Yet another of the Soviet-era, Bauhaus style, three-story, pre-fab concrete structures doing duty throughout Cuba as hospitals, hotels, and apartment houses. This one abuts the city's vast Plaza de la Revolución, on the northeast edge of the city. 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. For better or worse, there's a disco here, and the boom, boom, boom is often sufficient to wake the dead into the wee hours.

The air-conditioned rooms here are simply furnished, yet appear fresh with their surfeit of clinical whites (white floors, white curtains, white spreads). All have satellite TV, phones, and mini-refrigerator, and the recently upgraded bathrooms have been fitted with modern fixtures. However, there's no guarantee here of hot water – or even any water at all!