Hotel Raquel

Safe to say if it’s your first time in Cuba you might not be expecting something like Hotel Raquel. Built in the early 20th century in an Art Deco style that was, at the time, the height of modernity, it served as a fabric storehouse and an office building for decades, until it was closed in the 1990s in preparation for conversion into a hotel. Finally, in 2003, the newly restored Hotel Raquel made its debut, and it remains unique among Havana’s hotels for its close connection with the city’s Jewish history.

This is the old Jewish quarter, after all, which goes some way towards explaining why Hotel Raquel’s twenty-five rooms and suites all take the names of Old Testament figures, and why the restaurant, Jardín del Eden, serves classic Jewish cuisine in a country where that’s not exactly the norm, to say the least.

As for the nuts and bolts of the place, it’s a bit early to expect a proper modern luxury hotel in Havana. What you’ll find is elegant décor, plenty of details that reward the observant eye, and an atmosphere that you won’t soon forget — which is, after all, almost certainly what drew you to Cuba in the first place.