My husband and I have just returned from a two week holiday in Cuba, with our five year old son. We split our holiday into four nights Havanna/ 10 nights Varadero. Staying in Havanna is a MUST for anyone visiting Cuba- a day trip will not give you the true Havanna. What an experience- nothing can prepare you for this truely amazing city- one of the most fascinating in the world. We have arrived home with so many special memories.
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The Parque Central is a first rate hotel-beautiful roof top pool which was an excellent facility for our son after tiring day in Havanna and an atmospheric lobby bar that served excellent mojitos and coffee. The rooms were well equipped, spacious and very clean. Staff were all helpful and friendly. The breakfast, which has been mentioned many times, was also excellent! I would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone.
However, staying in such luxury would give anyone with a conscience a guilt trip. Havanna is a city of contrasts- we saw alot of very poor but warm and friendly people. Living conditions in general were shocking and everytime you left the hotel you were quickly reminded of the stark contrasts between people's lives.
Alot of people we spoke to in Varadero said they wouldn't take their children to Havanna because it would be boring to them - we couldn't disagree more. Our son learnt so much and experienced so many unique things- playing instruments with a Cuban band, being serenaded in La Floridta, queuing for ice cream at the Coppelia ice cream parlour, playing with local children on Saturday evening on the Prado watching acrobats in The Place D'armes, buying toys at the craft market...
Havanna was very hot and humid and we had to pace ourselves. Some favourite things we did were- the museum of the revolution, sipping coffee on the beautiful terrace of the Nacional Hotel, people watching in many of the shaded parks, exploring Old Havanna, walking around La Rampa area, shelterig from a tropical storm in Th Ambos Mundos Hotel (visit Hemmingway's museum). Enjoy!

My husband and I have just returned from this lovely hotel. It is centrally located with very pleasant and helpful staff.
As other reviewers have written, the breakfast served in the hotel is great and offers a good variety, my tip for you , try and get to breakfast for 8.30 (ish) as by 9 am the breakfast room gets pretty busy, make sure you drink a glass of champagne that they serve for breakfast !!

The rooms were large and clean, bathrooms had shower cubicle and bath tub, which was a nice luxury, also a hairdryer. We were up on the 7th floor, and the view was not so great as we were on the side of the hotel that overlooked a buliding site, so ask for a room on the front of the hotel if possible.

They serve a good Mojito in the bar, and overall we were very pleased with this hotel, nice little touches like a chocolate left on your pillow each day. The hotel was air conditioned which was an absolute must, as the temperatures were in the high 90's with 90% humidity, so it was a haven to get away from the heat.

We had a fabulous New Year's holiday in Havana in 2004 and were considering returning later this year. However, after reading the reviews of this hotel in August 2006 we have defintely changed our travel plans for one reason only. When we were there, on the 1st day, a large amount of our cash disappeared. From memory we think it was about £100 which was in a wallet containing £1000. We had taken lots of cash as we really did not know what to expect regarding the use of cards. We did not tell anybody because we never imagined that it could have been stolen from the room safe. Until now, my husband ( who was in charge of the cash!) beleived he had miscounted the notes we had brought from the UK. Rather than spoil our holiday I agreed with him but knew perfectly well that I had put £1000 in the wallet the previous day. We also put numerous items of high value jewellery, phones, cameras and documents in the safe and none of those items were missing. Given the reports from others, surely the management must see that there is an issue than must be addressed if the otherwise very good reputation of this hotel is to be saved.

We booked a split holiday (3 nights Havana, 11 nights Varadero at the fabulous Princesa del Mar) through Signature Holidays. When we got to our hotel in Havan, our reservation had been cancelled by Signature (we did not receive an explanation for this). Thankfully the hotel honoured our voucher and put us in a hotel room.

The room smelled a bit damp, from the humidity, clearly, and it was average. We had to be transferred to another room the following day because the key lock battery died and locked us out of our room and they could not fix it. It was a hassle to wait around while they fixed it, to ensure our room was safe.

They have a nice pool on the rooftop, which has a great view west of the Capitolito, and of new Havana to the north. The hotel itself is quite central to some neat places to visit - the Capitol, the Museum of the Revolution, Art galleries, the Flordita (mmmm Daquiri birthplace) and the Bodeguita del Medio (mmmm birthplace of the Mojito!).

The hotel restaurant was really good - the coffee at this hotel was stunning - I still dream about it. The wait staff was fabulous. The concierge was very helpful when I was upset - our Signature rep had not contacted us at all, and we were scheduled to leave for Varadero the next day. The concierge called our rep and the rep arrived shortly thereafter and gave us the details about our transfer. The rep did provide us compensation in the form of a free tour around the city but I would not recommend Signature Vacations as this was only one of several problems we had with them.

The hotel is nice, but I'd probably stay somewhere else if I go back to Havana.