Hotel Islazul Pernik

Yet another of the Soviet-era, Bauhaus style, three-story, pre-fab concrete structures doing duty throughout Cuba as hospitals, hotels, and apartment houses. You have to laugh at Islazul's description of the 202-room hotel as "cozy and elegant." The best that can be said is that it's a and sober no-frills option fitted out to provide (barely) at least the minimal standards for tourists.

The Pernik has plenty of handy amenities, such as currency exchange, car rental, tour excursion desk, and even Internet service. A bonus in this often dry, dusty, and stiflingly hot city ? the hotel has a huge pool, which gets noisy on weekends when local families flock to splash around. And the restaurant does a reasonable job, while the adjoining Taberna de Pancho (a favorite of locals) offers filling yet simply local dishes and delicious chilled mugs of draft beer.

The air-conditioned rooms here are simply furnished, yet appear fresh with their surfeit of clinical whites (white floors, white curtains, white spreads).

Hotel Villa Islazul El Bosque

Adjoining the Hotel Islazul Pernik and having begun life in pre-revolutionary days as a country club, this much smaller and more intimate option is far superior to its large, ungainly sister. Islazul does a much better job here. The lobby sets the tone with its potted palms and intriguing and beautiful artwork. If the restaurant here doesn't please, you can dine for a pittance at the nearby Taberna El Pancho, serving hearty local fare such as shrimp with rice, plus home-brewed draft beers. It has a swimming pool, a small shop, and tiny nightclub.

The 69 air-conditioned bedrooms are mirror-images of those in the Pernik, with unremarkable furnishings, satellite TVs, telephines, and recently updated floors and bathrooms. Most rooms are in bungalows in handsome grounds full of cactus and agaves.