My husband and I stayed at the saratoga for 3 nights in April.
This is a beautiful hotel. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful.
We had a bed and breakfast board, and ate our evening meals at the hotel. Again only top marks for this.
Would highly recommend this hotel

Havana is definitely a one of a kind place! It has culture, unbelievable architecture, friendly residents, 1950's cars and best of all, the legendary Mojito!
The weather can be unpredictable but what do you expect in the Caribbean!

Havana is the best of both worlds as it has the coast and it has the vibrant, busy city. There are lots of places to visit and including the Capital Building, Tobacco factory and you can look round and watch the locals make some of the world's best cigars and not forgetting the hustle and bustle Old Havana market where you can buy original art work, amazing leather handbags and all the souvenirs you can shake a stick at! All of these places are just 3 minute stroll (10 minutes for the market) from the Hotel Saratoga, which is based in Old Havana.

The hotel is a baby, just a year old but it’s a magnificent building and the interior is out of this world! I was lucky enough to stay in a suite and it was just incredible, with views of the capital building, and most of old Havana matter it was just breathtakingly beautiful.

On my birthday I had recieved cards and presents and left the out on the table, after arriving back at the hotel I realised the maids had made me a birthday cake, this was a great touch and a very thoughtful gesture this made my birthday even more specail.

After a hard day of sight seeing you can just go to the top floor of the hotel and sit in the sun with any drink of your choice and enjoy the roof top pool, and the views from there are seriously, out of this world! I would recommend this city and the hotel to anyone, there is definitely something for everybody!

Having read the many positive reviews of this hotel both on Tripadvisor, the broadsheets and the BBC holiday programme, we decided to end our driving tour of Cuba with a little bit of luxury - the 5* Saratoga. We had stayed in Havana Old Town for 5 days at the beginning of the trip so had a very good feel for what Havana is about and were well aware that the star-rating system of hotels is not quite the same as England's.

However, notwithstanding these points, we were very disappointed with the hotel from many aspects. The rooms are lovely but as others have already mentioned we had one of the rooms that overlooked the main road and it was very noisy. Although the decor of the room is lovely our toilet didn't flush, the toilet seat was broken and the shower literally had a dribble of water - so bad that you couldn't use it, fortunately there was a bath. As we were only staying for our last night it was too late for us to complain and we couldn't be bothered to move rooms (should this have been offered).

We also ate in the restaurant as it was too late to go to one of the many good restaurants/paladores outside of the hotel. And again we were disappointed. Throughout our trip we accepted that meat dishes weren't as you would expect at home but when we saw fillet steak on the menu for £20 (very expensive in comparison to everywhere else we had eaten) we couldn't resist. We wish we had. We were given a dreadful piece of sirloin steak that was tough, grissly and not cooked how we'd asked. When we complained and when the fairly full plate was taken away - nothing was done by the staff (no replacement or refund).

We also complained to the reception desk about all of the above and was simply told 'ok'.

We think this hotel is overrated especially when there are cheaper and more beautiful hotels/casas elsewhere in the city. We recommend Hotel Raquel in the heart of the Old Town.

If you want to experience real Havana/Cuba then we advise against this hotel - whilst we were there most people seemed to spend all day sitting by the pool rather than exploring the wonderful city.

we spent 7days in havajna and the vinales valley hotel la ermita.
The people we met in the streets and the hotels were invariably helpfull informative and knowledgeable about their part of the world.Apart from one incident while hanging about in havanna we saw no sign of any inappropriate attitudes towards tourists by the native cuban people.
We would recommend the coach tour of havanna organised by mario of "captivating cuba"ltd. We were able to see a great number of places in the 5 hour tour which could have taken several days independently.
we would also recommend the ecotours of the viales valley in pinot del rio which gives a real insight into the lives and landscapes of rural cuba and its people.
the saratoga hotel has brilliant views over the city from its roof garden and is a must for those who want a central location for access to all the intersting parts of old havanna.
the roof top pool and terrace were a splendid oasis after a mornings exploration of the city.
by and large the staff were friendly and helpfull,we would certainly consider going back.