We booked our holiday with The Holiday Place which at the time was the best price out there, the flights and company were very good, quite a bit of leg room but eat before you get on the plane as the food is shocking I would not even feed it to my dog..

We stayed in Havana at the Parque Central for 3 nights which I would advise if you want to see the real Cuba. After looking around at the other hotels whilst in Havana this was with out a doubt the best choice. It was very clean, staff was very helpful and nice and the breakfast was very good with lots off choice. The pool was very good and the views of the city from the roof top were amazing. If you like adventure do not go on any of the paid trips use the holiday book to get some ideas and venture out its a lot cheaper and you can go at your own pace. The jazz club is Amazing 10 cuc for entry including 2 free drinks, just get in a cab and say jazz club about 2 cuc, best to go about 10 o’clock to get a seat it starts about 10.30 pm (the cabs with 5555 are the best and safest). Don’t get ripped of with the Floridita restaurant the food is very average and costs a fortune. The Tropicana night is also not worth the money and there is plenty more to do for a night out.

My sister and stayed in this hotel in late May. We spent 11 nights in La Habana in total, five at the Sol Melia and 6 nights at the Parque Central. As others have mentioned, most package holidays to Cuba only offer two or three nights in La Habana and the rest at Varadero. The latter is a very nice beach resort which I have visited for a day on a couple of occasions - but it could be anywhere. For my money, the real Cuba is La Habana and other less touristy towns - so, if you have the option, spend longer in the capital and less at the beach!

Anyway, the hotel. Firstly, I am very impressed that this hotel takes the time to respond individually and in detail to comments posted on this web site and Marjits is to be commended for doing so. Although I have visited Cuba many times on business, this was the first time I have stayed at the Parque and I was very favourably impressed. I assume we each had one of the refurbed rooms and both were of a very high standard, as was the cleaning and other services. What has to be borne in mind by visitors is that this is Cuba and certain services that we take for granted in the west, e.g. wi-fi and fast internet services and certain foods are simply not available there and it is unfair to blame any hotel for this. I have also read a couple of comments about the air conditioning - the reason that it can sometimes feel warm when returning to a room is that this is controlled via the card that it inserted to turn on the electricity in the room - so if it is really too warm for you, suggest that you ask for a second card and leave this in place when out of the room, so that the power and thus the air con remains on at all times.

I can also confirm that it is absolutely not the case that Cubans are banned from the public areas of hotels - I have several Cuban friends who visit me in this and other hotels and there is no problem with their gaining access. They are not allowed in rooms, but this is a government stipulation and again beyond the control of any hotel management. Slightly tongue in cheek, we did feel a bit 'under siege' by the roaming hotel band, who did seem to pop up within 5 minutes of taking a seat anywhere in the lobby to serenade us - even at 3 o'clock in the afternoon! That said, they were perfectly charming and a very talented troupe, but perhaps better suited to the evening ambience in the hotel?

Altogether, this hotel offers an excellent service and is perfectly situated for sightseeing in what is, for me, one of the world's great capital cities!

There is nothing to fault in this hotel. The service and staff are as you would expect in a 5 star hotel, happy to help with anything. It's the perfect place to come back to after a day seeing the city. The food is also of a high standard like everything else.

The best place, by far, to stay in Havana.

Me and my friens went to cuba for my 21st birthday and decided we wanted to stay in a luxury hotel. I can not fault the rooms they were brill we had a fab view overlooking Havana. My problems were that we arrive at around 12 dinnertime and were told on arrival that our room was not availble as the person who was in it had not checked out yet, we were told to wat a hour and come back, we decided that we would change our VISA travlers cheques and get some lunch, the lady at the hotel money changing facillities was very rude to my friend, then we were told we could not change them there, if we had know we had know this we would have brought cash. We changed £100 each as we had a small amount of cash with us. After we had finally got something to eat 1hour an half later i went to reception to finally check in were i was told my room was still not ready. when we finally got in our room and changed it was nearlly 3pm. We were only in Havana 3 days. Reception were very unhelpful throughout our stay and even accused us of taking towels!

This hotel is let down by small this, but it is clean and the rooms were very nice.

We also visited the med on the night, outstanding food!

Its is just a shame certain parts of this hotel let it down