Valencia Havana

Wir waren zweimal im Hostal Valencia, einmal bei unserer Ankunft auf Kuba und dann bei unserer Abreise ein paar Wochen später. Wir hatten jedes Mal andere Zimmer, doch beide Male waren die Zimmer riesig, sehr sauber und sehr komfortabel. Das Hotel ist in bester Lage, direkt in Habana Vieja, eine tolle Gegend, wo man gut übernachten kann, und in der Nähe von Restaurants und Bars. Das Personal war unglaublich freundlich und hilfsbereit (was wir auf Kuba sehr ungewöhnlich fanden); der Nachtportier lief sogar für ca. eine Stunde vor Sonnenaufgang mit uns durch die leeren Straßen von Havanna, um uns ein Taxi zum Flughafen zu finden, da es per Telefon nicht geklappt hatte. Das einzige, was mir nicht so gut am Hotel gefallen hat, war, dass das Badezimmer nur durch eine kurze Jalousietür vom Schlafzimmer getrennt ist. Dies hat uns nicht gestört, aber einige Gäste könnten dies problematisch finden. Wenn Ihnen absolute Privatsphäre im Badezimmer nicht ganz so wichtig ist, ist dies ein fantastisches Hotel zu einem wirklich günstigen Preis.

Nach einem trostlosen Aufenthalt im Santa Isabel beschlossen wir, als wir wieder nach Havanna kamen, das Hostal Valencia auszuprobieren! Es kostet nur ein Drittel des Preises im Santa Isabel, ist in bester Lage, riesige saubere Zimmer - tolle Dusche, sehr schöner Innenhof mit rankenden Pflanzen und liebenswürdiges Personal mit aufrichtiger Freundlichkeit und Hilfsbereitschaft, vor allem an der Bar. Außerdem gibt es einen kleinen Zigarrenladen mit einem breiten Angebot und das Paella-Restaurant - ich habe dort oft Paella gegessen, und es hat mir sehr geschmeckt; empfehlenswert, wenn Sie keine Lust mehr auf Bohnen haben! Sehr gute Hühnchen-Schweinefleisch Paella und gutes Weinangebot - viele chilenische und spanische Weinsorten. Wir waren nur für eine Nacht hier; ich wünschte, wir hätten unseren Aufenthalt im Santa Isabel abgebrochen und wären schon früher hierher gekommen. Das Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis ist sehr gut, und man ist nur wenige Schritte von Bars, Restaurants und all den Touristenattraktionen entfernt, und KEINER der Mitarbeiter hat versucht, irgendwelche Extras auf die Rechnung zu setzen und uns das Geld aus der Tasche zu ziehen, oder uns genervt, Zigarren oder sonst etwas zu kaufen - nach unserer Erfahrung im Santa Isabel war dies sehr erfrischend!

We stayed in Hostal Valencia twice, when we arrived in Cuba and when we left a few weeks later. We had different rooms each time, but on both occaisons the rooms were huge, very clean and very comfortable. The hotel is in a prime location, right in Habana Vieja, which is a great area to stay and close to restaurants and bars.

The staff were incredibly friendly and helpful (which we found very unusual in Cuba), the night porter even walking with us for about an hour before dawn through the empty streets of Havana trying to find a taxi for us to get to the airport when phoning one didn't work.

The only reservation I had about this hotel is that the bathrooms are only seperated from the bedroom by short louvred wooden doors. It didn't bother us, but for some it might be an issue. If total bathroom privacy isn't a problem for you then this is a fanatastic hotel at a really good price.

After a dismal stay at the Santa Isabel,when we returned to Havana, we decided to try the Hostal Valencia,an excellent choice!It's about a third of the price of the Santa Isabel,it has a great location,huge, clean rooms-great shower,a lovely courtyard with plants overhanging and lovely staff,genuinely smiley and helpful especially at the bar.There's a small cigar shop attached, with a good selection and the paella restaurant-I've had a lot of paella and I thought it was great, I would recommend it when you're bored with beans!very good chicken with pork paella and an ok wine list-lots of Chilean and Spanish wine.We only stayed one night, I only wished we had cancelled the rest of our time at the Santa isabel and moved here earlier.I think it's great value, and you're seconds away from bars,restaurants and all the tourist attractions,and NONE of the staff tried to add on items to the bill and stiff us for money,or hassle us to buy cigars or anything else,after our time at the Santa Isabel - it was very refreshing!

While we did not stay at the Hostal Valencia, we did eat at the restaurant. I have never had such poor paella before. The rice was overcooked, stodgy and sticking to the bottom of the pan, the shrimp were so small they were hard to find amongst the clumps of rice. Mussels are usually still in the shell, but not here. The chicken consisted mostly of bones. I don't remember what we paid but it was too much. This place is noted for the paella is it because it is the only place in town that serves it?

To the person who made a comparison to Spanish paella. I had this dish in Costa del Sol and there was so much fish we couldn't eat it all.

However, during our stay we visitd a Paladar and had the most wonderful, perfectly cooked white fish so all was not a disaster.

My fiance and I stayed at the Hostal Valencia in June of 2003 for one night. Actually, we stayed at the Comendador but the two hotels are connected and use the exact same lobby, restaurant, etc. Apparently, the only difference is that in a newer room, we had the luxery of air conditioning.

The hotel is lovely. The rooms are accessed via two beautiful internal courtyards. Our room consisted of an old wrought iron bed (queen size), a dark wood wardrobe, an old wooden writing desk, and an antique vanity with sink. The bathroom was dark (no windows and bad lighting!) with an old pulley toilet and a lovely claw footed tub with an European shower. The room had a large patio door/window with blue wooden shutters that overlooked a quiet sidestreet. It's not the Ritz but it made me feel like I was in Havana in the 30's rather than 2003 - very romantic.

The restaurant was exceptionally good. I understand the Hostal is operated by a Spanish family hence the fantastic paella. I lived in Spain and I know that good paella is rare. Havana was the last place I expected to find it! Of course, it IS Havana so when we ordered the cheese, they didn't have any. When we chose our wine, they didn't have any. Never mind though, it was a great meal. By the way, the Meson de la Flota (also Spanish operated) also has fantastic Spanish cuisine.

The area surrounding this hotel bustles with tourists throughout the day. At 5:00pm, all the tourists go home and everything slows down. We unwinded with a few cold beers at a sidewalk cafe. We watched kids play in the street and enjoyed the lively conversation around us. Once it gets dark, the old city goes silent. We decided to treck up calle Obrapia to Av. de las misonaires to have a traditional drink at La Floridita. Two drinks and $20.00 USD later, we moved on to the Monserrate Bar for cheaper drinks and some live music. Walking back to the hotel was interesting. There are no street lights so the crumbling sidewalks can be harzardous. Of course, God favours fools and drunks. Being a bit of both, we made it back safely!

This is a great hotel for an authentic experience. Romantic rooms than transport you to a differnt time, a quality restaurant that doesn't break the bank, and easy access Havana's exciting nightlife.

Would we stay there again? Absolutely.

In the center of old havana a wanderfull renovated colonial architecture jewel, is the description of the location. And not far of this great staff friendly peacefully. It was so sad that we can only stayed the 2 last nights then we returned to Finland, but we promise to come back.

Thank you.

We spent the last night here before returning to Europe yesterday....

The rate went up to $ 110 but it was worth it. The room #14 was spacy, quiet, very clean, the breakfast very good and the staff very friendly and helpful. The location is absolutey great in Havana vieja. The next time we will certainly start there. It was hard (unfortunately impossible!) to rent a room directly via internet) but when we went to the desk at the beginning of our exciting trip (Havana - Bay of pigs - Playa Giron - Cienfuegos - Trinidad - Sancti Spiritus - Santa Clara - Havana) we had no problem to get a room for our last night in Havana.

Hasta luego!

Glorious setting in the heart of Habana Vieja. Fantastic courtyard for breakfast, full of plants and birds. Some rooms were huge, some not so big, but the staff were friendly and helpful, great paella in downstairs restaurant, excellent mojitos in small bar. Superb location close to Plaza San Francisco, Plaza de Armas & Plaza Vieja. Walking distance to all of Old Havana attractions. Could get a little bit noisy at night - but fantasic sounds of Cuba, so we didn't mind! Can't wait to go back!

Ah, the Hostal Valencia. What a mixture of emotions and memories assail me as I recall my two weeks there in November, 1996. I found myself in Old Havana with a project to write and I chose this charming, architecturally beautiful hotel with its enormous rooms and its friendly, accomodating staff as the perfect base for this task. Nothing was quite as expected. The food, for example, like most hotels off the more frequented tourist route, was sparse and, well, terrible. It was not for lack of effort on the part of the staff - just lack of variety and quantity. Nonetheless, one can grow accustomed to a steady diet of "christians and moors" (rice and beans) with a bit of watery chicken when served with such solitious concern (especially when augmented with a secret after-dinner trip up the street to the cafe on the corner to order dessert or even dinner all over again.) The incredible din of the streets outside also takes a bit of getting used to - until one stops mentally "fighting" the racket and realizes that this endless noise is, in fact, only the sound of singing, children playing, and always, the irresiistable rhythms of the streets for, at the Valencia, one quickly realizes that it is impossible to block out the overwhelming presence and nearness of music. It's simply everywhere, inside and out. It starts at the crack of dawn when the hotel "trio" arrives to launch into the morning's first spirited version of "Guantanamera" and does not stop 'til midnight or after. They're wonderful. A little wearing after the fiftyth rendition perhaps, but wonderful nonetheless. They play for breakfast and lunch. They play when the tour buses filled with German tourists arrive to mob the hotel cigar shoppe. They play for supper and on into the evening. When I arrived, I brought with me some sort of odd affliction picked up in Europe. An itch rash on my ankles that was increasingly pre-occupying. The Hostal Valencia, I soon discovered, has an in-house doctor obviously well versed in this and any affliction, for Cuban doctors are excellent. She immediately cured the inflammation that had been driving me crazy for a week and supplied me with antibotics free of charge. (An odd thing that - knowing how difficult it is for Cuban doctors to have access to needed medications and to find oneself - a gringo tourist with an itch, tapping into this precious supply.) The Hostal Valencia appeals to a curious clientele - quite unlike that of other tourist establishments. It is, shall we say, Hemingwayesque. When I was there, there were a couple of square-jawed Marxist women, travelling companions, seeking to embrace the fundamental Communist idealogy of the people. They found little to go on (except some hilarious sly jokes about Russians.) There were a couple of equally square-jawed Baptists from the US seeking to find instances of the overriding oppression of this fearsome dictatorship. Like the Marxists, they were pretty much out of luck in their quest. There was a "famous" photographer from Denmark whose fame seemed somewhat elusive but he was hopeful it might be sufficient to induce, or seduce, pretty Cuban girls to shed their clothes for his camera. I chatted with him over dinner one evening. He was much chagrined because the only girl he could find willing to pose for him insisted that she be paid two chickens and he was having absolutely no luck buying poulty in Havana. There was a jilted boyfriend who had a fight with his girl at the Toronto airport and, in a drunken rage changed his ticket to Cuba at the last minute. How he ended up at the Hostal Vallencia is anybody's guess. He certainly had no idea other than some notion that this was a place where one could buy cheap cigars - something which was evidently, for him, an acceptable substitute for a girlfriend. My fellow travellers at the Valencia were, every one, an odd and interesting pack of misfits and charlatans - each with some clearly preconceived idea of what Havana, and the Hostal Vallencia held in store. Among these I must of course, include myself. I too, had closely defined notions in advance. I thought there would be military everywhere. There wasn't, unless you count the old guard cronies at a concert in the Square one night, and the young soldier at Morrow Castle who sidled up - oops, here's trouble - but he was only bumming a cigarette. Because the Hostal Vallencia does notses our daily contact and interaction with people helped us quickly discover that our expectations about the country, whatever they may have been, were fully inaccurate. Instead we learned that Cuba is best described as Newfoundland with palm trees, a fun loving, generous and very proud people, as complex and interesting as islanders everywhere. The heat and humidity of Havana, at least in November, was just exhausting, yet it was possible, through a clever arrangement of the window shutters to allow any zephyrs of breeze to be caught. My room was huge, with marble floors that probably helped keep things cool and a large ensuite bathroom with shower. The spotty access to reliably hot water didn't really matter. A couple of ice water showers a day would have been just fine. Anyway, air conditioning would probably not have helped much, in such a huge, open room, even if it was available. Similarly, a telephone in the room might have been nice, but the phone system is so poor in Cuba, that even that convenience is somewhat irrelevant in the overview. Because, as you might imagine from this description, the writing was not progressing as quickly as anticipated, I arranged to have my visit extended by one week. On what was previously scheduled to have been my last night in Havana, the gathering storm of the afternoon had evolved into wild and crashing wind and driving rain. I'd had dinner in the hotel dining room and then, as had become my habit, I grabbed my camera from my room safe, hoping for some terrific evening shots, and headed out into the storm, to the little cafe at the corner of the Square to have dessert and coffee. When I returned to my vast room around 7 pm, the shutters were smashing about in an alarming manner again and I wrestled to secure them. Everything was dark and cold but, as usual, I intended to work 'til about midnight. The little bar downstairs was still open, so I managed to convince them to let me take a cup of coffee to my room. I turned on the lights and fired up my computreasingly fierce, so I turned on the TV to see if this might, indeed, be a serious weather system. It was about 8 pm. Nothing on the tube except a documentary featuring a Greek singer. And that is absolutely the last thing I remember until quarter to five the following morning. Now, let me say that I have travelled alone to many parts of the world, even places where unaccomanied women are advised to be especially careful. There have been some minor incidents, of course. A smashed window in a rental car. An attempted purse snatching. Overcharges and so on. The sorts of things to which any savvy traveller's sixth sense quickly becomes sensitized. But generally, this guard is let down in the privacy of one's own hotel room. Which is why when I suddenly awakened at quarter to five that Monday morning at the Hostal Valencia, I was at first bewildered and confused. The shutters that I'd struggled to secure, were again smashing about. Every light in the room was on - surely the only night lights in the whole of Havana. The TV was still buzzing static from its grey screen. My cigs. Where did I put them? My purse? In my purse? But where was it? In the closet? But the closet is utterly empty. No cigs. No purse. No wallet. No clothes other than the ones I'd fallen asleep in. No suitcases. No toiletries or makeup - not even a hairbrush. No camera. I had literally been robbed blind while I slept in what must, of course, been a drugged sleep of many hours. The crooks had simply packed my suitcases with every single thing I had (except airline ticket and passport) and taken off. We'll never know how it happened. Did someone at one of the several places I'd dined slipped something in food or drink? Did someone scale the outside of the hotel and gain entry to the room via the balcony? - an easy enough thing to do. The police were sympathetic but not particularly determined, I felt, though in Cuba robbery is an extremely serious offence. Breaking and entering is punishable by many years in the sserious of all. I think the problem was mostly a language difficulty. My poor Spanish evaporated in the utter vulnerability of the circumstance. Nevertheless, my money, credit cards, clothes, identification, manuscripts everything was gone!Yet, it was then that the staff of the extraordinary Hostal Valencia really jumped into service. From the manager to the young desk clerk they were simply amazing. The night clerk's wife arrived with lipstick and eyeshadow - rare and expensive commodities for ordinary Cuban girls. The clerk himself accompanied me to the MasterCard establishment, though he was nearly asleep, poor kid. It was there that I discovered the next shocking reality. While Eurpoean travellers who may lose or misplace their credit cards in Cuba have no difficulty, once proving their identity, in having cash and a replacement card immediately transferred to them in Cuba, the same is not true for Canadians. Our MasterCard lost and stolen reports are delivered to head offices in the United States. I begged and pleaded - through tears at that point - but US policy absolutely forbids their sending cash or a replacement card to Cuba. I was, in short, sunk. My total net worth was exactly 72 cents at that point, found in the pocket of my skirt and nothing was going to change that. My poor young clerk then drove me off to the Canadian Embassy where I was greet with great disinterest and told that there had been a few purse snatchings that year on Varadero beaches. I was, however, able to make a phone call home (collect) from the embassy and have my family arrange to transfer some cash to the hotel. Back at the hotel, the manager insisted that there would be no charge for my stay there and another young Cuban acquaintance whom I had earlier interviewed was so ashamed by what had happened that he arrived to take me to his home where his wife insisted that I should chose from among her clothes for replacements and, moreover, these two amazing young people, worrying about my expenses for the rest of my stay in Cuba and to travel home, also insisted that I take $200 US from them. They had no expectation that this would be repaid. Now, in Cuba, where even a professional's salary is under $10 per month, this amount truly represented their lifsity and that of everyone who rallied around hoping against hope, that I would not judge them or their great city of Havana, harshly. In some important way, while the thieves stole nearly everything I'd brought with me to the island, they gave me something of priceless value. They tore down the bars of caution and suspicion and they introduced me to the goodness of a sweetly naive and gentle people. (I was very happy to have the opportunity on leaving Cuba, to slip envelopes into the hands of my rescuers. Full payment to the Valencia. $100. to the night clerk and his wife. $400 (double the gift) to the professor and his wife.) But this is a review of the Hostal Vallencia. Would I stay there again? If I were going for a short holiday, the European and Canadian resorts of Veradero with their homogonized Carribean packages would probably be a good bet - though they have nothing particularly Cuban to distinguish them. The food would certainly be better and the accomodations relaxing. For a closer contact with the city of Havana, there are excellent (and much more expensive) hotels with amazing facilities, air conditioning, a swimming pool, shopping and other such creature comforts as are usually expected by western travellers. But there's an important difference. These establishemts afford little, if any opportunity to interact with ordinary Cuban people - and it is ordinary Cuban people who are, as I've said, the greatest resource of this wonderful island. To leave Cuba without having made fast friends there, is not to have visited Cuba at all. So, would I stay at the Hostal Valencia again? In a heartbeat - but only for a few days. I wouldn't tell anybody when I was planning to leave. I'd use the safe. Always. And, in the evening, I would not drink the coffee - if you know what I mean.