Hotel Ambos Mundos — Attraction in Cuba

A very beautiful hotel stylish in an understated way. Think 1940’s Poirot or Casablanca. The View from our room matched that of Hemingways- simply stunning. The old city is pedestrianised so very quiet and a delight to wake up to the hub of life and magical view on the old Palacio. ||The view from the rooftop catches all that is Havana - iconic buildings, the sea, sunrises and sunsets, and the ripped backside which is the unseen side of Havana reality. ||We received some beautiful personal service and staff went out of their way to do all they could given this is Cuba. |In particular the front desk staff, housekeeping and gorgeous breakfast team. |We thoroughly enjoyed our discussions about Ernest Hemingway and visit to his room, his Havana life with the wonderful Esperanza - who is a true ambassador for the hotel (and we followed in the great footsteps of Michael Palin who she showed round 25 years ago). ||Walk out of the hotel with 3 directions to exquisite plazas just steps away and the 4th direction down true Cuban shopping streets. The samba, guitar, double bass and flute are in every bar and every corner. ||So why not a 5? This mostly comes down to all that is Cuban but the hotel management could do small things which think more of the customer and better reflect a 4 star hotel. It’s a state run hotel and we just don’t know how that impacts some of their decisions - so a bit rule based. ||Dump the awful American pop music playing the same 6 songs on repeat. Staff loved. Average customer will hate. ||There’s a loo roll shortage but don’t make us ask every day.. ||Don’t make us pay by card for 1 bottle of water||The last 2 were a problem - we arrived to a closed hotel… problems with the air conditioning but we were not told! Credit to them at midnight they let us in and after a bit of paper shuffling gave us our room. We were the only guests. ||On our last day - be kind . We had a late flight and went to the beach. You kindly locked our bags away. We asked if we could keep our room and take a shower at the end of the day. That was a flat no. You could have offered and made a small charge. The hotel was still nearly empty. That was a management decision. Nothing in the rules allowed him to adapt. That was a disappointing end. ||Not withstanding we would definitely go back. Iconic. Thank you to all the team. You are wonderful....

Yes, this is going to be of those "if I could leave fewer than one stars, I would" kind of review. tl;dr If you don't like running water, this place is for you! USD $1,507 down the drain.

We had booked this hotel for an eleven-night stay for our honeymoon. How could we not? I'm a Ph.D. in English and Hemingway stayed here...what a match made in heaven, right? Wrong.

We'd arrived at the hotel at about 4 AM (our flight was extremely delayed). The entire place was dark and shut down and no one came to greet us. When we were checking in, we noted a giant cockroach crawling across the floor and another apparently killed and left on top of some papers on the counter. It just got worse and worse from then on.

Let me paint you a picture. The room is dismal. The walls ar dirty. The single beds are ridiculous in size and the mattresses are awful. The safe doesn't work. There is no Wifi (as advertised). On top of it all...there is no running water. None.

When I went down to the lobby to ask what was up, they told me the water was available between 6:30 PM and 2 PM and then from 5 PM until 10 PM. Ridiculous. It was quite loud and we slept very badly.

The next morning, we asked to speak to the manager and asked for the remainder of our money back. I was sent to Hotel Florida (apparently owned by the same people) to speak with the manager. There, an equal parts aggressive and orotund concierge offered to show me a room at that hotel instead. I asked to speak to the manager. The manager came and had a fake conversation on the phone (assuming I didn't know any Spanish). Eventually, at my wife's insistence, we saw the rooms at Hotel Florida (not at all better) and left. Back at Ambos Mundos, we asked to be connected to the booking agency. The clerk refused to help us. That was the last straw which motivated us to book elsewhere.

Once again, this is an absolutely horrible hotel. From the accommodations to the lack of basic necessities, it has been a total nightmare. Avoid this hotel...

We had to move from Hotel Florida, as we were informed that the hotel were carrying out work. We only stayed here one day. Although the move was a little inconvenient, were pleasantly surprised. Hotel Ambos Mundos had a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere. The staff and management were friendly and could not do no more for us. We were told that once we were settled that we could visit the Ernest Hemingway Museum which was a delight. Our bedrooms were situated next to Ernest Hemingway Museum.||||The rooms were tastefully decorated vibrant green and brown, the chambermaids greeted us with a cheerful "Ola". Bedrooms were comfortable, with crisp cleaning bedding. However, the showering only cold water was working. Apart from that I enjoyed my stay at the hotel and would have liked to have stayed a few more days here. ||Breakfast was provided on the outdoor roof top of the hotel, which gave visiting guests a view of the city, breakfast selection was good, a great improvement on the first Hotel, Hotel Florida. We had more choice and waiting staff were available to cater us to our needs. ||||I would describe Havana as a musical city. Musicians situated almost everywhere playing...