Amazing Resort

This hotel is awesome. The staff are very welcoming and go out of their way to make you feel welcomed. The restaurants always had plenty of food, we didn’t experience any food or beverage shortages. The hotel is extremely clean. The pool and beach have the animation teams that provide activities for you should you choose to participate and in the evening there’s quality entertainment. The Blau is the only hotel I go to in Varadero. I can’t wait to go back!

Blau Varadero is fantastic!

Blau Varadero is a beautiful hotel. The grounds are always very well maintained, and the buildings are always clean. We have been to this resort on multiple occasions and we have never been disappointed. The staff are very friendly and welcoming.

Worth it

We went from Toronto YYZ to Varadero on Sun Jan 11-18. We arrived super later due to delayed flight. We chose select. If you’re even thinking about choosing it, just do it. ARRIVAL: Front desk staff was excellent and spoke better English than a lot of current Canadians. They were fast, explained everything we needed to know and do, and got us to our room quickly. They continued to be helpful for the entire trip when needed. ROOM: Our room was clean, AC on and working great. Everything  [... read more]we needed. Water and beer and cola. 2 beds instead of a king so we pushed them together. They were a bit too firm for our liking but that is just personal preference. Doesn’t mean all the beds are this way. The room was updated. The bathroom was not, but it was clean and not disgusting. It was good. FOOD: This is Cuba. Although we had never been, I had done my research and listened to others who had travelled to this country. I set my expectations low. Firstly, there was always lots of food. Maybe not a wide variety, but you won’t starve. Every day seemed like the variety was becoming more and more. Breakfast- Large variety of food from cereal to omelets. They make the omelets and eggs right on the flat top grill in front of you. Toppings for the omelets include ham, onion, peppers, spinach, pineapple, peppers and sometimes other stuff. Fruit, bread(they had a toaster), eggs and even crepes or super thin pancakes. They had coffee and juice. There’s no traditional bacon or sausage like you would find at home. There’s diced hot dogs and possibly some kind of pork. Plenty of food but not an enormous variety. I had an omelet, a little bit of mashed potato and a couple pieces of hot dogs and was stuffed. Could have just had the omelet and been full. Just for reference I am 6’7” tall and not thin and love to eat. Lunch- Great buffet. Pretty good variety of food for Cuba. Pasta available every day with stuff to go in it as well(cheese, ham, onion, tomato, spinach, sometimes more). Fish, several kinds of pork, a few days beef and almost every day chicken. Veggies and fruit, bread, potatoes, salad. Quite a variety considering the country. There are also burgers. Now, these are not what you will be used to. They are more like sliders sized. But they are tasty. There was ketchup and mustard and mayo. All of them are not the same as you would buy in a grocery store. They had pastries for desert and even ice cream. Beach Bar Lunch- I just wanted to throw this in quickly before I forgot about it. There is a bar 100’ from the beach along the boardwalk where you can get lunch. Burgers and even fries. The only place on the resort I saw fries. Everything was great there. They have throwaway containers so you can take your lunch back to the beach. Super convenient. Grab lunch and a refill of booze and head back to the beach. After the scheduled lunch time, you can get ham and cheese sandwiches which they grill. After 4pm they have chicken available but I’m not sure for how long. They are not awesome. But, if you need a little filler in between meals or to soak up a little alcohol, they hit the spot. They are similar to a grilled cheese. Ketchup and mustard available. Dinner- The same kind of variety as expected. Pork, chicken, hotdogs and some nights fish. They had more and more beef as the week went by which was a nice surprise. Again they had the flat top grills going cooking chicken, fish or beef. One night they had lamb. Didn’t expect that. Pasta, bread, veggies, potatoes, pumpkin, some seafood, fruit and salad. Something that everyone needs to be aware of: The sooner you go to eat, the more variety there is. They run out of stuff because there is not lots of every single thing. Some things they have lots of. This applies specifically to the à la cartes. À la cartes- There are 2. International and Italian. The lunch buffet building by the pool is one of them and there is a separate building by the tennis courts for the other. Now, if you book a later dinner time, you might not have all the menu choices. We heard through people we met that this happened to them. Not a big menu. International was a beef plate, chicken plate or veggie plate. Came with an appetizer, piece of bread and a desert. We booked 7pm and had no issues. Others who booked later on had chicken available and one dessert option. The chicken was excellent at both restaurants. The Italian menu was similar with a pasta option I believe. If you book select, you get 2 à la cartes to start with the option of a third if it’s available. Not guaranteed. We didn’t even try to book a third one. We didn’t care. Buffet was great for us. Bars: There are 6 bars. Not all are open at the same time. Drinks are served differently sometimes from bar to bar. There is an actual bar on the beach which is super convenient and then the beach bar and bathrooms 100’ away. There is one bar only for select guests. The Quiet bar. It’s off to the side of the pool a bit. Has indoor and outdoor sitting areas. Better quality alcohol and more variety along with some chips, olives and nuts to snack on. There is a coffee bar. I’m not a variety coffee guy so I can’t really critique it. They gave me a cup with coffee in it and it woke me up as coffee should. Espresso, cappuccino, Irish, americano, cafe mocha. Maybe one or two that I just can’t remember. Open 7-5 which is great for that mid afternoon grogginess that creeps up sometimes. A few pastries available also while they last. Overall cleanliness: This resort is clean. There are workers going at it 24/7. We arrived at 1am and did a quick tour before bed and there were people working at 2am. Bathrooms are clean and taken care of. Did not see one clogged toilet. Don’t flush toilet paper. Many bathrooms in convenient spots. Staff: Super friendly, super polite. Down to earth people just trying to do their job and keep everyone happy. There is a bit of a language barrier sometimes. Not always. Learn a bit of Spanish, even just a few words here and there to make communication easier. You can always look up anything on your phone. Wifi: It’s ok. It’s not awesome and it’s not garbage. If you want to scroll Facebook all day, no problem. If you want to upload video reviews of resorts you may have issues. You may need a vpn to access some apps. I downloaded songs and watched videos with almost no issues. Wifi works great in the hotel and around the pool. Pool: One pool. It’s fairly big. It’s clean. Seating fills up fairly quickly like every other resort. I did notice however, the seats were filled all the time. No empty seats with a towel holding it for someone for hours and hours. The Beach: What you are really in Cuba for. It doesn’t disappoint. It’s huge. Long and wide. Lots of seating. A large area for select guests. Beds to rent for regular guests and beds for the select guests. The water is warm. The sand is powder. It is paradise. The colour of the water is the same as all the advertising pictures or videos you’ve ever seen. Clean and tidy and like I said before, it even has its own bar. Vendors do come to the beach but they stay down near the water and are not super pushy. There is a quad that bogeys down the beach that can make you a drink out of a pineapple along with the pieces of pineapple they carve out to make room for the drink. Blau beach area(in the water and land) is all sand. No rocks or coral reefs. We walk partway towards the end of the strip along the beach and Blau has a far far superior beach setup and section. Entertainment: There is always something going on. There is a schedule on the wall of the first floor by the one elevator that is probably 10’ long with hourly activities and nightly activities. Yoga by the beach or pool, dancing by the beach or pool, ring toss game, bocce ball, archery, pool tables, ping pong tables, badminton, pool volleyball, beach volleyball, tennis, basketball and I’m sure I’m missing some. Pool foam party on Fridays at 4pm. There is a sauna and hot tub. A gym, a doctor and a pharmacy. There are 2 stores. A few clothes and soaps/shampoo and meds in one and cigars in the other. Nightly entertainment starts at around 9:30. They have a stage. Dancing, quiz night and magic shows, white night, Canadian night and Cuban night. There is an area called the piano room. It has a bar that is not really open until the evening. A singer who was excellent. Very talented. And sometimes someone will play the piano with her who was also very skilled. Very adaptable with the genre of music. Can play/sing old and new songs. Convenient for all ages. Late night disco every night at 11:30pm on the beach. Some things I’ve seen in reviews that perhaps need some clarification. The main bar is indoors on the first floor and you can smoke at the tables all around it and at the bar. I’m a smoker but I understand this bugs people. It’s Cuba. It’s a smoking country. There are sections where there is no smoking. The piano bar and the central lobby area with all sorts of seating. The piano bar area has an outdoor smoking area. This place is wheel chair accessible for the most part. Two sets of 2 elevators and ramps where needed. You will not be able to navigate the beach in a wheelchair but you will be able to come to it on the boardwalk. I would highly recommend this resort. Even people on our bus to the airport including the bus guide spoke highly of this resort (and a couple others I Airport to hotel was 40 minutes(ish). You have to drop off others at resorts. Hotel is about halfway up the peninsula.

First time going, solo on a trip.Best trip ever, thank you so much for this experience

I'm at that age that all i'm chasing is peace.And this resort gave me that so happy that I came to this hotel.Wes jet, so proud of you.So smooth tripadvisor super smooth.You guys are the best.I'm going back in march and i'm gonna use you guys again.All the best two thousand twenty six.Thank you so much for that experience

Amazing resort!!!

Amazing resort, very clean, great people. We stayed on the 6th floor with the ocean view - room was perfect. Food was fine. The animation staff just amazing. Oh, the beach and the ocean are incredible!!!

Mixed feelings on Blau

The grounds, rooms and public areas are great, so is the beach. The pool area was OK, old and tired. Broken and missing under water lights, lack of cleaning, fixtures such as handrails and water volleyball net posts, were either loose or pulling out of the cement. We saw the same debris in the pool, day after day. Found many of the staff indifferent and the food quality was by far the worst we have ever had in Cuba. The ala carts were not worth going to. We had 4 reservations during th [... read more]e week, 2 at the Italian and 2 at the International. After trying both one we never went back again. From the reviews we read, this was not what we expected. We had staff and longtime returning quests tell us that Blau is no longer managing the hotel, and the Cuban hotel management company is taking it over. We also had returning guests tell us they were extremely disappointed with things and that since March the place had gone downhill fast.

Good resort

Hotel grounds are beautiful, really nice resort. Lobby bar needs more help , they are not fast and don't care even if u tip them well. They do not want to take there own currency, always asking for US dollars, then if u don't have a nice crispy US bill they won't take it. Air conditioner needs to be cleaned filters etc, that might stop the mold and bad smell in the rooms . Over all yes good place

Blau Varadero - Amazing Beach!

Overall, I did enjoy my stay at this resort. This is a 20 year old resort that has been very well maintained. There are a few areas that need fixing up, but overall its still really nice. Great, comfortable beds. AC, water pressure, hot water, all very good. This is also a very lively resort. Shows every night and a "disco" at the beach bar with a dj. I found the staff here very, very good. Everyone was very friendly and went out of their way to help you any way they could. The absol [... read more]ute best thing about this resort is the beach. Absolutely breathtaking. Having a bar right on the beach is a major plus as well. Obviously, being the off season, food was lacking and I am not sure if the lack of quality of food is due to being low season or whether it is just the state of Cuba at the moment, but the food was my only disappointment.

Amazing resort!

We returned to Blau Varadero after 20 years - beautiful resort with friendly staff, lots of food selection, clean grounds, sandy beach but you need patience waiting on the elevators but overall for the price - no complaints.

Fantastic week… almost perfect

This was my first visit to this Blau resort but not my first time in Cuba or at a Blau property and as usual it was fantastic, from food which was delicious, The à la cartes even better, just the buffet gets a bit repetitive at times but we switched it up… to the cleanliness of the property, the rooms, etc everything worked great! Some bad service at lobby bar though it seems the one gentleman working there only served pretty girls and rolled eyes at men or slammed stuff around, however most oth [... read more]er nights the lobby bar had great service and lots of other bars to go to anyways… I would definitely return here

Amazing as always

It was my 19 times at the Blau. I have just good words about the hotel and his excellent staff. The Blau is my home away from home. I celebrated my 69’s while I was there and have an amazing dinner with friends. Definitely would recommend the Blau Varadero.

Ok resort but won’t return

We arrived in the evening Check in went smooth Was able to grab late supper at buffet.,before it closed. The elevators are horrible, you have to wait and wait they only hold 7 ppl at a time and no ventilation, so very hot. Room was very nice withi lots of space. . Wonderful view. Our room was kept clean every day. We had the select room with the benefit of the select breakfast in a special area in the buffet restaurant where they wait on you and serve you breakfast from a small menu..  [... read more]We waited and waited for someone to come and start with some water. No body came, so we grabbed our own breakfast from the buffet. Then we were served coffee and water. Next day we sat and waited to be served. Again It took awhile before anyone came to greet us, with the menu to get started. They look straight at us and still no service. They need to get organized.. We should have had better service. It took the four of us at least a hour and a half to start and finish breakfast. We were left waiting way too long. It was as if they wanted us to go get our own food. This is what we paid for. We tried it a couple more times and same thing every time. We were not impressed. The ppl working in the buffet are very friendly and pleasant but not organized. We even sat in a different part of the buffet and we had better service! The pool was not even vacuumed while we were there. Lots of sand on the bottom. The lobby bar in the evening was horrible! We waited in line of 20 minutes to get a drink. They need to hire more bartenders and servers. So we ended up going to the select bar. Finally the best place to be. Great service great drinks, air conditioning and light snacks. Don’t know there names but the bartender and waitress was the best.❤️ The lunch buffet was always very busy. So we always went to the burger shack for lunch. Got sick of that. The resort was full to capacity which make it worse. Ppl were like vultures, taking all the cheese and ham slices on the tray and waiting for them to bring out more. Ppl don’t care anymore it all about themselves. Would I go back NO Also ppl would reserve the lounge chairs around the pool and would come later. We had a hard time finding 4 chairs together! Overall this place was ok but we will not return. This was our 5th time to Cuba, so we know what to expect. The ppl of Cuba are wonderful ❤️

Blau Varadero - Stay August 22 - August 29, 2025

The hotel is showing signs of aging and is in need of updating/repairs. We had several issues: leaky air conditioner, cupboard doors were not working (stuck), patio doors that did not make contact which shut off the air conditioning (used a hanger to remedy this), coffee maker did not work. Most of these issues where rectified quickly when brought forward. House Keeping: not up to expectations (room not made up until 5:00 p.m when we are trying to get ready to go out and had the maid in [... read more] our room), had to call front desk for soap (none left), shampoo and body wash. The cleaning was minimal and not as thorough as we have had in other Varadero hotels. Huge mosquito infestation during first days of our vacation. I know this is environmental and beyond the hotels control but my concern was when they were doing th fumagation of the shrubs around the restaurants; right around the dinner hour when guests are going to dinner. This should be done in the early morning hours when there are less guests affected. Food - they don't seem to have this figured out. We spent so much time waiting in line for food, whether at the buffet or at the beach snack bar. There seems to be a lack of coordination when it comes to how the line's are coordinated (guests budding in front of other guests because of the lack of organization). They seem to prepare the minimum amount forcing the guests to wait in line (ie. cooking 6 burgers at a time when there are 20 people waiting in line) I don't think I would return to Blau Varadero as we have been to the Melia Internacional and Melia Las Americas and there is not comparison. Melia's have a much higher standard when it comes to food variety and volume, cleanliness of rooms and overall condition of the hotels. Also much better selection of restaurants and bars.

Great experience

If you know Cuba and it’s political situation you would understand to why people from Canada choose this Country! I love thiese natural, virgin amazing beaches that this Country offers! It’s People is the second reason I visited this place! In varadero - Blau Varadero resort considering the low season and light issues that Country suffers, i really was surprised that we couldn’t tell a thing! The food was as per Cuban standards- not bad, and not great! As per rooms- yes could be outdated but con [... read more]sidering the years that this hotel has, to us was great! What i was impressed with was the towels that we forgot and lost. Sarah, one of the managers at the checkout lobby was more than professional the way she handle it! We didn’t pay the fee of 15$ each towel if lost by the guests! I know that i will go back and if you are considering at this day and age travelling to varadero, Blau Varadero its in the low budget and fun to go. However Top three resorts depending on your budget staring from most expensive if you could afford are #1- Melia International #2- Sol Palmeras #3- Blau Varadero

Fantastic Spot

Just returned from the Blau Varadero. This is a fantastic resort. Nice and compact in size. We had a Select Oceanview Room. Perfect. Great balcony to sit on looking at the pool and ocean. Everything worked great in the room. Air conditioner...awesome! Beer, Water, and Pop in the fridge. Great water pressure in the shower and hot if you want it. Our house keeper was great. She kept everything nice and clean. The lobby at this place is amazing!!! Totally unique. I’ve been to many different resort [... read more]s. Nothing like this one! We had Select so we also had access to the Chill Out Bar in the evening. Very nice (air conditioned) spot to hang out for a drink or cappuccino (delicious). The staff there are so friendly! Select also has a morning breakfast restaurant. Order from the menu. We went there most days. Food at this resort was great. I’m a picky eater. Lots of selection. No shortages for us. The 2 a la carte restaurant were yummy. The beach….so beautiful! Soft white sand. The water is nice and warm but refreshing. We’ve been to many different resorts in Cuba. 4-5 stars. The Blau for us was definitely a 5 Star. We’ve never gone to the same resort twice but I could see us returning here.

WORST Hotel I've ever been

Washroom door knob fell on my toes, rooms so ordinary, filthy surroundings, Foods taste AWEFUL, Fruit Drinks taste nothing, same shit foods served daily, we ended up buying our food elsewhere, pool opens at 10am - 5pm while sun still up and shining so hotel is quite the whole time, No entertainment , No nightlife at all. We sneak at nearby hotels like Paradisus wherein lots of guess partying and enjoying their stay. Highly NOT Recommended this Hotel, it's waste of time and money. It's easy to  [... read more]buy Good Reviews.

Amazing resort!

The Beach is amazing, it is perfect! The staff is both professional & friendly. Plenty of food & delicious drinks! A nice variety of music & entertainment. The resort is kept well clean. We had a great time!

Great resort!

The rooms were just 'ok.' the resort however was beautiful. The ocean was postcard perfect, pool was very nice and the entertainment staff was amazing. Plenty to do. There was always stuff to eat and option. We are going back next year. ?

Blau Varadero is the top hotel

Since January 2025 the hotel improved in terms of hospitality and vaiety of food. It's major improvement and the staff is the reason we always come back to Blau Varadero. It's the staff, it is the entertainment and the quality of food.

Excellent Week at the Blau Varadero!

Arrived home on Wednesday from the Blau Varadero and had a wonderful time! The resort was beautiful - very clean and well maintained. The lobby area is serene and beautiful with the hanging plants and gardens! We upgraded to Select which was nice. The room was spacious, comfortable and clean and our upgraded view of the ocean and bay was breathtaking! The staff are hardworking and attentive. Besides the wonderful Cuban people, we come for the beautiful white sand beach and crystal clear ocean!  [... read more] The food was plentiful and pretty good. We did not have any difficulty finding something delicious to eat. No notable shortages with respect to food or drink and no problem with wifi while we were there. The Select Clubhouse was a nice touch with snacks and upgraded beverages. We would definitely recommend this resort and go back for a repeat visit. Our only recommendations to make this resort top-level would be with respect to the Select upgrade. At check-in, there is a separate check-in desk, but no one was sitting there and we had to line up at the registration desk with everyone else and then we were taken to the desk to finish check-in and receive a glass of sparkling wine. To make Select guests feel special, they should be greeted immediately and then directed to the separate check-in desk. Also, the Select area on the beach is no different then the other area. Perhaps some upgraded loungers with tables for your drinks. Also, we only had chair service at the beach one day, other than that we went up to the bar ourselves. A special mention to our maid Iryas, who took good care of us. Our friend Javier, who gave us excellent service at the snack bar, beach bar and buffet. Yohanis in the Select bar, who greeted us with a smile everyday and made our delicious drinks. Finally, Marilyn at the a la carte reservation desk, who was very helpful and pleasant and Carlos at the Italian restaurant, who was always smiling and attentive. There are many more, but I did not get all of their names. Overall, a wonderful time at the Blau Varadero!