Beatiful beaches, very friendly staff

We stayed at Perla Blanca for 12 days and enjoyed food every day. The service was excellent and young people serving were very friendly. We particularly enjoyed the bar on the beach with Yousiel Rodriguez and Jose Alexandro. Yousiel speaks English well and is very intelligent and informed. His compañero, whom we called ¨gato negro¨ has a great sense of humour. We enjoyed spending time at the bar as much as we enjoyed the beautiful beach associated with the hotel.

Good, bad and the ugly

This was not my first time in Cuba or in Cayo Santa Maria, so I knew what to expect. In comparison to other places I have stayed, this hotel is showing wear and tear and the rooms are looking run down. However, the beach and the staff are exceptional. My biggest concern was the buffet cleanliness, safe food preparation and handling and lack of variety. On day 8 of a 14 day honeymoon I acquired E. coli. I would not return back to this resort, however will return to Cuba as the people and b [... read more]eaches are fantastic.

Good Vacation

The hotel was average. We have no complaints about our room and the housekeeping was wonderful! The resort itself is lovely; not tired, as we have experienced in other Cuban resorts. It is a very expansive resort. This may be a disadvantage for the experience of patrons. The dining experience unfortunately was sub par for a Cuban resort. We enjoyed the 24 hour snack bar, in terms of both food and service. Although, I must say that one day they ran out of eggs. Disappointing as their breakfast di [... read more]shes all included eggs. The buffet was disappointing basically all round. The service was very hit and miss. What was troubling was some servers almost competing for some patrons and entirely ignoring others. The food was cold and bland. We do not typically require a great deal of flavors, but there was either no salt or too much salt on the food. And the shakers on the table were empty. The buffet area had a microwave where food could be heated, but I would hardly expect to have to heat up food that has just come out of the kitchen. The a la carte restaurants were good, both in terms of food and service. The beach was PHENOMINAL!!! There were many mosquitoes and bugs. All members of our party suffered bights that did unfortunately impact our vacation, despite the use of bug spray. Others experienced this as well. I would recommend that perhaps travellers be advised so they are better prepared (and do not have to spend $20 US to buy additional bug repellant that has absolutely no effect). Just a note with regard to our recommending this hotel: yes, but clearly advising of some of the negative experiences outlined in the review.

Beautiful Winter Escape

First of all, you should be open-minded and accept the fact that you're going to a tropical country with a different culture. I've seen people how they treat the workers in this resort. As per my husband, "Just because I'm not in Canada, I'll stop being Canadian". Kindness and respect goes both ways. (1) Weather. Fantastic! Sunny and bright but not humid. At night, the temperature cools down. (2) Beach. Very beautiful and clean. The water is so clear and blue. White, fine & powdery sand. [... read more] The beach has a long shoreline. We walked to the market while picking up shells. We didn't find any beach chairs as people had been saving their spots with towels despite the sign that the management can remove their stuff. (3) Pools. There are two, Relaxing and Activities Pools. We just went to the relaxing pool as it is very close to our building. The pools are nice and big but there were scum lines and some missing tiles. I've seen people smoking in the pool. It's such a shame how some people disrespect this resort. There's also a swim up bar which is convenient. Hehe. (4) Food/ Restaurants. The food is the same everyday with some variations. We had two days of crabs. Most days we had churros for lunch. But the line up for grills and dessert area are long. The food are not bland at all. But if you're that picky, you can eat at their snack bars. Decent sandwiches. Food is always available and you won't get hungry. Don't forget to bring your own ketchup bottle though. ;) (5) Bars/Drinks. Wide array of choices. If you're staying in the lobby, servers go around to get your empty glasses and bring you new drinks. Iced coffee in the smaller bar is the best!! (6) Room. "Okay" clean. There's stains on the toilet seat, bed sheet and pillow cases. As well as on the couch. Towels were never changed just redecorated each time. But we still left the maids tips, chips and chocolates everyday. They used a translator to say that our rooms are the most organized. :) The bed is comfortable enough. Our fridge was stocked everyday. We were even given two bottles of water everyday, just asked and tipped nicely. (7) Property. Well kept. Beautiful flowers, plants and trees. (8) Entertainment. Shows every night in the theatre. They're okay and will leave you something to do at night at 21:30. There's a trio band (guitar, violin and drums) who are the best and our favourite. They know how to engage the crowd. (9) WiFi. Slow at times but I didn't have a hard time connecting at all. But then again you're on vacation, enjoy the sun and don't let petty things bother you. Time to unplug. (10) Workers. Cuban are friendly and warm. We've made friends along the way. Few of the servers had always been trying to get us at every meal lol. They will remember you if you're nice. We tipped generously too. :) There's one employee though in the wifi office that told us to come back later because she can't create a new account. So we came back and she was acting like we are such an inconvenience to her when she should be doing her job. I guess she was upset because we "disturbed" her and another employee while they were exchanging phones playing mahjong. All in all.. we had such an amazing and unforgettable experience. Can't wait to go back again. :)

Amazing Blue Water

Danielle did a wonderful job of getting me onto the flight & trip with parents. Provided me a much better deal than my parents got. Followed up with a call to see how our trip was, really caring & thoughtful agent If it's not to late...book at another hotel!! It's too far to travel from Alberta, lots of delays, long lay over in Cayo Coco, 2.5 hr bus ride. No bathroom on bus, beer on bus is cheat 2 for $5.00 (pay in Canadian) Driver made stops for his own personal needs.Over 10 hrs in travel, [... read more] arrived after 9:00 p.m. Rooms smelt like mold.No towel or glass for me in room. Bed has plastic sheets on them.Bare minimum done by house keeping, didn't appreciate gifts or daily tip. Food DISGUSTING!! How many ways can you serve a Hot Dogs? Whole, sliced, cubes, chunks and what ever is left over goes into the rice & pasta for lunch Only the Italian La Cart restaurant was good, International, Seafood NOT OPEN. Spanish restaurant the meat was tough like an old shoes, terrible, friends all walked out before desert.Eat at the Snack Bars by the pools they are usually out of french fries, fish fingers and beet by mid day. 1/2 menu items not available; swordfish, squid, soups, etc. You have to be at the beach by 6:00 a.m. in order to get a chair 90% are broken to some degree, yet there are 500+ new chairs in a shelter behind our building. Took photo & asked why are they not on beach? Management does NOT care about any guest concerns or complaints.Wanted to try wind surfing told to come back at 10:00 the following day, showed up at 10:00 told to come back at 10:30 the instructor then took off with divers, waited over 3.5 hrs for lesson. Desk staff SUCK, they claim not to speak English and couldn't even give details on the simplest question.Grounds keepers, bathroom cleaning ladies are AMAZING hard working, kind people, these are the people that deserve tips and especially gifts. 2 guys down by the activity pool who cut coconuts in the afternoon really appreciated work pants & shirts. 1 has 17 yr old son about 6'3" 200 pds that would really appreciate clothes & especially old shoes, larger sizes. Please consider giving your stuff to them. Beach is lovely, water is beautiful. Million sand fly bites. Entertainment is good especially 3 pc band in lobby. Beach party was a hoot. Make sure to take your own cups for drinks, After Bite is vital.

Horrific Waste of Money

Travel agent really, really over sold the hotel and how wonderful it was!! Will NEVER use S.S. again, she never returned calls or emails, she did not honor significant price drop or previous vouchers. Really over paid. Terrible Customer Service. If it's not to late...book at another hotel!!It's too far to travel from Alberta, lots of delays, long lay over in Cayo Coco, 2.5 hr bus ride. No bathroom on bus, 1 stop for men to pee in front of bus, ladies at the rear. Glad we had our own T.P. Dr [... read more]iver stopped to pick up family members & drop them off. Over 10 hrs in travel, arrived after 9:00 p.m. Did not get 3rd floor room as requested until 2nd day but it would have required packing up & moving 2 buildings over. Ground floor rooms really smelt musty, black mold in bathroom, 3 paid guests in room only given 2 glasses, 2 beach towels, towels nor bedding changed in 7 days had to wash out in shower if you wanted clean towel. Curtains had huge rips in it. Bed has plastic sheets on them.Bare minimum done by house keeping, didn't appreciate gifts or daily tip. Food DISGUSTING!! Hot dogs severed 4 different ways in 7 of 12 dishes, NO EGGS several days, by 8:30 there is nothing to eat, all bowls, dishes are empty! 4 La Cart restaurants NOT OPEN. Boiled chicken with bones & skin in Spanish dish, fed to cats! Dried hotdog buns with NO butter, 1/2 menu items not available; swordfish, squid, soups, etc. 1 broken beach chair for every 50 guests yet there are 500+ new chairs in a shelter behind our building. Took photo & asked why are they not on beach? Management does NOT care about any guest concerns or complaints. Desk staff SUCK, they claim not to speak English and couldn't even give details on something as simple as where the bus comes for the market. Grounds keepers, bathroom cleaning ladies are AMAZING hard working, kind people, these are the people that deserve tips and especially gifts. 2 guys down by the activity pool who cut coconuts in the afternoon really appreciated work pants & shirts. 1 has 17 yr old son about 6'3" 200 pds that would really appreciate clothes & especially old shoes, larger sizes. Please consider giving your stuff to them. Beach is lovely, water is beautiful. Million sand fly bites. Entertainment is good especially 3 pc band in lobby. Beach party was a hoot. Make sure to take your own cups for drinks, After Bite is vital. Unfortunate will never return to Santa Maria or this hotel and definitively will never use S.S. for our agent again!

Excellent Quiet Getaway

Building 25, ocean view was perfect, room was extra clean, no mold anywhere, not even any mildew on the curtains like we have seen in other resorts. Close to the 24hr snack bar where the morning coffee was amazing. Beach was great and long, no problem finding a spot. Pool was clean, and seats where plentiful. A la cartes where good. Buffet a little busy, lines where big, food was fine except a little cold. Grounds were exceptional, beautiful flowering trees and shrubs everywhere, the most we hav [... read more]e ever seen at a resort. No need to book privilege club, a la carte breakfast and lunch served at snack bars for everyone if you don´t like buffet. Free bottle of rum is only a $6 value, robes where nice but not necessary. Privilege check-in was the only advantage, 30 people in line ahead of us until we were taken to the Privilege lounge where we were given our key immediately. All in all, great resort, we would go back.

Excellent séjour!

Très belle semaine au Valentin! Nourriture très bonne pour Cuba, il faut se présenter tôt par compte au buffet pour avoir suffisamment de choix, L’equipe d’animation pas toujours au rendez-vous pour faire les activités suggérées... sinon très satisfaite de tout en général!!!

Bel hôtel, mer magnifique

L'hôtel est bien quoique la propreté (chambres, restos et buffet) et l'entretien (peinture) en général pourraient être améliorés. J'ai été surprise de la nourriture. Les restos à la carte et snack bar Ranchon et celui de la piscine calme sont bien. J'ai apprécié me faire servir comme au resto. Le café est aussi très bon. Il est possible d'avoir tous les cafés de spécialité au lobby et dans les restos à la carte. Quant au buffet, il y a trop de monde, Il y a des files d'att [... read more]ente et les plats ne sont pas remplis de façon systématique. Je comprends aussi mal pourquoi les gens remplissent leurs assiettes et amènent le régime de bananes pour tout jeter après et laisser les autres vacanciers avec peu de choix. Le personnel est courtois et à l'écoute des besoins. Le bémol concerne l'animation. Beaucoup d'activités n'ont pas eu lieu. L'équipe devrait être aussi présente en soirée pour pouvoir animer et faire danser les gens lors des spectacles dans le lobby. La musique cubaine aurait été appréciée tout le temps et pas juste au lobby. Pourquoi ne pas les faire venir sur la plage, au buffet. Les terrains de tennis sont très bien entretenus et le pro Victor est dévoué. Même chose pour les catamarans. Beaucoup de sorties.

Beautiful Resort

The staff at this resort were absolutely lovely, the grounds beautiful and well maintained, the beach area large and clean, as were the pool areas. The lines for the buffets were often long and crowded but the food was not bad. The bathrooms were often not well stocked so it’s wise to bring hand sanitizer and tp along with you. Staff always went out of their way to help you or to ask how they can make your vacation more enjoyable. Would recommend.

Spectacular Beach!

The hotels lobby was clean and inviting. It was open, spacious and had a lovely view of the crystal blue water. The grounds were clean and manicured. The hotel room was spacious & clean but a bit out dated. But the shower was large, water pressure great and lots of hot water! The buffet (food barn) was plentiful and fresh- but we all know you don’t go to Cuba for the food lol

Beautiful beach

Beautiful beach amazing staff but food was Cuba so you make due with what they have Chicken rice and French fries and their amazing ice cream As for resort definitely not a 4 star maybe a 3 which is sad as with better Management and no embargo it could gain it's full potential

Beautiful Beach

We had a great stay at this resort. The a la Carte dinning was very good quality. The service staff are very friendly and work hard to make your stay delightful. The resort was very clean and well maintained. I would recommend this resort, the travel from airport is long, but the area is stunning. We had an amazing stay.

Very pretty place but there is buts!

The resort is extremely pretty! But the food is the worst I have ever had in Cuba! The buffet, everything is cold unless it was the “cooked in front of you” which is also long (not big but is soooooo slow) but the food was way better at the snack bar where you didn’t have to stand in long lines and actually have a drink while waiting for your hot fresh food (when they weren’t out of everything lol) oh. And they ran out of vodka, BEER, tons of mixes lol but they always had rum! Oh, and on [... read more]e more thing! My sunglasses (proscription ones) were stolen out of my room. Lock everything up! This was my first day and they were stolen. I was hoping they would realize they were prescription and return or turn into lost and found and nothing :( that really sucked! Lesson learned. But the resort is sooooooooo fun! Always a fun time at the loud swim up bar and the lobby bar. Had a blast!!! Seriously was a very fun trip!

Great Stay

My boyfriend and I travelled down south for the first time and settled on this hotel for the price, adult only, and location! We went with no expectations and had an excellent time. I was skeptical because of all of the bad reviews but many of them we did not find to be true. (Date of stay Feb 15-22 2019). Our room was cleaned/bed made/towels replaced/fridge stocked every single day. The towels did have some spots on them but they smelled clean? We heard running out of toilet paper was common b [... read more]ut that was always replaced as well. The food is not the best but we did not starve by any means. Lots of cold pastas, cucumber, pineapple, rice. I stayed away from meat but he didn't and didn't feel great one day. We stuck to the snack bar and the a la cartes for the last half of our stay. Chicken fingers and burgers are yummy! Breakfast from there is good too. Sometimes ran out of bread in places but for the most part there was no problem! Bring snacks as well as ketchup and peanut butter. We loved the drinks and entertainment at night. The beach is stunning. The pools are great too but we hung out at the relaxation pool usually because there was more shade, quieter, and overall nicer than the party pool! Never a problem getting a chair at that pool. Staff is very nice and friendly. The only complaint I have with the staff is when we checked in it took 4 HOURS! When we came back to check in 4 hours later the staff ignored us. One woman (Heidi) was helping us and said "one moment" and left and just didn't come back....once my boyfriend got a little snippy with another guy he helped us out promptly. Overall we had a great experience and would probably return if we came back to Cuba and got a good deal again.

Best resort in Cuba!

This resort is awesome! We've been to Cuba 4 times now and this place is the best by far! The ground, lobby and rooms are top notch!! The main lobby is super fancy and had live music every night. Probably the most fun we've had in a lobby at a resort. We go to Mexico a lot and love the high end resorts there... There were many times we felt we were in Mexico because this resort has that feel to it. The food was awesome! Witch we've never experienced in Cuba.. The staff were on the ball and super [... read more] nice! We got the ocean view room witch was super nice!!! The showers worked perfect (hot water and drained well) The beach at this resort is probably the nicest We've ever seen!!!! The pools were super clean and the water was warm! The 24 hour snack bar was really good as well. They had these awesome chicken fingers that pretty much tasted like (Jack assters) I really can't say anything bad about this place. The only thing they could invest in is more chairs at the beach area... saying that this resort has 4 beach areas so it a massive area to cover.

Awful Experience

While the grounds were just ok, the continued lack of food and drink throughout the facility was just terrible. No bread today, no beef today, we have no French fries today, etc, were just examples of what we faced each day. The many bars were not stocked, none had vodka, they even ran out of beer. One bartender told us management wont buy vodka to try and save money. Terrible. And while a 24 hr bar is appreciated by some, all it does is provide extreme drunkenness into the early hours of the  [... read more]morning, causing much noise and bodies lying around that can’t handle it. Bartenders serve no matter how drunk you are. Escape to the beach to get away from it, but you got to try and eat sometime. Add to the fact there is no internet.

Great Resort

A bit of a bus ride but this resort is great, staff was fantastic rooms were nice and you can’t beat that beach, but the food is always a hit or miss the snack bar was out of everything by my second day. But overall I’d go back !!!

A GOOD THREE STAR RESORT

We spent 10 days here in mid February. The best part of our stay was the weather and the friends that we made around the pool. The room was basic, but all we were expecting...clean and in good working order. We had a great location in regards to pool, lobby and bars. The check in and out were fast. Most staff were very helpful and friendly. However there were many drawbacks that will make this resort visit a one off. Some problems were irritants ,while others were more serious and concer [... read more]ned safety. Dealing with that first I would note that we arrived late ,around 10 P.M. We got into our room and found no map or information at all. There was an all night snack bar near the pool we found out from guests walking by. We headed in the direction pointed out and soon found the pool area. The problem was that the paths and especially the many steps were not lit up although there were many light fixtures. We discovered that some nights all the lights were on while other nights it was partially lit or dark. We came close to ending our vacation on a stair within the first hour of our stay. This was to me poor management. The other concerns all revolve around food. The resort has shortages. On many days they had NO bread ( 4days) NO bacon No eggs, and NO beer at he pool (1HR) This was not critical as we could always find enough to eat. The way the dining room food set up was managed was a major hassle. They had many cooking stations that had offerings such as spaghetti , beef, pork, shrimp, donuts etc. These were notoriously slow, but each would have long lines. The lines blocked the buffet trays for those who did not want to wait in line. You got use to having to wait a bars and dinner. Eating early or late was no solution. There was no orientation . We were basically dropped at the resort and left to figure it out on our own. Not recommended. Three star resort at best.

Valentin perla blanca

Everything was great I have no complaints, food was great a little repetitive but still fantastic. Pools were gorgeous, beach was amazing minus the sand flees but that’s only because we forgot bug spray!