Amazing Resort and Beach

We returned on January 31st from the resort and were very satisfied with the service, property and food. The beaches in Cuba are spectacular, and they never dissappoint. The beach from this property and the sister hotel One Collection (a short beach walk away), was exceptional. The buffet had a great selection of food every day, the taste was impressive. This was my 4th time to Cuba and the flavour of the food was great. There are several grills and you can select your choice of meats. Breakf [... read more]ast had options of omelettes and pancakes which were made in front of you. These were options in addition to the buffet. We had amazing service by our waiters/waitress - Laura, Edismel, Geikel & Jorge. They were super friendly and always making sure that we had everything we needed at the buffet. There were several pools on the property, however I didn't get in as we prefer the beach. There were a few pools in a more quieter area of the property if you are looking for relaxation, and there were pools which had more guests with plenty of activity if you prefer this. My only recommendation is to request a room near the theatre area Block 14 if you are looking for a quieter area (evenings) are there more to relax. We had to request a change of room since it was a bit roudy for our taste by the main bar area where several hotel blocks are located. We visited the Spa at One Collection twice during our stay and it was amazing. The ambiance created at the spa proved to be a truly relaxing experience (they also have a sauna). Kudos to Anya and Robin who provided the most amazing massages. I would definitey recommend this hotel, and hope to return there again. There were no issues of water, elecricity, or food for the guests, which was one of my fears.

Amazing resort

This was an amazing experience for us. The hotel is clean and fairly new. The staff were soooo helpful. Crisp sharp black and white uniforms...smiling faces and eager to help. The food was amazing. Lots of variety and live entertainment during meals. They had roast beef! Been to Cuba many times and never had beef. Rooms were spacious and nicely decorated. Pillows are a little mushy. A nice surprise to find a butler in our building as well. The beach is stunning...STUNNING!!! We met many repeat  [... read more]guests. We will be back for sure. Thank you to Dana..Anthony at the buffet..Myron at the Italian restaurant and Jose our Butler

One Gallery Cayo Santa Maria

I have been to this hotel 5 times ! I love it , a great variety of foods and drinks it has a spectacular beach and what can I say about the staff … they are exceptional . Always smiling and ready to help and guide you . Sadly there is an epidemic of mosquitoes and no see em one must wear insect repellent because I was bad ! Some people told me to wear Vicks … I will bring some next time they have opened a new baby next door called the One collection which is a very nice hotel which is worth the [... read more] visit and stay . I will be back because they are like family . Don’t forget to visit the cigar bar if you go and maybe take a class on cigars if they still offer it .

Dream beach

Good service, pools and bars. Food better than other hotels. Only minor maintenance issues, none to keep you from coming back. Would recommend to friends and family. Jose was very attentive for anything needed regarding the resort. Danny at the lobby bar. Noel and Francisco at the sports bar.

Great hotel and staff

8 of us had an incredible stay at The One Gallery Hotel in Cuba! The hotel itself is fantastic, with beautiful rooms, amazing food, and an incredible beach that you can’t get enough of. What truly stood out, however, was the exceptional service from the staff. Special thanks to Jose Alberto and Yunior – the best butlers we could have asked for! Also, big kudos to the amazing cooks Barbaro and Jardano (spelling?), ladies preparing pancakes and fried rice and to the bartenders Yandriel, Luis Am [... read more]ado, his tall friend (sorry I forgot the name!), and of course Noel in the Sports Bar. The entertainment staff kept us engaged, the cleaning team kept everything clean, and the gardeners made the grounds look beautiful. You are all doing an amazing job, and we truly appreciate everything you did for us during our stay. We’ll definitely be back! Thank you The One Gallery!

Beautiful Beach

We had a beautiful week of sunshine! My review will be based on our personal experience May 12-19th. Pros, Easy check in, nice rooms, food & drinks plentiful! The beach is absolutely beautiful! Our butler Roberto was very helpful, and reception was quick to solve any questions or problem, especially Beatrice. Cons, Public washrooms need better attention! Ridiculous line ups at lunch pizza station, some ordering 8 pizza's at a time. Same with morning egg station!...the problem was mostl [... read more]y with locals. The worst was the flies...so many flies in the lobby and food areas. Not sure if it was the time of year, but we've never seen anything like it..

Beautiful Resort

I loved everything about this resort. The food was amazing, the staff were as always extremely friendly and helpful. The rooms were great. The entertainment was good as well. Lots to do. My only complaint is they need to do more entertainment during the day at the pool side. Everything happened at night, so it was very relaxing by the poolside, but would have been nice to have some entertainment, activities during the day at pool. The beach was absolutely beautiful. You could walk foreve [... read more]r.

It's an awesome resort.

This was our second visit and plan to return.The staff are wonderful people, beach is the best. The food was good and lots of it. Clean,comfortable and very well run.The staff became good friends we are looking forward to visiting them again next year.

Beautiful Art resort

The One Gallery is a beautiful resort. The grounds are well maintained and everything is pretty close together. The art work is unique and interesting. The lobby layout is weird. The sitting areas are all separated by large pillars making watching night time entertainment difficult and not enough indoor seating. There is ample outdoor seating on both sides of the lobby. The pool is not very deep but is big. We didn't try the secondary pool. Pool chairs were hard to come by unless you went early  [... read more]and put out your towels. The staff everywhere were friendly. The rooms were cleaned well and we had a very nice attendant. Our toilet didn't work for 2 days and received a number of excuses from the customer service. After they "fixed" it whenever it stopped working again we had to hit the side of the tank to get it to flush. We also had very little water pressure all week. The buffet was good. The cooking stations are in a separate section. There was a lot of seating areas. The animation team at the pool were good. Very repetitive but came up with fun games each day. As it was cold and rainy many days I feel like they could have done more to keep people entertained. The cigar bar was a nice little hideaway and the sports bar was excellent. The snack bar had good sandwiches and a pizza station at lunch. The night entertainment was good. The beach is beautiful! The pool bar was our favorite location. The staff Yoel went out of his way to serve people, make conversation and make his guests feel special.

Very nice resort

This hotel is really nice. I just wish there was an adults only section for some quiet times and our own restaurant. The music is so loud at the lobby at night. The buffet is also crazy loud and the lines or really long. Waiting forever for a fried egg. I like to go on holidays to spend as much time outside as possible. I just felt like waiting in line for the food at the cook stations were way too long. We would spend an hour for each meal if we waited for the cook stations so we chose the buff [... read more]et only instead. The food wasn't too bad though. It is Cuba after all but they did an amazing job with what they had for sure. I would come back to this resort now that I know all about it and to avoid long lines.

Great resort.

No complains about The One Gallery Hotel. Great location, beautiful beach and swimming pools. Great food and service. No food shortages. Very clean room, well maintained everyday. Super friendly staff.

Perfect!

The One Gallery Hotel was perfect for our family vacation! Great facility. Spacious, new, friendly staff. Plenty of food and AMAZING beach. We saw so many beautiful fish in the water and sea shells on the beach. You can book a paddle boat or a catamaran trip right on the beach. The BBQ chicken next to the snack bar was our kids' favorite. We went there based on our friends recommendation and now it is our turn to highly recommend!

The best in Cuba

This resort was absolutely stunning,the grounds were beautiful from the gardens to the displays of art all over the resort the rooms ,lobby area restaurants, pool everywhere was emaculate . There were so many little areas to sit and enjoy the surroundings and have a cocktail or a delicious cappuccino . The food was good but the staff were what made this resort outstanding, so warm and helpful .we have been to Cuba many times and we love the Cuban people and the staff and this resort are very spe [... read more]cial. Oh and it goes without saying the beach and the ocean was total paradise

Beautiful resort

We stayed at The One Gallery resort for 2 amazing weeks at the end of September 2023. The hotel is beautiful, and new, with lots of art decorations. The beach is huge, lots of shade and beach chairs and the water was so good and clear you can spend the whole day in it. The personnel are very friendly, always smiling and there to help. The food was very good with lots of variety and nicely displayed, compliments to the chefs. I would like to mention a few waitresses and waiters: Lizai, Yes [... read more]enia, Yoni, Magdiel at the buffet restaurant or Elizabeth and Alexandro at a-la carte restaurants. Not to forget the housekeeper Eli who did a great job and made nice towel displays and solved our faucet problem. Also I'd like to mention the butlers, and customer service personnel who were always ready to help. We will go back anytime.

Amazing Resort and amazing Beach!

We spent 14 days in this hotel, and we would like to share our experience. We had a Sunwing flight which was on time both directions. The hotel is new and clean. Our room was excellent. The food: we had a lot of choice (even if I am not a kind of person who eats everything). Activities: in the morning on the beach, in the afternoon in front of the pool and in the evening in the lobby. Workers are positive and sociable. While 14 days no rain, the water and the b [... read more]each were excellent. So, we liked a lot our vacation and we definitely would recommend it!

Amazing resort

beautiful place everting is close the beach pool restaurant, for people the can't walk is good , if you need for anything talk with LORA costumer service the help you , the hotel is niece and clean .

Started well, and then things went terribly!

I have travelled to Cuba many times, starting about 25 years ago, going almost every year. It was great to see how tourism has lifted the Cuban people, especially the ones working in the tourism industry. Over the years, I dropped off many items, colouring books, crayons, pencils, pens and soccer balls, to all the Cuban regions I visited as a traveller. It was always worth renting a scooter or a car to help these poor and suffering people compared to us Canadians. I remember dropping off items [... read more] at a local church/school and the priest telling me they need new educational school books. I have always loved the service and hospitality of the Cuban people. If you tip, it is always appreciated and respected. If you look at the monthly Cuban salary, that tip always mattered greatly to them. Unfortunately, my last trip to Hotel Selectum, Santa Maria, was terrible, making it my worst vacation in Cuba. The first few days were excellent; the Hotel was new, the beaches were great, the gym was good, and the service was terrific. I was so happy I made the decision. Then on Good Friday, busloads of locals came into the resort, with it being Easter weekend and kids not being in school. This changed the whole outcome of my two-week vacation. The first thing you notice when going to the buffet is that the locals would push and bump ahead of you in line. They never smiled and were quite rude and piled on the food. When you're waiting in line at the meat grill, there are normally 6-8 people in front of you and was a 10-15 minute wait. Now the locals would pile on their plates with the grilled meat with 10-20 pieces and two plates each. Suddenly, the wait was 5-10 times longer because management allowed this hoarding. There was a fresh platter of smoked ham at the buffet, and two people (locals) in front of me took the whole plater. It was crazy what we were all seeing, and I was starting to hear the frustration of all Canadian tourists. I also had my chair taken on me at dinner before I finished, and I had people at lunch take my table when I had my knapsack on my chair. With the influx of people, there was always something missing, whether its food, paper towels, desert bowls, cutlery, etc. You could never enjoy your meal in this madhouse situation. On the first day of the local's arrival, the pool was packed, and it was a big party, which was excellent. The following day I noticed the pool was green and that there were algae. I have pictures of algae floating around in the pool. It was insane how much algae there was. There was staff trying to remove it. I'm in the water treatment profession and know you need to shock it, and some algae are resistant to chlorine, meaning you might need to dump the whole pool. I only went into the pool one day before I noticed the algae and did not enter the pool for the rest of the two weeks. It always had a green colour tinge to it. This was so concerning me and my group of friends that we decided to change Hotels. We spoke to the Sunwing rep, and they talked to the management of Selectum. The manager asked us to stay and said this was only for Easter weekend. A Dominican Republic lady working for Selectum and helping them start up the Hotel also stated this was temporary. So we decided to stay. Unfortunately, after Easter Monday, it was calm for a few days, and busloads started returning. The Hotel management lied to us about this overcrowding being temporary. The service at the Main Lobby bar also changed, it did not matter how much you tipped in the past, and I tipped every time I ordered; there were now too many people and too few staff to keep up with demand. The elevators in my building were down 7 or 8 times in the two weeks, and the hot water was not always working. The refrigerator's complementary water bottles and soft drinks were repeatedly not replenished. Cuban food was always substandard; things were lacking from day to day. I always accepted it as part of a third-world country. I never complained about this and focused on the good, including helping the Cubans. Over the years, I have encouraged hundreds of my friends, co-workers and family to visit Cuba. I did not know the Cuban tourist dollar was discontinued before I left. I had 80 dollars (about 100 CDN)with me; now, it was a worthless piece of paper. When I landed, I always went to exchange my money at the Airport because they always offered the best exchange rate. For $350 CDN, I received around $30000 pesos. It was so much paper money in $500 Cuban bills I had to hide it in my luggage. When I got to the airport bus to the Hotel, they told me not to exchange the money and use Canadian or American dollars. They can't exchange coins, so don't bring Looney or Tooneys. The best solution for tips to hotel staff is now US $1 and CDN $5 bills. Unfortunately, I could not return my Cuban Pesos to CDN dollars, which is another sign of how quickly they can take our money and are not there to help us. Its policies like this are only devised to rip us off. Everyone at the Hotel, including in the Lobby, was uncooperative in providing me with change for the Peso. I'm stuck with about $150 CDN value of Cuban pesos. If I never return to Cuba, it's also a worthless piece of paper. Finally, so many locals had been sick at the Hotel, and I noticed they were congested and coughing, and I then caught a cold or maybe even covid. I'm taking care of my aging parents in their late 80s, and the last thing I wanted to do was risk getting them covid. In the reviews on TripAdvisor, it was a Hotel that had just opened with few people staying at the Hotel and only had 3 reviews. This is the worst I've been in terms of being sick since covid started in 2019. I hope my parents don't catch whatever this is. Where were Tripcentral, SellOff Vacations, Sunwing and Tripadvisor in all of this? We are the customer, and they allow us to go blindly into Cuba. When someone complains on Tripadvisor about anything, Trip Advisor quickly states they are not responsible for these negative customer comments. What about taking a stand and protecting us, the consumer? Especially when it comes to safety, like when algae are floating in a pool. What about working with the Cuban government and Hotel management in teaching and instituting rules and etiquette for the locals? There used to be many Europeans travelling to Cuba, and now it's all or mostly Canadians. Many Canadians at this Hotel have told me they are not returning to Cuba. What about protecting the Cuban tourist workers that have allowed them to have a better life in Cuba? I'm not against Cuban people; I have always helped and proudly given them lots of money and goods. It was my pleasure helping them. I also hope Tripcentral, SellOff Vacations, Sunwing and Tripadvisor and the rest of the tourist industry work together and help get the Cuban schools modern Spanish educational books. Modern education would help lift the Cubans in the long run, and most Canadians would gladly support that. I feel that Cubans and Canadians get along so well because we are alike in being kind and generous. It's all the management at every level that is ruining this now. I hope they take action and do better. Sadly until I see positive changes, I'm not returning to Cuba. I'm also rescinding my recommendations to all my friends, co-workers and family to visit Cuba.