Gorgeous beach & pool -- lacklustre resort

Pros: beautiful beach and water, great pool, pretty grounds, and impressive nightly entertainment. Cons: very musty and tired-looking rooms, mediocre customer service, and bland food (buffet and restaurants). Resort amenities look a bit tired/in need of a face lift. We requested to change rooms because they were incredibly musty smelling and looked very worn out. Ladies at front desk did not seem very pleased with this request, however we were eventually shown different rooms and were able t [... read more]o switch. Bathrooms are nicely renovated, though toilet in our room barely flushed and hot water could be a bit hit or miss. Food at the buffet was very bland. Not much better at the restaurants. Very tasty mojitos and pina coladas. If you are looking for a culinary experience, definitely not the place to go. Was difficult to get hands on more bottles of water if you finished yours prior to the daily delivery (late morning). Grounds/beach maintenance was pretty good, though greater attention to detail would take it that extra level. Overall loved the beach, pool, and weather -- the most important factors in my eyes!

Amazing Resort

From the staff, to the beach to the experience they deliver combined - I would highly recommend this resort.The beach is directly connected to the resort, has several beach bars and can quickly be back in your room and back without any time spent. The rooms were really nice and gave us a feel of authenticity and were done up every day with fresh towels, bottles of water, beer and soda. Overall a great experience and we're already looking at returning. I heard so many poor things about the foo [... read more]d in Cuba but this resort really impressed me with the quality and options it has. They BBQ on the beach and provide chicken, burgers, etc and inside the food buffet has Pizza, Pasta (cooked to order) and additional meat for dinner. Breakfast and fresh made omelettes were by far my go to in the morning!

Good beach

The grounds were good . People were friendly the grounds were good and the staff was friendly for the most part . The room was bad!!!... No water pressure ; No hot water ; Pullow top on the bed was missing a big chunk ; some light bulbs were missing ... Not enough light ; problems with the electrical plugs ; Internet difficulties ; No hand towels... And the biggest problem was that after complaining to the various people , nobody offered any solution . Watch what you eat!... And forget the ' à  [... read more]la carte restaurants!... and I still got food poisoning .

A wonderful trip!

Lobby, pool, beach exceptional. Good variety of food/rest. options (altho difficult to book reservation). Entertainment crew & eve shows excellent. Front desk is slow and difficult to get resort info from. Rooms basic. Travelled with teens. Would return.

Luxurious hotel

The food was great. Entertainment was perfect. Staff were very friendly. The rooms were old and in bad shape but we were too busy to think about it. The rooms need painting, the closets were broken, no door to the shawers . Room service and cleaning was good. Mini bar was filled daily

Great vacation :-)

The Paradisus resort is located on the best, beautiful sand beach and turquoise water in Varadero. It is directly on the beach - others along the peninsula are set further back & accessible only by footpath. A great getaway!!

Disappointing

We met our "rep" and the first words he said were "I have bad news for you the resort is overbooked" one day spent negotiating to get a room there. The first 24 precious hours of vacation taken away from us. Not. Acceptable

The paradisus is not a five star resort.

The Paradisus informed us at the airport that the hotel was full, we got bumpt to another hotel for two nights.Our Air Canada representative did a dissapearing act so was no help what so ever.We were offered no upgrade for this inconvenience.This is the second time we have booked a Paradisus and they have been over booked. This hotel is very tired looking, and in need of upgrading. If you book the royal service side you will have a five star hotel. At best I would say it is four star. The servic [... read more]e we received in the lobby bar and buffet was very poor. Every day at lunch there was forty or fifty guest lined up outside the lobby waiting for a table. There were tables empty, just not cleared of dirty dishes. I asked three different waitstaff for a glass of water and wine before I received them. I will say that the A La Cart restaurants were very good as was the service there.

Worst Experience Ever - Paradisus Varadero

I am writing to you today to share my total displeasure of our recent trip to paradisus varadero. In order to share our experience here is an overview by day. * Feb 11,2016 - flight 620 from Toronto with sunwing no problem as planned. Arrive hotel approx 120pm. Room is not ready inevitably to be 1423 ocean front. At approx 415 we arrive at room via bellhop and led inside. Upon entry the bathroom and area was covered in burgundy paint on the floors, the mirrored doors were hanging and difficult  [... read more]to close. We checked the bar fridge and no refreshments. We called approx 5pm to get it filled was told no worries will have someone come by asap and fill. Upon wanting to go for dinner our balcony door would not lock and we called for maintenance. Repairman came in about an hour and said it was fixed but I could easily open it on pulling. Seen maid asked for refreshments said no worries will call. No one arrived. We left the room for night and returned approx 1100 pm, still no refreshments. We both needed to take medication and we called again. Said bring right away. My fiancée waited up until 200am. No show. Feb 12,16. - upon awaking, we called customer satisfaction and requested water for medicines. Was told right away sir. We then seen maid and requested water. She called as well. We did not feel our room was secure so i approached front reception and asked for Manager. I was directed to a girl named diadrena and she took our info and said she could change our room to a recently renovated room on Saturday only as the resort was full. Feb 13,2016 - after packing all of our room the night before we went on a day long excursion. Resort said they would change room for us to come to front desk on return. On return we are change to room 2618. Same room type, recently renovated. Unpacked everything, looked in fridge no refreshments again. We called twice with false promises to bring and no luck. It was then we showered only to find out that the shower for is pointed away from the drain and we ended up with water in our bathroom and hall leading to bedroom . I called customer service and also spoke to our sunwing representative " barbarita" and diadrena again. Barbarita came with me to see customer service and again I requested to speak to the manager. Said they would see he is in meetings. We used towels that we needed to dry of with to protect the flooding and asked for more towels to shower with. None came only when the Maid did the room, did the towels get changed. February 14-16. - went once again to front desk to explain flooding issue and also seen or sunwing Rep. I was told it's just "Cuba" and that's how it is just enjoy your vacation. I was floored, or room flooded everytime a shower was needed and our bathroom floors and hallway were soaked morning and night. We had to wear shoes to go to the bathroom or get clothes out of our closets. Unbelievable. February 15,16. After returning from another excursion our fridge was empty again and I was so annoyed I went to the store to buy our own drinks. After showering in morning and upon return, flooded again. Feb 17 - my fiancée was sick all day and night and spent the night before at 100am until Thursday Feb 18 at 830am in the morning in the room. Throughout this whole time I told the Maid not to enter room as she was sick. I brought all the soaked towels out to her and asked for replacements asap to shower to keep the flooding minimized. I was told no towels toll that night she was out. I then approached johandel in customer service and again asked for Manager. He said he was busy yet he would assist me. I explained everything to him and he said he would call or room and make an appt to see may Manager. Well after two hours and 2 beach towels brought to our room I sit on my last night writing this email as my fiancée is in the room sick looking forward to a shower without flooding as we needed more towels. The shower is flooding so bad now it has made it out of our room and onto the resort hallway. In closing this is the worst experience I've ever had in all my years of travel, In realization of things gone terribly wrong ruining a whole week let alone an engagement I am eager to hear what can or will be done about this total fiasco. I would recommend to stay as far away from this hotel as possible as it is a shame to see such a beautiful resort go to waste.

Good Resort

accommodation, food, diving all better than expected for Cuba. friendly staff, service is faster for those who tip. Exchange is bad at the hotel bank (65 CUC for $100.00 Cdn) Don't waste your money on a fishing excursion (not many sport fish on Atlantic side) Good variety of seashells on beach for collectors

What to Expect

The hotel was beautiful, the staff friendly and smiling, the beach wonderful. You would simply pick your spot on the beach and a hotel employee would set up your chairs. The water was warm, food was acceptable, booze was plentiful. The reason I rated as average is that the rooms were not vere comfortable. Our ocean view room was actually ocean front but it smelled terrible and I had to take allergy pills just to walk in. The bed was essentially two box springs. But all-in-all, it was a great 4 d [... read more]ay trip. Not sure I would stay longer.

Superb resort!

Superb grounds and pools...and the most beautiful beach I have ever been on. The staff are fantastic -- the only problem is the front desk people are usually grunpy and not very helpful. But if you accept this, it's a wonderful place. The food is incredible (especially for Cuba) although the buffet is in many instances better than the restaurants that require reservations. In the buffet there are some wonderful and excellent servers -- check out LLeinis, Yanelquis and Eugenio. They will take won [... read more]derful care of you. All in all a superb experience.

Outstanding place

everything was absolutely amazing and the ocean water a dream. Service was great, very n ice hard working people. It was very expensive though for a week, but to me it was worth it. Even the rainy days were great !

Good Resort but many improvements possible

PROS: Excellent beach, nice spacious rooms with excellent air conditioning, good food, huge and beautiful pool with nice palm trees. CONS: Watersports are closed frequently and no windsurfing is allowed unless there is absolutely zero wind and you can't move at all. They frequently use the raw meat tongs to flip the cooked meat and to put the cooked meat on your plate. No facial tissues in the rooms which means you have to clean you eyeglasses with the scratchy toilette paper. The Pina Coladas w [... read more]ere usually watery coconut drinks with no pineapple. The towel exchange hut was far away and hard to find. The rooms are a little beat up lots of chipped tiles etc The pool has a lot of black in the grout lines

Paradisus=funtastic

Best there is: Staff very friendly Activities are numerous and lots of fun Pool clean and beautiful, beach endless and unbelievable Food very good and lots of choices A la carte excellent food and magnificent presentation Rooms quiet and (Ocean view) splendid

Good resort

Great beach, large resort and well laid out. We think 3.5 star resort. Friendly people. We would recommend, but right away we asked to change rooms as there were issues as the room was tired and the staff we're very helpful.

Great Vacation!

It's a great resort with lots of palm trees, extremely close to the beach and great food. There are a few cons- the entertainment is pretty slim, it's a quieter resort which we enjoyed but may not be for everyone. The bathroom in our room was subpar, I wouldn't consider it a 5 star, but it's functional. And lastly we didn't discover some of the features of the hotel until the end of our week, so the orientation/signs/staff could be a little better. However the Pros of food, amount of chairs/huts [... read more] and access to the beach outweighed any of my concerns.

Very good. Very few "let downs"

Royal Service was worth the expense. Private cabanas, pool, restaurant, butler, etc.... Food was better at private restaurant. Beach in this area had quite a bit of coral was up which was strange because it was clean a little further down.

Amazing resort

overall had a great experience, very friendly staff, great beech, pool was nice, food was good.oy negative is the bed in our rooms. Way to hard and you could feel the springs in your back. Very satisfied

Worth every penny

we chose to use the "Royal Service". the first amazing surprise was at the Veradero airport we got our own taxi to the resort rather than sharing the bus. room service to the room was great. Hang the tag on the door and they deliver breakfast at a time you chose. the bar and the pool and the a la cart restaurant were all great. they were for royal service guests only. since we went in early December they were not at capacity and there was no waiting for anything. the room was big. king size bed  [... read more]on request. an outdoor shower was exotic and romantic. large Jacuzzi tub was welcome. around the pool were "beds" with canopies. not enough but they were great when you got one. hammocks hanging in the trees. A lovely long walkway to the ocean directly from the pool. maybe a 1 minute walk to the ocean. the only let down was the beach in the royal service area was all rock. but the main beach was white sand. I was a little disappointed in the beach. I wasn't expecting so many rocks. lots of white white sand though. food was okay. the beef was not good. but lots of chicken, seafood and vegetarian options. the Mexican a la carte restaurant was the best. it was a restful quiet 5 days away. no one asking for money on the beach. not commercialized at all. great friendly staff. they wanted everything to be perfect and they checked often to make sure you were happy. I would go back in a second!!