Melia Las Antillas: Great

Flight uneventful,really liked that we could fly out of Kitchener. Since flight was not full we could have a middle seat between us ( bonus ) Transfer to hotel quick and very organized. Hotel ,dated but clean. Room supersaver was a ground floor room facing garden. Room A/ C worked to well,couldn't adjust temperature,but better than too warm. Good food,plenty to eat,somewhat repetitive but as usual for a buffet. Tried 2 alacarte Italian & romantic both very good,excellent service. Drin [... read more]ks ok Pina Colada - terrible !! Mix poured over ice with rum. No red wine for a few days. No cola for a few days Weather 2 days of red flag beach ( jelly fish & high waves ) Life guard kept busy trying to get people to stay out of water !! Nice beach,nice for long walks. Hop on Off bus great. Tip: There is a small restaurant & shop down the street and across the road( at the water) Rum considerably cheaper than hotel or in town. Also large container of natural honey much cheaper. $ in U.S. By cash or credit. Overall nice area. Very touristy and busy ( for our liking )

Royalton Hicacos Resort and Spa: Royalton Hicacos

Overall I would say the Royalton is a good resort, it does look a little dated, the beds are very firm and the tub/shower is a little awkward, but we did have warm water every day. If people have mobility issues, the shower could be an issue for them, as well as the elevator that does not work, so they would have to get up to the buffet and a few restaurants by using the stairs. We had no complaints about the food and were pleasantly surprised by the options available. They have a crepe sta [... read more]tion in the mornings, eggs being made to order, as well as many other options. They don't have the typical juice options like apple, orange, etc., but they blend fresh juice every morning with what they have, often watermelon, pineapple, guava, etc. We were able to get into all of the al le carte restaurants for dinner and only ate at the buffet twice for dinner, but again lots of options. They had salad options everyday, and they even had leaf lettuce. They had decent wine, red, white, rose and most places had sparking wine as well. A lot of reviews I read said that Diamond club was a must, we did not get diamond club and am glad that we didn't pay the extra. They had a person on our side of the beach that would come and take drink orders for us, and then deliver our drinks. Like I said, we were able to get into all the restaurants without having to make a reservation. I don't know that there is a big difference in rooms for diamond club vs regular? A few people that we spoke to that had diamond club said they didn't get any different booze options. We also have access to butlers, they are there to answer any questions, help with excursion bookings, etc. They were able to book us into a restaurant for our anniversary. We went to Havana for a day trip and booked with Explore Cuba with Lucy. We had a classic car for the day with a driver and Lauren was our guide and she spoke excellent english. It was a full day trip, but she gave us lots of info and showed us all around. Overall it was a good trip, we enjoyed our time away.

Hotel Playa Coco: Beach is Beautiful, But....

We arrived to Hotel Playa Coco and the main reception area is fairly standard for what you would expect. It is a short bus ride from the airport which was great. The grounds were free of garbage and staff were working on landscaping. As you get farther into the resort you start to notice some of the deficiencies and challenges you experience during your stay. Most of the public area washrooms did not have toilet paper and broken fixtures. When we got our room we were initially hit with the [... read more] smell of must as soon as we opened the door, but the smell did not carry on as you got farther into the room. Beds were comfortable, 2 doubles pushed together, with two sheets on them and a blanket stored in the room and the room was clean. We had 2 bath towels, 2 beach towels and a hand towel, no wash cloths were provided. Towels were not replaced daily and we only had our bath towels replaced once during our 7 day stay. We did ask, and the maids did not have them to provide to us. The beach was absolutely amazing and could not ask for more. We were part of a group of 11 and we probably ended up with the best room of the group. Most of our groups rooms toilets ran constantly and did not flush properly. One of the groups rooms only had a sheet covering the mattress on the bed and nothing else. No other sheets were provided even when asked for. One building that our group was in experienced 3 power outages in the 7 days, lasting from a few hours to overnight and part of the morning. Food and beverage. Buffet always had lots of food available and there was no danger of going hungry, unless you were a picky eater. Food is typical Cuban flair. I did not see an egg the entire week we were there. They were making omelets, but from a mix in a bowl, no eggs were broken to make it. The constancy and texture was off so I assume they were using a powdered egg mix. The A La Cart meals was just the same food as the buffet in a different visual setting. The bars had plenty of rum available but the mix was hit or miss. Certain bars had cola available, others didn't and then the bars that did wouldn't have it the cola the next day. The fruit juice mix was obviously made from a concentrate and mixed very weakly so it had almost no taste. Some in our group brought "Mio" type flavoring with them and that is definitely a "Pro tip". If you don't have that, even the weakest drink has an over powering rum taste. Pools were cool and had few swimmers. The advertised "hot tub" was not heated at all and the same temperature as the pool. Entertainment was "Ok" but we found it very loud when at the pool or entertainment venue. The evening entertainment started at 9:30 PM, which seemed late and ran for about an hour. After the show they would just leave a music track running. The workers were all very nice , but can only do so much as it is very obvious that there are supply chain issues and money for infrastructure repair on the resort. If you are going for the beach and just looking for shelter and sustenance for the week you probably enjoy it at Playa Coco, but if you are looking for more, it is not the place. At one point my partner said it kind of felt like camping. I would not go back there or recommend it to a friend.

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Paradisus Princess Del Mar

The resort itself is immaculate, which really impressed us. We had problems with our first room as the power kept going out so they shuffled us in the dark, not lending a hand at all to a room down the hall. Same exact room. Very clean. However, Glen was on the deck and noticed the sliding door handle was broken, obviously hadn’t been fixed. Our toilet ran all the time as well. The rooms are freshly painted with nice furniture and very comfortable beds. Our bedding was never changed during our t [... read more]ime there, nor were we given fresh towels. The food that they supplied for the buffet was in abundance.

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Horrible Resort

We arrived at the resort and the reception personnel were not welcoming or helpful. We got our room and it was definitely not what we expected. Broken shower, air conditioner not working, smelled bad. We complained to front desk and after 3 attempts plus talking to the customer services manager they would not move us. The food at the buffet and other restaurants was absolutely terrible. We spoke to the west jet rep the next day and they were able to get us moved to a new resort for day 3 of our [... read more] trip. The next resort was a down grade but room was all working and reasonable as well as the food being 110% better. Overall we still enjoyed our trip but will never return to Cuba again. I am hoping that I can speak to someone with Trip advisor/West jet vacations about a partial refund due to the nature of events.

Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort: 14 days at Grand Ashton Paradiso

This is our seventh trip to Cayo Coco so we are well aware of what to expect and fully understand the shortages Cuba is experiencing. We always bring our own salt/pepper, salad dressing, condiments, a kettle and coffee and even a steripen to sterilize our own water should the need arise. Boy were we thankful for that! Coffee was unavailable for our entire first week. Water in our room was unavailable for almost the entire 2nd week. It was not available at customer service or even at the bars. Wi [... read more]ne was completely unavailable even for purchase during the entire 2-week stay. We did manage to get some at 3 of our 6 a la cartes which was quite disappointing since we are wine drinkers. What I was surprised at this resort was the lack of creativity in cooking the food that was readily available. As usual, the bread, cheese, and cold cuts were readily available. The bread and cheese were delicious and the cold cuts were basically six plates of mortadella-like meat and sometimes one plate of cooked ham. Cooked pumpkin, cabbage dishes, and hot dogs were plentiful. In fact at our last dinner I took pictures of the buffet which was typical of our entire stay. The kids bar consisted of one tray of hot dogs cut in 1/8" slices with a few chunks of green pepper sprinkled in, one tray of hot dogs cut in 1" pieces and one tray of deep fried dough balls. There were an additional 5 trays of cut up hot dogs sitting in boiled water on the adult bar but no other meat/fish. If you lined up for 20 minutes at one end of the bar area you could get a dried up basa/tilapia fillet grilled for you and if you lined up at the other end you could get a thin piece of pork or beef but both were non-marinated tough cuts that curled up as soon as they hit the hot surface. Usually there was an additional one or two trays of flavourless rice and one tray of beans. So here is my question: If flour is so readily available, why can't the the hot dogs be served as sausage rolls? or barbecued or roasted and served whole on a bun? A piece of hot dog could even be put inside one of the disgusting dough balls:) Cabbage and rice could become cabbage rolls. Rice could become sushi when wrapped in seaweed. We could have cold slaw, sauerkraut salad or even sauerkraut and hot dogs. What about French toast or grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids? Instead of seven serving trays of boiled pumpkin cubes there could be pumpkin custard, pureed pumpkin, pumpkin pie. We could have tortilla pinwheels made of the mortadella/cheese slices. Instead, when the unappetizing food was not eaten it was mixed together to form pumpkin/cabbage/hot dog dishes that resembled an overcooked version of the original fare. I even saw one of the workers pour a litre of water into the one bean dish turning it into a flavourless soup. At the a la carte restaurants it was clear we were forced to eat the leftovers that had not been eaten at the buffet. We had sauerkraut tacos and pumpkin puree fajitas?? That being said, the resort is only a few years old the rooms were the best we have experienced so far in Cuba. They were decorated beautifully and we had no problems with hot water, air conditioning or toilet paper. Apparently, coffee pods, soap, shampoo and conditioner are a one time gift on arrival. The coffee maker is aesthetic only unless you bring your own Nespresso pods. The only issue we had was the door on our closet. It would not open unless full body weight was put into opening it. Then it would SLAM as it reached the other side. There is no way anyone older than us (50's) would be able to manoeuvre it. The beach was absolutely stunning. Beautiful turquoise water, white sand and small easily visible rocky areas where you could observe fish close to shore. The pelicans are a special sight-diving to catch fish and not caring how close to humans they came. Would we go back? I don't think so. The food was sooo very bad!!

Aston Costa Verde Beach Resort: As 3 plus because of no entertainment

We were a family of 10 women girls trip had a wonderful time Pool: main pool wasn't open but we had great time at club pool Food : we always found something to eat its Cuba there your shortages we new before our trip and took ketcup and mustard and peant butter and jam shortage of bread so you have to take few slices at lunch time if you want it for supper or you won't find any until lunch the next day beach: the beach was beautiful , we spent most of our time at club pool Entertainm [... read more]ent: well that needs alot of improvement the enterneers were great but they only had dancers, and band playing most nites, you could have at least 3 nites or more with Magic shows, and maybe musical play performance such as loin king or Michael Jackson sychronized swimmers etc Disco : we always had a great time

Valentin Cayo Cruz: Enjoyed our stay

Rooms were nice, not opulent but above standard and comfortable. Shower is so large you could park a small car in it. The food is basic and what one would expect from Cuba but certainly no one was starving! They have 3 themed restaurants but the menus are “almost” identical however the food in these restaurants is fantastic. Entertainment in lobby in evening is the smoothest jazz you will ever hear. The staff must be hand selected from the best of the best - happy - smiling - friendly - helpful [... read more]. Please do not bring loonies and toonies for tips (they can’t exchange coins). If you want to be a good guest bring some five ten and twenty dollar bills to help them convert their coins to bills they can use. Watch a couple of YouTube videos to see what you should be tipping On thing to be aware of if you are a nonsmoker is smoking is permitted everywhere except eating areas. Also be respectful of other guests and staff by not drinking your weight in alcohol everyday and eating more than you would at home. Also say ola (hello) to everyone regardless of their job, regardless of what they do from cleaning washrooms to gardening to serving drinks everyone is trying to make our vacation memorable and they deserve our respect. Beach was really spectacular but take note the sand is deep so best to walk at water line. Showers are best taken in the evening as water is heated by solar panels so morning water is warm at best there is a tiny market at the hotel next door that is a short walk or the hotel has a little tram that will take you to and from. You can also get an awesome massage there. The best part of this resort was the people, if you go you will know what I mean. Hotel is remote so if you plan any off site tours (only two available) you will be on a bus for hours.

Sanctuary at Grand Memories Santa Maria: amazing resort

it"s a big hotel with multiple ways to walk, the room is big and acceptable, the employees are helpful with smile, the foods in the restaurants are quantitative but not in majority at our taste;Dishes are missing ingredients to make them better. Sunwing team is very professionnal. the pool and the beach lovely.

Memories Caribe Beach Resort: Pleasant place to enjoy,,,

The resort was quite a pleasant low key resort and the employees worked very hard to ensure we were taken care of in spite of a few issues... the plumbing issues were a bit of a challenge where a couple of days the water was turned off, not very warm for showers, not much pressure & the toilets were not functioning due to people putting paper in them in spite of the provided garbage receptacles. The rooms were quite comfortable although with the Air Conditioning a tad chilly, however an elect [... read more]rician promptly looked after that for us when requested. The restaurants & a la carte dinner were enjoyable & they provided ample local products such as pineapple, watermelon, eggplant & pumpkin prepared in various ways. Given what is available there was more than sufficient variety of food provided at the buffet & hot table options & lots of fresh bread & dinner rolls of various types. The Staff were all very attentive & pleasant at the bars & beach front restaurants. The BEACH is absolutely stunning !!!! With several sand bars & lovely white sand, one could walk & play & enjoy all day!!!

Palma Real: Paradise at Palma Real

An older hotel but incredibly welcoming and inviting from checking in to the wonderful men who struggled with our luggage to the room and to the girls at the bar all smiing running to greet us The entertainment at pool bar was fun and entertaining they have amazing people here too The food was beautifully presented and amazingly decorated with what they have to work with Ocean was a short walk which was great exercise The whole trip was fun amazing and cant wait to go back soon!

Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort: Long lines

The hotel over-all was nice, however we had booked (and paid for) an oceanview room, we looked out on a construction site. I realize tge hotel was fully booked, however we met many people who had paid considerably less, basic room, and were si happy they got an oceanview. We were not willing to wait in the customer service line for 2 hours to complain, it just soured our view of the resort. There were 1 yo 2 hour lineups every day for French fries and pizza as well as one hour lines for church's [... read more] on the beach.

Club Amigo Atlantico Guardalavaca: Home Away From Home

Hotel Club Amigo Atlantico Guardalavaca should be rated as a 5 star. I was greeted with a smile, hug and cocktail. The staff are amazing and make you at home and always have a smile on their face while working 16-24 hour shifts. There are food shortages in Cuba but what they have is always delicious. I have never walked away hungry. I stayed in a villa and my room was always clean and I received towel art everyday. The beaches were amazing with white sand and crystal clear blue /green water.  [... read more]There was always entertainment throughout the day and every evening. They also have a Cuban festival, Canadian lunch, beach party and a special dinner for returning guests. I have been to this resort 4 times and will be back many more. It feels like home away from home because they all remember you and make you feel like family. I have vacationed to other places but this is the one I will choose for my future sunny destinations. I love this resort and all the wonderful staff.

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Friendly small resort has it all

Excellent facility, 1st class staff, lots of food choices, lovely beach. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Selectum Family Resort Varadero: Fabulous!!!

This is the best Cuban all inclusive resort I've experienced thus far. The resort is beautiful and very well maintained, the staff are friendly and extremely attentive and the food is great. A better selection of fresh fruit is my only criticism, but I believe many Cuban resorts are probably dealing with supply issues. We'll definitely be back. Thanks for a terrific vacation.

Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort: Great resort, nice people.

We loved the hotel. We would give it five Stars, especially the work the cleaning lady named Yanet was doing every day at our room, she decorated our room with fowers and everything was always cleaned. All the personal was great, nice people. Beach is amazing. The food was okay, although needs a bit of improvements. There were huge lines during breakfast for omletes and we had to wait 1 hour every day to get pizza. There was no wine and not good choice of desserts.

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: 3rd Visit and another Gem!

This was our 3rd visit, and first since the "plague". Another fun, relaxed experience. It is important to have a proper expectation when visiting Cuba, this was our 7th trip to the island. They make the best with what they have, with a heart felt smile, and are very engaging, you just need to smile back! As return visitors, we received a few little perks; a nice bottle of rum in our beautiful room, and an extra al a carte night, which was very appreciated. Our room was spotless, cleaned ever [... read more]y day; the gifts we brought for the cleaners were well received! The beach is fantastic, spotless, and the ocean warm. The beach lounger chairs are tired, I think the are the ones from the pool, as those are replaced. The food was excellent. There are shortages of different things but we always had something different, and delicious. What keeps us coming back? The staff! Beach bartenders Maday and Richard, and Yusmila at the Piano Bar are fantastic! Seek them out and you will love them! Guest experience staff Lili and Tony, were very helpful, always with a smile. Can't wait until next year!

Iberostar Origin Bella Vista Varadero: Will not go again

The Rooms where moldy . No evenings or night divertissement such as shows ect.. Staff were a bit rude at the bars, they were talking on the phone while serving beer . The elevators malfunctioning, I personally have gotten stuck on the 6th floor in the elevator for about half an hour.

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: Cuba just ok

We arrived at 8 pm, about 90 min drive to resort area. We were dropped at the wrong section, even after informing the bus driver. Front desk staff were welcoming until they determined we were at the wrong side m, our welcome beverage were taken away and we were told we would have to walk along the road to the correct side. We refused so eventually a got a ride on the golf cart from a very friendly staff member. Newer resort, easy to navigate, some nights they had outdoor lights for the paths, so [... read more]me nights there were no lights. Room was a good size, toilet flushed half the time. Had hot water all week. Towels and sheets were mouldy, difficult to get fresh linen even though resort was mostly empty. We stripped all the linen off the beds and placed in a pile, bed sheets were replaced, Food was the same everyday for lunch and dinner, would be nice to know what you are eating for allergies. Staff didn’t seem overly happy to be working, there, staff asking us to get them lunch from the buffets daily. Why doesn’t the resort offer food for their staff. Definitely shortages on juices and pop. Staff would only provide beverages with alcohol at the bars, if you wanted only water or juice they told you to go to the restaurant (restaurant open 7-10 1-3 and 7-10) Entertainment was in the lobby , good effort but a little disappointed. 24 hour lobby bar often closed at midnight??. Beach is beautiful, you can tell that is the reason people come to Cuba. There was staff cleaning the seaweed off the sand daily. We booked a pool view room at the adults only pool that had children most days. Pool loungers and cabanas could use some maintenance, cabanas had dirty sheets on them all week. Check out is 12 sharp, we had someone at our door at 12:03 telling us to get out of our room now, I asked for 5 more mins to just finish up and they said I had to pay them $11 if I wanted 5 more mins , so had to finish packing in the hallway. Overall this resort was a little boring, nowhere to go once you get there, too far away from the airport for our liking.

Grand Aston Varadero Beach Resort: Great potential

Nice new resort, beautiful design. Staff not very attentive and couldn't understand English very well. Food tasted very good but very boring as same food selections served at every meal, every day. A'la carte food was good but extremely small portions. Rooms were cleaned well, but elevator & hallways were not cleaned well at all. The shower took very long to get hot water and it would often turn cold during the shower. The beach & pool were beautiful. Mixed drinks/Slushy drinks not the greatest  [... read more]as they seem to make them different each time you order them. Lobby bar very long waits for service. Cuban restaurant was extremely poor service. We ordered a drink 3 times and waited over an hour to get it, it was an hour and half to get food served to us. Overall I think the resort has great potential but things need to be more efficient, and staff needs to be more friendly and knowledgeable.