Hotel Habana Libre
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Hotel 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 and Calle L.
Opened in March 1958 as the Habana Hilton, the hotel was built as an investment by the pension plan of the union of Cuban restaurant chefs[citation needed], and operated by the American Hilton Hotels group. It boasted a Trader Vic's, as well as a casino, supper club, rooftop bar and 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, until relations between the US and Cuba, already strained, were finally severed. It was then renamed Hotel Habana Libre.
The hotel became part of the Spanish Sol Melia chain in the late 1990's. (All American hotel chains being forbidden by the US government from having hotels in Cuba.) It was placed in their Tryp division of urban hotels and was renamed Hotel Tryp Habana Libre.
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