Staying in Varadero, Decided to rent a car and drive to Havana. Had no hotel reservations and didn't want to pay the $160-$200 a night to stay near the capitole.
Ended up finding Hotel Colina. Paid $72 for a room with 3 single beds and includes breakfast! Parking on the street outside and could see our car from the room.
Great views of the city.
Just down the street from 3 clubs.
Friendly, Helpful hotel staff.
Keep in mind that this is a hotel for people on a budget not a resort.
yes I wore my flip flops in the shower but the water was hot, and the beds were clean.

November, 2010 I've recently stayed 2 nights at Hotel Colina. The hotel is basic and run down but comfortable enough for sleep only.

I had room on the second and fourth floor. On the second floor room was terrible. Water bugs, hair in the shower and leaking sink in the bathroom. On the fourth floor i had room 404 which was better but run down.

You can feel safe in Havana. No problem at all. there is a lot of security in the hotel. They are very very polite.

There is a restaurant on site. Always order drinks at the bar. There is a lot of cheating in Cuba on alcohol. Mojito without alcohol with only water added tastes terrible.

Taxi to the airtport cost 20 CUD. To old Havana 8 CUD. Always bargain with the taxi driver.

Breakfast was OK. Bread was fresh and there was peanty of coffee.
I enjoyed CUBA particulary Havana.
People are friendly but don['t speak English.

The Colina has probably seen better days, in fact, it makes backpackers look like 5-star accommdation. We also stayed at Colina as part of our Intrepid tour, I think most tour groups star there as Cuba Star Adventures had a folder in the lobby also.

It is about a ten minute taxi ride to Havana central ie Old Havana etc. On the other hand, the university, the malecon, wall of flags and Hotel National are very close by.

We stayed there twice, at the begining and end of our tour. The elevator was broken and they told us it was going to be fixed in a couple of days, however upon returning there 14 days later, that was not the case. Yes, carrying your bag up four flights of stairs is not fun, you can tip one of the guys downstairs to carry it up for you, but I felt on principle it wasn't worth it.

We didn't have the pleasure of eating breakfast as we overslept, so can't comment on that, but my fellow tour group members said it was pretty average.

You can hear the room next door, so soundproofing is very lacking. There was a door with a latch, so I opened it thinking it was a cupboard, only to find that it was for the adjoining room, and they people in there weren't even part of our tour group. So not great security either.

Air conditioning was working, our room was very warm. Again, given the elevator we didn't bother complaining about the air conditioning.

I would definitely recommend casas in Vedado over staying in the Colina. I think someone summed it up earlier, worse than basic!

This Hotel is recommended and used as part of Intrepid Travel. I wouldn't recommend! The lift kept breaking down, which is fine but hard carrying heavy cases/packs up and down 6 fights of stairs. My entire room flooded when it rained (it was rainy season). I kept having to move, my swipe card kept not working. I could hear everything in the next door rooms. It was old, mouldy, damp and smelly. It had massive cockroaches in the rooms and it was no where near the old city. I didn't expect much being a communist country but after looking around I found far better and cheaper places I should have stayed at. Lucky I listened to another reviews because someone rang my room pretending to be staff and asked me to pay again by credit card for the room!!!! I have travelled extensively and this is up there with the worst!