Three of us (all women) spent four days at this hotel. It was great! The food was good, great staff and very central and you could walk to all the places you'd want to go. I would return again and again. The breakfasts are included and we all found the food quite good. Enough to keep you going while you are wandering this fantastic city. If you go, look for Leonardo across the street who runs a horse chariot. Great tour guide.

I stayed here 3 nights while on a group tour. You don't go to Cuba for the luxury hotels and despite being one of the more upmarket ones in Havana, don't expect 5 star quality rooms and service. That said, everything was very pleasant and the hotel could hardly be better located. They even had wifi, a rarity in Cuba. The roof terrace has terrific views.

We stayed here for two days before having a week in Varadero. It is ideally located for sight seeing most of what you probably want to see in Havana. Lovely big bedrooms with even nicer bathrooms. It has the most fantastic views from the roof terrace (complete with bar terrace and pool), there is even a well equipped Gym for those who feel they need it. We ate locally at Los Nardos a 5 minute walk away but be warned they have huge portions and a great wine selection, don't be put off by the exterior. Breakfast in the hotel offered a good selection even with sparkling, white, red and rose wine for anyone feeling thjey wanted it!

When you pay Top dollar for a Top rated hotel then I think it’s fair to expect something pretty good.
We were rather disappointed when we stayed in Havana’s Parque Central for 4 nights in January 2012.

The Parque Central’s location is probably its best feature, important when you’re exploring Havana. Another good feature is the swimming pool and adjacent bar/restaurant on the roof with pleasant views over the city. I don’t feel that this is enough to warrant the excellent rating awarded to the Parque Central though.

From reading other reviews it seems that the rooms are a bit of mixed bag. Our room (Torre) was large but not comfortable with dated, tired furniture and furnishings. The hole-ridden curtains must have come straight from the set of that not so well known science fiction film “The Attack of the Giant Moths”.
We were lucky (?) to have a coffee machine in the room but I couldn’t tell you if it worked as despite being promised at reception we were not provided with the essentials to use it: paper filters, coffee, water, cups, etc...
Other hotels in Cuba tend to provide a large bottle of water in the room as it is not advisable to drink tap water. The P C doesn’t, instead you can take a small bottle of water (500ml) out of your mini-bar at a cost of $3 CUC . We bought a large bottle (1500ml) in the shop opposite for $1.50 CUC .
The make-up mirror in the bathroom was in a constant downwards position, ideal for vertically challenged people perhaps but not for my wife who relied on it to position her contact lenses. Though I must admit it was rather fun seeing her seemingly practising limbo dancing as she struggled to put them in the next morning.

The Buffet Breakfast is another disaster area in the P C. At first there seems to be a lot of choice, until you notice that very large areas are taken up by:
- an egg station next to a large salad bar, ideal if you like omelette & salad for breakfast
- a very large selection of various types of bread (lots of them sweet) next to a small selection of fruit and at the other end a selection of cheeses, salami and some form of Spam but definitely no Serrano ham (available in most other hotels); I presume this caters for the lovers of ‘Continental Breakfast’
- in between all this is a very small section with ‘hot’ food: scrambled eggs, hash browns, French toast, something resembling roast potatoes, under-cooked sausages, sometimes broad beans in a watery tomato sauce and bacon; the bacon however was a challenge to anyone who hadn’t been starved for the previous two months: although one could see it was sliced, it was stuck together in lumps of at least 1/2kg and impossible to prise apart with the one pair of tongs available; result was that most people went without and it was therefore always available unlike the other items which ran out every morning and were not replenished in the next half hour we spent in the breakfast room; we never had the luxury of finding mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans... on the breakfast buffet.

The toaster is ideal if you like to see your bread going ‘round, moving into a tunnel and then reappearing below without it having had to endure any change of temperature at all. Must have been invented by SPCB (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Bread). I eventually managed to toast mine in a Panini press/Waffle Iron which surprisingly did work.

The tables in the breakfast room were mostly dirty, missing table settings etc. Coffee/tea was supposed to be served but only if you went to find a waiter who you then almost had to drag to your table. Don’t expect them to come and ask you if you want a refill either. Certainly no service with a smile here!

Overall the Parque Central has no atmosphere and certainly doesn’t feel Cuban, a missed opportunity in a city which has several iconic Cuban hotels, bodegas etc. Although it has some good points mentioned earlier and some of the staff (especially concierge counter) are very helpful, the overall impression of our stay was of a lacklustre place with a no care attitude and very overpriced compared with other places in Cuba.
My overall score reflects my disappointment and is not my star rating for the hotel, I just feel it does not deserve a 4.5 score after our experience but please visit Cuba and visit Havana – it’s worth it!