are right next to the hotel. The only down side for culture vultures is that the old city is a fair way away.

All in all this is a fair hotel

If you like big, soulless hotels with no character then this is the place for you. And if you like spending lots of time waiting at the front desk/reception to be attended to then this hotel really is perfect. And running around in the shower in the morning trying to get wet will set you up just right for the day ahead.

On a more positive note, the view from the 21st floor was fantastic and the room very spacious.

However, being on the upper floors also gives you the opportunity to listen to the music from the night club on the 25th floor from the comfort of your own bed. Remember: the night club opens from 10:30pm through to 4:00am so you can lie there listening to all your favourite beats and tunes for hours on end and into the early hours of the morning.

We Stayed there from the 16 to 23th of december 2006. Overall, we have enjoyed our stay at habana libre.
It was my first time to a cuban hotel, normally we rent a room or we stay at cuban friend house….so going to a hotel for us was a change. Location A1in center of town, near everything. 4$ taxi to go to most touristic areas.

Room: Huge, clean, without any bugs, great view, old furniture, 20’ satellite tv, mini fridge, small but nice balcony, big bathroom toilet and bidet, hot water (sometimes too hot, you cannot control the heat of the water), air conditioning working well, great huge bay windows. We got problems with the keycards of the door and safe, there is always problems with those cards anyway…in any hotels…. We were at 15th floor and the disco is at the 25th and we were hearing some far away base sounds (not for anoying us though), but ask for floor far of the 25th if you have problems sleeping….

Hotel: Nice, clean, elevators really fast, restaurant and cafeteria REALLY but really expensive, bars totally expensive but good, the disco at the 25th is worth seeing, there is shows every nights. Expect 4 CUC or 5 can$ for a beer or 6 CUC or 7.50 can$ for a drink without tip……but the shows are free..at least. Pool nice (kinda cold) and clean. The only problem is that the pool’s long chairs haven’t matress, so they’re tough for your back.

Breakfast included with room: Good, lots of choice (with strange food too…even fish!). Lot’s of cakes, bread, juices,coffe damn good, eggs cooked by chef, etc…

There is a lot of small stores around and in the hotel, including a bank. The stores are cuban, so don’t expect a walt-mart but nevertheless if you have forgot something, you might find what you want. About the bank, go early in the morning because the line is really long as the day pass by. There is no or few bank machines in all havana so people go to bank to make the line. The day before leaving, we ran out of cash, it was a friday. I went to that bank to take money from my credit card. After making the line, they told me that the telephone line for the credit cards was not working that day, so I couldn’t have any money for the last day…..Be sure that you have enough money because this is cuba and those things happen.

Havana is a safe city, there is lot's of police. Even at 1 in the morning, we went to the malecon to drink a few beers and we felt secure, thing you won't do in some other northamerican city.

Stayed here for the week of New Year's and have to say that we enjoyed the entire hotel experience. Location is A+. The pharmacy is close by if you need products that you forgot to bring. Try not to forget your products as sometimes the pharmacy is out of certain things (ie- tampons according to a friend this past week.) CD store is great across the street. Decent food within steps in all directions. We only dined for breakfast in the hotel; but find the breakfast selection very acceptable. The rooms are really huge. I thought the shower was fine. The restroom was adequate. My only complaint was the bed pillow. We didn't get a firm pillow but being exhausted each night, it really wasn't an issue. Our view from the 24th floor overlooking the Malacon couldn't be beat. It was absolutely beautiful. I would definitely stay here again. Location, safety, cleanliness, etc. are why I like this hotel. I never saw one bug and didn't smell urine as posted by other recent travelers. We were a group of 24 and I heard no complaints.
Marla