Amazing staff

This resort was beautiful. Although it is huge, everything was in walking distance. Grounds were very well taken care of. Beach was stunning. Great service at a the bars. Buffet was not great. No signage to tell you what the food was. The mexican restaurant and the 24 hour grill were our best options for food. Beds and pillows were uncomfortable. I wish the resort or travel rep would have told us about all of the free activities as we found out about them on the ride home from a fellow traveller [... read more]. I would return to this resort but be better prepared with snacks and my own pillow

Second time and loving it!

It's our second time in this resort and everything is great as usual! There's a few things you need to understand about Cuba, of course. The food is never on the top-notch international level, the service is slower than other international "five star" resorts. Once you know and accept it however, you see all the pros in Cuba and this resort in particular: - people are exceptionally loving and friendly, - the beach is amazing, - beach volleyball every day with good net - great pools.  [... read more]Great spacious baby/toddler pool - live music and shows every night - great staff in Kids club and mini disco for kids every night at 8 All in all a very good resort for families with kids. We will gladly come back next year!

Great value for money

Just returned from a lovely, 6-day visit. There were certainly many less-than-ideal aspects of our stay; however, given that the price was so low, it was entirely as expected and we left very satisfied with our stay. PROS: - Incredible beach and great pool areas - We never had to get up early to claim a lounger - Really great nightly entertainment which was well set up in the lobby - Value-for-money was on point for the rooms and grounds: a bit shabby, but overall delightful in light of  [... read more]the cost - When our flight was delayed by a day because of the ice storm, the hotel/Sunwing did a great job of facilitating our extended stay. Sunwing also covered the cost which was much appreciated - Better food options at the buffets were the grill stations: omelettes, stir-fry, pasta, etc. A bit of a lineup/wait but well worth it. Also, the buffet's cheese and smoked salmon were great - Mediterranean a la carte was lovely - Cappuccinos in the lobby - Quick, easy airport pickup/drop off using the shuttle service through Sunwing CONS: (All of which were really no big deal because of the great price and realistic expectations for a non-luxury resort in Cuba) - There were a few issues with our room (ie leaking toilet) and they were a bit slow to be fixed - We heard a few folks complaining about inability to get beach towels. We collected our towels later in the day and never had any issue. - Much of the food was unappealing and there was a lot of repetition; however, it would have been foolish to expect otherwise. Ultimately, we always did find something to eat and were satisfied - International a la carte: the service as slow and everything we saw being served looked rather unpleasant. After 20 mins of waiting without even giving our order, we decided to jump ship and hit up the buffet instead - Service was hit-or-miss but entirely what we expected from a discount holiday. Some long waits, some unpleasant staff, many things overlooked, and you often have to fend for yourself. Please keep in mind that the staff work 6 days a week, their days start and end with long commutes, they are comparably poorly-remunerated, and they often work with limited resources. Value for money and context taken into consideration, we were still grateful and tipped always - It's not the hotel's fault, but prepare to breathe second-hand cigarette smoke pretty much constantly. It was most unpleasant - The public toilets almost never had toilet paper, so make sure you always bring your own If you are looking for a low-budget opportunity to hop on a plane to relax by a beach/pool and enjoy some fabulous weather, I can't recommend this place enough. If you're looking for a luxury experience, I would recommend that you opt to shell out the big bucks for a different venue to match your expectations. Thanks, Sunwing and Melia Jardines del Rey for delivering exactly what we paid for and wanted from our vacation! I would definitely return for my next low-budget, get-me-to-a-beach-for-a-few-days getaway :)

Awful resort

Food awful Customer service awful Rooms awful dirty Resort needs alot of work they can not accommodate that many people awful Beach was amazing and weather was great Will never go back or refer this resort to anyone.

Cayo Coco melia hardiness del Ray

From the moment we booked our trip 2 weeks ago with Tammy at trip central to reaching home last week, our trip was amazing! The service throughout was great , hotel and entertainment was good and weather was fantastic! We were delayed one day due to the ice storm in Toronto and sunwing handled it all very well. Definatly recomending it to my friends and family! 2 are going in May with family one in June and 6 in November. It was that awesome! 😁🏝

Nice resort

The room is bad. The shower is not working well and ventilation fun was broken. The food is poor and not many selections and almost same everyday. The stuffs are nice and the beach is the best I like in this resort.

Nice beach

Everything is great except room and food. The beach is the best. The food is not good. Almost the same thing everyday. The stuff are very nice. The fan in the bathroom is not working. The bed is wet all the time.

I wouldn't go again

The actual building is nice. The pools are nice but not cleaned very regularly. The food was questionable at best. If there was a food that was decent they ran out of it more then they served it. They only give 1 bottle of water per room for a family of 4 and refused to give any more when asked. We ran out of hot water for 48hrs, lost power in whole resort last day with no storm or cloud in the sky. There is a huge language barrier which is very difficult. I would not recommend this hotel to an [... read more]yone.

Could b better

This resort could b so much more than what it is. Minimal food selection and access to bottled water was difficult. Staff were ok. Check in was a nightmare. Grounds were littered with cigarette buts and bits of garbage. Poor selection of pop to mix drinks and we had a power outage on our final night. The pool was great there were lots of pool areas for our kids to play. The beach was beautiful but bathrooms were minimal and far away along with the bar and food. There were literally 2 bathrooms s [... read more]erving the beach and lunch buffet. The ice cream hut was a hit with the kids. I think this place could b great but at this point out of 5 i would say 2.5. All being said im not sure what the resort was prior to the hurricane. Destruction im sure was major. We had a good time tho we went with a great group of people which made it all worth while

An honest review for the interested traveller

Review of Melia Jardines del Rey My wife and I went to this resort April 1-8 2018, booking a package with Air Transat through Tripcentral First the good....the beach is absolutely beautiful, very large with many shade palapas, and shallow water with soft sand.You can walk for miles in and out of the ocean. The resort staff are very friendly and courteous,generally what you find in most resorts in Cuba. Now the bad.....The room, which was an upgrade from Air Transat, was not so good.Toilet d [... read more]idn't flush properly, sink had no pressure or hot water, had missing blind on window(which was later repaired after many calls) and I received an arc flash when plugging in an adapter to the 220V receptacle,and many more things broken or not working...so the room was not in a good state of repair...this after a 4 hour wait after check-in to get into the room....did I mention the bed also doubles as a rock during the day? Also, the room bar not stocked consistently, many cans of orange drink, less beer every day and one cola finally on the last day (I thought they ran out of it..honestly). Also ran out of toilet paper for 36 hours-couldn't get a supply from front desk or customer service. The food....two al a cartes abandoned after tasting the main course. Didn't bother trying the others after talking to guests. The same buffet food for a week lunch and dinner....excessive lineups for food preparation (up to 20 minutes)...premade buffet food bland and cold. We have been in Cuba 9 times, this is without question the worst food I have ever eaten there...I actually lost weight on vacation....my wife says we should come back when we go on a diet :). The breakfast buffet had one (1) toaster for over 500 guests, so with the omelet lineups, impossible to get a warm breakfast with eggs and toast. There seemed to be many shortages, ranging from fresh fruit to various kinds of alcohol i.e. spanish coffee for two days until they ran out of liquer for it...well, I hope you get the picture... Yes, it was a cheap trip..and the beach was nice My recommendation? Pack food for the trip..... Would we go back? Not likely

Very Disappointed

Hotel staff including maids, Gardners, bartenders were very friendly and provided good service. Very disappointed in the hotel beds, linens, lack of stock in room ie toilet paper, limits on water provisions was unacceptable. Faulty door lock and safe. Long waits in most restaurants who were always out of basic staples ie bread. Excursions terrible-over booked, poor quality (injury sustained during dolphin excursion with no refund). Poor Customer service with Air Transat reps responding to our co [... read more]ncerns. Elegance club cost extra with zero promised benefits. Booked on direct flight which ended up in 1hr layover in Varadero with no AC and no offer of water. Could continue on but limited space in this section

Huge disappointment

We (19 of us) chose this resort as the reviews were good and we knew of a family who travelled here last year. We had travelled to Cuba 2 years ago and loved it. It seemed as soon as we arrived we had challenges. No hot water in one building for over 24 hours, none of us ever got clean bath towels (despite asking) and getting a clean beach towel was almost impossible. We were only allowed 1 bottle of water per room per day despite the need for more (and advised not to drink from the tap) we had  [... read more]a many children with us including a nursing mom. We could easily get a glass of water from the wait staff however on two occasions you could not see through the water. Most of our kids ended up with cuts on their feet from pool tiles lifting in the pool. The pool was in dire need of cleaning green slime off the walls. The rooms are quite set back from the ocean so upgrading to ocean front would not be worth it. They often ran out of things, both food and premium liquor/wine, or at least that is what they told us. We attempted, on several occasions, to discuss our concerns with customer service and our tour rep however it always fell on deaf ears. None of us would not return to this hotel. My advice would be to investigate other options.

One very big negative!

The beach here is amazing; the water colour is aquamarine, but transparent on the shallow sandbar just off the shore. The long sandbar was popular with Frisbee players and guests who just wanted to walk in shallow water. I participated in the aquafit and stretching classes in the Animation Zone. The instructors are all grads of Sport University so they know their stuff; I was pleasantly surprised at how professional the classes were. Now for the bad stuff - the buffet restaurant is a dis [... read more]aster of shortages, long line-ups and general mismanagement. We booked as many specialty restaurants as possible in order to avoid the place! Also troubling were other problems that occurred during our second week there. The towel kiosk by the pool actually ran out of towels for two full days so current guests couldn't exchange wet or dirty beach towels and newly arrived guests couldn't even get towels! Also, the Internet office ran out of Wifi cards to purchase; new cards weren't available for 24 hours. Very frustrating! Overall, I was disappointed in the resort - the web page photos look so appealing, but the lived reality was not as advertised.

Amazing Staff and Snorkelling!

The staff were amazing, the food was fine we were always able to find something to eat just wish the pineapple had been ripe at least one day while we were there. The rooms were good, and I loved the fact it was quite at night, many families and kids playing on the beach, which was always fun to watch. The snorkelling at the coral reef was amazing, just 1 mile sail from our beach for 20 CUC for and hr. I did find the beach had a lot of coral and shells on it which meant you had to watch where yo [... read more]u walked in bare feet but I guess that’s a trade off when a coral reef is so close to you.

Beautiful resort, great beach

The hotel is very nice, but huge. The buffet was super busy, the beach pizza place ran out every day. The staff were wonderful, the weather great. Love the beach, the pools. The ala carte dinners were good, not sure if I would return re soooo busy in spots, but would be fun with a large group, too busy for my liking. Loved flying out of Hamilton, so fast and easy.

Very, very, very poor

The resort is to big to much walking, the toilet's water tank was leaking, we reported it and the maid reported it and they did not fix it. There was only one big towel and a small one for 2 persons. We had to ring the water out of the towels throughout the night ,so we did break our neck going to the bathroom, The food was terrible. So one thing is for sure I will never go back to Cayo Coco. I will not be recommending this place at all. We were there for a wedding and the beef at the wedding [... read more] was so hard to eat. I have never seen anything so bad in my life.

Great vacation resort

This resort was very clean and the grounds were beautiful. The beach was clean and there was never a problem finding a hut or a chair. The people who worked at the beach were attentive and very pleasant. I have been to many resorts in Cuba and this resort was by far the cleanest. The beach was awesome.

One of the best we have been to!

The beach is unbeatable. Very long walkable stretch of near perfect sand and easily swim able waters and a uniquely fun sand bar. Lots of activities such as catamarans, kayaks and snorkelling. Beach front bar and staff are fun and fast. All hotel staff were excellent and went the extra mile with a smile. One of the larger lobbies we've seen and lots of fun evening entertainment. Even the pools were fun with games and activities to engage guests. Rooms are minimalistic but considering the small a [... read more]mount of time spent there we were fine and the cleaning staff are also very friendly. Lastly, the food wasn't nearly as bad as we prepared for. Fresh grilled fish everyday was delicious and if you ask for popular opinion you can try some nice a la cartes. All in all we were thrilled all week long and actually intend to go back this year !

The resort was great!

The resort was beautiful and the service was great! The staff was friendly and always around if you needed anything! The beach and pools were phenomenal and the weather couldn't have been better! Would definitely go again!

Beautiful and Amazing Resort

Let me start by saying I have been to alot of caribbean places and by far this was the best ive had. Beach was amazing. Our room was beautiful with a great view of the ocean with cruise ships passing bye. We never went hungry. There was always something to eat. Is it the best food ive ever had No! But I gained 5lbs so i wasnt hungry. They did an amazing job fixing the resort up after the hurricane ❤ Night entertainment was great. I would highly recommend this resort. We will be returning again [... read more] next March and that is saying something as we never go back to the same resort. ABSOLUTELY LOVED MELIA JARDINE DEL RAY ❤❤❤