A memorable holiday

When the guy we spoke to at Trip Central recommended Melia Las Dunas, I was initially not very keen because it was more expensive than several others. But now that I have returned, I can assert with confidence that it is an excellent resort and fully worth the money. The unit we were assigned had an ocean view. The beach was great and better than at Varadero. Also, the food was excellent with plenty to choose from. The service was also very good. The only downside is the long bus ride from the a [... read more]irport to the hotel at night in the dark. May be Sunwing should consider adding an earlier flight. Despite this, on balance, we are so happy that we chose this resort and are thinking of going back to the same resort next year.

Not a 4.5 star

First impression is huge to me, so when we arrived to our room to see a room that is very run down and not really clean looking that starts my vacation off with a bad taste in my mouth. The mattress was very worn and painful to sleep on. Our bedding was never changed our towels were never changed and that is disgusting to me. We didn't even get a face cloth. We had to ask for toilet paper whenever we needed it. The lounge really needs a lift. The cushions we well worn and you spend a lot of tim [... read more]e in the lounge area especially when the weather is not so nice. The beach and pool areas were amazing and that is where we chose to spend our time even though we were wrapped in our towels. The grounds were beautiful and well maintained. That's why I don't understand why they don't take such pride in the rooms and other areas of the resort. Just giving my true opinion!

Great room, good food, lousy samitation

I was there for 7 Jan/16 thru 21 Jan/16. I was in the Adult section in an upgraded room and I pay the single supplement as well. I room was good room-great king sized bed, nice couch, walking in closet Great maid- but I also tip 3 Cuban dollars per night The Adult pool was lovely and the snack bar off it is very good The extra restrauants are good-The Romatico is excellent. Wine lists are good Nice lobby and good banking facilities The buffet restraunts are good and yes you can get bacon with br [... read more]eakfasts in at least 1 of the 2 bkfst restaurants every day The beach is kind of tricky - it has a sandbar- and you walk in about 1 to 2 feet and then drop. It is hand getting in without falling and even rougher getting out. People -all ages- were getting tripped They need to enforce the no saving seats rule I would go for a swim about 7.15 to 7.30 and about 80% of the lounges had blankets, books etc on them There would be me and about 5 or 6 other people on the beach and maybe a couple of joggers There should be an adults only section of the beach Now the sanitation issue It took about 24 hours to get a screen installed on the window of my patio I didn't get towels till late the next day- mine are to be bright purple and in the room, when I get there People all over were complaining about towlels-you couldn't get them Then there are the toliets You can't put toliet paper in them or they plug So you have to put solied toliet paper in a plastic waste basket with a lid Every one has to do this Add in a full hotel, 2000+ guests including kids so what happens For the first time in my life i got sick- TWICE -in 2 weeks I have never seen anything like this in my life and never in a 4+ star hotel Please note I have been to Cuba twice before Please note I have been in every Central American country except for Belise. I have done the Trans Siberia Train Trip with G adventures I have spent 4 weeks each in Tunsia, Hawaii and Mexico I have been in Spain Will I go back to Cuba Yes Will I go to a Melia No But now I will have to remember to ask Shelia Denika-my travel agent for at least 15 to 20 year-and excellent at it- beside is the hotel under construction, I'm going to have to ask her if I can flush the toliet Also Sunwing is great I try to book an ELITE seat back and this time they gave me a whole row, because there was space on the flight- I had a laydown nap And Yes I always book the VIP lounge on the way out )

Beautiful Beach

Was a great place to take our 7 month old son. Service was good, food was ok. Book alacarte early, they fill up fast and choice is limited. Skip the fireside grill, buffet is better. Sand flies are pretty bad, make sure to rinse all sand off yourself to avoid being bitten, take anti-itch cream. Also prepare for a long day of travel there and back. Resort is a nearly 2 hour bus ride from airport, but you get a good and realistic glimpse of Cuban life from the bus ride.

Awesome Vacation

Well, first of all... it's Cuba - can't expect Canadian standards in a country without the means to create that sort of environment. That being said, our resort was beautiful, our room was acceptable, the food was decent, and the staff were excellent. We heard a lot of bad things about a resort a little ways down the beach having really bad food and no running water, but we never experienced any problems during our stay. We were placed in villa 51 (close to the beach and leisure pool, far away  [... read more]from everything else) so we had to do a little bit of trekking to get everywhere but luckily we didn't mind walking off the carbs and alcohol we were consuming. Great time - great staff - FANTASTIC BEACH. We would return in a heart beat just to experience the beaches again. Sadly it rained the last 2 days of our stay which cancelled an excursion, but Transat was awesome to deal with.

Great resort, decent service

Needs a renovation, service was not very helpful, no clean towels all week, poor plumbing in rooms, can't flush toilet paper??!! Rooms weren't cleaned very well. Beach was awesome though, food was decent for Cuba, pools were nice

Good visit

The hotel was good. Be aware of tipping as you always do not necessarily take pesos in the pool or beach area. We had a few bad service near the lobby and we informed the guest services area and observed improvement in service the Next day. Overall, local people were very nice and friendly. Great hospitality services. Enjoyed the trip. The Trip Central Personnel was amazing and helped me a lot. The price on website is sometimes dated and I guess trip central should resort to modern price update  [... read more]system. The beach was very good and so was the buffet restaurant stAff.

Not a 4 star hotel

First time writing a negative review and I am doing it to warn people before they book this resort. Poor customer sevice, barely a beach, never any pool towels available, shortage of food, cups, towels and food. This hotel cannot accomodate the 1800 people that stay there. The maids just fluffed out and rehung dirty shower towels because they didnt have any to replace them. They never had any of the foods listed on the menu. The buffett was terrible and had the same food for lunch and dinner eve [... read more]ryday. Broken safe, cold shower water, dirty cups honestly the list does not end. It was brutal and not worth the money that was paid. If it was 500 bucks for the week ai wouldnt complain. Very disappointed as I have been to Cuba several times and have always loved it.

Too many issues

Customer service was poor, never any clean pool towels, cold shower water, broken safe, dirty plates/cups, always out of food (garlic, onion, peppers, beef, bacon) the maids fluffed out and hung dirty shower towels instead of replacing them saying they didnt have new ones to give. The bed springs/coils were almost through the mattress. The resort is huge and only had two carts drivig around to pick people up and with 1800 people on the resort was never available so elderly people or people with  [... read more]disabilities def stay away. I am not picky, and have been to Cuba numerous times and loved it but this place was a joke. It claims to be a 4 1/2 star but I would give it a 2 especially with how poor the customer service was.

Horrible

The hotel grounds was very beautiful... but the service was horrible... when i got to the resort to check in...they told me i wasent in their system....and they werent givinf me a room... finaly after arueing.. for over two hours they finaly gave me a room.......they never had any clean towels.. would put one small towel for two people in a room...there was no hot water running... to take a shower in my own room.. I came in a group of 16 people... I had to shower In other people's room...not muc [... read more]h night life if your younger they have one disco in the resort but u have to pay for your drinks their...Witch is ridiculous.. I've been to cuba plenty of times and by far thus was the worst hotel... would NEVER go back!

Very bad resort

Hotel was horrible staff was horrible very bad experience will never go there again. If you do end up going to the hotel make sure you bring a lot of towels because they never have towels on hand. If you don't mind bad customer service go to this place

Difficult to classify

200 characters, so point form. Beach - beautiful, pools - very nice. First room had non-functional plumbing, toilet and shower didn't work, squished bugs on walls. Second room, semi-functional plumbing, oh 200 characters was the minimum! Okay so switched rooms given 7 days is a long time to go with no shower or toilet. Second room everything at least partially worked and they did bring around some water. Did end up with a case of Castro's revenge that ended up lasting a full week after I got bac [... read more]k (he must have kicked the bucket during the week). Good toilets are by the bar in the lobby, they actually seem to flush. It's about 50km to the nearest town (80ish CUC cab ride, or there are bus tours) so it is fairly isolated. Did have a very good time though.

Melia Las Dunas

If the beach is important to you, then this is the place for you. The only thing nicer than the beach was the staff at Melia Las Dunas. From the bartenders to the gardeners, everyone made you feel welcome.

Resort used to be great - not any more- nice beach

We have never complained about anywhere we have stayed in our whole lives. We are quite happy to stay at simple hotels without luxury. Unfortunately, our experience at Melia Las Dunas was not a good one, especially the first two days. Had to wait 3 hours, until 4 pm (we arrived at 1 pm) for them to have our room ready (wasted the remaining half day of sunshine in the afternoon on our arrival day). All other guests had their room ready upon arrival. When we got there the toilet was broken, they  [... read more]took forever to come and fix it (promised 10 minutes, took 8 hours and many phone calls), then we flushed once, broken again. We knew from experience that it would never be 10 minutes, but to put us in a room they knew had a broken unusable toilet is just wrong. They came again, “fixed” it, broken again after first flush (no water in tank). We had to use the public toilets in the first two days (filthy dirty btw). They do not have replacement toilet parts on site, the plumber told us that. They offered to change our room, we accepted. Our first room was not supplied with a full set of towels, or even new towels. All of the towels in the room were filthy upon arrival. Pet salamander in our room too. The Customer Service was very poor, horrible. Rude and non-apologetic, nobody takes any responsibility to get things done in a timely manner. Asked to speak to the General Manager, they told us he is only available after 6 p.m. Tried contacting him twice, were told he was in a “meeting”. Amazing how the GM is not interested in speaking to the clients of the hotel, he never did return our call or search us out, as we requested. Apparently, he is in meetings all day long. At Memories Flamenco, the GM used to walk around and introduce himself to the hotel guests, he was a very pleasant man, here, the GM has no interest in the client. The first room did not have a kit with soaps, shampoos, etc. provided (2nd room did). Maid in first room did not do her job the first night, 2nd room she was wonderful. Phone didn’t work in 2nd room, they didn’t fix that in the 4 days before we left. The beach towels are not available when you go to the pool to get them, you need to keep visiting until you get them, wasting more precious time from a 1 week stay. Maybe the could place them in the rooms so we have them upon arrival. All of us, especially my wife and son, got sick on the food, and we were being very careful on what we ate. They are still dealing with their tummy issues. This is the 6th time we have been to Cuba, and never had food problems before. One of the guests said that this hotel is known for food issues. Bring your own ketchup. We spent almost a full day dealing with customer service which we will never get back. A horribly run hotel, with a nice beach. We have stayed in hotels in Cuba rated the same as this one before, the others were far better, newer, better run, better food. We speak Spanish and learned from the staff that the hotel is under-supplied in many cases and begged that we don’t blame the workers as supply shortages are normal here. We never blamed the workers, we feel for them as most of the guests take it out on them. Seems Melia has dropped its former quality standard (or maybe only at this hotel???) The staff are all great, management is the issue. We will not be going back here again. When we told the folks at Memories about a problem (water empty in health club) it was dealt with in a reasonable time (with a small thank you bonus, plate of fresh fruit in the room, for informing them). This is the 3rd different Melia hotel we have visited in Cuba, by far, the most disappointing. Will likely be staying away from Melia in Cuba in the future based on this most recent experience. A recent review on tripadvisor from someone who has visited this place 13 times has made similar observations to mine. Used to be a much better resort in the past. Different management makes a world of difference.

Great resort!

The best intertainment I've ever seen!!! Great beach and pools! A very nice shallow pool for toddlers. Food-more than good. A lot of snak bars available throughout the day! Room a little bit outdated.

Melia Las Dunas

We were very pleased with this resort. We found the food to be good always something to chose from that you would like. The room was very clean and we were very happy to see how clean the resort kept the buffet area and outdoor restaurants.

Great Family Vacation

We went at the end of November/beginning of December 2015. We had a good time. Weather was great and beach was nice too. Good variety of food. The a la carte restaurants (Asian, Mexican, Italian) were pretty good too. Staff was generally very good and helpful. In the buffet dining room, we had excellent service from Jorge. We made sure to sit in his area whenever he was on duty. We stayed on the resort the entire time. That was enough excitement with two young children. The kiddie pool was pref [... read more]ect for our son to play in with adult supervision. Some drawbacks: mosquitoes from the evening until the morning. Air conditioning didn't work our last evening there. We were also able to have family photos taken with a photographer set up by the resort. We enjoyed our vacation.

The Best

Rooms were big, nice bathroom. Beds and pillow comfortable Complex kept very clean staff helpful and professional. Buffet amazing!! beautiful beach, swimming pools spotless a bit cool. Really enjoyed the entertainment!!

Needs some work

We had a great time even though there were a few problems with the resort. We saw quite a few cockroaches and one very large one in our room. The rooms were clean but everything was old and falling apart. The toilet seat was broken and removed but never replaced. There was no hot water one day and the next day there was no water at all. On the last day the air conditioning stopped working. The staff at the resort were great, especially the waiter at the buffet was very accommodating and helpful. [... read more] The beach was very narrow but we still managed to find a spot every time and the kids had a lot of fun at the beach and the kids pool. The mini club was OK but had very few toys and was not really equipped to leave the kids, we stayed with them every time while they played in the pool.

Love it here

It's the people I keep coming back to, the service is impecable. The workers remember you from past trips and it seems that they go out of their way to make you feel even more comfortable. Shout outs to all of them, way too many to list