We stayed here for two nights as part of our honeymoon and all we can say is it was pure heaven. The staff were fantastic, The breakfast was to die for and I would love to be back there right now this minute. The pool is absolutley fab and the rooms were so nice and pure luxury.

My wife and I stayed at the Parque Central in January with another couple. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay of 5 nights before moving on to Varadero. However our stay was soured at the point of leaving. We were so shocked and confused about our experience that we had no time to approach the hotel management. We gathered our thoughts over the following few days and, out of a sense of common decency to the hotel management, and future guests, we wrote a letter on our return home a copy of which follows. We have received no reply to that letter.


26th January 2006

Dear Sir or Madam,

Our stay with you January 12th – 17th 2006

We enjoyed our stay with you in room 318, check-in January 12th, check-out January 17th.

Your staff were mostly courteous, especially those in the Lobby Bar and we only had one complaint (reference the restaurant El Paseo) which was promptly dealt with by your Duty Manager.

However we sadly have to report to you an incident which must be of concern to you. We have travelled to many places and have a system of sharing our money between various containers to assist security. We placed cash, cameras and jewellery in our room safe (318) on the 12th and opened and closed the safe each day to remove and replace items but we decided to pay our tours and our hotel account by Mastercard so left our spare cash untouched in the safe. 15 minutes before leaving by taxi for Varadero on 17th January we emptied the safe and realised that some cash was missing. We were confused and shocked and were blaming each other when we departed your hotel and could not report the incident to you as we could not prove anything and there was so little time. In the following few hours we established in our own minds that 3 x 20 GB Pound notes had been removed from my wallet and 7 x 20 GB pound notes plus 1 x 10 Peso note had been removed from my wife’s wallet. Only part of the cash had been taken from each wallet therefore it was not easily noticed that some had been removed. The credit cards and jewellery remained untouched. On the 12th we had placed 5 x 10 Peso notes in my wife’s wallet in the safe for our airport departure tax. It was only when we reached the airport that we found we only had 4 x 10. We are careful with our possessions when travelling and always know how much cash we have.

We have no intention of making any claim against the hotel or our insurance company as we cannot prove anything but believe that we should inform you to allow you to monitor the situation.

Regards,


*******

We were disappointed with our Varadero resort and so deflated with our loss of cash at the Parque Central that I did not feel motivated to write a Tripadvisor review. It was only this evening that we noticed the comments of the Toronto guest.

Needs some action rather than words!

I adored this hotel. We had a simply excellent 3 night stay.

The room was both spacious and luxurious, with fabulous views over the park to the Capitol building. Open the curtains to the amazing sight of a bustling Havana, and the fun of spotting all the old American cars.

I have no need to qualify this review with a 'great for Cuba' atatement, as the standard of the hotel and service was as good as my recent stay in a 5 star in Dubai - and they know how to pamper you !!

I had no problems with the food - the buffet breakfast was well laid out, a good selection and great quality. I also ate at the rooftop pool - nice snack selection on offer and an abosultely fantastic setting.

Congratulations on all the staff for a lovely hotel and exceptional service. I went around other hotels in Havana, and this was by far the best.

I have over 14 years experience in top positions in resorts and hotels in 4 Countries. I have traveled and worked extensively throughout Latin America, stayed at many Leading Hotels of the World and have realistic expectations. I would stay at Parque Central again in a minute. In fact I will stay there again the first chance I get. Comfortable beds, good sound proofing, nice views, good a/c, nice dark curtains, good reading light, nice bathtub, nice in room ammenities. Good services, great staff, decent food, fast room service, reasonable telephone rates, clean, comfortable, pretty roof top pool. Best location - what more can you ask for!