Roc Lagunas del Mar: Would we go again?

The resort was beautiful and hugh.We had the best waiter at the beach his name is Michel made our 2 weeks and the lobby bar at night our waitress was great yeslet was teaching us some Spanish and we had a ball the view we had was amazing from our belcany.And to answer the question if the price would be go we would go back for sure.

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Terrible resort

Food terrible and below Cuban standard. Grounds dark at night. I am recovering from 2 total knee replacements and hurt myself badly walking at night. Ground area was not lighted. Very dark and dangerous. I was not able to leave room for two full days. I am still in pain. Many complaints from others. I could go on and on. Many thefts on resort, no food or bathrooms on beach. Do yourself a favour and go elsewhere. Ocean Casa Del Mar is a disaster. Stay away!

Valentin Perla Blanca: Relaxing vacations

My husband and I returned from our week's vacations from Valentin Perla Blanca in Cayo Santa Maria. It was our fourth stay on this island but we always visited different resort. All together, it was our 13Th vacation in Cuba since the early nineties. When compared to other places, tnis resort is fairly new, very modern , very clean and well maintained. The grounds are well kept, gardens absolutely beautiful. Both pools are very clean and surrounded by palm trees and flowering bushes. The ro [... read more]om we stayed in was on second floor surrounded by dense jungle, but we could see the ocean from the balcony. It was kept nice and clean by a lovely young lady who was always happy to make us comfortable. And it has to be said about all the cuban people working in the resorts. This is the biggest asset to the country that is otherwise extremely poor. Compared to other resorts we visited during all the years, the biggest disappointment was the food. It is the first time I have to agree with people who are not very happy with food in Cuba, and I have to say we had much better choices in buffets in other places. Only the a'la cards restaurants were worth visiting. The buffets were disorganized chaos during lunch or dinner because the cooks and servers were overwhelmed by the amount of turists they had to serve and the layout of the buffets should be changed because it is very hard to reach certain foods through the lineups of people waiting for their orders to be cooked. All in all we had a lovely week, the beach was beautiful, especially in the afternoons when the tide was out and we could walk in the shallow, warm water for guite a distance from the hotel. There is one thing I like to mention. This is an adult only resort and most of the visitors are in their twenties to thirties. If you like calm and quiet, the better choice would be a family oriented place.

Melia Buenavista: Excellent!!! Real Paradise!!!!

Beautiful resort, great people, great location - a little windy there from the Atlantic exposure, but in overall a great place to rest if you are looking for a quite and peaceful place. Food is excellent quality and plenty. The only down turn is the lack of the traditional buffet. All 3 restaurants are al 'carte there, so if you don't mind wasting your time in waiting for your food each day at the restaurant then you should be fine with that. Also in addition there is an excellent grill/pizza pl [... read more]ace at the main pool area, which gets the most popularity there and it is open from 12:30 to 5:30 every day. We spent there the week from April 14-21st and we had an amaizing time there.

Roc Lagunas del Mar: Great vacation

The rooms are very nice, staff is friendly.The food was fine.The entertainment was amazing and their shows .The carnaval putside of the resort was very nice and entertaining. The people are very kind and helpful.

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Fabulous Resort!!!

Grounds, dining areas, rooms, public areas all met our expectations. The kids had a great time at the Kids Club and loved the Kids Waterpark area. Both beaches were amazing and above our expectation. The Ensenachos Beach was breath taking (like a picture on a postcard). We would highly recommend anyone thinking of going to Cuba to stay at this resort.

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: Don't go to this resort!!!!

Don't go to this resort !!!! When we arrived from the 1st night I felt that this was going to be an interesting vacation. It was night time when we arrived so I didn't want to form an opinion too quickly. But, I did notice when the bus was dropping other people off at other resorts that the entrances and front lobbies looked very impressive and spectacular. When the bus pulled up to our location I felt that our resort grounds and entrance was poorly maintained. Just walking to the recept [... read more]ion area where the bus dropped us off we experienced issues. The floor was uneven and a few of us almost face planted to the ground. This is very dangerous and if we have fallen we could have injured ourselves severely. It made our evening interesting as we watched others fumble in the same area. When sitting in the lobby we would try to warn others who were walking over these uneven surfaces. We saw one woman stub her toe so badly I wouldn’t be surprised if it was broken. When we got to the reception, it was not busy at all. In fact, we were the only guest at the check in counter. But we found it strange that we had to wait for them to acknowledge us and to attend to us instead of welcoming us to their hotel. We had to wait for them to finish their conversation before they began to check us into our rooms. Both families requested connecting rooms and for the rooms to be close together. They managed to get us in the same building, three rooms close together and one down the hall. That night no rooms were available so my sister in law’s family slept together in one room as she was uncomfortable to leave her kids alone. The next day she went down to complain that her room was away from her children. The hotel was able to accommodate her request to change rooms and she was able to get 2 rooms next door to each other for the following night. I understand that this is a request and you can't guarantee connecting rooms. I truly don't think that connecting rooms is an option at this resort and they should not advertise that. We had spoken to several other families and they had the same concerns, they requested connecting rooms and did not get one. It was hard to get a good night sleep as we were always worried about our kids alone next door. As I mention we learned very quickly that there were many areas where there were uneven, jagged flooring, as we stubbed and scrapped our toes. Our children had scrapped their knees many times as they fell on numerous occasions. There were many gaps between cobblestones and in some areas it was designed to have a gap but over time the gap has gotten bigger and not maintained. I highly recommend that you not wear heels on this resort due to the poor grounds and lighting. Perhaps if the place had better lighting and better up keeping of their grounds it would not be dangerous. Another issue we noticed was that the lighting on the grounds at night was very dim, too far apart, or not lit at well. This is not only dangerous, it gives a sense of unease as you do not feel safe to walk alone at night. From day one, I completely forgot what customer service was. No one wanted to help us, or even talk to us for that matter. The servers at the bars were always standing around talking to their co-workers while there were lines forming of guests waiting for drinks. This was a similar situation at most of the bars at the resort. One day a server came to us to ask us if we wanted drinks. We ordered drinks by the pool and we waited over 45 minutes for a drink, we got tired of waiting we went up to the waiter to tell him to forget about the drinks that we were leaving the pool area at that time. He did not apologize, he did not even say a word. Also, an employee at one of the pool bars asked my husband for his shoes. It seemed that whoever you spoke to had a story to tell. The lady who does the a la cart bookings told us she was a single mom and that her husband passed away. Others told us that their wife is having a baby and they had little means. Everyone telling us that life is hard and it is hard to make ends meet. We completely understand that many people in Cuba don't have much and that its citizens do not have a lot of money. But when you are on vacation and you are being told this by employees at the hotel, it makes you feel very uncomfortable. When eating at the buffet, getting a drink with your meal was difficult as well. The servers would either ask you what you wanted when you were done your meal, or they would bring your drink when you were finished your meal. Having a fresh coffee with breakfast would only happen if you used the instant machine (which tasted awful) or if you brought a coffee with you from the lobby bar. The food was cold at the buffet all the time, so the best food would be from the stations where it was prepared in front of you or at the a la cart restaurants. In addition, my husband tried to enter the buffet at 10:03, we know that the buffet closed at 10:00 am. The kids and I went in before this time while my husband exchanged money. It was embarrassing for my husband to be refused at the door and we were worried as we were waiting on my husband to arrive. It was scary to eat at the snack bar because the birds would fly onto of your head or on the chair next to you. It was also disgusting !!! The housekeeping service was not good at all either. When we arrived, we noticed dirty plates in the corner of the staircase that remained there until we complained. A few times we would have to wait for housekeeping to come around to ensure that we were given clean towels and the mini bar was stocked appropriately, we were lucky that we had 4 rooms and were able to share towels (or use ones we brought with us from home) and bottles of water. 1 room was full of ants it was sickening to see my daughters text books and school bag was covered in ants. The kids used OFF bug spray to try and get rid of them. I didn’t feel comfortable asking the resort to spray the room as I did not trust the product that they would use. Eventually it got worse and I had no choice but to ask that the room get fumigated. I was afraid that the room would stink like chemicals, even though customer service assured us there would be no odors. They were wrong there was a smell a chemical odor in the room and that night my family of 4 slept in the same room in one king sized bed. Another incident was I need maintenance to come up to unlock the safe in our room. I had to wait over an hour, plus placed 2 calls for someone to come up. I was told that it will be 10 minutes. As for the swimming pools, it was advertised that there are 8 pools. This is not accurate statement at all, I do not consider fountains as swimming pools. The pools are very dangerous and I do not recommend that anyone swim in the pools. ALL pools have missing tiles and the grids for the filter were broken. If you happened to not look while you were walking by, your foot would go through it or get caught in the jagged edges of the broken filters around the pool. On our second full day at the resort, we had a very bad experience when my nephew cut his toe in the bottom of one of the pools. He happened to step on an area where tiles were missing and cut his big toe so bad he should have gotten stiches. However, it couldn’t get stiches because there was no skin to stitch it together. It was bleeding a lot and dripped along the way to our room where we bandaged it up. We tried to clean it as much as we could. Again as I mentioned above this resort is not a very clean resort. We had to see blood spots in the staircase for days. It wasn’t until we mentioned it to customer service that the stair cases were cleaned and the blood spots were removed from the common area that other guests would see as well. This was also when the dirty plates were removed from the hallway (after being there for 5 continuous days) The beach was nice. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get down to the water. There is a small hill that you need to go down to get to the water. This was scary again because our kids fell and scraped their arms and backs on the rocks. I highly recommend that the hotel build stairs like the other resorts have to access the beach shore. It is very dangerous and unsafe for people to access the water.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Great Time!

The resort was beautiful! Grounds were kept clean and fresh, service and staff were so much fun and super friendly and helpful! Our room was good, we requested a King bed but did not get one, no big deal for us though! We had good water pressure and it was always warm. The maid did a great job of cleaning our room and re-stocking our fridge for us. The food was just okay, it's Cuba so you can't expect too much, but we always found something we liked! Over all a great resort and i would definitel [... read more]y recommend it.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Terrific resort

The resort was clean, the staff very helpful and the food was great. The massage service was great No complaints all around . Would definitely recommend this resort . Great first trip to Cuba. I would return

Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria: Great vacation

We (family of 3) went to Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria bw April 13-20, overlapping with Easter. Likely because of the Easter the hotel was half full which reflected positively in little crowded restaurants, bars and beach. Check in/out Fast, we were greeted with a light cocktail, exactly what we needed after the flight and road trip and set the tone for a beautiful vacation. Room We upgraded to an ocean view room, which was worth it, although the bungalows are built so that most rooms have some [... read more] view to the ocean or pool. Our room (bungalow 8, top floor) was new and very clean, the beds were comfy, including the portable extra bed for the child. No problems with the AC or the shower/hot water. Food We liked the buffet food, particularly the fish grill and pasta stations. We were lucky the resort wasn't busy especially in the first 4 days so we didn't have to wait in line at the grill, as reviewers in March had complained. The downside (of a less busy resort) was that there was less variety, especially with the side dishes and the fruit. We never went hungry, though.There were trays with excellent pork, chicken, snapper or rabbit meat.They prepared delicious smoothies with exotic fruit, rich brownies, and flan. The service was excellent (given that there were more staff than tourists) with a special mention of Maryoli (sorry if misspelled) and the girl at the pancake station. At dinner there was live music, various bands of talented musicians; loved their Cuban rhythms. A la carte restaurants We tried the Seafood and the French restaurants. We particularly liked the Seafood one, the sauce/pesto that spiced the food really added a zing. The service was impeccable, thank you Carlos, the spectacled black waiter, and the French restaurant manager/hostess. Snack bar Good, fast food type, though the service happened to be slow at times. The only place to find fries. Lobby bar Excellent cappuccino, cafe colombiano, pina colada, margarita. They served their coffees with a cookie or a sugar cane stick (loved it). Beach Positive: long, with plenty of palapas, lots of fish and coral very close to the shore, the pelicans put up a day-long show of bomb-diving to catch fish. We were literally pampered by the staff at the beach bar: as soon as 10 am, Oswaldo from the bar came to each palapa to take the order for drinks, that he would bring on a large tray. He and others from the bar went out of their way to keep the tourists 'hydrated', knew exactly in what language to address each of us as well as our preferences.That was remarkable. Same for the beach personnel that set the armchairs for you, they remembered everyone by their name. Thank you, Raul, Osmani and Isney. Negative: there were lots of rocks in the sea, close to the shore, so water shoes are recommended. It was very windy, not sure if it was just the time of the year, but the beach seemed to be in a windy bay. It was only towards the end of our stay, when more tourists started to come, that we saw the annoying practice of some people reserving beach armchairs early in the morning only to appear on the beach at 11. The other negative remark is that there was a lot of noise during the siesta hours, hotel employees were congregating in the corridors, talking loudly and calling each other between floors, I'm sorry I have to bring it up, but this could be easily fixed. Overall, this was an excellent vacation, new facilities and remarkable service, most likely will return.

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Okay

Beach was narrow and rocky. Bathrooms are not near the beach. Unfortunately it was windy all week so spent a lot of time at the pool. Lots of lineups for restaurants, snack bar and buffet - areas very crammed. Food was repetitive. Staff worked very hard but understaffed.

Roc Lagunas del Mar: People make all the difference

We enjoyed our first trip to Cayo Santa Maria and our stay at the Warwick from April 14 to 21. The resort is fairly large. I easily walked 15,000 steps/day just going from our building (Bungalow 10) to the lobby and back and forth to the beach. The food at the buffet was good. I wish it was more consistent because there were certain foods there that I loved that I could have eaten every day (kalamata olives, hash browns, potato wedges, etc.) but I understand that some people like variety. We  [... read more]ended up making our own sandwiches at the buffet most days instead of going to the 24 hour snack bar because service was not the best. We found it easier to serve ourselves which was just fine with us. We had a hard time finding good service to be honest. We tried to tip the people we thought were going above and beyond but found that it didn't matter if we tipped or not. Most places served you the same whether you tipped nothing or something. However we fell in love with Yoandy at the snack bar and Yamiesleidy at the buffet. They were the first two people who wanted to chat with us and always served us with a smile. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't think to go back to the Warwick. The beach was beautiful. Yes it has rocks but there are plenty of places to get in the ocean safely. So what if you had to walk a hundred feet to the left or right. The beach had three bars which was nice. We did not spend much time at the pool. The resort was clean for the most part. The garbage on the beach, bathrooms, paths was not the fault of the staff but the ignorance of guests. I cannot understand how people can be so careless and ignorant. There were PLENTY of garbage bins around the resort. Be respectful people! Overall the resort was nice but already showing it's age in some ways. To be honest I would give it 4 stars out of 5. But still worth going back to see our friends!

Roc Lagunas del Mar: Great place to relax

If you are looking to relax at a beautiful resort with mostly excellent service, then this is your place. The resort itself it really nice. The food is decent, it's worth your time to wait in line for an omlette or fresh meat on the grill. Service at restaurants is great, with the exception of the main snack bar. That are seems to be lacking in quality of food and service. The pools are wonderful although one of the, was green all week. Not sure why, so we just avoided that one. The others we [... read more]re crystal clear. The beach is natural...some rocky areas, some smooth and sandy. Never ending wind, but not much you can do about that. Our issue overall was the lack of activities here. No water sports at all, you are required to bring your own tennis equipment which we didn't know, and the games room equipment was broken. However, if you're just looking to chill and relax, this place is ideal.

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Great Vacation

Very nice resort. Lobby was great lots of room to sit and relax service was great. Rooms were very nice, clean , lot of room. Need to work on there grounds. New resort but too much open space , not very mature. Also the section between the rooms and the beach. Too large a space to have nothing.. Looks like a desert.

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Friendly Staff

This hotel has lovely grounds, and very clean. I found the beach okay compared to Varadero. Loved Mike's cafe however I did find the food at the A La Carte's either warm or cold. Staff throughout very friendly and helpful.

Valentin Perla Blanca: awesome

Hi I had a great time at your hotel the grounds the beaches everything was absolutely beautiful unfortunately I got hurt I got sunburn on my second day and I was in my room for three days but your stuff there took good care of me but me the breakfast lunch and dinner when I needed it and they are absolutely great polite just great but I will actually come back there again sometime soon this time that gets sunburned hahaha but thanks again I had a great time

Roc Lagunas del Mar: Worst Cuban Vacation

We have been to Cuba at least a dozen times and we have never seen anything so horiffic Rooms poorly cleaned to the point where I had to mention the maid several times to change towels and leave fresh water. The food was absolute garbage The one good thing was the "fresh" fish but the line up was and hour wait every night. One of the pools was contaminated with something so they had to close it. Over all 0/5 stars The personnel spoke no English

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: 2nd time to this resort

This was our second trip to Ocean Casa del Mar. We were there last August (2016) for two glorious weeks and this time (March (2017) for one week. The beach is amazing, but was different from the last time we were there. Food was great, always have the chefs prepare the white bass for me. This time around they only had the shrimp once at the buffet, little disappointed and not much salmon this time around. We did enjoy our very first lobster dinner. Rooms are good, they could spend a lit [... read more]tle more time cleaning as I noticed the counter in bathroom had not been really cleaned all week by the maid and think the sheets were just moved around everyday to make it look like they were changed. No issues with bugs this time around like August, there was a beautiful warm breeze the whole week. Spent sometime at the pool and never any issues finding a chair there or the beach. Entertainment was okay, we have been to Cuba 6 times in the past three years and have seen the shows. We did enjoy the Michael Jackson show last August, saw it twice in the two weeks we were there and were really disappointed that they did not do Thriiller this time for Michael Jackson. As always the Cubans are the best entertainers though compared to Dominican and Jamaica. The staff are amazing and we were treated like royalty, Magdiel in the buffet was superb and always had a table waiting for us. It was really nice that they remembered us from last year. The whole resort was open this time too and nice to see it all. The drive is not that bad, but we were delayed leaving Halifax and never got to the resort until early Saturday morning and we were suppose to be there Friday night by 11, a little disappointing.

Memories Paraiso: Nice resort

Beach is gorgeous! Pools are very clean, accommodation in Paraiso is average, clean but dated. Wonderful friendly staff at this resort. Sunwing reps were very helpful. Food average but this is Cuba. Wifi almost non existent.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Amazing resort

Our trip to our resort started with a 90 minute bus ride from the airport. Our guide made us feel very welcome and told us about the countryside and especially about the long causeway to our resort. Everything about this hotel was 5*. You always were welcomed by all of the extremely hard working staff. The food was really great, probably not as much spices as one was used to here in Canada, but you had salt and pepper shakers on the tables. The grounds were beautiful with kinds of different p [... read more]lants and trees. We did not use the pools while wee there as this resort had a really beautiful beach. Our room was great. We decided to take it easy while here so we did not go on any of the tours.