Hotel Tryp Habana Libre (Havana)

 hotel, restaurant, swimming pool

The Hotel Tryp Habana Libre, is one of the larger hotels in Cuba, situated in Vedado, Havana. The hotel has 572 rooms in a 25-floor tower at Calle 23 ("La rampa") and Calle U.

Opened in March 1958 as the Havana Hilton, it was Latin America's largest and most luxurious hotel. The hotel was built as an investment by the Pension plan by the union of Cuban restaurant workers and operated by the American Hilton Hotels group. It boasted a Trader Vic's, as well as a casino, supper club, a rooftop bar, and a pool.

Following the entry of Fidel Castro into Havana, nine months later, the hotel was briefly his headquarters. It remained a Hilton well into 1960, when relations between the US and Cuba, already strained, were finally severed. The hotel renamed the Hotel Havana Libre. In the late 1990s the Cuban state brought in the Spanish Sol Melia chain to manage the hotel. It was placed in their Tryp division of urban hotels and renamed the Hotel Tryp Havana Libre. At that time, an original mural by artist Amelia Pelaez over the main entrance was restored after decades of being hidden from public view.