Great place to go!

I went in multiple resort in Cuba, this one is my favourite. No complication, great services, great employees working there, awesome beach, everything is closed (don't need to walk too long to get where you want to go), food was ok, lobsters amazing (we ate 6 lobsters), some food at the buffet was really really good. But what we brought back: perfect vacation. Thank you Playa Cayo Santa Maria!

Great value for money vacation

We have stayed at many different resorts in Cuba, most of them Spanish chains like the Melia or Iberistar. This was our first time with Gaviota who is actually a Cuban chain is is run 100% by Cubans. The Playa Santa Maria Resort was a really pleasant surprise. The food was really good, buffet and à la carte restaurants too. The romantic and Italian provided more choices than the seafood one but the lobster was terrific anywhere you ate it. There was also an Asian one that offered an à la ca [... read more]rte meals that was good. Surprisingly, both house wines, red and white were more than adequate. They have at your disposition as well, a wine cellar that had a real good assortment of wines for sale, mostly Chilean and Spanish wines at relatively good prices. You could buy the wine and just bring it to any of your meals, even at the buffet. Even tough the room was not the most vibrant in colour, it was spacious and clean. The cleaning person took real good care of us when we needed fresh towels or clean glasses and fridge stocked every day. There are four pools you can hangout at, some more quiet than others. We never missed out on chairs or towels. The beach is absolutely magnificent and long. We could walk at least an hour on either side of our beach in powdery white sand. Most days the ocean was calm and felt like you were taking a bath...just a beautiful turquoise bleu colour. There was a rather large open building close to the beach. That's where to seafood restaurant was. On each side of that restaurant were two opened concept but covered areas for eating outside, one with a fresh hot and cold buffet and the other the pasta bar and a wood oven where you could get you fresh pizza. Good food and the views of the beach and ocean from there was amazing. The snack bars at the main pool offered a selection of fingers foods but served breakfast until 11:00 every day, make sure to say hello to Lisandra. The lobby bar was a fun place to be, it served great cappuccinos, lovely Kir Royals and always offered a pre-show, music and modelling show, parading clothing they had for sale. Very intertaining. My husband and I have been travelling south for about 15 years now and rarely want to go to the same place twice, but we would most certainly go back to this one.

2nd time a charm

This was our second stay at this resort, we knew what to expect, long drive from the airport but it's a scenic drive with highlights from a tour guide. Arrival at the hotel, check in was quick and efficient an envelope given with map and all of our a la carte reservations...we ended up with 5 in total. What surprised me the most was how the staff and hotel recognize the returning guests, with a special dinner, champagne and cigars. The resort is lush and well maintained. Few quick fixes in the r [... read more]oom by going to guest services not the front desk...issues were fixed very quickly. Food was good and freshly prepared with more than enough choices to satisfy. Mother Nature has made the beach a tad difficult to get to...not the resorts faukt, when tide was low you could easily get in the water and enjoy the lovely calm and clear waters. The staff here is what truly makes this resort special...we were remembered by more than a few staff from 2 years ago...it was great to see some familiar faces and to be remembered is truly a memorable thing for sure. We will return again for sure, this resort is one of the best in Cuba, and repeat guests are rewarded and appreciated.

A little tired looking resort

Repairs need to be done to some rooms.In Our room the grab bar in the shower was loose and the towel holder was broke. The food most of the time was cold even with the warmers. The ocean was very difficult to get to with all the rocks. Most of the staff are very friendly. At night the mosquitoes come out so bring bug spray.

Large resort, some improvements could be made

The resort is quite large and at first glance lovely. I did find that the resort could use a good cleaning. There seemed to be many people around to do the cleaning but the job didn't seem to be done well. The food was also an issue. I'm not a fussy person but there were days I struggled to find something to eat.

Very Nice Cuban Resort

I have no real complaints about the resort. I'll go one by one. ROOM... Nice room, the bed was harder than I prefer but that is me. The AIR conditioning kept the room cold the water was warm(not hot) and the bar fridge was full. POOLS...All were clean, side pools are in good shape, Main pool needs more tiles replaced. BEACH...Most beautiful clear water and whitest sands I have seen. Not a lot of sand, but enough.Only complaint is the same at all resorts and that is people "reserving" chairs an [... read more]d then not being there for hours. I do not believe in this practice. KIDS CLUB...People were very good, my daughter liked it and wanted to go. But even though there were kids on the resort almost no kids went to the club. FOOD...Eat at the Asian restaurant, it was excellent. The buffet was good especially for Cuba. Did not find the Itailiab as good as I hoped. HELP...Very good nice people everywhere. Overall I would definitely go back. Which I can not say for the other 2 stays I have had in Holgiun and Cato Coco.

Beautiful Beach, Wonderful People!

I am just back from a week at Playa Cayo Santa Maria and really enjoyed my time there. The beach is gorgeous though for those with any mobility disability it would be a little challenging to navigate to the water due to a rocky ledge though with some assistance can be done. The staff at the resort were friendly and language was rarely a barrier to service. The buffet was best at breakfast but you could always find something you would enjoy any time. The a la carte restaurants were ok but the [... read more] real gem was the new Cuban restaurant La Bodegueta (sp?). For a small fee (5 pesos) you were treated to a delicious Cuban meal with excellent wine and the best rum selection on the resort. Serguei and Roinel were welcoming and enthusiastic and it really became our chosen spot to begin and end each evening. Typical of Cuba the rooms were basic and you could nitpick the little things that need repair or refresh but all that fades away with all the enjoyment you get from finding your favourite spot at the beach, a few rum drinks or more and your preferred pool to end the afternoon in. I was there as a single traveller meeting friends but with a few days on my own and I always felt safe and comfortable.

Cosy resort!

The resort is a little dated but comfortable. I would describe the resort, grounds, dining room and lobby as average. There are a number of pools in the resort which makes it convenient to easily get to from any building. Rooms were clean. The food could have been better. By Cuba resort standards, it was average. Nightly entertainment was good.

Wonderful resort!

This is a larger resort - grounds were well kept, rooms were clean, nice pools and pool areas and the main attraction...the beach was beautiful. Food was good with a nice variety at the buffet. We had one instance where there was water/pipe issues but the staff/mgmt were organized to provide guests with extra water and whatever was needed while there was no water. Overall this was a nice resort and recommend this place to others.

Won't Recommend to Friends

I have been to Cuba 3 times, including this trip and it was by far my worst experience. There are safety hazards all around the resort. Some of the issues we ran into were (to name a few): 1. There are missing tiles in all the swimming pools, as well as broken or cracked filters around the swimming pools. My son cut his toe on our second day and sliced the skin right off. Had there been any skin left, it would have required stitches, but he cut it so bad we couldn't get him stitched  [... read more]up. Bring a first aid kit, it will come in handy. 2. There are uneven walking surfaces, including raised flooring (for no apparent reason), gaps in walkways, including in the lobby. I wouldn't recommend wearing high heels in the lobby, as you might get your heel caught in the gaps and severely hurt yourself. The gaps in the walkways have shifted over time and become bigger. Better maintenance of these walkways is required. On our first night we saw a lady stub her toe so bad, she surely must have broken it. 3. Access to the beach requires you to climb down rocks. There is one section where rocks have been strategically placed as stairs, but they have not been maintained and have shifted. Again, my son was hurt when he fell trying to get down to the beach shore. It would be much more safe if a staircase is built here to allow guests of the resort to safely get down to the beach. We saw them at other resorts, and have no idea why this is not the case at Hotel Playa. 4. Poor lighting at night. There are some lights, but in my opinion, not enough to light walkways at night. It's another safety hazard, not to mention the feeling of unease when walking alone in dimly lit areas trying to get back to your room. I am not a person who is overly demanding and requires luxury, however I do have basic expectations when it comes to customer service, especially when I am paying a lot for a vacation. Customer service at this hotel is by far the worst I have ever experienced on any vacation in any country I have been to. With the exception of 1 waitress at the 24 hr snack bar, I felt like employees could care less how they treated guests at the hotel. Even when we tipped (and we tip well, and continued to tip well even when we were unhappy with the service) it did not change how we were treated. Getting a drink to be brought to you took forever. There was one occasion when a waiter asked us if we wanted drinks by the pool. We put our order in and waited 45 minutes. He never brought them. In fact, he walked right by us with drink orders for other guests but didn't bring ours. When we decided to leave the pool area, we let him know we didn't need the drinks, he just nodded and said nothing. I found the service in the buffet to be about the same. Getting coffee with breakfast or a drink with dinner was hard. It usually arrived when we were finished our meal, at which point we didn't need or want it as we were ready to leave. This was also our experience in the lobby bar. I could go to the bar and request a drink and get it much faster than if I waited for a waitress to get it for me. More often than not, we would see the waitresses standing around chatting by the bar instead of serving guests. On more than one occasion we heard stories from staff members about them being poor, having lost a spouse and being a single parent, or a wife expecting a child in hopes that we would give them more money. One bartender even asked my brother for his shoes, explaining he was on his feet all day and needed good shoes. Oh and by the way, my wife is having a baby. They’d whip out their phones and show you pictures of their kids I hopes you’d feel sorry for them and give them stuff. My son's t-shirt was stolen from the beach on our first day. And my nephew's baseball cap was also stolen during our trip. On our last day, I saw one of the employees wearing the hat. Cleanliness was also an issue we experienced. Our rooms were cleaned daily, but the common walkways in our bungalow were not. There were dirty dishes in the hallway that remained there for 5 days until we told a customer service manager about it. There were also blood stains on the stairs (left from my son's bleeding toe) that were not cleaned until we told the customer service manager about it. One of our rooms had an ant infestation in it, that even after fumigated was not cleared up. While the buffet food was repetitive, I must say there was plenty of it. They didn’t run out of anything during our visit. We had dinner at 2 of the a la cart restaurants, the seafood and Italian. The Italian restaurant was by far the best food we had during our stay, and were very happy that we booked it for our final night. These were just some of the issues we experienced while we were at Hotel Playa. But we had enough that we are off Cuba and might never go back. Hotel Playa, we were told is considered a top resort in Cuba. Though I have no idea why and would beg to differ. We have been to another resort in Santa Maria, and it was hands down a better experience for less money.

Don't go to this resort!!!!

Don't go to this resort !!!! When we arrived from the 1st night I felt that this was going to be an interesting vacation. It was night time when we arrived so I didn't want to form an opinion too quickly. But, I did notice when the bus was dropping other people off at other resorts that the entrances and front lobbies looked very impressive and spectacular. When the bus pulled up to our location I felt that our resort grounds and entrance was poorly maintained. Just walking to the recept [... read more]ion area where the bus dropped us off we experienced issues. The floor was uneven and a few of us almost face planted to the ground. This is very dangerous and if we have fallen we could have injured ourselves severely. It made our evening interesting as we watched others fumble in the same area. When sitting in the lobby we would try to warn others who were walking over these uneven surfaces. We saw one woman stub her toe so badly I wouldn’t be surprised if it was broken. When we got to the reception, it was not busy at all. In fact, we were the only guest at the check in counter. But we found it strange that we had to wait for them to acknowledge us and to attend to us instead of welcoming us to their hotel. We had to wait for them to finish their conversation before they began to check us into our rooms. Both families requested connecting rooms and for the rooms to be close together. They managed to get us in the same building, three rooms close together and one down the hall. That night no rooms were available so my sister in law’s family slept together in one room as she was uncomfortable to leave her kids alone. The next day she went down to complain that her room was away from her children. The hotel was able to accommodate her request to change rooms and she was able to get 2 rooms next door to each other for the following night. I understand that this is a request and you can't guarantee connecting rooms. I truly don't think that connecting rooms is an option at this resort and they should not advertise that. We had spoken to several other families and they had the same concerns, they requested connecting rooms and did not get one. It was hard to get a good night sleep as we were always worried about our kids alone next door. As I mention we learned very quickly that there were many areas where there were uneven, jagged flooring, as we stubbed and scrapped our toes. Our children had scrapped their knees many times as they fell on numerous occasions. There were many gaps between cobblestones and in some areas it was designed to have a gap but over time the gap has gotten bigger and not maintained. I highly recommend that you not wear heels on this resort due to the poor grounds and lighting. Perhaps if the place had better lighting and better up keeping of their grounds it would not be dangerous. Another issue we noticed was that the lighting on the grounds at night was very dim, too far apart, or not lit at well. This is not only dangerous, it gives a sense of unease as you do not feel safe to walk alone at night. From day one, I completely forgot what customer service was. No one wanted to help us, or even talk to us for that matter. The servers at the bars were always standing around talking to their co-workers while there were lines forming of guests waiting for drinks. This was a similar situation at most of the bars at the resort. One day a server came to us to ask us if we wanted drinks. We ordered drinks by the pool and we waited over 45 minutes for a drink, we got tired of waiting we went up to the waiter to tell him to forget about the drinks that we were leaving the pool area at that time. He did not apologize, he did not even say a word. Also, an employee at one of the pool bars asked my husband for his shoes. It seemed that whoever you spoke to had a story to tell. The lady who does the a la cart bookings told us she was a single mom and that her husband passed away. Others told us that their wife is having a baby and they had little means. Everyone telling us that life is hard and it is hard to make ends meet. We completely understand that many people in Cuba don't have much and that its citizens do not have a lot of money. But when you are on vacation and you are being told this by employees at the hotel, it makes you feel very uncomfortable. When eating at the buffet, getting a drink with your meal was difficult as well. The servers would either ask you what you wanted when you were done your meal, or they would bring your drink when you were finished your meal. Having a fresh coffee with breakfast would only happen if you used the instant machine (which tasted awful) or if you brought a coffee with you from the lobby bar. The food was cold at the buffet all the time, so the best food would be from the stations where it was prepared in front of you or at the a la cart restaurants. In addition, my husband tried to enter the buffet at 10:03, we know that the buffet closed at 10:00 am. The kids and I went in before this time while my husband exchanged money. It was embarrassing for my husband to be refused at the door and we were worried as we were waiting on my husband to arrive. It was scary to eat at the snack bar because the birds would fly onto of your head or on the chair next to you. It was also disgusting !!! The housekeeping service was not good at all either. When we arrived, we noticed dirty plates in the corner of the staircase that remained there until we complained. A few times we would have to wait for housekeeping to come around to ensure that we were given clean towels and the mini bar was stocked appropriately, we were lucky that we had 4 rooms and were able to share towels (or use ones we brought with us from home) and bottles of water. 1 room was full of ants it was sickening to see my daughters text books and school bag was covered in ants. The kids used OFF bug spray to try and get rid of them. I didn’t feel comfortable asking the resort to spray the room as I did not trust the product that they would use. Eventually it got worse and I had no choice but to ask that the room get fumigated. I was afraid that the room would stink like chemicals, even though customer service assured us there would be no odors. They were wrong there was a smell a chemical odor in the room and that night my family of 4 slept in the same room in one king sized bed. Another incident was I need maintenance to come up to unlock the safe in our room. I had to wait over an hour, plus placed 2 calls for someone to come up. I was told that it will be 10 minutes. As for the swimming pools, it was advertised that there are 8 pools. This is not accurate statement at all, I do not consider fountains as swimming pools. The pools are very dangerous and I do not recommend that anyone swim in the pools. ALL pools have missing tiles and the grids for the filter were broken. If you happened to not look while you were walking by, your foot would go through it or get caught in the jagged edges of the broken filters around the pool. On our second full day at the resort, we had a very bad experience when my nephew cut his toe in the bottom of one of the pools. He happened to step on an area where tiles were missing and cut his big toe so bad he should have gotten stiches. However, it couldn’t get stiches because there was no skin to stitch it together. It was bleeding a lot and dripped along the way to our room where we bandaged it up. We tried to clean it as much as we could. Again as I mentioned above this resort is not a very clean resort. We had to see blood spots in the staircase for days. It wasn’t until we mentioned it to customer service that the stair cases were cleaned and the blood spots were removed from the common area that other guests would see as well. This was also when the dirty plates were removed from the hallway (after being there for 5 continuous days) The beach was nice. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get down to the water. There is a small hill that you need to go down to get to the water. This was scary again because our kids fell and scraped their arms and backs on the rocks. I highly recommend that the hotel build stairs like the other resorts have to access the beach shore. It is very dangerous and unsafe for people to access the water.

Great Service, Beautiful Resort.

The Staff at this resort are all wonderful. Pedro in the Customer Service Department upgraded us to VIP because it was our 30 anniversary. Elvis does a fantastic job in the Italian ALaCarte The Snack bar is great for lunch. The food Is pretty typical for Cuba but the Staff make up for it. The rooms are awesome. Building 6 was nice and quiet. All in all I would give it a 3.5 star.

Great getaway

Almost 1 1/2 hours from airport was a little much but worth it in the end. Beautiful maintained grounds. Lots of pools... if you want an active pool, right by a beer garden and ice cream! Want to relax....got more quiet pools. Buffet always had different varieties and the staff were great wherever you went, so friendly. The only issue which may pose a problem was the beach, or at least the access to the beach. It was beautiful once you were on the beach but walking down rock shelving to get ther [... read more]e could be dangerous for elderly people or just people having too many cervezas. There is a set of stairs, but maybe a couple of other sets along the property would be helpful for everyone to enjoy.

Well worth every penny paid for !!

Well maintained Cuban owned Resort. Food is exceptionally good with variety of food for everyone. No one eats better even at home, with little understanding to Cuban people and Cuban habits. As any Cuban resort they are a bit ignorant for orders in a reception bar, but reason lies in tipping them constantly and because those are the people making exceptional kind of money for Cuban society - Yes those people have become a little "westernised" and if you don't tip them there will be poor service  [... read more]! They should be rotated with other hard working people inside resort and it would be much more appreciation of us a guests - my personal opinion ! Wanted to go to Deep Sea Fishing for ($80) CUC 80/per person, but organisation of Sunwing Representative was very very poor with No Understanding at all , following a simple rule of theirs that they have to fill all 4 spots on a boat all at once, or otherwise they can NOT and they are NOT willing to search for you for other interested party . It left me with choice to pay ($US) CUC400 on my own or wait for 7 days for Sunwing action, and go home without possibility of going to deep sea fishing at all - which excactly happened to me . Very Very dissapointed with that !!??

Very nice resort

Nice room, not far from beach an very good services. The beach was awesome and the activities were good. More music would have been better. The staff were helpefull. Good services when ask for help with fixing things in our room.

Great week at Playa Cayo Santa Maria!

My husband and I had a great week at this resort.Food was great as were the staff and grounds were very well kept.we enjoyed the entertainment in the theatre as well as in the lobby,pool,and on the beach.The only negative experience we had was the morning we were leaving at 5 am there was nothing to eat in the lobby as we were told there would be,so make sure you get something the nite before to have,it's a long time before you get into th airport.Other than that everything was wonderful,the bea [... read more]ch is a bit rocky but very beautiful.

Very Good Resort

The staff was amazing in all respects. The rooms comfortable and clean. The food was mostly good particularly the special treatment afforded to returning guests. The internet connection was lousy! Slow and unreliable. If you chose wrong server you could not log off and lost your hour of internet time.

Amazing resort

I love this place. we had some issues with the shower , when I've called the reception they sent somebody right away. you have 4 pools , you have a snack bar opens 24 hours, the beach is spectacular. I will have my vacation again at this resort next year

Beautiful Vacation!

The resort is really really nice, clean, updated, lots of water and everything, nothing bad to say about it. Peoples are very friendly, the staff is amaising and the cleaning peoples do an exceptional jobs. The down side of the resort is the 2 hours drive from the airport, and the beach....not sure if it's the time of year, but every mornings there was a high tide and could not use the beach with lounge chair til at least noon...but once the water went, we had 100 ft of beautiful beach. And for  [... read more]some reason there no stairs to decent on the beach..if you have an handicap or have a problem with walking ect...you won't be able to enjoy the water as there is a cliff to go down to reach the water and no stairs ..just a path between rock..that was strange to say the least and very dangerous. The food is very good, drinks are nicely presented and lots of wine and champaigne..lots of everything!!

Beach to die for!

I enjoyed my stay at the Playa - the beach was absolutely fabulous, crystal clear water, soft sand and warm water. The beach is the highlight of the resort as expected. The pools are also very nice and the water is again warm and clean - personally only used the pool once as the ocean was my main swimming and relaxing area. Definitely have one of the beach burgers as they are probably the best food you will find. The food is average which was not a surprise as most research I have done clearly s [... read more]tates the food is not the reason to travel to Cuba - correct statement but not as bad as I expected. The resort was relatively clean and well maintained although the rooms could use some TLC. The service was overall good with a few exceptions - the lobby bar staff were good depending on which night you were at the bar - I found every other night to be significantly different service and attitude. Cigar bar was fun a couple of nights - this seems to be the dance area and night club for the resort; not all nights were busy or packed but always some people there having a good time. There are 2 places to get drinks for 24 hrs - the lobby bar and the 24 hr snack bar although the staff seem to start shutting down around 2 to 3 am and seemed irritated when asking for drinks at these hours. There are 4 a la carts which we did not try and 1 authentic Cuban restaurant - $15 CUC charge but from what I heard worth it. There are bars at every pool, a bar which specializes in beer and beer related drinks - limited selection - and of course the swim up bar at the main pool - all good. Ice cream bar by the main pool mostly for kids but my friends went a couple of times, they serve Nestle products. Make sure you get to the bank early to exchange your money as there are long line ups at times and not always money available. There is a place to exchange at the airport as well - less people and quicker. Don't exchange too much money as they get you with surcharges and exchange rates going both ways. The entertainment was ok - not my favorite but they try. Shopping can be done at one of the three Pueblos on the island - Las Dunas is small and not much selection but close to Playa, La Estralla is bigger with more selection and can be reached by the scenic bus or cab - $2 CUC for the bus and $4 CUC for the cab - each way and last is Las Terrazas which is further away - we did not check this one out but it looked to be larger and comparable to La Estralla. There are lots of excursions to choose from depending on your tastes - we did the catamaran which was a blast and a day trip to Trinidad City which was ok but rushed as I would have liked to explore more. I would definitely recommend this resort for your Cuba trip as you will have a blast. This resort was the best value for your money we could find - highly rated, 4 1/2 star(probably 4 star) , with good reviews and not too expensive. All in all a great trip and well worth it. Enjoy Cuba all!