Havana Dance School & Hostel

Havana is the perfect hostel if you want to immerse yourself in the dance culture that is so huge in Cali. The facilities are always clean and the staff makes you feel at home. The group classes and private classes are some of the best in the city and great value for money too.

From the moment you arrive, the place feels just like home. It’s one of those rare spots where you meet people who quickly become your second family. ❤️
The experience here is the "Cali vibe" in its purest form. They offer fantastic dance classes at a great price with teachers who are incredibly sweet and patient. 💃🕺 I was honestly surprised by how much they offer—they even organize awesome group plans to go out dancing or explore the city together! ✨
A few highlights:
Rooftop Views: The view from the top is simply beautiful and the perfect place to relax. 🌇
Community Feeling: If you prefer a warm, family atmosphere over a generic stay, this is it. 🏠🤝
Great Value: Top-tier experiences and classes that are very budget-friendly. 💸👌
If you are looking for an authentic and welcoming stay in Cali, I highly recommend this place. I loved every minute of it! 🌟✨

The hotel itself is decent: clean, comfortable, and well located. Unfortunately, this does not make up for the experience with the staff.
Following a simple misunderstanding during a conversation, the situation escalated in a completely excessive way. Despite my apologies and sincere attempts to calm things down, there was no willingness to listen or understand. I was asked to leave without any real explanation.
I find this frankly unacceptable and highly unprofessional. Being a paying guest and getting kicked out despite apologizing is hard to justify.
Just a heads-up: be extremely careful with your interactions with the staff. Here, even a minor misunderstanding can quickly turn against you, with no room for dialogue.
It’s a shame, because with a bit of basic customer service, this place could be a good option. As it stands, I would not recommend it.

I had a very reasonably priced studio apartment with my own bathroom and kitchen and hammock. The instructors were very great and fun. The name of the place however, is a little misleading. With a name like Havana Hostal I was hoping they might have some Cuban style salsa. But alas, it was only Caleña. Still, if you want to learn Caleña it’s a great place.

Great and trustful dance classes! Highly recommend for those who wants to have a safe and fun time and learn some dance techniques.

Not good. It was very dirty and the dorm smelled like hell. I stayed here at the end of the feria and for new year's. Because of the time of the year, I had to pay 100k COP per night for a 6 bed dorm which was definitely not worth it. The staff does not put in any extra effort for cleaning or organising activities these days, so it's a same they charge so much more.
The kitchen and bathroom were disgusting, even after cleaning when the big crowds were gone. Seems like they only mop the floor. You will find a lot of semi aggressive messages of things you're not allowed to do and barely any motivational message or initiative to create good vibes among the guests. Sad.
The only good memory were the lovely other tourists with whom I ended up having a spontaneous new year's drink on the rooftop terrace.

Havana is honestly the best hostel in Cali! Been traveling for over a year and never felt so home; amazing and cheap dance classes with well qualified teachers, they offer group classes as well as private ones. Staff is incredibly nice too and you'll meet lots of travelers and nice people! Would definitely recommend and come again <3

I took the cheapest room, and definitely got what I paid for. Crowded, small and a little bit dirty. But the rest of the hostel was very nice. The have hammocks that overlook the city and the kitchens are good equipped. The dance lessons are in the hostel and maybe a little bit loud, but I had a good time there.

I stayed at Havana for a month and was very happy with the experience. I have learnt a great deal of salsa and bachata. The hostel staff is very friendly, by the way. The manager, Fernando, knows the names of guests and is always helpful with any request you may have. The cleaning and receptionist staff is always smiling and helpful, too. The location is very good. It's a safe residential area with many supermarkets close by without being too far away from the restaurant and party zone. The guests in the hostel tend to stay for at least a week, often many weeks, so it is a good place to chill and make friends. For this reason, it is a particularly good hostel for solo-travelers!

I stayed at Havana Hostel Cali for 5 days and had the best time! Super clean, great location, and the vibe is amazing. Boris and the reception team offer incredible service. We went out to clubs together, there’s always something fun happening, and I made so many new friends. Best hostel in Cali, no doubt!

Something weird happened in this hostel. I am always a very respectful guest. They had a Batchata social dance, which I thought it was free. There was noone on the entrance to pay to, and noone asked me to pay.
After the social, I received a message saying that I didn't respect the rules (which I didn't know) and that I have to check out until tomorrow. There was no warning before, noone from the stuff asked me to pay, they just sent this message telling me to leave the hostel!
Very unorganized on their communication and absolute lack of clarity on the rules, combined with super strict policy of expelleling guests.

Havana Hostel is a great place to stay. I had a lot of fun and met nice people. I enjoyed the Salsa and Bachata classes. The dance socials were very fun! I would highly recommend.
The terrace on the top floor has a very nice view and is a nice place to stay and a fun social area. The hammocks are very comfortable and I took many naps in them. The coworking space was great to get some work done!

Havana Hostel and Dance school is a great place to stay! I had fun at their Salsa and Bachata classes. The dance socials were very fun! I would definitely recommend to a friend.

This review is specifically for their social dance class and social dancing. My friend and I went to their bachata night and had the most unprofessional and disappointing experience. Both of us have been dancing for a few years across different countries and we have never been treated this way.
They require a test for students to attend intermediate class, which is unheard of but we were fine with it. However, when we went to the test, that's when things got really weird. There was a woman who was not even able to follow most of the warmup moves and clearly an early beginner who got approved for intermediate class. When the instructor got to us, he said we could not qualify and also disqualified everyone after us. This is utterly bizarre. If only advanced level dancers can pass, we wouldn't have a problem with it. But the fact that the teacher passed a clear beginner but failed us is unprofessional.
He said we had to go to the beginner class. See, if we were sent to a class that actually teaches movements we need to improve on, that would have been great. We appreciate any opportunity to learn. However, we were sent to beginner 101. We have been dancing for several years and beginner 101 was not a good use of our time at all.
When we raised this issue with one of the staff members, he couldn't care less. The professional response would be "we will discuss this internally and hope to improve in the future".

Avoid. There’s no intermediate level so either you’re in absolute beginner or advanced and this school puts you through a humiliating “audition” infront of everyone to determine your level. The dance rooms are also very small.

Amazing place! Only planned on staying for two nights but ended up staying for over a month over two periods of time. The dance teachers and classes are wonderful. Big recommendation and hoping to come back to this place one day.

I have stayed in a lot of hostel and Havana Histel has been the best!
The atmosphere invite you to share and talk with all the people around you. I stayed for 4 days and 1//2 and there iare always activities to do.
Everything was great and I am willing to get back again!
Special thanks to Mario, Alejo and all the staff :)