Up till recently, discerning visitors have bemoaned the lack of a really luxurious hotel in Havana. The Saratoga, which opened in November 2005, has rectified the situation. Standing on the western edge of the Historical Centre of the city, its elegant façade overlooks the other nineteenth—century architectural glories of the Prado and Parque Central.

This could well be Cuba´s finest provincial hotel. Offering a much-needed deluxe option for visitors to this most popular of Cuban colonial cities, the Iberostar opened in 2006 and has justifiably earned plaudits as a true five-star hotel. The hotel is a conversion of an unassuming, two-story, mint-green 19th-century mansion on the north side of Parque Céspedes. Beyond the front doors, however, and…

The Santa Isabel is the grandest of Old Havana´s hotels, and its location is perfect: it stands on the eastern side of the Plaza de Armas, Havana´s earliest and most beautiful colonial square. The building is an eighteenth century mansion which was constructed for the Countess of San Juan de Jaruco but was later bought by the Count of Santovenia. It was converted to a hotel in the late nineteenth century.

Hotel Victoria offers comfortable boutique-style hotel lodging in Havana´s Vedado district. The hotel is very close to the Hotel Nacional, Malecón and El Gato Tuerto filin club.
The pool is small and you are probably better off walking down the road to the Nacional if you fancy a few hours working on a tan. Service is good although can be a little over-attentive for some people.

A delightfully small and intimate establishment in what was once the mansion of Claudio Martínez de Pinillos, Count of Villanueva, the leader of Cuban Creole society in the nineteenth century. A great favorite with cigar aficionados and useful for private weekend parties. One of Old Havana´s best cigar shops, with private humidors to rent, is tucked away in the old slave quarters on its mezzanine floor.

The Florida opened in 1885 and swiftly became renowned as one of the city´s better hotels. It was restored to its original 19th-century charm in 1999 and has a lot of style. The Hotel stands on Calle Obispo, Old Havana´s liveliest street, currently being restored by the Office of the City Historian of Havana as the district´s principal shopping area.

The Raquel opened in June 2003 following extensive renovation work in the heart of Old Havana. Located in a wonderfully idiosyncratic building with a neo—Churrigueresque façade and tendrils of Art Nouveau wrought iron decoration, the Hotel Raquel contains further delightful design eccentricities including a vast stained glass canopy roof and a watchtower from which one can look out over the streets and squares of Old Havana.

The San Miguel is named after Antonio San Miguel y Segalá, an important member of Havana society who acquired it in 1913.
Its interiors combine grandeur with intimacy, sometimes to slightly eccentric effect, as in the sweeping marble stair which seems to have ideas above its station, shoehorned as it is into a rather small hallway.

Much is made of Ernest Hemingway´s predilection for staying at the Hotel Ambos Mundos. He wrote the first few chapters of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” in room 551, which is now maintained as something of a shrine. Given the constant stream of tourists this is difficult to get away from and may become somewhat grating.

The Hotel Armadores de Santander (which means “Shipowners of Santander”) overlooks the port of Havana. The building´s façade, with its stone reliefs of the coat of arms of Santander surrounded by maritime motifs, is wonderfully evocative of the city´s seagoing past.While the overall building is quite impressive the ambience can be a little cold and impersonal especially compared to some of Old Havana´s smaller Habaguanex places.