Playa Pesquero: I expected more than I actually got

I love Cuba and It was my 5th visit to this country. This hotel lack of entertainment and food. I came to this place looking forward for fun and relaxation. However, on the second day of my stay, I got sick. I couldn't eat or drink anything. Buffet had a limited variety of food and It was not good.

Playa Pesquero: Great resort

This was our 3rd time at this resort. As usual, the staff, restaurant workers, bartenders were kind, and always ready to go that extra mile to make our holiday relaxing and most enjoyable. This resort always provide a wonderful choice of restaurants . The beach is excellent, lots of shady areas and a good supply of loungers. Trying the catamaran ride is a must. Lots of fun. I’m already making plans to return in a few months.

Playa Pesquero: Such a beautiful place to be

Incredible place. Everything was so clean and beautiful gardens. The staff were very attentive and professional. The beach is breathtaking, so many places to tickle your palate and I recommend the Bahama Mamma cocktail. It is a wonderful treat. I will return again. Taking the whole family next year.The flight was great and comfortable.

Playa Pesquero: Amazing resort but not 5*

Excellent beach and people. That is why we come back to Cuba. Food was sometimes delicious and sometimes needed improvement. Everything else was good or better. We had a lovely time there. I found the price each year higher, but it is not a problem with Cuba but with the Canadian dollar losing power:-)

Playa Pesquero: BEST RESORT IN CUBA

"Great Getaway! I have been to seven different resorts, all over Cuba and all at least four star ratings but this was the best, by far. Jose met all of our requests, building 16, second floor with King Size beds. The beds were very comfortable and I usually have a tough time with the pillows but not here. Our ladies that cleaned the room were fantastic and the supervisor Gladys, made sure we recieved everything we needed in our rooms. Front desk was very efficient, special mention to the hard wo [... read more]rking ladies at the coffee train, the Mojito bar, beer garden and the omelet station. The young man serving drinks by the pool, worked tirelessly and the pool guy kept the pools spotless. I was never not greeted with a smile by any of the employees and cannot say anything negative about anyone there. The a la carte restaurants provided the best food I have ever had in Cuba and the people in the buffet were very attentive. I know I am not mentioning everyone but so many of the employee's deserve kudo's for the excellent job they do. When we return to Cuba, it won't be necessary for me to read reviews, without a doubt our destination will be Playa Pesquero! Keep up the good work to everyone there. The only thing missing was dark Creme de Cacao at the lobby bar and perhaps more mixed drinks at the swim-up bar, like they serve in the lobby. Muchas Gracias!"

Playa Pesquero: Amazing beach

Beautiful white sand ,and you never want to get out of the turquoise water. Resort was very nice and clean.The staff is really kind . Rooms are Cuban style , nothing fancy ,but comfortable. Great pools, good food. I like a little more entertainment at night but it was a great vacation.

Playa Pesquero: Playa Pesquera review, Holguin, Cuba

This was our 6th trip to Cuba but our first fist to Holguin, Playa Paquera. We were impressed with the Lobby and facilities which not only were extensive, but would be a suitable location in the event of poor weather in the off season. Numerous photo ops included various items such as a full size gondola, a train engine out front and a coffee bar in the shape of a train, as well. The best all a la carte restaurant was the Romantica as well as the Italian restaurant. There’s pizza fres [... read more]hly made off the beach, as well. The piano bar is first rate, as is their Theatre productions, that had surprisingly good talent. Buffet is adequate but freshly prepared eggs and sticking to the fish or chicken is your best best. They also had two pig roasts that had long line ups as a testimonial to the taste. Unlike many of the resorts in Veradero, they have not restricted an excessive area to the VIP section, which often made finding a chair by the pool difficult, in the quest for additional profits. There’s a nice chicken place on the boulevard that had a line up daily. Let’s face it, the beach is not as great in Veradero, so if you are there for the beach, this is not the place for you. That said the beach is nice. We did not overly tip with a daily tip for the cleaning of the room and for our wake up capacino. We also brought baseball caps for the ground crew which was much appreciated. We would recommend the tour to Holguin at the end of your stay which included a trip to the city for some shopping, an included lunch, VIP and advanced check in and a few hours in their all inclusive lounge. There’s a surprising number of British tourists and we were told it was a nine hour flight. We plan on returning next year.

Playa Pesquero: Super resort!

The beach is gorgeous. The food is delicious, all restaurants serve lobsters. At the lobby bar are plenty of international drinks. The staff is very friendly. There are lots of activities for all ages.

Playa Pesquero: Beautiful Resort!

Recently returned home from a week's stay at this beautiful resort. Second visit to this resort in 4 years, some updates and changes, but overall still as peaceful as ever. Staff go above and beyond to make your stay comfortable and the best that it can possibly be. Resort is very well maintained, pool grounds are immaculate, and food is plentiful with lots of variety.

Playa Pesquero: Amazing Resort

Thoroughly enjoyed all! Preferred the fresh to make areas of buffets. Great selections. Loved the coffee bar. Enjoyed all al la Carts. Was disappointed that not more available in shops for souvenirs. Loved the beach (a few buried broken glass & rocks in sand made walking uncomfortable) & pool! Great shade around the pool. Could use a few more pallapas at beach. Would have been nice for guests to have direct access to bottled drinking water. For the most part staff was friendly but did  [... read more]experience unpleasantness from gentleman attending the stir fry bar.

Sirenis Tropical Varadero: Needs improvements

First I must say that I am not impressed with Sunwing, this bit has nothing to do with the resorts its self, but needs to be said. We have never paid for seat selection in our 11 years of traveling and we have always been able to sit together, this year when checking in at the airport the Sunwing agent told us that there were no seats together unless we wanted to pay an additional $50 each, then we could sit together. This tells me that there were in fact available seats together, and as we were [... read more] unwilling to pay an extra $100 we were given seats at opposite ends of the air craft. Now to the review on the hotel. We stayed at Labranda from Feb 16 – 23, 2019. There are some good points to the resort and some negative points as well, resulting in us feeling as though we paid too much for our vacation. We are not new to Cuba, we have visited 9 times, so these are experienced comments. The good: The beach is spectacular (as are all Cuban beaches that we have been to). The grounds and landscaping are picture perfect, with lots of lighting at night on most of the walk ways. The Cohiba bar (lobby) was nicely decorated and Omar and the group he normally worked with were always pleasant, welcomed you and remembered your drink of choice. The lunch buffet/bar El Ranchone was a nice alternative to the main buffet for lunch (this is also an a la Carte in the evening) and the staff Adrian & Yessica were always very nice and happy to see you. The rooms have just been renovated, and are very nicely decorated and modern looking, our bathroom was really nicely redone, the shower worked amazingly with lots of pressure and no issues with temperature. The housekeeping staff were great, and worked very hard to keep the rooms and walkways clean. The not so good: The food at the buffet was not what we expected, there were two options daily…fish & chicken, this was the only resort that we actually saw people eating only fries. The main buffet does not have enough trained wait staff or cooks, and they do not have enough utensils to properly set the tables after people leave and new people sit down, up to a 20 min wait at times, there were no spoons available for the first 4 days of our vacation. The food for lunch at the El Ranchone was also very repetitive. The snack bar by the big pool does not offer much, we ordered hamburgers one evening, and they were served raw, needless to say we did not eat them and did not order anything there again. There is not enough bar staff at the beach or at the bar by the big pool, at any given time we would only see one bar tender/per bar, and at times the line ups were 20-30 people long. They ran out of cups (both glass & plastic) at the bar by the big pool by 6pm one evening and were providing drinks in small paper cups, like the size of a small Dixie cup you’d get at the dentist. And they would run out of all kinds of alcohol (vodka, gin, wine to name a few) daily by 6pm and most bar staff are not trained and would make drinks up; examples would be: vodka & sprite = rum & sprite strawberry daiquiri = rum & grenadine margarita = rum & green slush. The bad: Bring some heavy-duty bug spray, the biting insects are really bad here. The air conditioner did not work the entire week that we were there, and after going to the lobby desk twice, the customer service desk twice and our Sunwing rep once (who was only there for 1 hour/day and hard to find), we were not offered an new room and to our knowledge noone was ever sent to look at it. Our Sunwing rep said that she would get us a late check-out and that we would have to sign off on it at the Customer Service desk. My fiance went to the customer service desk and relayed our unhappiness regarding the food, drinks and air conditioning and told them that we felt we paid too much for this vacation because of those things, and they went on to offer him a nice dinner in our room with wine and flowers, for a cost of only $50. He pretty much laughed and said, no thank you and we never did get our late-check out. In conclusion, this is not a terrible place and it has the potential to be a great resort, but for what is being charged and what you are getting, you might want to consider going elsewhere. If you have already booked your vacation, you might want to consider changing to another resort.

Playa Pesquero: A huge resort !

Playa Pesquero is a lovely-looking resort, almost like a lush Italian health spa. From the actual gondola at the entrance, to the fountains and sculptures decorating the lobby, the pool area and the grounds, it is visually very appealing. Everywhere there are swaying palm trees, several different types, tropical fruit trees, hedges and bushes in full bloom, with many different species of birds singing and flying about. The setting is well laid-out and truly beautiful. Our upper floor room in  [... read more]bungalow 45 was spacious, comfortable and very quiet, with a balcony overlooking trees and a grassy area. It was so nice to be woken up by birds tweeting and chirping. Fortunately it was centrally located with only a five minute walk to the beach and to the main buffets. Many were situated much farther away, but there were always small transport vehicles going by if the walking got to be too much. The buffets were very big with masses of food. Meat and fish were in most dishes, so not a lot of choice for vegetarians unfortunately. Local tropical fruit was served at all meals and was ripe, fresh and delicious. For some unknown reason, no pizzas were available at any of the buffets or restaurants, except small ones at a take-out counter down by the beach. We were disappointed by the beach which is quite wide but not very long, and by the lack of shade. It was extremely hot, close to 33 degrees during the 3rd week of February, and finding a spot away from the sun was a daily challenge. The swimming however was great as there were no huge waves to knock you over. It is a good beach for children, very safe, and the water was the perfect temperature. There is excellent snorkeling, with lots of different coloured and sized fish who are not shy about coming close for the treats they seem to expect. It is also a great beach for an outing on one of the colourful catamarans as the wind is especially strong in the morning. There were a lot of smokers at this resort and thankfully the constant breeze was helpful in minimizing this inconvenience. The lobby area was vast with many different comfortable areas to sit and enjoy a drink. It was a very friendly space to be and to enjoy live music. It was our first time ever at a resort to be treated to a concert by a superb violinist (who plays with the Havana Symphony) and to be able to listen to other excellent musicians each evening. What to bring if you choose this resort: lots of 60 spf sunscreen, your most comfortable flip-flops & sunhats for the many km of walking, all the beach gear you can fit in your suitcase, and most of all, lots of smiles and appreciation for the staff who are all such friendly, hard-working and lovely people. I should also add that there were several beach weddings during our 2 weeks at Playa Pesquero. They seemed to have been well-organized and, from an observer's point of view, were lovely ceremonies, with delightful renditions of The Wedding March and other appropriate tunes strummed softly by a trio of Cuban musicians. The bride and groom were seen trotting off in a horse-drawn buggy with the wedding party crowding into the large golf carts. A lot of fun I'm sure was had by all.

Playa Pesquero: Fantastic Resort!

Fantastic resort & service. We haven’t been here in 13 years & we were curious if it still met the top seller standards. It is a resort that is clean, organized and has great service. We also enjoyed the services they provided in hand with having a doctor, dentist and pharmacy on site! Many different restaurants to choose from and enough activities for all ages.

Sirenis Tropical Varadero: The Real Hotel Labranda

I will start with the good things about the hotel. Beautiful building and beautiful beach. Disappointing parts of the trip Hotel room had the following problems - safe not working, refridgerator not working, tv not working, toilet seat broken, no air conditioning and no outside phone lines. Everything was fixed except the air conditioning and telephone lines. The rest of the resort was also had issues, no cutlery for most meals and the food was poor and tasteless, chicken and fish and pasta  [... read more]daily. The grill at the beach was well prepared and tasty. I wouldn't return as this hotel has under gone extensive renovations and this is the outcome, not prepared for people. The lack of good customer service just blew me away, poor choice for a vacation getaway. The location was a 15 peco cab ride to town as so far away, another issue as nothing close to the resort.This at present is a 2.5 star and if all was addressed would be a 4 star location. Very disappointed for the money paid out for this resort.

Playa Pesquero: Amazing resort

For a first time travler at 21 years of age this place was so amazing and welcoming, the pool and beach’s were just breathtaking, food was good as long as you got something either from one of the fine dining restaurants or from someone who cooked the dish in front of you. The nighty entertainment was great and loved to see that it was diffrent everyday. Rooms were kept Clean and they were the perfect size for me and my Significant other. If you fly with sunwing the Representative at the res [... read more]ort is so helpfully and had to be one of the nicest people I met there, the resort had so manny things you could do I wish I wouod have been able to stay longer to try it all. I 100% want to come back to this spot one day.

Playa Pesquero: What a Great Oasis!

This resort was lovely - it's a 5star Cuban style, prob a generous 4 four Canada style. The food was significantly better than our last visit to Cuba 10 years ago, however I'd rate the food about 6.5/10 compared to Mexico. That being said the culture is so fascinating and I don't know where else on the planet you'd get that kind of experience, it's so historically interesting and currently a rare experience. The people are friendly and your Canadian dollar is so appreciated, for that matter Cana [... read more]dians are very welcome. The resort itself is huge, plenty of much needed walking (after all you can eat & drink) through beautifully manicured and clean grounds. The pool is massive, meandering and quite a spectacle. The beach is the best I have ever been to, even when compared to Mexico. Plus there is plenty of seating and shade available ocean side. Note: If you are a complainer, probably Cuba isn't the best place to go to have North American standards indulged. Overall it was great, however there are some very Cuban things (like power flickers, less than four star bathrooms, not amazing food, etc) that you just have to roll with in exchange for beautiful beaches, fascinating culture and few Americans!)

Playa Pesquero: Amazing resort

Beautiful great service awesome food beautiful pool and beach. Very friendly staff no complaints cannot wait to return 5 stars all around Golf cart service good as very large resort Lots to eat 24 hours a day Al la carte restaurants all good Italian and romantico our favourite and easy to book

Playa Pesquero: Playa Pesquero a great getaway

Grounds: the grounds are well manicured by the staff with beautiful flowers and trees. Guests must be more vigilant in putting plastic glasses in garbage instead of just throwing away. Pool is huge and clean with lots of chairs and loungers. Remember the guests do put towels out early to take prime areas near swim up bar but there is still lots of chairs for everyone. The beach area is nice and the employees will bring loungers to you. The buffet restaurants were okay. We found food to be [... read more] cold at times and over cooked. The el a carte places were excellent. At times there could have been more staff on hand at the buffet to clear dishes off tables. The liquor and beer was great and bartenders were always there to help you. Trip was enjoyed by all.

Playa Pesquero: Love this resort!

The hotel is well kept and the grounds are just breathtaking. The beach is beautiful and great for taking a walk. There’s 4 a la carte restaurants to choose from and the food is delicious. There menu has a good selection and they serve lobster if you like fish. They have big roast as well. The lobby is spacious with lots of evening entertainment. Around 3:30 - 4:00 they serve cheese, olives, pickles and prosciutto as a snack. In the evening a cart goes around with international liquor an [... read more]d cigars. The coffee train in the lobby makes the best cappuccino and espresso. The staff is should be commended for their hard work and great service. Can’t wait to go back.

Playa Pesquero: Awesome

This was my fourth time to this Resort and although I was not disappointed in the Resort itself, it has gone through some upgrades, I was disappointed with the food selection. This Resort was taken over by new management recently and I'm hoping they're just ironing out the kinks but food wise, it has taken a downward spiral. As for the rest of the Resort, it remains the same. Service is great and all in in all it's a great place to go.