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National Hotel

National Hotel

jan 12, 2022
3 min read

Let's start the year 2022 by finally planning the next warm trip to the magical island of Cuba: Hotel Nacional, a historic place in Havana, rediscovers the effervescence and awaits you as the first stop on a dream vacation.

It was the luxury lodging for the American mafia in Prohibition, overcame the missile crisis, home to Hollywood eccentricities … In 91 years of existence, the Hotel Nacional in Havana has had a hectic life, but rarely he experienced as much loneliness as he experienced during the pandemic.

Now that the pandemic in Cuba is under control with the entire vaccinated population, we can start planning the journey of dreams, starting with Havana and the legendary Hotel Nacional.

The building with more than 400 rooms has taken the opportunity of the forced closure of the pandemic for a restyling: the facade has been restored, the floors have been changed, the swimming pool has been renovated and some windows have been replaced.

It is here that Lucky Luciano stayed in December 1946, during a meeting at the top of the leaders of the Italian-American mafia chaired by him, immortalized in 1974 in the fiction “The Godfather 2” by Francis Ford Coppola: the clan leaders share a cake decorated with a drawing of the Cuban island at the same time as the attributions of the various illegal activities.

About 500 gangsters had taken over the hotel for the convention, and guest of honor Frank Sinatra had accompanied the lavish celebrations that Christmas with his singing voice.

“Las Vegas did not exist, and Cuba was the perfect place for gambling, with the proximity to the United States, the climate, the beaches, the rum,” Havana was the perfect place to become “the capital of gambling”.

On the famous Malecon, facing the bay of Havana, the monumental H-shaped building opened its doors on 30 December 1930 with its English porcelain still intact, its watches imported from Germany and its Venetian chandeliers hanging from the high ceilings.

This restoration work will allow you to rediscover the hotel from the 1930s, making the past relive in an even more comfortable way.

In the corridors and rooms of the hotel there are photos, objects and even letters from illustrious customers that have ensured that the hotel was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

You will relive the vintage atmosphere of the Hollywood era and you can see the photos (then they weren't called selfies) Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Johnny Weissmüller, Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, the pianist Nat King Cole, the writers Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway and Gabriel Garcia Marquez or even British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a big fan of Cuban cigars. The list of passing characters immortalized on the walls is so long that you will return to a glitzy past in the heart of one of the most magical cities in the world.

We look forward to seeing you in Cuba! Write to us for a memorable stay in Havana and then continue on to one of the most beautiful and unspoiled beaches in the world!

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