Right in the heart of the Old Havana’s historic center –declared World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO– this lovely lodging run by the Habaguanex company is a treasure for those who come seeking a different place, but above all for Habano lovers and searchers of a kind of leisure tied up to history and culture.

The Count of Villanueva Habano Hostel is a charming deluxe inn exquisitely conceived for the lovers of Habanos, featuring 9 comfy guestrooms named after some of Cuba’s best-known tobacco plantations. The hostel’s Habano House offers Cuban cigars from the most recognized brands and their many vitolas, so you can puff on any of them –if you want to- in an intimate private hall with customized and preferential service at your beck and call. The former mansion of Claudio Martinez de Pinillo, Count of Villanueva, was built in 1714 around a stunning squared interior patio where palm trees and tropical plants now grow that can be made out from wide corridors supported by thick pillars. The familiar atmosphere, its quiet surroundings, the top-quality service, the gorgeous stained-glass windows, the old-timed decor and the private places come together to create genuine colonial ambience perfectly in sync with state-of-the-art comfort. The old house of the Count of Villanueva –a renowned Havana businessman from the colonial times– is clearly baroque in style, though some elements of the sober neoclassic stand out, mainly in the wrought-iron façade balconies and the cornices. A broad and elegant front, trapped around Tuscan-style pilasters that support the curve-lined buttresses, lets passersby steal a glance at the elegant lobby and beyond, into the inner patio hedged with refreshing greenery. As if trying to highlight its pertaining to a long-gone epoch, some of the hostel’s interiors feature non-plastered brick walls, such as the entrance of the stylish and refined Vuelta Abajo Restaurant. Opened on February 24, 1999 during that year’s Habano Festival, the inn quickly captured the attention of scores of visitors, mostly of those interested in buying the handmade Cuban cigars known worldwide as Habanos. A conspicuous note that brought about this association between the hostel and the Habano is that the inn’s former owner, Claudio Martinez de Pinillo, Count of Villanueva, was a staunch advocate of cigar sales and of the introduction of railroad in Cuba back in 1837 as a means of choice for the transportation of sugar.

Opened on February 24, 1999 during that year’s Habano Festival, the inn quickly captured the attention of scores of visitors, mostly of those interested in buying those handmade Cuban cigars known worldwide as Habanos.