My wife and I toured around the west and centre of Cuba in March/April as part of a self-drive holiday with accommodation on a B&B basis and car hire booked in advance through Voyager Cuba (UK) ([-]) and Captivating Cuba (Cuba) ([-]). Both are highly recommended.
Our flight was with Cubana Airlines from London Gatwick (a low budget airline with no in-flight entertainment). If you do fly with Cubana then we would recommend an upgrade to premier class (better food and spacious comfy seats for the nine hour flight).
Please see our other reviews for Carrusel La Granjita (near Santa Clara), Iberostar Hotel Grand (Trinidad), La Union Hotel (Cienfuegos), Villa Soroa (near Soroa).
We arrived here at 4am (after an eight hour delay at London Gatwick) and stayed for three nights.
Even in the early hours of the morning there were plenty of staff on duty (English spoken by reception staff).
The whole place had a very welcoming, friendly feel about it, in a great position in central Habana.
You can spend a good few hours wandering round the lobby areas just looking at the photographs of the famous and infamous people who stayed here in pre-revolution days and soaking up the history of the place.
There's an arcade of tourist shops and a tourist office to book guided tours of the city.
This is well worth it as an introduction to Habana.
We had a very personal service, a great guide and tour.
There is plenty of security at the hotel entrance and the immediate area just outside the hotel was quiet and felt very safe, with none of the main street hustle and bustle (and hassle) you get at some other Habana hotels fronting onto main thoroughfares.
We had a spacious and quiet room on the upper floor at the front of hotel with fantastic views across the city .
The room decor and fittings were quite worn and jaded but there was a big comfy bed.
As with many hotels in Cuba you need to bring your own universal bath plug if you want to use the bath rather than the shower.
The temperature of hot water seemed to fluctuate with peak demand (so get up early to beat the rush).
The air conditioning was through an integrated vent in the wall and was quite noisy.
It was fine for our time of visit in the spring but I reckon it would not be able to cope in the very hot summer period.
The breakfast area downstairs got quite hot and stuffy and very busy.
There was a good choice of reheated tourist quality buffet food to choose from - but also freshly cooked omelettes.
We discovered breakfast was also served in the rooftop restaurant for a 5 CUC supplement - the same reheated tourist quality buffet food but worth it for the views and peace and quiet.
There's a lovely open courtyard cafe bar for freshly made snacks and good cuban coffee with a regular rotation of different musicians and a swimming pool - though we didn't try this out.
Visit the roof top restaurant in the evening for the views not the food!!!
The menu looked promising but the food choice was surprisingly limited for an upmarket Habana hotel restaurant (reheated pork/chicken and rice and beans) and we ate there only on the first night.
With so many great places to eat in Habana (especially the paladares rather than restaurants), we wouldn't recommend eating there more than once but the views overlooking the city and harbour and palatial splendour are amazing and the pianist was fantastic!


(17 votes) 
(17 votes)


