Casa Diego y Mary

We had an amazing stay with Maria and Diego. The room is fantastic and comfortable, and Maria and Diego are incredibly lovely and welcoming.

We visited while traveling on our honeymoon (which I mentioned in my email reserving the room) and one night of our stay was on my birthday (which they must have seen in my passport). As a result on arrival we were surprised with rose petals all over the bed (see the picture), a plate of fruit, drinks and a bottle of red wine. We had dinner the first night there (which was absolutely incredible, we had lobster) and were surprised with a full cake to celebrate the wedding and birthday. It was all so thoughtful. Over the course of our stay, they continued to bring out little plates of fruit and drinks, and we were not asked to pay for these at the end (although naturally - and not at all as a result of anything they did - we felt compelled to leave a tip in recognition of these).

Maria and Diego do not speak much English and we shamefully do not speak much Spanish and this made communication difficult (which was a little awkward at times as they were often nearby and clearly were keen to speak with us but could not as a result of the language barrier - a shame because we have now taken a language course and are much improved). However thier children were also often nearby and spoke great English which was a real help for tips and translations.

A tip for those traveling on a tight budget. Do lots of research before arriving in Cuba - you should be able to find the price that you should be paying for things like shuttles and tours, and do not pay any more. I highly recommend the cheap and concise Real Havana (https://www.amazon.com/Real-Havana-Explore-Local-Money-ebook/dp/B00K12I6XA) which saved us tons of money finding good places and avoiding scams, not that you will regret or get scammed with Maria and Diego who are amazing. I should note though that the website says that a light breakfast is included here, and you can request a full breakfast which will cost extra. However we were just served the full breakfast without being asked and the cost appeared on our final bill. This wasn't a problem - it was reasonably priced - but this is worth knowing if you are travelling on a tight budget. The food here is exceptionally good and likely better than most restaurants in the town, however it is also on the expensive side, and there are some cheap and decent places in town, so I would recommend venturing out for a few meals (I particularly recommend the Finca). Also, I highly recommend that you do the tour to the tobacco farm (we did this through the tourist centre in town as you get a proper guide and it is cheap), but do not feel pressured to buy the cigars. You can get similarly priced official Cuban brands in Havana at the government Cigar stores. That said, I brought them and have enjoyed them all.

Mary And Diego are amazing!! I should put 10 millions stars!! We were 4 friends on vacation and we loved to stay at their casa with them. The all family was very nice to us and we felt like being at home at all time, even better than that ;)
They offer foods and cocktails, we ate all nights at their place because it was so delicious!! They help us for activities we wanna do, booking taxis or rent bikes for us...
The casa is very well located, in a peacefull and quiet country street, 5/10 minutes walking from the center of town. The perfect spot to relax. The view from the roof is amazing!!
The family even throw me a birthday party! They were so kind and loving like we were their own family. We were really happy to spend time with them.
We were all sad to leave them and we all cryied. I hope we can see them again sometime :)
For sure we never gonna forget them.
You can book this casa with your eyes closed, you're not going to regret this choice and it will be even better than expected!!