Iberostar Selection Varadero: Amazing resort and staff

Tammy from Trip Central.ca help us with the booking. The staff and resort was excellent. Amazing beach. Food was ok , restaurant we're ok too. overall. Not much variety. Flights were late. Will definitely come back .

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Very nice and clean resort

We had very very good time in Coral Iberostar adults only section.Hotel is very very nice.Service excellent food and room very good.We had room with swim out so it was perfect for us.Beach was so nice with turquoise ocean.I really recommend this resort.

Iberostar Origin Daiquiri: Not bad except...

The hotel room was more than adequate. Cleaned daily. Housekeeping staff very thorough, attentive and kind. Water pressure was fine and plenty of hot water. Pool was good, no complaints. Plenty of lounge chairs as it's slow season. Buffet was adequate/good. Chicken, beef and pork every day. Pasta was amazing. Assortment of fresh fruits and veggies. Lots of bread, no eggs at all. Biggest issue: local cubans arrived, and took over the entire resort. I observed at the snack bar, numerous times peo [... read more]ple ordering stacks of ham and cheese buns, like 10 of them. They eat 2 and throw the rest out. This goes on all day, everywhere. And you are stuck waiting 1/2 hour for a sandwich. The buffet is even worse. They race in, swarm the buffet, grab 3 or 4 plates each, stacked high with all the meat, bread, cakes, ice cream.. and then they WASTE IT ALL! ..Except for the day they are leaving. Where they take practically everything they can from the buffet. The entire grill of meat..ALL the cakes...everything...then they throw it in containers and take it with them. After waiting 45mins for them to be done, there's not much left. And it's picked over. They leave their garbage everywhere, paper cups, plates, cigarette butts, dirty diapers. I spoke with someone about this, and my understanding is management is afraid to address this because they fear retaliation.(bad reviews or loud arguments) and staff go along with it because they fear reprisal from management. It would have been an excellent vacation spot but for the 3 or 4 days of dealing with this. All the staff are tremendously friendly, warm, helpful and kind. The only other issue i had was the beach. A lot of plant matter raked up in long strips on the beach and left to rot, which stank. And the water has a lot of sea shells, and coral, which requires water shoes. However there's a much nicer beach. Playa Pillar which is a short bus ride away. I would not return to this resort until I was assured that management has found a way to address the locals.

Iberostar Waves Punta Cana: Not a 5-star

The staff were only friendly when I slipped them US cash. The staff have disdain for English-speaking people. My attempts to speak Spanish were received by mocking me. One server made fun of my son for his stutter and ignored him after that. No one showed us around on the first day. The valet just told us to use the app to orient ourselves. The app had the restaurant hours wrong. Food was great. The beach was terrible. I had a better experience at a 3-star in Mexico and Cancun. I will never go b [... read more]ack.

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Beautiful place and service

We stayed at Coral ensenacho adult only. Ground was beautiful with so many white butterflies everywhere, felt like we are in heaven. Villa was huge!! Bigger than my house in Toronto!! Jacuzzi in terrace with table set and loungers. 3 bathroom, 2 walk-in closet, kitchen, and 2 beautiful huge bedrooms. Food was good, enough variety, lots of drinks. All the staff were so kind, friendly, so helpful. Beach was beautiful with white sand and clear emerald green water, fish dancing around our fe [... read more]et. Only little problem was no wifi connection inside our room. And 24 hours snack bar was very far, we have to wait for the Cart Because this resort was so big, we need more time to find all the facilities.

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Amazing hotel

Very nice hotel . I would recommend the hotel to anyone who wants to go to Cuba The beach is beautiful . The staff are amazing Food and drinks are great . Restaurants are great. We had a very good time. We will be back soon.

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Great Place To Relax!

Great hotel if looking to relax. Rooms were good but a bit run down compared to photos. Staff was amazing but food selection was not good and a lot of flies always on the food. Drink selection was okay but not as good as other resorts I’ve stayed at. Beach was a 5/5 but beach bar closed at 4 pm also No swim up pool. Would not consider this hotel a 5 star,

Iberostar Origin Playa Alameda: Nice but empty resort

The resort was a bit in need of some maintenance/updating. It seems the photos of the resort and its condition haven't been updated in a bit. The resort is nicer in photos and not many people when the 3 of us visited however, the staff were very very friendly and fun to be around, the food was better than what I was expecting based on the research I did and what people had to say on forums about resort food in Cuba. Obviously outside resorts the food is better, but the resort food wasn't bad and [... read more] there were some very tasty dishes actually. The beach and pool are beautiful.

Iberostar Origin Bella Vista Varadero: Trip with Friends

The photo of the resort is deceiving beach no longer looks like the picture following a storm. Service is hit and miss. Good service in certain areas - snack bar and Star Prestige area but pool bar and lobby bar very slow and tend to ignore you most of the time while they talk. Food in buffet and al carte was often cold. Food in the Star Prestige area was good. Ran out daily of soft drinks and juices but had them the next day. Seemed like they were rationing. Room was tired and run down. T [... read more]oilet constantly ran. Nothing in the room minibar (have never seen that) and in Star Prestige they would not give you drinks to take back to your room. Acquiring fresh towels for the room and beach was difficult. They were always out early morning and nothing further available during the day. The only highlights were being with our friends and the resort put on and amazing Canada Day celebration with good food, music and entertainment and followed a few days later with a Cuban Day. If the rest of the week had been at that level my review would be different. This resort could be so much better if they addressed the above inadequacies. We had only been in Varadero three weeks before st a resort three minutes away and hsd a fabulous time - good service, beautiful room and good food and drinks. Unfortunately, we will.not return to Iberostar Origin Bella Vista.

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Amazing resort

Resort was amazing . Great time to go when it’s off season.Pool was empty and the beach was as well.200 at the resort and the resort is huge. Would definitely be booking again . Service needed attention and buffet was full of flies.But they were doing their best

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Love this resort

Staff is wonderful! The food is what it is but won't starve. Had eggs everyday for breakfast. The have fruit, cheese, pasta, pizza, fish, pork, chicken, all sorts of different salads. Rooms are good. Beautiful pools and beach.

Iberostar Origin Playa Alameda: Fantastic service

Resort itself was great. Good service rooms were clean à la carte restaurants were a little tough to get in, but we managed. The only issue I ran into was lack of toilet paper, which I’ve never run into my previous four times to Cuba

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Most relaxing stay ever!!

This small resort was ideal to get away and relax. We had a swim-out room which allowed us to leave our room only for food and drinks if we wanted. Nothing was far,, staff were excellent, atmosphere was quiet and relaxed, food and drinks were good. No complaints at all! We rarely visit the same resort twice but we would return to the Iberostar Coral Esmeralda. Great place to recharge. We met a couple that were there for their 5th time in 4 years. If you are looking for an active nig [... read more]htlife and big entertainment productions, this is probably not the resort for you.

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Best resort in Cayo Coco!

Absolutely beautiful resort, with lovely pools and main areas. The food was good, and the mangoes on the beach were incredibly delicious! Staff were so kind and friendly, and always had a smile on their faces. Water was warm, and the sand was perfect. Not too hot, so fine it was almost soft, and we enjoyed taking strolls down the lovely beach during the day and night. We went during seaweed season, so there was a bit of seaweed on the beach, but there was always someone picking it up trying to  [... read more]keep it at bay. We went on a few excursions to go snorkeling and on the catamarans, and when we were on the bus going past the other resorts, we were so glad to have chosen the one we did, because it definitely looked and felt the most beautiful and premium of all the ones we saw.

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Great family getaway

We just returned from a week away to Iberostar Ensenachos where we had a great stay. The beach and water are amazing. The grounds are well maintained, the entertainment and animation team, the people we met at the reception, bar/buffet are all trying to please and engage with the clients. Yes, there are renovations and some time it seems there is a long walk to get to the lobby/buffet place, but we did not let this disturb our trip. This is a great place for people that fishing, swimming and sno [... read more]rkeling. Thanks Ensenachos Team

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: 30+ trips to Cuba, do not recommend this resort, 3 star resorts are better than this 5!

30+ trips to Cuba within the last 10ish years. Lots of various resorts ranging from old 3 star, to new 5 star. I’m comparing Cuba to Cuba resorts. Check in: Arrived at 11am, did not get our room until about 6pm! Even though check in should be 4:00. If they were honest, I would have just stayed at the pool, instead of waiting 2 hours in a wet bathing suit in the lobby, hearing them tell me “any minute”. Rooms: What a disaster. Our room did not have a bathroom fan. Every shower would steam [... read more] up the whole room, including the floors, which became very unsafe. So we had to blast the AC to get rid of the condensation, and were frozen, otherwise we’d have wet damp bedding. Since everything was damp, the smell was extremely musty/moldy, with lots of mold one the walls (see attached pics), how is this a new 5 star??! The toilet make major noise at 5am every day since they shut the water off around 1am, and turned back at 5am, waking you up every day. Pro was the bed was comfortable and AC worked. Service: Lobby bar service, I don’t think I’ve seen worse. 10 people lined up to get coffee with 1 server in the morning. The staff played the “If you tip more, you get to cut in line” game. Which is unethical. My fiancé had been waiting a while, one lady came in waiving a $20 and bartender went to her! My fiancé said something clearly upset and the bartender pretended that he didn’t see him standing RIGHT infront of him for the last 10 minutes, very disappointing. No table service like they do at Grand Sirenis in CSM. A huge difference like I’ve never seen before. Buffet staff were better, but a bit slow refilling drinks. Pool bar should have someone willing to interact with guests for the experience, not someone who looks miserable to be there. Snack bar staff was good. Food: 9/10 for Cuba. They had a nice grill by the pool, although the wait times were long. Buffet was typical Cuban food, but seasoned well. AC worked very good, even too cold. Con would be the area is designed way too small, the place was packed when even 60% full. Hard to get around. Be aware: When looking at social media images, some are from the CORAL section which is a different resort. Entertainment: Sat under the shade spots at the beach all day, other than 30 minutes at the pool, oh and before that under the stadium seating eating food that guests would bring from the snack bar, when they asked people who were walking by. The guy with the colored hair is sketchy, I’ll leave it at that. Was the worst entertainment team I’ve seen. A guy won a barrel pool riding competition, and they then said to win the bottle you had to do an embarrassing “sexy” dance, which he did, and then they said it was a joke, NO BOTTLE of rum at all! Yet the 3 star hotels give them out with every game! Pools: Lounge chairs from hell. You go to sit in one, and the back smacks you hard in the back of the head. They are all broken! You need ties to hold them in place. (Hard to see in the pic, but when sitting you can see the back doesn’t stay attached to the base, it goes up with you) Along with that, all spots were taking at 6am., and this was end of high season, end of April. So if you didn’t get up you didn’t get any shade. The actual shade was broken umbrellas, which you had to ask a lifeguard for the stick to be able to prop up. Half of them had fabric missing (see pics) People had to sit in the snack bar, with towels to be able to swim. The resort was built in the windiest place in Cuba, how could you not plan that there would be days where 90% of the guests would be at the pool?! The only good thing about the pool were the nice lifeguards, pretty much the only people that interacted with you. All other staff were cold, non talkative, I wonder if the managers told them they aren’t allowed interacting unless providing a service? I’ve never seen anything like this at any other resort, again, 30+ trips all over Cuba. Beach: Couldn’t really go due to wind. You can’t sit down, because you get pelted in the face/eyes with sand. And the one day that was calmer, no shade spots to be found, all taken. Management needs 50% more shade! It’s not a vacation having to fight for chairs at 5am. Overall: Would not recommend. I am actually writing this review after staying at an old 3 star hotel (review coming soon), and because the 3 star was SO much better, I decided to write the one about Esmeralda, to save people their hard earned money. There might be people that liked it, but have they seen 30+ resorts in Cuba? Or did they go to 2, and Esmeralda was their “favorite” that they now call “the best”? Food for thought. NOTICE: When trying to upload a review to SELECTION side, it’s defaulting to CORAL. So that might be an issue.

Iberostar Selection Varadero: June 2025 girls trip

Loved this place. Went close to 20 Years ago and loved it and it is just as nice today. The only thing that would make it so much better is if they could figure out how to make cocktails. That was the only disappointment. The place is spotless and has great service from all the staff.

Iberostar Selection Varadero: Fantastic Time once again

It was great to see the improvements just from a year ago. Food seemed much tastier. Pastries were delicious. Omelletes every day. An ice cream truck was just added near the pool and they just finished building a big terrace set up with picnic tables in front of two containers that were serving drinks and lunch. The beach was fantastic, no seaweed and waves only on one day but they were fun! There were mosquitos, but Off worked fine. There was plenty of entertainment. Opera singers one ni [... read more]ght, amazing pianist in the lobby every evening. Live band accompanying the show every night. The restaurant food was much improved over last year, especially the Mediterranean restaurant. The staff were all welcoming and so nice. Yoany in the buffet restaurant should be made manager. I’ve never seen anyone work so hard with such a smile! He never stopped running. Yeny in the reservations office was very helpful. Our maid kept our room spotless and we had turn down service at night so received new towels twice a day where needed. The only drawback was that almost every bathroom only had one working toilet and there were no toilet seats at all in the lobby bathroom. However that will not deter us from returning!

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Amazing Review

Everything was perfect food , pool, room, staff all friendly, and helpful.One thing I would say maybe have more water in the fridge , and change the pool towels everyday. Besides that resort was wonderful.

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Very enjoyable time at this resort!

This review is mostly focused on the 18+ side. The grounds were very well kept. The room was amazing along with the view from the large balcony that was attached. Staff was very friendly and helpful. I had no complaints about the internet access, but I did not try any streaming. I was never disappointed at any of the restaurants, they all had good food and service. The buffet was very good as well. The food at the snack bar was also good. The pools were clean and always had available seating. Th [... read more]e beach was wonderful as well. Overall, I would come back here on my next trip. I would also like to give a special thanks to Alembert.