Club Tropical: A bang for your buck

Clean, staff is nice, food is good and the beach is amazing. Located in downtown Varadero. AC worked thankfully. Don't expect great luxury or commodities. Good place for a low budget. Family friendly. Quiet place to relax. Staff is flexible on all requests. The towels are too small. Bring your own! I was shocked when I was told I had to use that small towel. I requested big towels and they were able to accommodate and give us 2 big old towels. Bring your own towel as a piece of advice.

Villa Tortuga: villa tortuga

I like the staff very much cubans are always happy! Tourist Yell at them a lot but the conditions are not the staffs fauld and they shouldn,t take there anger out on them and if they yelled back they would lose their job very sad to witness behavior from people who don,t understand the living conditions of the people or the country. The hotel was full lots of people mostly Russians.They seem to be very loud and fight at lot it was funny but a lot of people fear them me too! I know they were not  [... read more]coming to Cuba a lot and for 3-4 years they where not seen so their economy must be doing very well! The meals where extremely very poor same slop every day morning and night this is the worst yet! I have travelled to Cuba since 1995 and usually 3 to 4 times a year! I go to restaurants. There was a beach towel and room towel problem and it must have been a broken machine where they are cleaned! There was a seat shortage on the beach and the blue material was black mold?I do not get angry it is not the staffs falt !! There is a shortage of products and food this is hurting the Cuban people very much No cooking oil bread dish soap and laundry soap.Gas also for cars and stoves! among other things. I do not blame the people but the powers to be! The problems have been going on through out their history since Columbus.I love Cuba very much the people and will continue to go believing maybe some of what I pay go to the citizens ?? I trust this note will not show up in Cuban hands as they question all the Cuban stamps in my passport it,s only 2 years old but it,s a 10 year maybe I,ll put it in the washing machine.

Blau Varadero: The number 1 resort

I can't say enough about this resort. It had everything you would want for a great vacation. Everyone was friendly and helpful and looked after you for all your needs. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sirenis Tropical Varadero: Cuba Rookie's Review

My wife and I didn't know what to expect, and given the abundance of conflicting opinions about Cuban all-inclusive vacations, we kept out expectations on the moderate to low end of the scale. We were advised to "keep our stars up when booking in Cuba." Given our modest income, we are not "5-Star" clientele and we didn't have those expectations, so we focused on 3.5 - 4 star properties. Ultimately, we were looking for a clean resort (no mold and mildew in the rooms, no cockroaches or other bu [... read more]gs, clean beds, linens and towels) and a nice beach. I can confidently say that we found that in the Labranda Varadero Resort. Beginning with our flight, the Sunwing flight was efficient and uneventful. It was disappointing though that my wife and I couldn’t sit together on what was our first vacation together since we married in 2016. We booked months in advance, but this didn’t matter. Sunwing should address issues like this. We spent enough money on a vacation that I shouldn’t have had to pay for a seat selection just so I could guarantee sitting beside my spouse. The resort has been renovated fairly recently, and it shows. We stayed in the Beach Club (Building #1 . . . the BEST ocean view!) and the rooms were very clean. On occasion, we had to chase down clean towels, toilet paper, and drinking water, which we've heard is common at most Cuban resorts, but it wasn't too bad, and as a means of self-preservation, we learned how to creatively create a stockpile of these resources. At times, we did feel like a deliberate shortage of these items was created in order for service staff to attend to us and create an opportunity for them to receive a tip, but I don't play that game. A lack of hot water was not really an issue at the resort, as we’ve heard stories from experienced Cuban travelers. The grounds/territory of the resort are quite nice and maintained regularly. The beach is FANTASTIC, and I would dare say the best beach in Varadero (and we did walk the many kilometers up and down the beaches beyond our resort in order to compare). The two rock outcroppings on either side of the resort provide a natural privacy to the public beach. There are plenty of palapas and chaise lounge chairs and non-motorized water sports. The animation team (Bravo Club) was wonderful and provided as little or as much as we wanted to participate in. The only disappointing thing about the beach, but hard for the resort to control is human behaviour. By this, I mean that the utter abundance of smokers who seem to congregate at all-inclusive resorts tend to treat the beach as their personal ashtray. The resort does have people who clean the beach, so they are able to attend to the larger garbage that people inexplicably feel entitled to leave on the beach, but the cigarette butts are hard for them to gather. The food was OK, but not stellar. It was tastier than I expected, but the quality was sub-par. Meat was often fatty and filled with gristle, etc., and was of a lesser quality than Canadian cuts of meat, not that this was unexpected. Fruits and vegetables were fresh though not as tasty as they looked. Salads and ready-cooked food was often watery and seemed to be just a concoction of whatever didn't "go" the meal prior. When I can’t distinguish what’s in a dish, I usually won’t eat it. They ran out of cheese for the last 4 days of our holiday, and the ice-cream lineups were often intolerable. While it sounds like I might be "down on the cuisine", my wife and I are quite fussy eaters, but we never went hungry. We did find the variety lacking for those who rarely eat red meat or fish. Most people don’t go to Cuba for the food anyway. The a la carte restaurant options weren’t worth the wait in line each morning, with the restaurants offering much the same food that could be found on various days at the buffet (save for a little bit of nicer beef at the Fusion Restaurant). While the a la carte suppers are featured as a kind of incentive, we didn’t really feel that they were worth the time and effort. The reason for this is because we found out that you can only book an a la carte on the day that you want to use it and that the chef only decides on that day which type of cuisine will be made available, so you have no way of knowing what’s being offered unless you line up each day. Additionally, there is the risk that you can line up and by the time it’s your turn to book, there may be no availability anymore for what you want. The two nice features were that we were able to get away from smokers at the a la carte restaurants (because they were indoors) and we didn’t need to fight for food at the buffet. Given that we were in Cuba to enjoy the sun and the beach, being in a long line each morning for a la carte restaurants seemed like an unnecessary “time sucker.” The evening entertainment in the lobby was outstanding and the nightly main shows were good too, though again, inconsiderate and ignorant smokers made for unpleasant experiences and the hotel staff seemed quite reluctant to even enforce the non-smoking bylaw in areas where it was applicable. As an aside, my wife an I joked that in future years, we may take our own professionally-created and adhesive “No Smoking” sign and stick it up wherever we sit, with the hope that even a few people fall for it and we can enjoy a smoke-free environment a few times during our vacation. The one area of the resort that could use some serious improvement is its organization and service. We did have a few employees who exhibited fantastic service that I would compare with a North American or European standard and it was a refreshing breath of air in an otherwise sometimes frustrating experience. Upon check-in, the woman couldn’t find our reservation and after some digging and still not being able to find it, despite my documentation, she asked us if we had perhaps canceled our original reservation and re-booked. We hadn’t. We were invited to go and have some supper at the buffet and comeback after they had figured out what had happened. We never did receive an explanation, but when we returned from supper, we had our beach club ocean-view room, though it was less than what we expected, seeing as how we had booked months in advance. Happily, after a few days in our initial room, we were able to move to the best beach club building and an amazing ocean view. As previously mentioned, we did spend some time trying to track down the most basic of amenities, and my wife joked that it seemed like the staff were well trained in the “friendly lie.” By that, I mean that we would repeatedly call to the front desk (when the phone would work) and ask for clean towels, drinking water, and toilet paper, and were assured in the friendliest of voices the assurance that our needs would be taken care of. Sometimes this was true, but most often it was not. Probably the most frustrating experience happened on our last day, when we had to check out. We were staying in the Beach Club, which is a complex of 3 buildings set away from the main resort building, about a 5-minute walk. Because of the weight and quantity of our luggage, not to mention the 35-degree heat, I ordered a bellboy and a luggage car at about 11:30 AM, so we would be on time for our 12 PM check out. Further, we had to be in the lobby, waiting for the shuttle to take us to the airport at 1:45 PM, so we thought we’d have time to store our luggage in the secure area by the Reception Desk and eat lunch at the buffet, which opened at 12:30 PM. None of this happened. We waited for 30 minutes and the bellboy never came. I called the front desk numerous times from the telephone in our room, and was told the “friendly lie” that he was on his way. We waited 30 more minutes and he still hadn’t arrived. In most instances, I would have normally just hauled our bags to the main building, without question. However, my wife wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t help much; our bags were heavy; the beach club isn’t exactly close to the front lobby, and we were running out of time to check our bags and have lunch prior to the airport shuttle arriving. By now, the maid had knocked on our door to ask if we were checking out. We explained the situation to her and that our room phone had just stopped working properly. It sounded like my call would be connected and as soon as I spoke into the receiver, the call was cut off. The maid tried to help us by using her walkie-talkie and relaying the information to the appropriate staff to try and help us. We were assured that a bellboy and car were on the way. We thanked her and waited for 15 more minutes and then realized that it was foolish to keep waiting for this guy to show up, so we made the difficult trek, on our own, with heavy bags, to the main building. Because my wife wasn’t feeling well, I loaded myself up like a pack mule and we opted for a slightly longer route on a circuitous road to the main building, in order to avoid having to haul our heavy bags up a large flight of stairs. We did all of this in 34+ degree heat, and I was absolutely soaked by the time we arrived at the lobby with little time for us to freshen up, change our Cuban money back into Canadian, and have lunch, before our airport shuttle arrived. Because there was only one possible road for the bellboy and car to drive en route to us during our walk to the lobby in the main building, we were able to ascertain that the car and bellboy had never made the journey to us during our whole ordeal. Instead, the only bellboy working during that time seemed intent on staying close to the lobby to take care of the newly-arriving guests and raking in the easy tips, despite us being promised that he was “on his way.” This was typical of the type of disorganized “service” we received while we were at the resort, save for a few exceptional employees. That being said, it doesn’t sour our entire experience, and knowing what we know now, we know what to expect when we return, and return we shall to Labranda Varadero!

Resonance Blu Varadero: Superior choice

the resort was a superb the room was clean the room was fully stocked. The butler and all the staff were very accommodating.The resort was easy to navigate to all the pools and eating areas and the food was good for what they have to work .My husband and I would go back in a heart beat. Totally enjoyed our trip

Starfish Varadero: Bien

Le resort en tant que tel est bien , on trouve toujours de quoi manger même si c'est répetitif , repas à la carte excellent. La plage est magnifique et il y a toujours des chaises pour tout le monde il n'en manque jamais ! Plusieurs petit spot pour de snack et de l'alcool en masse . Les chambre en bungalow c'était bien a part un plafond qui coule mais encore la ce nest rien de grave et je ny ai vue aucun insecte . Par contre j'ai vue des coquerelle près du buffet . J'ai trouver qu'il m [... read more]anquait d'animation , J,aurais voulu plus dentertainement et aussi la discotheque est fermé et ca j'aurais aimer etre au courant . Mais sinon dans l'ensemble c'était bien j'ai passer une belle semaine malgré tout !

Melia Marina Varadero: Definately not a 4 star resort, 3 at best, the pool in the picture is not from the melia marina

We booked the Melia Marina View Room, The level Our package included a private dining room/bar and 7 a la carte restaurants. The dining room meals were good, however, the drinks that were available in the bar were limited, far less than appeared on the drink menu. We went to the Chinese restaurant and it was the worst meal we have ever had The entire meal was precooked, and very small portions. For desert they served us ice cream, 70% melted on the plate. The swimming pool water was extremely  [... read more]cold, very few swimmers, not enough seating and most of the lounges were broken. The pool are was very dirty. It needed a good pressure washer spray. To buy the Cuban dollar (CUC), your cost is the same as buying a US dollar. Our room was overlooking the marina, however it was also over the nightclub below, and immediately behind our room, at ground level were 6 industrial size air conditioners. We were moved to the pool side which was much better. We asked and were moved again to another Melia resort, The Hotel Paradisus Princesa del Mar, Junior suite, Royal Service, no kids, very nice at no additional cost.

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: This was a very nice resort

The hotel was excellent and the service amazing the food was good and the room was clean the beach was nice I would recommend this resort to every body and i already told my friend about it and wouldn't think twice on going back .

Melia Internacional: Horrible food

The hotel was nice , clean beautiful view but the food was really bad , we ate the same S*** food for 7 days and the food was placed at the same location as always never changed places . I will never come back to this hotel. The food was hard and bad flavor. I won’t recommend this hotel to anyone.

Sirenis Tropical Varadero: Cozy Resort

I like the fact it’s a smaller resort and not huge lineups for meals. Food especially meat has gotten better over the years in Cuba. The omelette and meat and pasta stations were the best choices for hot food as the rest was Luke warm. Bread is to die for. Rooms were clean. Service was good. Pools and beach were good. For the value would go back.

Los Delfines: Disappointment

I was 10 times in Cuba and 3rd time in this hotel. This year is first time I am disappointed. All week the hotel didn’t receive beach towels, no clean towels in the room. The selection of food was worse then ever before

Club Kawama: Kawama !!!! Built in 1934,

Don't go there !!! Everything is old and not renovated, the picture are not realistic of what it is in 2020. Same food all day, all week. People are not sympatic. The only do something for you if you tips before, and you have to give a big tip. In my room, I was supposed to be refill in the fridge each day, Nothing done all week. Towel they didn't want to change them each day, they were dirty and wet, but they were putting them back on the shelve and leave it there. The shower curt [... read more]ain was holding in place with only 3 rings, and the bath, was crack and the rust was painted but she was peeling.

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Great time

Had a great time,met great people stuff was awesome food could’ve been a little better but the la la carts were awesome . Rooms are nice and clean had some issue with the blow dryer that was fixed the next day

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Good

Amazing workers, very helpful and great entertainment. Hotel needs updating and renovations on rooms and grounds. Beach is definitely the strong point, very clean and beautiful. Food is hit or miss. Japanese is the best a la carte, we went twice. Italian we couldn’t eat at all, do not suggest booking it. The best at the buffet is the grilling stations. We had an amazing meal in Varadero at Mojito restaurant, definitely recommend.

Barcelo Solymar: wont be coming back

food no good couldn't digest nothing (im well aware of the food in cuba been there had better) , elevator wasn't working half the time, ac was barely working like almost asking me for help, patio door impossible to open unless you bench 200lbs daily, room was humid?, got a superior room and no king size bed only 2 double...great deal?, barely any chair at the beach... exchange rate at the hotel was a total rip off (usual but not by tthat much).. all and all I would go somewhere else. I was with  [... read more]friends so I had fun at least!!

Palma Real: value for money

We have visited the Palma Real 8 times since 2009. There have been minor changes over the years. Certain bars and restaurants have been operating some years and not other years. The washrooms in the main lobby have been upgraded to a first class standard. The pool deck continues to deteriorate. The lovely grounds are well maintained and seem to be even better cared for lately. We have stayed in all 4 buildings and have always had basic but clean hallways and rooms. The hot water supply has of [... read more]ten been hit and miss and safes are not available in all rooms. We have never had anything stolen. The buffet food is plentiful but does become a bit tedious after a few days. The Barbecoa is an option and now the beach bar has an attractive full service restaurant with a varied menu. The "by reservation only" a-la-carte dinners at the Piazza and the International are also a nice change. There are numerous good restaurants off site. We treat the staff with respect and courtesy and have always received the same treatment in return. Unfortunately not all the guests of the Palma are courteous, polite, or caring and this is no fault of the hotel. We love the location of the Palma Real but being in our 70's now, do not always appreciate the noise, smoke and "party central" atmosphere which can be annoying at times. However we can usually find a quiet place on the property to relax and meet new friends when we want to hang around the resort, which is not that often with a world class beach and Varadero main street a short walk away. Being avid cyclists, we always bring 2 used bicycles with us, ride them for the duration of our stay then leave them with two of the locals. For the cost of a decent used bicycle ($0 - $50), and $30 shipping, you can enjoy bike friendly Varadero and the surrounding area in a new way and really make a Cuban's day with the gift of a bicycle - all for a relative pittance by N.A. standards. We highly recommend doing this. In short, we will continue to stay at this familiar home away from home as long as we are able, and to enjoy the many amenities and friendly people of Varadero. Would we recommend this hotel to friends? . . . difficult question. Definitely yes to some, not necessarily to others.

Valentin El Patriarca Varadero: Great Vacation

Hotel was nice although it wasn't full...we had 3 women to a room and thought they could have given us at least 2 beds instead of one king and we had to ask for an extra beach towel and room towels...resort was clean and staff was amazing...love the bar service on the beach, that is a huge plus to me...first time I have done no reservation a la carte dinners but I like that idea, no waiting in a big line to reserve your dinners, first come first serve...maid service was terrific...had a beach pa [... read more]rty which I love unfortunately the rain closed it down...this resort is one of the better ones, food was good except the bacon looked grey and not cooked...I have stayed at better and worse but it is definitely one of the better resorts in Varadero

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Beautiful resort!

We had an absolutely amazing time last week at Melia Peninsula Varadero resort! It honestly exceeded our expectations, and that’s saying a lot as I’m quite picky. The food wasn’t great but that’s to be expected in Cuba. But everything else was absolutely amazing! Great service; clean and very well kept resort; large rooms; incredible beaches; no bugs; even with lots of guests, nothing ever felt overcrowded; family friendly but even as a couple, we had a lovely time. Highly recommend! Tha [... read more]nk you for everything!

Melia Marina Varadero: Good resort at a great price

Well maintained and the food was good for being in Cuba. I've been to Cuba a few times and the food is normally lacking in taste. However this resort found to be good. The staff and beach make this our favorite vacation to Cuba so far!

Sol Palmeras: Resort was awesome!

Staff was very helpful with my food allergies which was a huge relief. We had a great celebration for my father's 50th birthday. We came with 19 people and we had a great time. Mine and my sisters room was a little dated but nonetheless very clean. Maid service was wonderful. The rest of our friends all had updated rooms that were very nice. the beach was wonderful and lots of beach chairs to go around.Thank you for the great service and wonderful stay.