A Friend by the sea

Picture waves accompanying your most demanding dreams while you gaze at a mixed city and sea landscape, and you'll get the idea of some of the elements characterizing one of the most interesting hotels in the Cuban capital: the Copacabana.

With a name that calls to mind Brazilian exoticism and musicality, nowadays this remodelled place of rest also has both color and spirit.

A hotel with a view One of the most renowned and better positioned hotels facing the sea in Havana, the Copacabana's first stage of remodeling opened February 2009 with 44 rooms already fully equipped with most recreational and cuisine related services.

This three star facility, inaugurated in 1955, is in great demand for its privileged location, its diving center and other leisure activities. Run by the Cubanacan group, the remodelling of the hotel's central and lateral rooms will be finished later this year, as will the remaining areas.

The manager of the hotel, Sonia Lassale, spoke enthusiastically about the recent repairs, as the last were done in 1992. The hotel will now provide a cyber cafe, a currency exchange office, rent-a-car, tourism board, cigars, souvenir and rum stores, parking, tennis and ball courts, pool and a diving centre...