Great resort, but too big!

The hotel is great! Staff is great! However it’s a little big and there are not enough staff or amenities to accommodate all the patrons. Would I go back, sure. The grounds are beautiful and large! Be prepared to walk, which I did not mind. Nightly entertainment was great in the lobby. In the theatre should have more interactive themed shows. The beach party was amazing!

Not disappointed

I was a bit weary based on some reviews, but I was not disappointed with Perla Blanca. Food is not the best I’ve had on a resort but it was far from being bad. If anything, it needs day to day variety, but what is served is good. The beach is gorgeous, softest sand I’ve walked on, bluest water I’ve swam in. And it is peaceful for you to relax! The pools are also great, interesting shapes and different levels, and central to each “living quarters” hubs. Speaking of hubs: if  [... read more]you want to party and / or don’t mind loud music all day long, get a room in the 200s (east side). If you want a quieter pool / room, request a room in the 300s (west side). Most staff is amazing, friendly, efficient, and I was amazed at how quickly they all would remember our names and our favorite drinks. 5 stars for service, both in bars, room service, and restaurants! Shout-out to Henry (mgr) Claudia (entertainment), and Jose (bartender)! If I have a single complain it’s toward the TripCentral agent who - despite advertising she had been to Perla Blanca before - told me there was no such thing as a “party” versus “quiet” side (even if I had read there was in a review)... yet once I got there not only was it clearly obvious there was a HUGE difference, but staff were very well aware of it. Robyn: there’s even signs around the 300 pool saying “Relax Pool” and “Quiet Pool”, and “RELAX” is written in huge letters at the bottom of the pool. Last but also least important: WiFi is crappy and only available in the lobby (WHEN it works!)... but come on, you’re on vacation. Leave the iPhone in your room, or just use it to take amazing photos! Bon voyage!

Worse vacation ever

the resort is very sunned down,a lot of things were broken and by the looks of it it had been for a while. Public washrooms the stall doors didn't have locks. no toilet paper for the most part and they do not believe in soap not one washroom had soap for you to wash your hands after using the washroom. i was there 2 weeks the pools were never vacuumed the cement around the pools where our chairs were got washed once and that's because it rained that day it was always sticky and full of bird poo [... read more]p our chairs had bird poop if we wanted a cushion to be comfortable because the netting on the chairs were sagging we had to pay for it. the beach did not have enough chairs or shade for everyone which was a shame because the beach has potential they would bring you a chair if you paid for it but noting beat the buffet waiting in line for 30 min for dinner,breakfast or lunch same food everyday empty stations everyday found a hair twice and an ant in my salad i was so grossed out the last 3 days of my vacation i spent in bed from food poisoning i could not stand the smell of stuff that was coming out of me as for bugs the place was infested with cockroaches and mosquitoes this place was no 4.5 stars i would rate this a 2.5 star

Very nice resort.

It was our last trip to Cuba. We went to Valentin Perla Blanca resort in Santa Maria. we got a privilege package. Right from the beginning everything was wrong. Our first impression was, that we suppose to apologize crew that we came. Let's make it short. Pros. Very nice resort. Beautiful beach. Fantastic weather. Very nice job by the people who take care of green space. Humm? That's it. Cons. DIRTY rooms. Very bad room service. If you won't ask to get your room cleaned they won't do [... read more] it. Mini bar not refiled without our intervention. Towels in the room not even close to white colour. Beach towels you stick with them ALL time you are at the resort. Food terrible every day same not much choice and cold. For example just one juice orange mixed 50/50 with water. A la carte restaurants not much better. Bartenders not pleasant unless you give tip for every drink you get. If you have privilege package to get the chair at the beach you have to pay, otherwise all the chairs are taken, and the only choice you have is towel on the sand in full sun. Overal DO NOT GO THERE.

Disappointed

Ran out of food often. Couldn’t get a beach towel until the third day. Unfriendly staff. Resort in poor condition. Slow service at front desk. Lack of information provided about amenities. Jjjjjjjjjjjjj

Cant beat the price

Compared to Dominican or Mexico (Mayan side) its a bit lower on quality but it make up for it on price. As this was my first trip to Cayo Santa Maria and reading some lower reviews, I was surprised by the better than expected food. The hotel ran out of some food over the week I was there but there was enough of everything else. They weren't cheap on the drinks and the service was good.

Beautiful resort

I will not be returning to this resort. Found the staff very rude unless they were being given a tip. Food was okay, could have been cooked better. Roof was leaking. Great access to the beach. Beach was amazing. Male workers were pulling female guests into corners to kiss them. No toilet paper in the washrooms. Very bad overall.

Valentin Perla Blanca, Cayo Santa Maria Review

We recently stayed at this resort from April 2-April 11/19. From arrival to airport to resort , travel by bus took approximately 2hours, however cold beers on bus for 2.50 each. Upon arrival, there was a line up to check in. The line up ran pretty smooth, most rooms were not ready as we arrived at around noon time. Rooms were ready around 330pm. Rooms were clean, however struggled on a daily basis to get water restocked in our fridge, to the point of calling front desk and requesting that we [... read more] have a bottle of water daily. This did help after about the third day. Buffet- due to the size of resort, only one buffet open, plus two snack bars during Breakfast and Lunch, food comes out and is at times gone as quickly as the staff can prepare at times. Omelette bar was always great for breakfast, usually a line up, but it’s vacation! Lunch and supper time- usually kind find something to eat and the pasta bar was always delicious. However, I have never in my life seen people fight over or run to food in my life , such as I did here. Most days it was a sight to see, you would think people have never ate. As well as rudeness to staff and other guests. A la Cartes- we went to each one, I can not stress how great the food at each one was, staff were prompt, food was hot, they work hard to exceed expectations and no fighting over food! Lobby bars were hit and miss depending on day, however staff were amazing at these bars and work very hard to ensure guests requests are met. Due to the remote area they would run out of things, beer( Cristal) was one of them, however they were pretty quick to replenish with a different type of beer. Pools- water in the activity pool was cloudy, tiles missing and very hard to get a pool lounger as people would apply towels very early in the am ( as early as 530am)to secure their chair for the day. Always something fun going on at the activity pool. Bathroom facilities close to activity pool very dirty, liquid feces all over female bathroom including counter, toilet, floor and door. The activity pool is loud. The quiet pool is exactly that, quiet, however pool lounger issue is the same, pool appeared cleaner than activity pool, swim up bar not as crowded. Bathroom facilities cleaner. Beach- the beach is absolutely beautiful/ large beach with multiple beach bars. There is also a beach BBQ around 1300. Loungers on the beach closes to the Rancheon and block 24 very difficult to obtain unless it’s 3-4pm as people secure these as well. Nightly entertainment was great! Lobby always had some type of entertainment taking place, there were a group of three who played on a regular basis and were absolutely amazing. Lobby staff work very hard to keep things organized and clean unfortunately due to the size of resort/ amount of people the lobby becomes packed very quickly in the evening. Bathroom facilities through out resort were hit and miss some were clean, some were disgusting. It really depend on what part of the resort you were at, toilet paper was scarce( we carried toilet paper everywhere’s we went) it’s Cuba-toilet paper can be an issue wherever you go in this country. Due to the state of some bathrooms would recommend taking hand sanitizer. Overall, the beach was beautiful, sun was warm and drinks were cold. We immersed ourselves in the Cuban culture on and off resort as we love to explore Cuba, however we will not return to this resort. A lot of noted issues were more impart due guests vs staff. Resort is packed during high season and ? Not enough staff to keep running smooth. It is a very large resort, anyone who has difficulty getting around may find this resort difficult to maneuver. The people of Cuba are always amazing, if you get a chance do the Santa Clara/Remidos excursion. It was great. Las Estrella market is great too. You can take the double decker bus to the market for 2$ pesos.

Loved the adult only aspect!

Thank you to Kevin Dupuis for upgrading us we really appreciated the 9 hours free Wifi. The hotel employees are the best! We had great service with smiles and some special treatment by these incredible people. This resort is huge, so a lot of walking and lineups at the buffet. Because of the line ups at the buffet by the time we received the fresh cooked entres the other hot items were cold. They didn't always have the food on the menu and ran out of bread a few times. Access to the beach is [... read more] a fair walk from the resort. I had quite a few insects bites which I believe were sand flies at the beach. The Air Transat personnel at the resort were very friendly and helpful...big thank you to them. We were not aware of the dress code for the a la carte as laid out in the resort pamphlet we received on arrival. There are many areas that would cause concern for anyone with a disability, not accessible to all! Overall though we enjoyed our 10 day stay and came back refreshed and ready for reality!

Not bad for the price

The hotels food wasn’t very good and it was always cold, they had lots of shortages which was strange as when we went out to the markets they would have the food and beer the resort clamied was in shortage. I have been to better 5 star resorts. It was pretty run down looking, it seemed more like a 3 star we went in a group of 12 and some of them have been there before and said it’s gone down hill since the first year they went. Beach was nice, staff was “ok” this is my third time to Cuba [... read more] and this resort had the most cranky people working in it. I mean there were a lot of nice people too but a lot of unhappy people there. Probably wouldn’t go back, but it was a cheap price so you get what you pay for.

Fairly good

Food was fairly good ! Housekeeping very poor- had to keep the same beach towel for the week and they kept giving only one bath towel for two people! Also a big shortage on toilet paper I was not impressed! Also our sliding door was broken it would not lock and was not repaired until into the fourth day after complaining a couple of times!!!

Last minute March 2019 getaway

We were nicely surprised that her room was must free and Modern. Many choices for restaurants were available to us. Food was ok no hand stands ...... except for cheeze selection at every meal and their fresh breads.......best night on buffet was Cuban night. THE LIVE ENTERTAINMENT WAS FANTASTIC in the lobby every night Did not appreciate people not respecting the non smoking areas..... they wouldn’t do it at home. Saw lots of very burnt overly drunk people ...... they should really cut p [... read more]eople off when they can’t talk or stand. Our building was quiet and we loved the peace. We were in bungalow 37 top floor. It was disappointing to see stains on our sheets and towels.... not sure if they don’t have access to bleach? Just being honest but to end on a possitive note we’d go back and the massage available are professionals and well priced ..... it’s Cuba

Ok resort

The resort was ok, the staff were not overly friendly and we have been to Cuba in the past where they were lovely. The grounds were ok but the resort itself needed some maintenance. The food was as usual blan but we didn’t go hungry on our stay. The beach was beautiful and was the best part of this resort. I wouldn’t go back but it wasn’t a bad trip.

Valentin Perla Blanca, Cayo Santamaria

Service was below satisfactory Bugs in the beds, walls, ceiling Water was not always replenished in the rooms had to pay the cleaning staff to clean rooms properly or else they wouldn't shampoo and body wash was not always replenished daily front desk was caught sleeping on two occasions after midnight Calling room service after hours was impossible Buffet was the best and A la Cart was barely satisfactory while I vomited twice This place at best is a 4star

Gorgeous resort, garbage staff

The good: The resort itself is beautiful, large and the beach is top notch. The excursions are great (we did the dolphin one) however we quickly realized it's captive dolphins so it's a Cuban version of Sea world. The lobster dinner is fantastic but the dolphin show just breaks your heart, while simultaneously impressing you with their intelligence and skills. The Sunwing rep was great, friendly and very helpful. The bad: food is sub-par even for Cuba so make sure you book the different dinn [... read more]ers when you get there. They don't take American credit cards if you want to book or buy anything, but don't worry, they charge you everything in American dollars anyways. What logic is that? Very greedy on their part. Don't covert your money at the hotel- 5 Canadian dollars is 3 of their "pesos" which is hotel dollars not real pesos. 3 pesos for 5 Canadian? I don't think so. So we ended up just tipping in Canadian money. The staff are brutal. We were in building 34- some locked maintenance room with an alarm kept beeping for 6 days, 24 hours a day. I'm not making that up: 24 hours throughout the night beeping throughout the entire building 34. It's probably still beeping now. Complained multiple times a day to various front desk staff who repeatedly told us it was fixed (spoiler: it wasn't) they eventually compensated us 30 minute massages for our wives (but not the rest of the group). Then looked me in the eyes and promised me the beeping was fixed and would stop. It wasn't. It beeped for our entire 7 day vacation, the only reason I didn't notice it the first night was because I was completely black out. Housekeeping staff were inattentive, rarely changed towels and picked and chose what English they wanted to listen to. Leave your towel at the beach? That'll be an extra 10 bucks. I can still hear that beeping alarm in my sleep some nights. God be with you if you're in building 34.

Decent at best

Pros: beach and pools are very nice and clean, service is good. Cons: MAJOR lack of beach chairs (1000 room resort, only like a hundred chairs on the ENTIRE beach), towel service (no one told us to keep track of the beach towels that we were supplied with within our room), and we left them on pool chairs on the first day assuming like every other resort, we’d go pick up some fresh ones the next day, instead it was a struggle to get replacements and they even threatened to charge our room (h [... read more]owever they didn’t and I tipped the maid enough to get new ones). Food was scarce (I already knew this was gonna be an issue as I’ve been to Cuba before) first couple days they didn’t even have fries lol Their gift shop is basically the size of a linen closet so don’t expect a big store like some resorts. I broke the sunglasses I had on the first day, so I went to the little store and didn’t see any glasses on a rack or anything but I asked anyway, so she reached under her counter and grabbed a small grocery bag that had random sunglasses, and the only male appropriate sunglasses were the 4 pairs I had to chose from.. so just beware... Oh... and the BIG ONE... We ended up leaving with BED BUG bites..., we looked the first day and every other day and didn’t notice anything but the last day we had bites on our legs and arms and we’ve been back home for a few days now still itchy as hell... so just beware. This resort is decent for sure and still had a great time, it’s very nice looking but they need to improve on the small things to convince me to come back compared to even a 3 star resort in StarFish that I had a way better experience at.

Don’t go here!

I would not recommend the Valentin Perla Blanca resort in Santa Maria Cuba. I found it to be poorly managed, and there was a lack of maintenance on the property and in the rooms. They have two buffets but only one was open the entire week and they often ran short of food or something on the snack bar menu was unavailable . The lineups were long and slow. The bars near the beach ran out of Cervesa! The beachside snackbars weren’t open very long. (11/2 hrs until they ran out of food.) We asked f [... read more]or a map of the grounds but they said their printer wasn’t working so we had to take a photograph of their one and only copy. The hairdryer in the room glowed red but didn’t blow any air out. Fire hazard!! We complained and to their credit they did come and change it quite quickly. There was also an issue with the power in the rooms. The fridge worked sometimes, the sink was cracked, the light over the shower was burnt out and the toilet seat didn’t lineup. Very uncomfortable beds and pillow was like a pancake! Along the pathway a lot of the lights were burnt and at night it was very dark and hazardous to walk along there without a flashlight. The washrooms had no soap or a Bar of soap(unhygienic!)Hand dryers didn’t work half the time and always ran out of toilet paper ( probably because the dryers didn’t work) There was NO store to get emergency items like toothpaste or deodorant, flip flops or sunglasses. The “Gift Shop” is one small counter with some jewelry or figurines. No Post cards! And wasn’t open for very long during the day( not open at night) I heard many people complaining. Someone said they were there 2 years ago and everything was great - that’s why they came back. But now they would not return! Also there is a 2 hour bus ride to the airport- our bus on the return had no washroom on it! (The one on the way in DID have one) For a place that’s only 4 years old it looks 24years old! Definitely not 41/2 Star resort. I’d give it 21/2!

Ola! Terrific value!

The grounds were beautiful. Always staff grooming the gardens. Gorgeous beaches and clean uncrowded swimming pools. We went on March Break and never had a problem finding a selection of lounge chairs. Great lobby for drinks with comfy seating and lots of options for walks or snuggling into a cozy corner for a cappuccino while listening to live Cuban music. Excellent service was fast and super friendly. Room was always clean with bottles of water and fresh towels daily with a beautiful ocea [... read more]n view. Food was varied. Not everything was good, but you could always find something well prepared and tasty like custom omelettes, fresh pineapple, and a great cheese selection. A la carte restaurants had great steak. The best mojitos by far. We were a group of six adults from age 30-60 and everyone had a great time!

Relaxing Beach Getaway

This was our first time to Cuba. We came for a good beach and relaxation and our expectations were met in full. The resort is busy but not crowded with lots of well kept open spaces, bright and breezy areas and a relaxing environment. There was a good variety of daytime and nighttime activities. We paid extra for an Oceanview suite and it was worth it. The staff were courteous, professional and attentive. The food was very good with lots of choice at the buffet. The food was simply  [... read more]prepared but fresh and well presented. The only negative comment is directed to smoking guests - pick up your cigarette butts! Especially from the beach.

Perfect March Break Vacation!!

Lets just start with the fact that the white sand beaches and weather were perfect. The ocean was crystal clear and warm and could not have been better. The hotel was clean and spacious and the staff were fantastic. Our room was located on the third floor with an ocean view and we spent many mornings and evenings with a coffee or glass of wine enjoying the view. Although the house wine is included, we found a great selection of premium wines could be purchased at the different a la carte restau [... read more]rants for a small fee(10-30 pesos) which made our dining experience that much better. The one complaint that always seems to stick with Cuba is the food but we found this resort has excellent top notch food with lots of selections and minimal wait times on getting the grilled meat selections. This was our second time to Cuba and would highly recommend this resort.