Deauville

For Cuba, I'd put this among the country's top five hotels, based on the two I've stayed in. They tried their utmost: service was impeccable, food was scrounged together and served with pride, the rooms and sheets were clean, and the view was spectacular. There were comforters for cold nights, and the air conditioning worked. An American looking at hotels in Cuba has to use a different scale, since there's just so little to work with. By an objectively American standard, though, this place would barely get half a star. The building is falling apart. Concrete is missing from the stairwell on the 5th floor, bathroom fixtures come away in your hands, one of the two elevators broke down while we were there, and there was no hot water. Havana as a whole is objectively post-apocalyptic, and the hotel's neighborhood even more so. At least there were no cockroaches, though I suspect they'd all starved to death decades ago.

Room 1105 had a fantastic view, the air conditioning was strong, and the huge TV looked new. The rest of the furniture was sparse, though, and the curtains kept falling down and broke when I opened the balcony door. Internet cost $0.22 an hour, but worked reliably in my room and around the hotel. The staff were fairly relaxed about unregistered visitors using the pool. The pool was just okay. Cheap day passes brought in locals, loud music, and kids throughout the day. There wasn't much shade or anywhere to lounge, and the odd layout left half the pool very deep with a high edge, so everyone crowded into the other half. Reception and room service were pretty good, while the waitstaff seemed disinterested, which felt typical of hotels in Cuba. I liked the location: peaceful but still in a lively part of town, with a few of the city's better restaurants within walking distance. I was there on a $700 all-inclusive week in Havana. I'd come back and use the hotel as a base. I heard reports of bedbugs during my stay but didn't see any myself. Still, I'd inspect the room at check-in, as I would at any hotel.

The breakfast room was full of flies, and the rooms were in such bad shape that they felt unsafe. We couldn't close the window, had no hot water the whole time, and the generator wasn't working, so the power kept cutting out. Reception staff were astonishingly useless and unhelpful, spent much of their time looking at their phones, and were dishonest too. Dreadful!

The staff were friendly, and I felt safe here. I even sat outside on the sidewalk one evening until around 10 pm and had no trouble. There are some beautiful spaces in the hotel, and I enjoyed my stay with the group I was traveling with. Get a balcony room for a better experience. It was built as a casino, and by Cuban standards I'd call it a three-star hotel. You can find plenty to complain about, but it may not seem so bad if you don't expect Cuba to match more developed countries or higher-rated hotels. For a holiday, I'd probably choose one of the better, pricier hotels on the coast. When visiting Cuba, bring patience and a kind heart.