CubaPLUS Magazine

  The Plaza Hotel belongs to the Gran Caribe group, located in the central Havana corner of Neptuno and Zulueta streets, in front of the Central Park, celebrates its 115th anniversary this Wednesday.  Protagonist of stories and traditions that have turned it into an icon of the Cuban hospitality, Its elegant triangular construction maintains its atmosphere of the past century to this day.  It was first the home of a wealthy Havana family, surnamed Pedroso, and later served as the headquarters of the Diario de la Marina.

In January 1909, after an expansion and remodeling, it opened its doors as a hotel, preserving its eclectic style and original ornamentation. The main hall is decorated with polychrome plaster and in the interior patio, a figure of a woman made of Carrara marble welcomes customers, who do not stop parking in front of it and contemplating such a beautiful image.

Because of all that splendor of yesteryear, many tourists prefer to stay there, because they feel living in the past, something like a trip in a time machine. Despite this, its 188 rooms -161 doubles, 15 junior suites, 9 triples and 3 special suites have all the comfort and conditions that a client may require,  among them: telephone, satellite TV, safe, mini bar, air conditioning, private bathroom and facilities for disabled people.

The hotel also has a lobby bar, buffet restaurant, and another à la carte restaurant, with connection to internet, car parking, tourist information services and currency exchange. The furniture in this accommodation preserves original pieces and also has paintings of the colonial era, works by famous painters, including Esteban Valderrama de la Peña, Esteban Domenech, Federico Siroca and Juan Gil García, among others.

Another of the historical attractions of the hotel, with a 4-star category, is that it was where illustrious personalities of science, art and sports, among them the German physicist Albert Einstein, Russian dancer Ana Pavlova, the great American baseball player Babe Ruth and the Cuban world chess champion (1921-1927) José Raúl Capablanca. Congratulations to all your workers!