Good place to stay if you want a cheap hotel in Holguin. No telephones in room (unit does not work) no currency exchange, breakfast at restaurant is included but sucks.

Feels like a hostel!!

I guess it all depends on one's tastes and expectations, and what one expects for $20 CUC's for one night. I stay at El Bosque for one night sleep-overs when I have an early departure/late arrival. $10 dollars for a taxi to the airport (takes about 20 minutes) and $3 to central Holguin. (Inexpensive by industrialized standars) Don't like the cost? Take a gua gua (Cuban transportation) for all of you who want to see the "Real Cuba". Then you won't complain as much. Staff has always been friendly (especially the manager Odalys who goes out of her way). Sure, rooms are very basic, sure the faucet may drip, sure accomodations may be dated. The sheets are clean and the shower water warm. Breakfast was basic...bread, coffee and an omellet. But for $20 dollars, what does one expect? Lobster and caviar? You can intermingle with Cubans celebrating a birthday by the pool side and the beer is cold and the coffee strong.

Hotel El Bosque is out of town, a ten min walk/1km from the Pernik. Pleasant setting in quiet leafy grounds. We stayed two nights prior to getting our plane home. Pool and kiddy pool were clean and pleasant when we went. Rooms clean. Our shower room was new and clean, my mother's next door needed redecorating, and she ended up using our (good) shower. Hers was cold and once it was on none of us could turn it off. We reported it to the receptionist, but an hour later, with the shower still gushing, we asked a maid who brought in the swimming pool attendant, who managed it. Food: There was one restaurant, and despite what it said on the menu, the only food was chicken steak, pork steak or spaghetti. We had the meat, and it arrived with half a handful of burned soggy fries. Worst food we had in cuba (and that's saying something). At lunch the next day at the swimming pool bar the fries were the same, so it wasn't a one-off error. The only lunch available (as in most cuban cafes) was ham/cheese sandwich and fries. Breakfast was ok, apart from the fly in the sugary fruit juice - the usual bread, fruit, ham, cheese, eggs and omlettes made to order. We went to the Pernik the following night for dinner and that was also bad.. but different. I will do another review for that. Frankly, we find better food and friendlier service at private houses (casa particulare) than we have in cuban hotels, and cheaper too. In this case you could probably find one more central too. Stay there, taxi to a hotel for the day to use their pool. It's what we did in santiago. And there might be more and better restaurants in the town centre. Maybe.

We stayed 3 nights at this hotel in a chalet and agree with pretty much everything that has been said in previous reviews.

The staff were pretty indifferent to customers. There wasno remote control as it was reportedly stolen by a previous customer. We were only told this on the 2nd night after being promised that it would be brought to our room.

The food was brought to our table by a waiter and was a little scant.

The swimmng pool was out of action and was a very unusual green colour. There were many members of staff there who just sat around looking at the pool doing nothing about its condition.

The hotel looks very nice. It is in a leafy area and the landscaping is quiet pleasant but the negatives outweigh the positives. It is also quiet a hike to the city centre.

The city is pleasant enough. There is a Cavern club with Beatles posters and statues of the Fab 4. We watched live music there. Not your tradtional Cuban music but a mix of British/American classics.

A trip to see Pancho the drinking donkey was fun.

The city was a good stopover before going to Guardalavaca.

We managed to get a private taxi from Holguin to Guardalavaca for 35 CUC. I was advise this was a very good deal.