A good value place to stay.
We stayed at the Telegrafo from 24 May to 6 June 2004. The hotel sits right between new and central Havana. The best of two worlds.
The hotel is of the stylish Art Deco variety.. It has high celings and marble floors. On the ground floor is the restaurant, reception desk, shop, tourism desk and bar.
I recommend the gorgeous black marble staircase instead of the lift, which takes you directly into the bar. Here you can e-mail, (you pay at Reception). It's best to do that quite early or late as the bar has a glass roof and the direct sunlght can make it difficult to read the computer screen.
A definite must, if you stay here is the hamburger. Its $5 but is divine..
There is a small terrace bar, which overlooks the park.with only about six tables. There are security guards on the entrance so you don't get hassled too much by people trying to sell dodgy banana cigars, and you get the music from the Inghilterra, further down. The inghilterra may be slightly cheaper for drinks, but the service you get at the Telegrafo more than makes up for the 50 cents more! At the inghilterra terrace bar, we waited for 20 minutes with no service so we went back to our own hotel. We tried a few different hotels for drinks and by far the best was the Telegrafo, and they didn't skimp on the Rum like some of the more expensive hotels!
One word of warning though. I would recommend the Telegrafo to everyone but I would also warn anyone staying there to check the seals of the bottled water in the minibar in your room. We didn't notice for a couple of days, but when we checked the seals on some of the bottles, they had been filled with tap water! Not all of them, so when we realised we made sure to only drink the sealed ones. I did have a bit of a bad stomach, but didn't have the heart to complain because the Maid would have probably lost her job, and she worked so hard on keeping the room cleaned!
All in all, we had drink at the National, Seville, Inghilterra, NH Parque Centro and a few others. The Telegrafo is the BEST!!
Unique Quality: There is a great view if you are overlooking the park, the food is great if a little pricy and the decor is gorgeous!
Hotel Telegrafo
Leaving the Telegrafo
