The most upscale (if you can use that term) of the five hotels at Playa Santa Lucía, this all-inclusive resort was last upgraded in 2000 and despite its slightly jaded infrastructure will satisfy most guests, as long as you know what you´re getting. Let´s start with location on a lovely white-sand beach, with even more inviting Playa Los Cocos a 20-minute horse-carriage ride away.

Erected in 1907 to serve the railway station across the street, this hotel is perfect for travelers with early morning train departures or late night arrivals. And it´s just a 20-minute walk down Avenida República to reach the core of the colonial city. It´s the oldest of Camagüey´s hotels and retains its original architecture while benefitting from at least two recent refits by the Islazul hotel chain.

Isazlul continues to impress us with its thoughtful upgrades of formerly dour properties. Such is the case for this large-scale hotel on the main highway about four kilometers east of town. It recently remerged as a tourist hotel after serving for several years as a medical facility for Latin American indigents. The four-story, pre-fabricated concrete building rolled off the Soviet assembly line in the 1970s and is no Cinderella.

A tiny boutique gem, this hotel close to the colonial center stands out as one of Cuba´s finest provincial hotels thanks to a recent and thoughtful restoration and sound management. The building first opened as a hotel in 1927 and is today part of the Islazul chain, serving both Cubans and tourists. A key element here is the gracious lobby, with its gleaming mahogany fixtures, colorful colonial-style tilework, and handsome marble staircase.

Considered Camagüey´s premium hotel, this colonial-style option enjoys a steps-to-everywhere location on a pedestrian precinct in the heart of the historic district. Despite its 19th-century styling, it actually dates back only to 1939. We much prefer the more intimate charm of the Hotel Islazul Colón, but this is a generally satisfying alternative with a slightly preferential location.

For the area this is something of a monstrous hotel with 480 rooms set across 11 acres. Stylistically promotional material talks of Andalusian architectural style with element of colonial construction from the Camag?ey region, brought together in the peace and tranquillity of Santa Lucía.

This is a sister all-inclusive hotel to the adjoining Club Amigo Mayanabo, with little to choose between them. Here, however, the accommodations—built in the 1970s and still infused with an outdated ´70s feel—are in two-story fourplex units rather in the large lateral blocks of the Mayanabo. It, too, benefitted from a refurbishment in 2003... but this hotel quiet clearly is ready for another facelift.

Billed as a three-star all-inclusive of the Cubanacán chain, Club Amigo Mayanabo lines a gorgeous white-sand beach shelving into waters acclaimed for sensational scuba diving (however, rocks and sea grasses effectively put the waters off-limits for snorkeling and swimming). Offering no frills, it draws mainly from a budget-minded Canadian and European market arriving almost exclusively on package vacations.

Adjoining the Museo Ignacio Agramonte at the north end of the city´s historic downtown, this part Modernist, part Art Deco hotel was built in 1943 and has many touches typical of that era, such as a mirror-walled lobby. Although narrow, the lobby is blessed with a surfeit of comfy deep-cushion sofas and chairs—a rare (for Cuba) and welcome relief for groups that may have to endure long check-in procedures.

Yet another of the ungainly Bauhaus-style Soviet-built prefabricated hotels that dot Cuba, this two-story complex in the town of Florida, 39 kilometers west of Camagüey, is one of very few options for accommodation while traveling the Carretera Central in Central Cuba. Beggars can´t be choosers. At last visit, this hotel was run-down and awaiting a rejuvenation by Islazul, which took over from Horizontes in 2006. It primarily serves Cubans.