Paradisus Varadero: overall pretty good

Food was good but very repetitive. Beach area was very nice with lots of space and palm trees. Drinks were great. Premium choices especially in the family consierge area. No exchanging beach towels, out every day. No face clothes. Show was great. Main pool was great.

Melia Cayo Coco: Wonderful Week at Melia Cayo Coco

Despite Hurricane Irma devastating this area last September, the staff have done a remarkable job at clean up, restoration and reopening this resort. Our visit was during the first week of February 2018 and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The staff were welcoming and friendly, the facility was clean and tidy, the food was excellent and the nightly entertainment superb. The line up of musicians, singers and dancers were absolute amazing. We struck it lucky weather wise as every day was a beach da [... read more]y. There were also lots of fun activities you could take part in if you wished. Spanish lessons, rum tasting, beach volleyball or bicycle riding to name a few. We stayed in a lagoon room which was quiet with a scenic view. Just two small issues. 1) you can actually lock yourself out on the deck and 2) there appeared to be drain water coming from underneath our room and leaking into the lagoon. So I guess I can only give our review a 99 out of 100. The good news is we had such a good vacation that we can't wait to return next year. See you all again soon!

Melia Jardines del Rey: Good resort - food suboptimal

The grounds of this resort were well maintained. What a recovery from the hurricane. Beach staff and housekeeping staff were very welcoming, which was not always the case by the pool or the café. Obtaining a towel was an issue on the first day - apparently, this is not isolated to this resort. There is only one company that services all resorts, and there are not reliable. Make sure to bring cash - the credit card system has been down for three weeks, and this was also the case in other resorts [... read more]. It was our fourth time to Cuba - the food was not great when compared to other Cuban resorts we've been to. For a "newer" hotel, returning tourists did state that it has declined. All in all, we did enjoy our stay, but would choose another resort in future.

Sol Cayo Coco: Amazing!!

Sol Cayo Coco was fantastic! We visited February 3-10,2018. Upon arrival at the resort Yipisis at the front desk was extremely helpful and pleasant to deal with. Our room was clean and comfortable. Plenty of hot water and clean towels. We had a problem with the safe but they came right away and fixed It for us. The buffet never disappointed. The food was delicious, plentiful and a great selection....definitely try the pizza!! What can I say about the beach except perfect! Nice breeze, whi [... read more]te sand, paradise! The staff and service at this resort was unbelievable. Big thank you to Carlos in the lobby bar, you were amazing! Thank you!! Overall the only negative thing I can say about this resort is that the nightly entertainment could be better, not a deal breaker to me. I can’t wait to return next year. Thank you Sol Cayo Coco for a wonderful week!

Sol Varadero Beach: Needs work

While the staff was very friendly and helpful, the Serinas half of this hotel need a facelift. Our first room was very old and smelled strongly of mold. We asked to be moved. Our second room was old but did not have mold. The air conditioning did not work and the toilet seat had 2 large cracks that would bite your butt if you were not really careful. The only drawers in the room were 2 very small ones in the night stands and the closet contained only 6 hangers, so we lived out of our suitcase fo [... read more]r the week. The beach is beautiful but go to the Coral section, because the Serinas section only has a dozen palapas, while the Coral has more than 3X that and we're adding more when we were there. Overall we had a good week with fine weather but the hotel needs an update.

Melia Cayo Santa Maria: Dissapointing

The low price is reflective of the quality of the resort post-Hurrican Irma. Avoid lower level floors as the water damage had left a musty smell in our first room. We moved to another (lower level) floor and had to deal with ants in the bathroom and bed.The air conditioner leaked and created a large pool of water in the bathroom. The resort food was very average which is typical of most resorts in Cuba but what set this apart was no butter or jam for the first 3 days and no ketchup at all. We ha [... read more]ve travelled a lot to Cuba and this was the first time both my wife and I had to deal with Montezuma's revenge. We spoke with people who stayed at the Las Dunes next door and they had only good things to say... WestJet = sit near the front of the plane, they always run out of food and they do it on purpose to avoid wasting food. The TV screens do not work well in the back of the plane. The price is right for a reason - you get what you pay for but they can keep the revenge.

Sol Cayo Coco: Nice Place, nice staff, some hotel rooms needs work

Let me say that my wife and I had a nice time. However it should be recognized that you're staying at resort in a communist country, with 3rd world economic living and social conditions. So that tempers what my observations listed. We were no longer in a Canada and kept that at the forefront of our minds while there and did not complain. We had a very nice time and would go again. We stayed in room 2218 for 7 nights. from Feb 3rd to Feb 10th 2018. My observations and comments. The door [... read more] to our room was difficult to open, We had to kick the bottom of the door to open it and slam it to close it. This was a common problem with most of the doors of the 4 other couples rooms that went along with us on this trip. The problem could easily be fixed if the wood jam was planed at the door handle section. (I used to hang commercial and residential doors.) The bottoms of all the hotel room doors don't have any threshold stripping so anything that is 2cm or less in height can/could crawl under the bottom of doors. We saw 2 cockroaches in our room, one was 2cm long and the other one was over 6cm long! The balcony door was open 1/2 Meter when we arrived, so anything that flew or crawled, moved or climbed could easily come in or out of our room, such as: bugs, birds, salamanders, rodents etc. We saw several salamanders high on the hotel walls in the common areas. They are cute, but I wouldn't want them in my hotel room. The patio door does not have a screen, which is not too unusual. However the balcony sliding door lock was broken. fortunately we were above ground level so no one could just walk into our hotel room, unless they were able to scale the walls. The ceiling in our hotel room had a 1 meter (3ft) circle where either the paint was removed or it was a giant mold spot. The electronic door lock to our hotel room was falling apart on the inside of the door. I had to snap the metal door handle bezel in place at least 3 different times within our 7 day stay as it kept coming loose. There is a 220 volt switch on the wall (which was not labeled and I found by accident) to turn on the HVAC (air conditioning) on and off, our room did not have a thermostat that was adjustable so when you turned the air conditioning on, it stayed on until you turned it off. We would wake up in the morning cold due to no thermostatic adjustable control. We would have left the balcony door open if there was a screen. The rooms require that you install the passkey in an electronic slot to turn on all of the electricity in the room. I found by experimenting that any card could be inserted into the slot to keep the electricity turned on. We ended up putting in a business card in the slot for keep electricity on in the hotel room. All of the power in the hotel rooms are 220 volts and uses 5mm circular pins. see: https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Travel-g147270-c104286/Cuba:Caribbean:Electricity.html US or Canadian 120 volt polarized AC plugs will not fit in the universal outlets in the hotel room. I bought a two AC conversion adaptors at the dollar store in Canada before I left and had to use them. I brought along a power bar so I could plug in multiple devices that would run at 220 volts on my Canadian 120 volt power bar. I made sure that everything I plugged in would support 220 volts. There is an outlet labeled for a shaver that it switchable between 220 volt and 110 volts at the bathroom sink. However it has a maximum current rating of 1 amp at 120 volts. Plugging in any device that would draw more than 1 amp would blow the outlet. My wife brought a curling iron but couldn't use it as it was only rated for 120 volts at 8 amps. The resort: There was a very nice swimming pool, and there were scheduled 30 minute activities from 9:30 am to 17:30 pm everyday. Some of the activities: ( * = we enjoyed and participated) Open gym Tennis lesson * Stretching exercises * Darts competition * Zumba class Trio Con carabina Beach Volley ball *Water aerobics *Water volleyball Anillas - not sure what that was. * Salsa lessons Mini Golf - several events for children each day. Beer drinking competition. Shortest time for drinking 3 glasses of beer. - Not exactly a family event in my opinion that could be dropped, but some people liked it. Winner got a bottle of Cuban Rum. * Blackout Bingo Meals at the Buffet Restraunt "La Arcada": Breakfast 7:30am to 10:00 am Lunch: 12:30pm to 2:30pm Dinner 6:30pm to 9:30pm The food was very good and no one in our party of 12 had any complaints about the food. There was an outdoor bar and snack bar by the pool dispensing drinks and food such as frenchfries, pizza, burgers, fish etc. There were two restaurants that you could book a dinner for 6:30 or 9:00 pm. We tried both and were very happy with the food and service. Entertainment: There was a mini disco that had different entertainment every night. The first night we were there they had a rock band and they were very good. Every night there after was a show case of dancing, sort of like you would see on :So you think you can dance: TV show. It was very enjoyable. In the main lobby there were also different entertainment acts every night, that you could enjoy the music and dance with your partner or friends. Beach: There were two separate large beach areas. The one was very shallow for a long distance in the ocean. The other beach got deep very quickly. We had a great time, the staff were very friendly. The resort is all inclusive, so if you have a weakness for excessive eating or drinking you're probably going to over do it. We tried to watch what we ate so it was similar to our regular diet at home. Neither my wife or myself are drinkers so the alcohol was not a temptation. I brought along a big "1 litre insulated Bubba mug" and had the bar fill it with ice and bottled water several times per day so I remained properly hydrated. Dan

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Not impressed by Cuba or the resort

First Cuba. Everything I read before I went talked about the poverty and neediness of the country. I found all of that to be true and it colored my impressions of the entire trip. The resort. Again, I was warned, a five star in Cuba isn't like a five star in other locations. Oh boy, that is true. In my opinion, the resort, although clean and maintained, was worn out and unimpressive. Again, as warned, the food was mediocre to bad. The main pool was crowed and noisy. We were able to get a [... read more]n upgrade to Royal Service and that pool was much less crowded. The Royal Service beach area had lots of chairs and shade, plus a bar. The general beach area not so much. Beach is pretty. Pools in both areas really cold. Would not suggest paying for Royal Service. I view this destination as a budget vacation and you get what you pay for. I would not do this again. Although I saved money, I found too much lacking for my tastes. I would suck it up and find more funds and go somewhere more upscale and not Cuba.

Sol Cayo Coco: Pleasant holiday

Even though the resort suffered major damage in the hurricane, they have done much to restore it, however, there is still a lot of work to be completed. All staff were extremely friendly and helpful, rooms were kept very clean and the grounds and beaches were kept clean. It was nice that staff remembered our names, given the number of guests. The food was passable, as most Cuban food, however, the Don Diego a-la-carte was really good. The lobster dinner (which we had to pay 20 CUC for) at Do [... read more]n Diego was not very good and was not worth the cost. I would be interested in going to this resort again, once all repairs have been completed, as I believe it will be very beautiful.

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Nice Resort

The hotel was nice looking. Grounds were very clean, beach had some debris in/on the sand. Beach bar needs work! Workers are arrogant, and only serve you if u have money in your hand. I had a VIP room and it was nice. Food was shady the first few days but after that it was good.

Sol Cayo Coco: Relaxing

We went with a group of about 20 and all had a great time, friendly people and no shortage of rum. Food was ok but, you definitely don’t go to Cuba for the food. Could always find something to eat and food was repetitive. If you don’t have gourmet expectations you are better off. Overall being we have been here twice it’s a pretty decent resort.

Hotel Camino del Mar: Great resort and great service!

The grounds were quite clean as were the rooms. The staff provided very friendly service and were always smiling. It was a great place to relax. The live shows each night were amazing and the cast really put great effort into it.

Melia Marina Varadero: Very Nice Resort

Very friendly staff and excellent service. The pools were great. Lots of different pools with lounges in the sun or shade. Building was in good shape and was being upgraded during our stay. Rooms were as on the website. If we asked front desk for an extra water bottle, literally 2 minutes later someone was at our door with it.

Melia Las Americas: Best place ever

We were worried about going to Cuba because we heard the food sucked and I have gotten food poisoning on previous trips. This place was recommended to us by a friend who has been 12 times. The food was amazing, Wednesday lunch on the beach where they cooked paella right behind where we were sitting and slow cooked a pig, I had 3 servings of paella and two pork sandwiches and it was delicious. That night we were to eat at Limoncello and I ordered the lobster gnocchi, they used too much truffle  [... read more]oil but the lobster was delicious, I left the pasta as saturated in oil and I was still stuffed from lunch. There are 4 restaurants and the buffet, even the buffet was good, the pasta bar was where we ate the two nights we ate at the buffet, I suggest looking at the veggie options and then picking some up first from the other areas to add to your pasta, I would typically get broccoli and mushrooms and bring over, my husband got his cooked pasta, took it to another station and got calamari cooked and added. I did pesto, garlic and Alfredo sauce. We both loved the meals. Because it’s a golf included hotel (and we don’t golf) it is always possible to get a lounge chair at the ocean, which is steps away from the hotel. And playing in the ocean waves was how we spent our days or walking to the plaza beside the hotel (buy your souvenirs here rather than at the hotel) or walking along the beach. There are kayaks, paddle boats and small catamarans on the beach for your use. And games and activities galore. Wifi is limited and 1.50cuc per hour, it was nice to unplug for a week, I would preload instagram, pretype my thoughts for the day and connect in the evening and the hour lasted the whole week. The king size bed is really two twin beds pushed together, they remade up the bed with one set of bedding after our first night which resolved that issue, there is still a big crack down the middle but at least you could “cuddle” easier. Rooms are very clean with a stocked mini-fridge that I only found on our last day. As it’s on a peninsula you basically get an ocean view from either side, we had the “non-ocean” side which overlooks the golf course first, then the ocean. We were on the fourth floor and the balcony is small but fine for two. No hair conditioner supplied, but everything else there. The air conditioner worked too well, as my husband had it cranked so low I froze until I put a blanket on the bed. As it’s adult only you get an older crowd which was fine with us but some of the younger people we met were disappointed in this or would take a cab ($10.00 cuc on way) to town to a bar called the “beetle” and apparently it was amazing. The people (staff) were amazing and so nice to talk to and helpful. It’s very safe in Cuba as no guns and no drugs, you can walk the beach at night without concern. We only went on one excursion, but next year we plan on going to the cities.

Melia Cayo Santa Maria: small but mighty

My second time at the Melia Cayo Santa Maria and it was even better than the first time. GREAT food, great staff who work SO hard and are invariably smiling and friendly. My wife was at one of the high priced new resorts farther down the beach a few weeks earlier and she raved about how much more she enjoyed the Melia CSM. There will always be petty annoyances (always seem to be out of something) but this place makes you glad to take it all in stride. Two little things...they need to do a better [... read more] job cleaning the beaches of seaweed (all along CSM not just at this resort) ... And they need a firmer stance in dealing with the handful of obnoxious guests (all, sadly Canadian middle aged tough guy wannabes and biker posers) who drunkenly screamed racist and obscene comments all evening long with families with children at the next table. Really, boys if you can't handle your beer any better than that...stay home. You embarass yourselves AND your country!

Melia Jardines del Rey: Bigger is not always better!

Don't get me wrong! this is a great resort! best beaches ever! fantastic pools! bars had the best drinks! room was beautiful and clean, and the food was good wouldn't starve. Just too big and too many people wanting at sometimes a limited supply of towels , food, drinks, bottle water, or maintenance problems ( toilet plugged ) Nice recovery from the hurricane that hit them last year but a lot of garbage and broken chairs laying around the beach. But I was more disappointed in the people stay [... read more]ing there " if you don't do it at home why do you think you have the right to mess or clutter there" show some respect and consideration to other guests and the people who have to clean up after you! Great Resort! but I think as you get older the walking is the downer, just too big and crowded.

Paradisus Rio De Oro: 2nd visit to the Paradisus in Holguin!

We returned to the Paradisus in Holguin for the 2nd time and we continue to 'rave' about the resort! The resort offers everything that is important to us - delicious food at the several restaurants/buffet, wonderful service by the staff in each dining area, the rooms are very comfortable, and the pool, beach are lovely! We met up with friends who also returned, and truly enjoyed their company in this gorgeous resort! We also met so many friendly people from other countries, and we all shared a [... read more] similar viewpoint of the Paradisus! We plan to return next year, and will anticipate another fantastic stay at the Paradisus!

Melia Jardines del Rey: Big resort, friendly staff - had a good holiday

Beach was gorgeous. Staff were generally very friendly and accommodating (however Cuba does have supply issues - getting more towels can sometimes be a problem, running out of things like ketchup, syrup). Great lobby area - it's large, lots of entertainment at night, bar open 24/7 I think. It's the place to be at night. The place was very clean. Food - a la cartes were decent. Didn't like the snack bar or buffet much (needed better quality food overall.. and more choice would have been nice. I f [... read more]ound there was a lot I didn't care to eat and dislike waiting in really long lines.) Lots of pools - tons of chairs and there's always somewhere to get a drink. Overall we are pleased. Biggest disappointment was definitely the quality and selection of food. Loved the people. Especially Mandy and Nona.

Melia Marina Varadero: Good experience for the second time

We stayed 4 days in this resort as our second time(first time was back in Jan 2016). We had good experience here with kids. Location: farther end from the airport, it took over an hour to reach to hotel because the shuttle bus had to drop off people to other resorts first; Food:nothing fancy but still okay, fair amount of varieties; Room: clean , door key required one time reprogramming but front desk turned around quickly; Beach: really in love with it, clean and shallow water, kids friendly Cu [... read more]stomer service: Very friendly staff, especially the shuttle driver who give us ride to the beach, always cheerful and friendly; Entertainment: not as good as 2 years ago but they do have shows every night; hopefully they can bring more entertainments/ shows for kids as the main reason we returned to this place is because this is a kid friendly place

Melia Varadero: Great yime

The hotel was fantastic, we really enjoyed ourselves,the food and location were second to none.we went to Havana strongly recommend going via taxi 1957 Belair.Lastly the beaches our second to none. Thanks to all