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Laying Your Head in Havana Despite the embargo, Havana remains a truly international city, and the Cuban government tries to maintain hotels that meet the discerning world traveler's demands. You can stay someplace imbued with history -- such as the Hotel Nacional -- or at one of the ultra-modern towers that have sprung up in recent years. For your Cohiba-lighting convenience, many include ashtrays in the rooms. June/July 2008 , Page 54The following represents a mere sampling of the city's high-end lodgings. Before you book, though, a few things to note: First, while rates are given in dollars (subject to seasonal change and availability), you'll have to pay up in Cuban convertible pesos (CUCs), which trade at a rate very close to the U.S. dollar. Second, Cuban establishments don't accept American plastic (or traveler's checks), so you'll have to bring the cash to pay for the hotel with you, at least if your travel plans don't include a bracing dialogue with la policia. Meliá Habana
Located some distance from the city center in the more affluent neighborhood of Miramar, the 409-room Meliá Habana offers upscale accommodations. Its lobby is a marble-lined, fountain-happy piece of work, while the sinuously shaped pool in the back incurs a real debate about whether to bother walking the extra yards to the ocean. Half of the rooms come complete with a view of the Caribbean. Hotel Nacional
For decades Havana's first and last word in luxury accommodations, the Nacional has seen many a famous face walk through its high-ceilinged lobby, including Winston Churchill, Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn and Marlon Brando. Opened for business in 1930, with sweeping views of the city's coastline along the Malecón, the Spanish Colonial–style, eight-story structure features -- in addition to 457 rooms, 15 suites and a Presidencial Suite with a private terrace and dining room -- a wide veranda where one can sink into the depths of a plush chair, light a cigar and luxuriate in the warm breezes off the ocean. Meliá Cohiba
Where the Hotel Nacional is strictly old school, the Meliá Cohiba (also along the Malecón, a four-minute drive away from Nacional) is the Cuban attempt at five-star luxury digs. And for the most part, it succeeds: From the elegant marble-lined lounge where you can settle into a sofa and puff while watching the crowd action, to the 462 large and comfortable rooms, to the top-floor restaurant/lounge that offers panoramic views of the city while you nibble at standard-issue restaurant fare, there's a lot here for the tourist or business traveler. A note, however, for those attempting to contact the outside world: The Internet on offer in their lobby-level business lounge is notoriously slow. Hotel Saratoga
For those wanting to be mere steps away from Old Havana, or swim in a rooftop pool with a view of the impressively ornate capitol building, the neoclassical Hotel Saratoga (which reopened its doors after an extensive renovation in late 2005) offers a chance to stay right in the city's fast-beating heart. If you have the cash available, the Habana suites feature more than 100 square meters of space, in addition to a living room with a bar for sipping a predinner mojito. The other types of suites, the Suite Capitolio and the duplex Suite Prado, offer equally luxurious accommodations.
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