My parents visited. Any card with an American connection is a no. Definitely not AmEx. Visa wasn't accepted for purchases (but they did use an ATM which was a nightmare to find apparently). USD was useless. They took Euro and lots of it (Australians).

Cuba is definitely not luxury...but the beaches are lovely and Havana is a great place to see. I wouldn't worry about healthcare - the hospitals for tourists would be quite modern and much nicer than many American hospitals. There is also a paucity of American tourists ;) Amex is definitely not accepted !

We stayed at Sandals in Varadero - not the nicest but still alright. Wonderful people - our best meal was one that the co-op students made for us when we were invited to their dorm !

Bump.

I'm thinking about going to Cuba in November. Anyone have any experiences with hotels in Havana in the past couple of years? Thanks.

There seems to be a consensus among our posters that Cuba does not offer much in the way of Luxury Hotels.
Therefore, I am moving this thread to the FT Cuba Forum. There is much valuable information to be gleaned from that forum.
Obscure2k
Moderator
Luxury Hotels

I stayed at the Hotel Plaza while I was in Havana. It was dated (with a definite charm), but their listed price was pretty steep considering the dated accommodations. They do offer complimentary breakfast and dinner buffets (Although after ~14 days eating the food there, it got verrrrry old).
We had to go to the Parque Central across the street to get internet cards. The hotel was the highest quality that I saw in Cuba. It seemed akin to a hotel like the Marriott. The internet was actually fairly fast for Cuba as well. I don't know how much it runs for, but it was definitely a nice hotel (although I did not see the rooms, only the lobby and the top floor pool). It is located in Central Havana, and its only ~1/2 mile to the Malecon and Old Havana.
If you are looking for a good hotel based on their mojitos, Hotel Nacional de Cuba is where its at :)

http://en.cubafiesta.net/hotel/hotel-parque-central is the hotel I was talking about

When I went with a church group in 2011, we were told to bring Canadian dollars (or euros), because Canadian dollars can be exchanged for tourist pesos (CUCs) one-to-one, while there is a 10% surcharge for U.S. dollars, which have to be "laundered" before the Cuban government can use them.

This turned out to be true. We handed over Canadian dollars and received the same amount of CUCs in return. Later, when I ran out of Canadian dollars and exchanged a few U.S. dollars to tide me over for the last day or two, there was indeed a 10% surcharge at the foreign exchange office.

I did not see any evidence of people trading in U.S. dollars, but I did have street vendors and others wanting to sell me things for CUCs, since they can use them to buy goods that are otherwise rationed for people who are limited to regular Cuban pesos (moneda nacional).

Flying into Havana? Good luck with the beach.
(Rent a car and pay insurance premiums and remain insecure that if you actually DO get into an accident, the insurance will pay)