Top 5 Hotels In Havana, Cuba

Havana, Cuba offers many great, luxurious Cuban hotels - here are just a few that come highly recommended:

1 - The Hotel Saratoga

The Hotel Saratoga in picturesque Old Havana. Overlooking the intersection at Paseo del Prado and Dragones Street, it faces the Capitolio building with an astonishing view of the world renowned Partagas Cigar Factory and the Gran Teatro de La Habana. Each room is equipped with a minibar, security box, private bathroom, telephone, and satellite television. While perhaps standard in American hotels, these are rare conveniences in Cuba. The hotel itself provides a laundry service, car rentals, cyber cafe, room service, a swimming pool, a bar, and an in-house babysitter. The Saratoga has recently been refurbished in the neo-classical style, with a mezzanine bar and a spectacular rooftop pool that allows views of the old town and port.

2 - Melia Habana Hotel

Business visitors will enjoy accommodations at the Melia Habana hotel in the heart of Miramar, the center of Havana's business trade. In-house food facilities are extensive, offering a Miramar restaurant buffet, as well as a la carte restaurants featuring Cuban, Italian, and Barbeque cuisine. Hotel features include a fitness room, tennis court, beauty salon, medical services, events hall, sauna, swimming pool and internet access.

3 - Parque Central

Hailed as the most luxurious international hotel in the city, Parque Central offers modern facilities in the heart of historic Old Havana. The terrace holds a tropical bar with a swimming pool.

4 - Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Hotel Nacional de Cuba is situated atop a prominent promontory overlooking the pristine coastline. Amenities include restaurants, convention halls, car rentals, currency exchanges, fitness rooms, massages, laundry services, medical services, a pool, a cigar shop, and virtually every convenience a visitor could ask for.

5 - Santa Isabel

Santa Isabel holds its traditional, historic charm and features, despite being recently renovated and reopened in the 1990s. Features include an in-house babysitter, cyber café, bar, car rental, restaurant and art gallery.

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My trip to Varadero, Cuba

We just got back from a week-long trip to Varadero, Cuba with Signature Vacations.

We flew from Vancouver to Varadero on Skyservice Airlines and we were booked into Star Class both ways. My overall experience traveling in Star Class was that I found it well worth the upgrade charge to take Star Class. This is still 3 and 3 seating, so it's not a wider seat, but the leg room is much more than the regular seating. Also, there are so many extras that come along when booking Star Class - advance seat selection, priority check in and priority luggage, 30KG luggage allowance, headsets and bar service on board complimentary. The meal service was the same for all of the passengers, and our morning flight was served a Western baked egg omelet with cheddar cheese on an English muffin, orange juice and Yoplait yogurt. It made for a comfortable journey traveling in Star Class. We did have the luggage come off first both in Cuba and back in Vancouver, so the priority luggage tags that are put in when checking in do work and bags came out on the carousel first!

My last trip to Cuba was about 5 years ago and I did notice a few things that have improved/changed, and that is the quality of food and variety certainly is better to what was available on the previous trip. Cuba is rich in culture and I found the people very friendly. A trip to Havana even just for the day is a must. To see Old Havana is quite incredible and very interesting rich in history of the country. Currency is the CUC (Convertible Cuban Peso) which is on par or higher than the US dollar so this does make Cuba a bit more expensive for Canadians when there, however there is not a lot of shopping to be had so one will not spend a lot of money. Of course Rum and Cigars are good deals and if you make the trip into Havana check out the Rum factory you will get some great rates on Rum and cigars. Hotels will exchange Canadian Money to the CUC but be sure to only change small amounts as you need it, for you will lose again when you have to convert it back to Canadian money. You cannot convert CUC outside of Cuba so you must do this before you leave the country. The airport does have a currency exchange however if you had an early flight it would not be open.

Tipping is quite the norm now and one will find they will tip small amounts even in the all inclusive resorts. We did find service a bit better if we had tipped and I still brought some small gifts for the maids and I left a small amount of money at the end for the maid. They really appreciate this and I had the maid leave me a nice note to thank me for the gifts. Any excursions taken you should expect to take some money to tip the tour guides etc at the end of the trip. Guideline would be the same as tipping in Canada for tour guides etc. They really do just appreciate any amount and they are very friendly and helpful one does not mind tipping for the great customer service.

Here is some information about the hotel where we stayed in Varadero:
Hotel Sirenis La Salina Varadero

Large hotel - 1035 rooms

New hotel and largest in Varadero - Opened in 2007

This hotel is built in a Ecological park so a lot of the area respected and protected when built

There is a relaxation pool as well as the main activity pool

7 a la carte restaurants

10 handicapped rooms located on the main floor nearest the lobby area

Centre Square, as it is called in the resort, is where the theater area is located at this resort

Piano bar- which turns into the disco later in the night

Waterslides off the main pool area with swim up bar in the main pool area

Mini club with 2 kids pools

Baby club – 0-4 years – mini club for 5-12 years

Standard rooms with either 1 king or 2 double beds

charge for safe of 2 CUC per day