Our fourth time at Melia Marina

Still as good the 4th visit. Our first visits did not include the upgrade to The Level , but our last two did. We like the spoils of the upgrade, no running for beach towels, no standing in line to book restaurants, room service, late check-out, etc. With some patience we found the upgrade available at the same price as a regular room, but we book last minute. Remember you are located the farthest from the town of Varadero, so if you like to visit or enjoy active nightlife I would suggest you s [... read more]tay at the older hotels close to downtown. Unable to comment on the buffet because the upgrade includes our private rooftop restaurant with a-la-carte restaurant. Lazaro was always there with a smile to serve us. The cigar lounge is our preferred hangout after dinner. Service from Patricia and Mabel is excellent, making you feel at home. If you need cigars Mayelin will be more than pleased to serve you. We have had rooms with pool view and Marina view, and both are fine. If you above the ground floor you will have a sea view on both options.

Comfortable.

The hotel Melia Marina was quite, comfortable, clean and quite. The staff were friendly and helpful. There were a couple of pools to choose from though we had to walk across a bridge to get to the beach, however not to worry there was always motorised carts taking guests to and from the necessary areas.

Great time

My fiancee and I had a great time here. Excellent service, nice rooms, close to the beach, good drinks. The buffet was very good for breakfast lunch and dinner. The food at the formal reataurants was not as good and I would recommend sticking with the buffet or exploring Varadero for local options once in a while

Beautiful resort

The hotel itself and swimming pools were gorgeous. Our room was on the fourth floor with a big balcony that looked out at the whole picture perfect scenery. However, being that the beaches are starting to be developed I was not very impressed.

Had fun at the resort!

Melia Marina just outside of DT Varadero is where we stayed! Cuba is a totally different culture from North America so you must expect the differences! The resort rated as 4.5 star was certainly not what we consider a 4.5 in our standards but people were so accommodating and wonderful that all was accepted as an excellent vacation! Same with Cuban food, different from our standards but most things have to be imported so good from my perspective! Scare of Hurricane Matthew was upon us, but Wes [... read more]tjet Rep, Israel, relieved my fears as we were far enough away and it did not affect us in the least!! All in all, a great vacation!

Wonderful and Amazing Resort and Vacation

The hotel was great. The staff were very friendly and cooperative. The room was spacious. The menu were slightly different every day. The food were more Creole Style. We enjoyed the flavors of the food and no "MSG" in the food. There were chicken, beef, pork, lamb, rabbit and fish. The restaurant by the beach served up a great lunch. The snack bar at the pool served sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, fries, Ice cream and coctails. It was one of the best vacation we had.

Very enjoyable!

The room that we stayed in was very spacious and the washroom was very clean. We got a really nice view of the pool area from our balcony. What a nice and relaxing vacation! This hotel was located very close to a BEAUTIFUL BEACH. The staffs were friendly and very professional. The à la carte restaurants were delicious with great service and we were very pleased! The buffets were good in general, but there weren't a lot of variety in food choices, yet we were still able to find a few delicious o [... read more]ptions. I would definitely recommend this hotel and I would also come back again because we really enjoyed our experience. The only negative thing I can say is that housekeeping staffs do not change your bed sheets when they make your bed. Our bed sheets and pillow sheets had bad odours from the first night we checked in and it stayed that way until our last day. Otherwise, everything else is a thumb's up!

Great Stay

This hotel wasn't as good as when we had visited 1 year ago but it is still a great hotel. The food seemed to have gone down in quality within the a la carte restaurants, and the rooms already need repairs or touch ups. We had to call maintenance three times for our air conditioner to poor water pressure. However, the grounds are great and the beach is stunning. The service is great and always with a smile.

Could use improvement

We initially booked a classic marina view room. Once we got there, the room was very warn down, furniture looked really worn and old, rusty bins and refrigerator. it did not seem very clean either. We asked to see other rooms. We were told upgraded rooms were on The Level, and extra $400. We picked a room on the Level. First night and we had ants in our bathroom, bedroom, including in our bed. We were moved to another room. This room was fine. Very spacious, clean, great view of pool are [... read more]a and ocean in distance. The bed is NOT comfortable, very hard and just a thin sheet instead of blanket. The hotel overall is only three years old, but one would think its over ten! major maintenance is needed all over the place in the hotel. The staff in the hotel are great, cleaning ladies, concierge, wait staff.. however the bartenders at the bars outside in pool and oceanside bar, barely paid any attention to you. Drinks were good and strong however. Food is a miss at the oceanside restaurant and 24hour poolside restaurant. Buffet had pretty good options, pizza guy will make you a personal pizza, just had to ask. Great desserts. The a la' carte restaurants are not worth the reservations except the Asian restaurant, great sampling menu. The V Lounge at the Level is also great, nice Lobster dinner! and their take on eggs benny for breakfast was good. Also the wait staff in the V Lounge was wonderful, however they could use training on waiting tables effectively as our dinner as well as everyone around were their almost two hours waiting for drinks, then appy's then finally dinner.. But that is a management problem. The beach is beautiful. Most times there was a cart offering rides down to the beach. The pool is great, clean. The entertainment is really lacking, if not extremely boring. The fact there is no disco, is a major downfall. Nothing do do after 9pm.

Good Resort, Not The Best Food.

Overall it was good trip, the hotel and rooms were nice and clean however the food was unsatisfactory and was with lack of seasoning and had poor variety especially for vegetarians. There was also a lack of things for kids to do. Another disadvantage is the fact that there is no free Wi-Fi. Also another unimpressive and underachieved area of the hotel was of their, "fine dining," restaurant, "Don Ernesto." The service was atrocious, horrible, bad and really really bad. We had ordered a certain  [... read more]dish and we received another one. Multiple times we requested the fact that we wanted a meatless dish, however THREE times they gave our group a dish with meat, although we probably reminder them 10 times. That was the worst experience during the trip, however everything else went well.

Beautiful Resort

The resort was beautiful and clean. The lobby was elegant and inviting. The Marina landscape was picturesque. The food was great with lots of variety. The pool area was nicely landscaped with lawn chairs all around the pool. Great for couples and families. The beach was spectacular - a 5-minute walk but small shuttle offered frequent transport to the beach from the resort and vice versa. The nightly shows were always fun to watch and very entertaining.

Very Nice Stay

We hd the best time with the family. Food was ok and the beach was amazing. not alot of mature three, takes away some of the beauty. Also animation is good for people who dont like too much noise, not enough for kids. Overall very nice experience.

Disappointing

Hotel was nice but the food was far below par. Everybody in our party became sick for at least 3 - 5 days as well as a number of other people we spoke with. Many items were missing from each menu in the specialty restaurants but I could expect this being in Cuba. The only thing edible for breakfast were the pastries. I was expecting a good cup of coffee at breakfast but this even came out of a push button machine. Everything about the hotel was OK except the food. This was my fifth trip to [... read more] Cuba but it was also the worst....unfortunately. On a number of occasions a glass was dropped in the buffet restaurant and I was amazed to see the staff just step over all the broken shards without cleaning it up. People and children are walking around in thin sandals and you could see them trying to sidestep all the glass. The staff just pushed it aside or put a chair over the larger pieces. This was beyond unacceptable. The up side to all of this is that I did lose weight.

Awesome Resort

The hotel was beautiful; lots to see and do. There was lots of space at the pool and at the beach. The shuttle to the beach was frequent. The staff were friendly, courteous and went out of their way to be helpful. It was unfortunate that the room didn't have an exhaust in the bathroom as everything felt damp all the time.

Just so so

Room was generally clean, but there are a lot of ants around the room. Food was not that great. Restaurant was hard to book (need to book 2 days in advance), only 1 reservation allowed for a 4 night stay. Buffet restaurant had lots of flies around the food. They also have a $20 charge per day to use the beach canopy bed.

Beautiful resort, very nice staff!

The pool and grounds were very nice and Clean! The beach was a short walk away... One of the best beaches we ve ever been to, with even a bar hut to get drinks! First day on beach there was music... Having music the other days would have been great also! Thx for the great stay!

Lovely resort, excellent vacation

While our flight times were less than ideal, arriving at the resort relieved a lot of stress. We were welcomed promptly and the service was fabulous. When we first got there, the machine for our room key didn't work but they handled it with grace and gave us a new room within 10 minutes. Everything was very clean, the rooms are beautiful and spacious. The beach isn't that far at all and they offer a lot of activities on the beach so its well worth going over the bridge. I highly recommend.

Melia Marina Varadero Hotel Review

The grounds were well kept and the service was not bad. The rooms were clean, but the beds and the pillows need to be upgraded.The food was so-so. The best part of the trip was the beach. The water was warm and the sand was like sugar.

Nice resort bad service

The hotel was 5 min walk to the beach, we had nice weather in August (it only rained twice out of 7 days during the afternoon). The food was ok cheese tilapia & mango were delicious and the omelette was good.. Stay away from the Asian and Latin restaurants.. The French one was the best for their service and food. The service at the resort was mediocre, poor towel service, horrible pillows (bring your own) and Internet works only at the lobby. No entertainment at night. The resort was 2.5 hours f [... read more]rom Havana by bus so it was worth to go outside of the resort and see all the classic cars and Spanish architecture.

Great escape

Had a really good time at Melia Marina.Enjoyed our short walk to the beach every morning. Great beach. Enjoyed the nigh time entertainment, great musicians, real talent. Our room was overlooking the pool and we could see the beach as well.