Cuba - Lonely Planet [336]
Raimundo Ocana & Bertha Pena (Map; 62-40-97; Heredia No 308 btwn Pío Rosado & Porfirio Valiente; r CUC$20-25; ) A classic 200-year-old house right in the thick of the action on Calle Heredia meaning you can literally shimmy out of your front door and be inside one of half a dozen legendary music houses within seconds.
Arelis González (Map; 65-29-88; Aguilera No 615; r CUC$20-25) This striking blue classical facade on Aguilera is just off Plaza de Marte. It’s a noisy street, but the house has a nice ambience. There are two rooms and a three-level terrace, the top of which constitutes a towerlike mirador (lookout) that provides great views over the rooftops to the mountains beyond. The gnarly vines on level two are used to make grape juice.
Aida & Ali (Map; 62-27-47; Saco No 516 btwn Mayía Rodríguez & Donato Mármol; r CUC$20-25; ) A thick-in-the-action house on Saco (Enramadas) with two rooms perched on a terrace high above the street. The one at the front is the spiffiest.
Casa Colonial ‘Maruchi’ (Map; 62-07-67; Hartmann No 357 btwn General Portuondo & Máximo Gómez; r CUC$25; ) Maruchi is quintessential Santiago and is the best advert the city could give. For a start it’s a hive of all things Santería. You’ll meet all types here: sage santeros (priests of Santería), bemused backpackers, foreign students studying for PhDs on the Regla de Ocha. The food’s legendary and the fecund courtyard equally sublime. So what if the two rooms share a bath?
Casa Yisel (Map; 62-05-22; Diego Palacios No 177 btwn Padre Pico & Mariano Corona; r CUC$20-25; ) These young hosts run a surgically clean house three blocks from Céspedes and one from the Padre Pico steps. It’s an apartment of sorts with a living room, bedroom and superbig bath. There’s a little patio and they make great coffee. Guarded parking is nearby.
Casa Nenita (Map; 65-41-10; Sánchez Hechavarría No 472 btwn Pío Rosado & Porfirio Valiente; r CUC$20-25) Santiago throws up another palacio of colonial splendor that gives away little from its streetside appearance. Dating from 1850, Nenita’s house has soaring ceilings, original floor tiles and a truly amazing back patio. Sit back beneath the louvers and soak up the history.
Lourdes de la Caridad Gómez Beaton (Map; 65-44-68; Félix Peña No 454 btwn Sagarra & Sánchez Hechavarría; r CUC$20-25) Another colonial gem that has huge bedrooms with baths and typical Santiago features.
Hotels
Gran Hotel Escuela (Formatur; Map; 65-30-20; Saco No 310; s/d CUC$26/32; ) Shoehorned like a 1950s relic into the retro-fest that is Calle Saco, this old four-story establishment has huge rough-edged rooms that fairly dwarf the single beds and wall-mounted small-screen TVs. Despite its bargain-basement apparel, the Gran is an Escuela hotel, meaning service is keen and welcomes are generally warm. And at these prices you’re almost undercutting the casas particulares.
Hotel Libertad (Islazul; Map; 62-77-10; Aguilera No 658; s/d CUC$32/38; ) Cheap Cuban hotel chain Islazul breaks out of its ugly Soviet-themed concrete block obsession and goes colonial in this venerable sky-blue beauty on Plaza de Marte. Eighteen clean (if sometimes windowless) high-ceiling rooms and a pleasant streetside restaurant are a bonus. The belting (until 1am) rooftop disco isn’t.
MIDRANGE
Hotel Versalles (Cubanacán; Map; 68-70-70; Alturas de Versalles; s/d with breakfast CUC$45/65; ) Not to be confused with the namesake rumba district of Matanzas, or the resplendent home of Louis XIV, this modest hotel is on the outskirts of town off the road to El Morro and the airport. It’s one of Cubanacán’s cheaper options but has a pool and comfortable, if dated, rooms with small terraces.
Villa Gaviota (Gaviota; Map; 64-13-70; Av Manduley No 502 btwn Calles 19 & 21, Vista Alegre; s/d CUC$49/59; ) Sitting pretty in an oasis of calm in Santiago’s salubrious