My trip for my birthday started with a stay at The Plaza Hotel in Havana booked through The Holiday Place. Hotel Plaza, is great!

As you walk into the hotel, there is a grand lobby entrance with its own rustic historic charm.
The reception team are friendly and helpful...as I arrived late evening the reception team advised me not to venture too far away from the hotel and to leave the exploring of Old Habana till the morning. I was feeling tired so took their advice and waited for dawn to break!

Room 442:
On the 4th floor and is situated backing onto the courtyard/ac unit with not a great view but it is really really quiet. The room is clean, very spacious with teak furniture and comfy bed, high ceilings, lots of storage space and has a big bathroom.

Breakfast

Sit outside on the terrace to listen and see Old Town Havana waking up. You'll see old cars rolling down, locals walking, buses, appreciate the skyline and make out landmarks and the Barcardi building is right behind the hotel.

Buffet Breakfast - This was well presented and it was nice to see that there was something for everyone to tuck into. There was a variety of bread, rolls, cold mini pizza slices and many pastries! As well as milk and cereal and the omlette station.
The fruit options were melon-papaya-pineapple-guava and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Bank In The Hotel
There is a "Cadexca" within the hotel and it opens from approximately 9am to 1pm and again for the afternoon...though afternoon timing can be erratic all depending on when the person running the "Cadexca" takes their lunch.

Benefits of staying here:
*Located centrally in the heart of Old Havana (Habana) opposite Parc Central
*You can catch a tour bus (5CUC for a day pass to hop on and hop off), an old car taxi, horse and carriage and a coco taxi all within a 5 minute walk around Parc Central
*El Capitolio is a 10 minute walk away
*Cigar Factory near Calles Dragones - is closed but the shop is open and you get to see all the different cigarellos, boxes and prices
*Calles Dragones approx 15 minute walk away
*Calles Obispo is the place to go - a pedestrianised street where you mingle with the locals and walk and discover Old Habana
*Take your map, out on your walking shoes or flip flops and walk!
*An evening out at Club Tropica starts at 70 CUC and goes to 90CUC - it can be expensive and an alternate show is Club Parisien at the Hotel Naconial with a show starting price of 35CUC

Have a great time! I wish I could go back...

I loved this Hotel. It is located in the center of the old city. Once you enter the Hotel you find yourself in the ravishing lobby with a very beatufiul setting. The staff is very friendly. The room I stayed at (No 324) was very nice consisting of the spacious lobby with an old style sofa, two chairs a table with a mirrow, a bedroom and of course the bathroom. The room is extremely clean and the bed is very comfortable. I loved the high ceilings - about 4 meters high! The door lock to the balcony is shabby and easy to break but nothing happened during my stay. I highly recommend this Hotel if you want to enjoy your stay in the Havana! The only drawback is the food. I had an all inclusive deal and was dissapointed when I saw the lack of food on the platters because they were not refilled at due time, the coffee/tea machines were out of order most of the time. The fish served at dinner was terrible. Well, you won't be too disappointed anyway because Cuba is not the hit for the good food in general. You can always grab a sandwich at the bar in case you get too hungry because the sandwiches they make are really nice. There is also a very nice restaurant one block (actually one Hotel) away from Plaza to your right if you want to have a nice meal (pizza is wonderful!). To sum up, my last days in Havana were lovely beacause of a nice stay at Plaza.

Was with a "guided" tour and had to stay in the Plaza. Three separate times, three separate disappointments. The entrance hall looks very nice but ...this is it! Room 463: a very noisy coffin, next time 5th floor noisy, extremely hard bed (2" on wood). 3rd time so bad for smell of mildew I had to open the window and got eaten alive by mosquitoes. The price of the rooms for what you get is pure robbery .The front desk employees were very short tempered and the web room is so slow we sent 2 short messages in 30 minutes ($10)...trust me, go 3 blocks down to the Parkview and pay ½ price, or better Casa Maura, 4 blocks down, and be happy and safe for a quarter of the price.

The Hotel Plaza is in a great location for visiting Havana, that is all you can say about this shabby, run down place. Since tourism is so important to the economy and Havana is a third world country it is unfair to compare with other vacation spots. That being said, it is government run and there really needs to be some accountability. The hotel is packed with tourists. We stayed in 5 different rooms, all pretty bad, Room 1: we asked for a quiet room. Got the front facing a busy intersection. Room 2: no hot water for 3 days, a plumber promised, who showed up once, left and never returned. Rm 3: Hot water (yea!), N0 TV and towels that smelled so bad, they were unusable. Rm 4, (we had to return to this place after 3 days in the country side) I knew there would be a problem so I spoke with a very pleasant man, name "Fred". He wrote down all of my previous experiences with the hotel and promised a clean, quiet room with a shower when we returned. At least he was pleasant but the room was so noisy, we were up all night and there was no water at all (Havana had the problem, not the hotel's fault). Changed to Rm 5 (they have a list of people who want room changes), broken shower head, broken toilet and that horrid mold on the bathroom ceiling and walls (this was true in every room). And lastly: get to the brakfast room on the 5th floor by 7 AM or you will be running after people to refill coffee and juice machines. The guy making the omlets, however, was great and should be acknowledged for being a good employee in this state run monstrosity with tremendous problems.
Now after all that, my solution, take away 3 stars and no one will be disappointed.

Havana is a delightful, colorful city and even the Plaza could not detract from the overall positive feeling we have for the country and the people. Our trip was to learn about the cultural of Cuba and we did. We would return and stay at another hotel in the area. There are many more places to choose from. This is obviously "El Cheapo." .