Melia Las Dunas: Fantastic time!

Loved: live music every night (rock, salsa, etc), nightly shows, beach, tennis courts, calamari, freshly grilled meats and fish, service, drinks, look of buildings and rooms. Meh: a la carte restaurants. Hated: nothing.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Rest and Relax

Melia Del-Ray is a nice resort overall all though it has its problems still from staffing to service . The check in was ok we arrived at late evening we had our rooms already assinged but ut still took time before we got to our room. There were few issues with resort no water to resort to start our vacation but was fixed by end of day some building were effected for few days and they had issues with no hot water. Room service was good but found out our fridge was not being restacked daily had [... read more] to speak with customer service to get them fillled multiple times also beach towel was a problem all week not having clean towels which is inexcusable they also ran out of some liquior towards week-end. Again besides all the problems the beach and staff makes it worth while visiting . I just wish that they mentioed some of these issues before we arrived we would of been prepaierd for it.

Sol Cayo Coco: Average resort

Overall the resort was average, it was raining upon checkout, and was raining in our closet. The pool was very good, food at the buffet was terrible until we discovered the omlette, pizza ang pasta bars. There is still alot of hurricane damage around.

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Beautiful resort with ocean front room. Great! Weather, not so great!!

We enjoyed one week at the Paradisus Princesa Del Mar this January 20-28. We requested, via our agent at Trip Central, a top floor room, with a King Bed and a room situated in a quieter area of the resort. We got all three requests. Our room was perfect located in building 4 on the top floor and was overlooking the ocean. We were literally only steps to the Beach. Our maid Yesiney who looked after us everyday was fantastic. The room was spacious and it had a king bed with a sitting area just [... read more] inside the balcony. There was a fridge with drinks and two beer (the maximum we were told) and we worked around the beer issue and it was corrected by the third day! All of the workers at the Resort were friendly and most spoke some, or a little English. The resort is very large, but building 4 seemed to be in close proximity to everything. My wife enjoyed the aerobics and yoga classes held in buildings beside the main pool each day. The main buffet restaurant is lacking in space. There were only 6 stations and they were all cramped together. The Buffet served basically the same food day in and day out. That was our only concern with this being classified as a 5* Resort which in way s it was but the Buffet was at a 3.5* level at best. But, this is Cuba remember so take the good with the bad. The weather while we were there was not good unfortunately and those before us had even worse weather and those following us were expecting the same poor weather we had. This consisted of very high winds, rain, and average to lower temps. We only made it to the beach 3 out of 7 days due to inclimate weather. On the nice days the beach was great but watch out for the Portuguese Man O war (jelly fish) as we observed probably 1000 lying in the sand the first day we arrived. On the nice days you would see 5-10 floating in the water which was not a problem, but on the bad days they were everywhere so people could not swim when the weather was bad for fear of being stung. The resort did have the beach cleaned and dragged every morning. The beach was beautiful and there were ample beach chairs for everyone so saving spots was not necessary. However, the beach bar was closed the first time we went over to it, apparently they ran out of cups! It re-opened within an hour. This resort was extremely quiet, not noisy like a lot of other resorts. Even by the main pool the Island music was kept to an acceptable level and wasn't pounding.As an adult only resort I found the clientele older and more reserved. There wasn't huge amount of late night partying going on. The weather may have had something to do with that also! Finally, we have one large complaint and this is in regards to a one day Havana Tour we booked for our stay in Cuba. We attempted to book this tour via Trip Central with our agent and through our provider Sunwing. For u/k reasons our agent could not access this trip on Sunwing's site. So, we went ahead and booked on line through Amigo Tours. When we started our trip we realized we paid more than double what other people on the tour paid. In fact we paid $146 as compared to most who paid only $70 each. We brought this to the attention of the tour guide who said she had seen the discrepancy in the price we paid and was going to tell her supervisor who in turn would call our Sunwing rep. We waited a full day before we talked to the two Sunwing reps at our Resort about this problem. They both said they knew nothing about this issue and no one from the tour company had called them. As was expected! They told us they were going to look into what they could do about it on their end and we never heard another thing from anyone with Sunwing after that. Typical. We decided we are going to call our CC company and report this as an internet Fraud and try to recoup at least half the money we were over charged through them. I suggest anyone traveling to Cuba only book with their provider once you are at the Resort.

Sol Rio de Luna y Mares: Not Great

Bad Points: Unfortunately the rooms are in desperate need of updating. There was mold and broken tiles in the bathroom. Beds are very very old and extremely uncomfortable. We also killed three bugs that we believe were cockroaches! They need to better inform guests of all activities. For me personally was very difficult, I am not able to walk far distances and to get to the beach is a lot of stairs. The 24 hr snack bar was on the other side of the resort from my room. Good Points: The beach is [... read more] beautiful. The food was very good, even though the buffet was small. The people we met were fantastic. The staff were great! Our maid was great and did a good job on our room and left me lots of water and coffee! I think she was my favorite staff!

Melia Marina Varadero: Very nice resort

It is a very nice resort, the room was big with balcony, good services, four restaurants and buffet, place very secure, the personnel is professional but a bit far from downtown varadero and airport and There was bed bugs.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Nice place poor food poor service

Stayed Jan 10-17 2018.The hotel was good about requests we made thru the travel agent, getting us what we requested.We asked for a room close to amenities on the ground floor, due to mobility issues. We got a handicap equipped room. Room quality was a 4. Booking in was a pain in the butt. It looked like 2 bus loads arrived just before us at about 12:00 noon, which of course is also check out time. We were herded into a conference room where they were trying to give two briefing meetings at th [... read more]e same time.There was a table full of stemmed glasses filled with blue drinks. We passed . Glad we did the next morning the table was still there looking the same . Half the glasses full, 1/4 partly drank, 1/4 empty or spilled. I guess they were leaving them for the next bus load of Suckers! Due to all the talking with people trying to figure out what was up, people were screaming and shushing at each other. They collected up our passports and went to the front desk with them to scan them. Some people got an envelope with room keys and welcome info.The other 75% were told to check with the front desk after 3:00 pm. We were lucky probably due to getting a handicap room and got an envelope.We saw people from our bus in the lobby at 5:30 still waiting with their luggage.They were not happy! The hotel was mainly suffering from being overbooked for the amount of staff.Because of the size of the resort and lack of management we received very little personal attention mostly at the Buffet. Bars were pretty good with service but ran out of things at times. Hit and miss at the pool and beach. One day at the pool staff served us drinks. The next day there were no servers around the pool for over 3 hours. Animation staff was very limited one day no one from noon till 4:00 then only for only 1 hour. Another day from 3:00 till 5:00.The pool walls had about 25% coverage with algae in the remote corners. The pool bar area was cleaner. At the beach the bar had a lineup of 40 people for hours and the next day they had a second bar set up at a table next to the bar and the line up was only 6 or 8 . Hardly ever got the same server, so service was poor.We are tippers but finally gave up tipping in the buffet the last couple of days due to the poor service.Last day for breakfast couldn't get coffee or juice, asked 3 different servers. The last one who actually got us some said it wasn't her table. The table beside us finally got up and walked over to the servers station to get their own coffee.We don't usually eat at the a la Cartes as we can find what we want at the buffet.The selections in the hot tables all looked overcooked, brown, and unappetizing.Fresh fruit was limited. No mangos and bananas for the first couple days then sporadically for the next 3 days. Pasta and morning egg lineups were usually more than 30 min. There were two buffet areas one large and one small that were attached. The large one never opened at the posted time and they diverted people through the grass to the small entrance.Once we waited for the large to open standing sixth in line then once we were let in the staff shooed us away from the nice tables into the small buffet later letting people sit in the area we wanted ???. Very badly organized staff. Usually most places are having a staff meeting inside the doors before they let people in. We never seen this once. Some of the servers were great and helped make our meals pleasant. We tipped them well. But mostly the management of the staff was severely lacking. To be fair they had a fair amount of entertainment in the lobby area and a bit at the beach. A marque to announce the entertainment schedule for the theater, foam party, etc did not exist. I wouldn't recommend this hotel. Nobody seemed to be getting sick from the food but I would rate the quality of the food and service in the buffet the worst I've had staying about 20 times in 10 different 3,4,and 5 star places in Cuba. NB: Don't use the bank outside arrivals at the Cayo Coco Airport. It seems a scam. It was 2 points worse than the hotel and did not give receipts as official banks usually do.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Melia jardines del rey

Beautiful hotel.. but if it’s almost full good luck for chairs at the beach. Spent 4 days searching the beach area for chair.. even in the p.m still no chair available. At the pool there is plenty of chair but if you are a beach person better wake up in the middle of the night to get one. Too little buffet for all those people and the beach restaurant it is like a zoo in there. I don’t mind waiting but i wont wait 1hour 25 for chiken so i ate fries and cucumber all week. People are nice reso [... read more]rt is beautiful but they need to fix this issues asap. Also missing piña colada at the lobby bar or miami vice almost every night. No champagne...

Melia Jardines del Rey: Poor Resort - Would not Return

Firstly, let me say that this trip was our 15th time to Cuba so we really know what we are comparing this property to. The property is very tired looking – mainly the rooms. It is understandable that the grounds are not perfect due to the hurricane. They are doing a lot of replanting to get it back into shape. The hotel is understaffed to suit the needs of the large number of guests in this property. The lack of English on some of the basic words was a huge problem. For example, 1 egg  [... read more]means many eggs. And so on. Staff seem very disorganized. Some were very hard working while many others just stood around talking to each other or the guests and looking for handouts. We spoke to one of the newer workers that had just come in from another property to help out and he told us that “nobody works here”. There were many water leaks everywhere at sinks, toilets, urinals and underground water pipes. Some garbage remained in the same place on the sidewalk throughout our stay of 11 days. There were not enough loungers at the beach. If you didn’t claim them by 10 am, you were out of luck. Many or the loungers on the beach and at the pool were mouldy. Many of the drains around the pool were plugged so when it rained the guests had to walk through an inch or two of water. The music at the pool was so loud that hardly anybody sat close by to the speaker. The entertainment staff said that this is what the guests wanted but everybody we spoke to said it was deafening. The same was true of the night shows. We had to leave every night due to the pounding on the eardrums. On the day of our arrival, when we entered our room, it smelled extremely musty. It was very tired looking and was missing light bulbs. There was no hot water. Really needed a shower after the long day at airports. The mattress smelled like a public toilet. The patio door lock was broken and it needed 2 people to push it shut. We asked our Air Transat rep about transferring to another property but we were told everything was filled. We did learn later the others had transferred out. After complaining to the rep a few times, she basically ignored us and tried to look busy or picked up the phone when we walked by. Forty eight hours later we were given a new room and we finally got to shower in tepid water. For the next 3 days we were without water or without hot water or had no water pressure. Once the water stopped in the middle of my shower and I had to towel off the soap. There were numerous stains on the couch. There were cigarette holes and brown stains in the blanket. (see attached pictures) On one day the fresh towels smelled like urine/vomit. That was disgusting. On one occasion, the wet towels from the floor of the shower were just folded up and placed back on the towel rack. On two days, the bedding was placed on the suitcase stand and we had to make our own bed. The patio door lock was broken. The toilet was continuously leaking throughout our stay. When it rained, the water ran down the hallway and pooled outside our door (approx. 1 inch of water) and seeped into our room. We had paid extra for the elegance service. NOT WORTH IT AT ALL. There were NO dedicated rooms and all we got for the extra money was 1 peso WIFI card for each day of stay and a bottle of rum which we had to fight for. One day while walking out of our building, I almost got nailed by a huge laundry bag that was tossed of the second or third floor balcony by a staff member. That could have broken a person’s neck. Missed it by about 1 second. As for the restaurants, they seemed inadequate in size and staffing to suite the needs of that many people. On several occasions, we had to walk around about 50 or so empty and soiled tables in order to find a clean table with cutlery. By that time our warm food was cold. There were lineups outside to get in occasionally but very long lineups at the egg or grilling stations of up to 30 minutes. All members of our party of 4 got diarrhea. I got it on 2 separate occasions. At the snack bar, it took 45 minutes to get a hamburger and the other order never came. The a la carte restaurants were very poor in quality and served cold food. Several menu items were not available. My wife has an allergy to cilantro and we told the servers this. She was still served cilantro. There was little or no signage over the food in the buffet – bad for those with allergies. The bars and restaurants were constantly running out of menu items – juice, pinna colada, water for coffee machines. About half of the coffee/expresso machines were out of operation at any given time causing huge lineups at those that were working. Bar service was poor – unless you had money in your hand. So now for some good points now that I have vented some of my frustration. The property has a nice beach and a lovely pool. The customer service manager (Ansiel?) was very nice and tried to be accommodating. He realized that there were many problems and said he was doing the best that he could. The staff at the Cuban restaurant were awesome at arranging a special table and a birthday cake for my wife. The Bistro restaurant was great. The best food of the whole trip and the staff Yipsi, Michal and Enrique were full of smiles and were the nicest of all the staff. Finally, we met the new hotel manager half way through our stay. She realizes that there are very serious problems with this hotel and seems very committed to making sure all problems are corrected.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Love Cuba but won't be going back there!!

Well, what can I say. We booked this hotel for 11 days with our friends and we were very excited about it especially with it being a 4.5 star. This was our 15th time going to Cuba and the second time in Cayo Coco. We had nothing but problems from day one. No Hot Water, No Water at all, no pressure - if you had water. We had to argue to have our room changed but things didn't get any better Air Transat Rep was rude, unprofessional and didn't help much. Paid extra for Elegance but got no [... read more]thing of what was listed for this level. Waste of money. Food, sucked big time. I know you don't go to Cuba for the food but this was almost uneatable. Had the Ala Carte restaurants included but would only recommend the Bistro or the Japanese ($) which they gave us because of all the problems . Noting exciting with the rest of the ala carte. Be careful if you have food allergies as they did include Cilantro in my TexMex even after I told them I have an allergy to it and they told me they could accommodate my food allergy. Staff was lazy and didn't care for anything other than tips. When serving you, they stood for a few seconds waiting for their tip - each time. Music everywhere was played at a level that was probably heard all the way to Jupitar, giving visitors a headache. Could not watch the evening shows because of the reverberating base sound. Couldn't sit by the pool because of the level of the music and when asked to turn it down, they said no. Grounds were beautiful - even after the hurricane. and the layout of the pool was pleasant to the eye. Not enough beach chairs and just enough pool chairs and the ones you did find were moldy 24 hour restaurant service was slow and the food everywhere - even the ala carte was always served at room temperature. Coffee sucked and 5 expresso makers you were lucky if 2 worked at any given time. Bar was always running out of liquor and there wasn't any Pina Colada's for the first 6 days. If you are considering going to this hotel, think again. They did get a new Hotel Manager and the last couple of days, things did get a bit better with the service but they have allot of work to do. Hopefully she can get things up to par. Give them time to bring it back up to a 4.5 star.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Worst of them all

A quick overview.the grounds are lovely need a little work but lovely.the hotel wa too busy and could not properly give service to their paying customers. A manager from Melia confirmed this . Customer service did not exist for 5days then got better In Some cases. Food ran out on one day I was there not sure what happened the other days . The towels and linen Were not clean . For the first time in my travels I gave the happy dance for going home. I did not get what I believed I paid for They s [... read more]hould not take people if they cannot look after them. The beach was lovely .

Melia Cayo Santa Maria: Great resort!!!

My wife and I, our youngest daughter and her boyfriend were at the Melia Cayo Santa Maria Jan 18 - 25, 2018. The resort was very beautiful and much has been done to recover from the hurricane. The grounds are immaculate, you would never know that there was any damage only a few months ago. Our room was on the ground floor. The only evidence of flooding was that the bottom 4-5 inches of our bathroom door was water damaged, but otherwise, it was great. The shower and tub could use an update,  [... read more]but it was very clean. All of the staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. We only did one a la carte restaurant (Japanese) which I always enjoy. We found that the buffet had limited variety of food options from day to day. The snack bar had very good food and the pizzas delicious. Some sections of the beach have mounds of sand as a result of the hurricane. They were not crowded and always lots of options for shade or sun or both depending on your preference. Overall, a very nice resort!

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Good overall value!

This resort was good overall with a few glitches here and there. Upon arrival around noon, we were told our room wouldn't be available until after 4. This was a common occurrence as throughout the week, the lobby was full of weary travellers crashed on sofas waiting for hours on end for rooms.It killed the first day of our vacation. Once settled in the room, it was quaint and clean. The resort grounds were lovely, well manicured. There was minimal residual damage from hurricane Irma. Several b [... read more]uildings were under repair and the outside stage and disco were out of use. The evening entertainment was crammed in the lobby which was okay. With only one bar to handle to crowds in the lobby, it was extremely difficult to get a drink. The beach was beautiful and could not disappoint! You can walk for hours in either direction. The main buffet was decent, had some great food and some not so great food. omelets were excellent in the mornings and I was delighted they had delicious bacon. The problem with the buffet is it is very very noisy with the clattering of plates and people. Most food is not very warm, unless you get something cooked fresh off the grill. Evening dinners in the buffet often featured a large roast which was always good. lots of fish available as well. I highly recommend the beach restaurant for lunch. fresh grilled meats and fish in a quiet peaceful setting. Much nicer thatn the busy buffet and you get a view of the ocean. I ate lunch here most days. The snackbar at the pool was good but terrible busy. The pool itself was lovely, not very warm and there is no shade anywhere. I ate at 3 a la carte restaurants: Japanese, very fun and good, the Italian, very good, and the French, it was the best! the beef was incredible and was served under a silver dome. WE did one excursion to Havanna. I was told it was a 2 hour drive, and it is 140 kms BUT....bus took forever to pick up many guests from other hotels which made it 3.5 hrs to havanna from the time we boarded. the bus toilet was out of service. guide did make a washroom break en route. A few of the minor complaints at this resort are: - poor check in -not enough bartenders (lobby and beach had huge lineups) - room fridge was stocked daily with water, but rarely beer -over crowded lobby for evening entertainment -no shade at pool

Sol Varadero Beach: Bring a clean pillow case

Rooms were very run down and the spread and pillows are very stained. there is no disco and only 3 a la carte restaurants. The bathroom in the lobby’s were constantly out of both toilet paper and soap. The food is standard Cuban faire.the rooms overlooking the pools run the risk of being awake all night due to the partying. Beach is lovely! Missing a restaurant by the beach.

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Paradisus Needs Help

Over all the Resorts is OK ..Most all staff are very accommodating . Check in is not till 4 so that needs to get fixed . Main Lobby Bar service poor , due to under staffing . Products not available at all during week , Amaretto ,Kahula to name a few .. Food was fine , Tasty but again long line ups to get food cooked .. needs to be fixed . Rooms are huge and are fine . Clean and staff very good . Over all at 3.5 at best not a 4 star location . Breakfast opens at 7:30 too late should be 7am .. Lun [... read more]ch the same 12:30 needs to be 12 .. Over all a good place but lacks staffing which would fix the line ups

Hotel Camino del Mar: Amazing resort, amazing staff

This resort has been through a lot. It's not the same as it was. But they are getting there! Loved every min of it.. foid wasn't anything too fancy. But just not my style. Can't wait to return in a year or two and see the progress.

Sol Varadero Beach: FIRST EVER CUBAN HOLIDAY

I seldom holiday in the winter and I would recommend this hotel. The grounds were kept with great care, the pools were amazing. The staff were very helpful and willing to assist or provide information wherever needed. The beds were very comfortable and I was very happy to find English speaking television stations. It was cooler when we were there so we did not use the pools but they were beautifully kept. The beach was beautiful and there were lots of umbrellas and lounge chairs to sit [... read more] on. For my first winter vacation it was a beautiful place and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Nothing special

Big resort I would rated most 3 stars For few reasons 1. Not enough service people.2.all inclusive is not actually All. 3. Personel didnt really care What was going on 4.its to much to write it But over all was ok at least Ocean Beach and Weather

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Decent Resort

The resort grounds were very nice, clean, well maintained. The pool was nice and spacous but not ideal for swimming. The food was probably the second worst part of the resort, just after it's service. We waited for almost an hour before having our order taken and this was after we tried flagging down the server multiple times. The beach was nice but as this was an adults only resort it was annoying to find kids on the beach. Turns out the beach is shared with the nearby kid friendly resorts. Ove [... read more]rall we did have a relaxing time but if you choose to go to their 24hour snack bar which has some of the best food on the resort, be prepared to wait as the seating is limited and the service often slow.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Good hotel

I stayed there with my husband Jan 11. We liked the hotel, and had a good time, but had some obstacles. Thought after reading some of the reviews I would add my two cents. Irma: unfortunately due to Irma, the weather is still out of sorts. Nothing that the hotel can change, but thought people booking at the last minute may like to get the heads up. We had two days of sun, two of rain, and the others were like typical Canadian fall days. Not what you would expect from Cuba. Rooms and  [... read more]grounds: our room was always very clean and well maintained. No holes, cracks etc. Always replenished our mini bar. The grounds are clean and beautiful however the lighting on the pathways to get around the hotel was not great. There were times that we could barely see the ground. The property is huge. If you don't like walking long distances just to get to your room or the beach, perhaps this isn't the place for you. They do offer little golf carts to get around, but most of the time I saw them they were taken. Food: food was ok. Typical buffet style food. Seafood was amazing!!! A few problems: nothing was ever hot. Luke warm at best. Not sure what temperature they keep the food under the heat lamps, but I could have served a small baby this food without any harm of burning them. The a la carte restaurants left a lot to be desired. After having stayed at many other resorts, the a la carte restaurants were disappointing. They tried to be "fancy" but failed most of the time. Also, good luck finding a salt shaker anywhere. When I did find any, they were so clogged that nothing would ever come out. Not a big deal though in the grand scheme of things. The thing that disappointed me the most of the food here was the lack of restaurants. They close down the buffet early in the morning for breakfast and the only place to eat is a snack shack. I ate there twice and refused to go back. There is no little snack place for desert or coffee, or French fries for example. It's much needed. Bar: lovely drinks in glass and not plastic. However, by around 9 pm they ran out of glasses each and every night. It's ok, we brought our own bubba mugs, but here is the thing. You could go to the same bartender five times in an hour, ask for the same drink and get a different thing every time! They put what they want, with the amount of alcohol in that they want each time. There is no baseline. Very disappointing. Shows: the shows were very well done and better than expected. Staff: very friendly. location: far from the beach and overall not a great location. If what you are looking for is pool and beach with drinks this is the place. But if you want to visit the real Cuba, go on walks, etc... Cayo Coco isn't it. Beach however was probably one of the best I've ever seen. Very calm water and bright blue. Gorgeous. As for excursions, being where they are, they are very limited. We wanted to much more excursions than offered, as the next town over is quite small and not a lot of cultural excursions. The one complaint my husband had since day one was the cleanliness of the men's washroom by the buffet. It was filthy. Out of orders signs on all but one of the toilets, nose excretions smeared all over the walls (that were there since day one), just plain dirty. All while the cleaning ladies stood right outside the washroom all day talking. They watched everyone go in, would mop the floor and then continue to stand there. This was heard by many other patrons. All in all, we were happy about our stay there, but not sure if we would recommend to friends and family. It was our first trip to Cuba. We will be going back, but Varadero next time. Not sure what I think of the Melia brand right now....