Great resort

Most of the staff were very helpful, very good service. Great beach and pools. Lots of chair’s available all the time. Some food items were not available, like eggs, butter and jam. Some cocktails not available. But we had plenty to eat and drink. The weather was great overall. The mattress should be changed, you can feel all the springs.

Beautiful Cuba

The Melia Cayo Santa Maria is a beautiful Resort, the rooms are well kept and very high end for Cuba. There are plenty of activities going on throughout the day and the staff is very welcoming and thoughtful. The Cubans are a very proud and industrial people and we did see plenty of evidence of their hard work. The grounds of the Resort are very clean and the evening entertainment staff put on some awesome shows. Cuba has the best beaches of all the Islands and Cayo Santa Maria is especially  [... read more]beautiful. The sand is incredible and the water is crystal clear. The tennis courts (six) are in excellent condition which was a nice surprise. It all depends on your reasons for making Cuba your vacation destination. We go for the beach and the weather, we do not go for the food or alcohol. The conditions for import are not good in Cuba therefore the food and the alcohol suffer the consequences. However, the beer was ice cold and delicious, the weather was beautiful and the beach was fantastic.

Reliable basic quality

My stay at Melia Cayo Santa Maria was the 4th or 5th time I have been there. Once again, I chose this resort for its long, perfect beach, pristine sea, and of course wonderful weather; for its modest size, comfortable accommodation and especially its people. I was not disappointed. The grounds and buildings remain very beautiful and well kept. The attractive rooms have been upgraded since my last visit in 2019. As warned, food quality is a problem, not as much for the quality of the ingredien [... read more]ts as their preparation. Nonetheless I found that by carefully choosing- for example the salads, food prepared on site, fresh fish, the smaller cafés- one can eat well. On the whole, the resort and its people provided another excellent escape.

Melia Cayo Santa Maria!!

I have been to Cuba almost 30 times and this resort has to be the best I’ve ever been to all thanks to the service, the staff and the management. The only downside is the 1.5 hour bus ride from the airport but the Hola Sun guides were very informative and funny. First off, wifi all over the resort with great connection, even at the beach. Just unbelievable and great for people who are used to being connected. Food was great, didn’t go hungry at all, especially when there is a 24 hr snac [... read more]k bar with pizza, burgers and hotdogs. Only thing was no eggs at breakfast but wasn’t a problem. The beach lunch bar was amazing as well. The buffet was always full of food with something to eat. The chefs were so sweet and friendly and always offered something that wasn’t at the buffet like fried fish or chicken which was delicious. The room was phenomenal, lots of space, king sized bed, hot water and great room service from the cleaner Yanelys. Bottles of water and pop were brought daily. Building 20 room 2024 not oceanview but was perfect and quiet. The entertainment staff were just unbelievable. I want to send a shout to out Victor, Adrian, Ariel, Darbel, Antonio and Nayibi who made our two weeks the most fun and enjoyable time together. They are just so sweet and so much fun! They are the reason we would definitely come back to Melia Santa Maria. The bugs weren’t too bad on the beach or on the resort even though we used Off. Pretty sure they sprayed in the mornings and definitely worked considering how much greenery was on the resort. The shows were decent but the Michael Jackson show was the best. Every one of the entertainers try their best and was much appreciated. The bar staff were always accommodating and they were always very helpful and polite. I have to thank Lupe for his excellent management as he oversaw everything. He’s a great leader and has great staff to work with.

QUITE RESORT

We both found this place to be very nice, 3 beaches , easy to find your way around , The Staff was excellent , very good at what they did Entertainment was great , Very Relaxing place , Food was great , never ran out of anything. We did not find any Canadian Whisky , but lots of other brands

Painfully Honest Review-Would Not Return

I'll start with saying that our expectations were that the beach would be beautiful and the food would be "meh". Everyone knows that you don't go to Cuba for the food, but for the beaches. The Good - There are two stand out points - The beach is simply the most beautiful stretch of beach I have ever seen and the staff is wonderful. There are several resorts along this stretch, but you can still walk for a very long stretch. The staff work hard every morning to clear the washed up seaweed  [... read more]and there is always someone around in the morning to bring you lounge chairs. That brings up the point that there is always lounge chairs to be had. There is no coral along this stretch, so it's perfect for swimming. Not so much for snorkling. I can't say enough about the cleaning services and wait staff. They were all wonderful and helpful. And work very hard. We did the private catamaran excursion that was offered. This was absolutely fantastic. We had the boat to ourselves, went to the dolphinarium, had a fresh lobster lunch that was provided by our hosts (one of them actually swam down and picked the lobsters from the trap), went snorkeling and got to visit Iguana Beach (yes it really had wild Iguanas that we fed lobster to). Definitely recommend as it was the highlight of our trip. The Bad - The rooms are definitely in need of some serious repair and generally run down. Our room seemed to have suffered from some flooding at some point and there was alot of water damage to the bottom of the doors. The bathroom door was so bad that about 3 inches of the bottom was warped and disintegrating. The toilet in our children's bathroom didn't work properly most of the time and it had to be fixed twice. The beds were old and hard. The pillows had stains on them. One had large blood stains. We didn't let this affect our trip in any way. We could look past it as you don't spend alot of time in the room anyways.   Now for the Ugly - Unfortunately, the ugly was very ugly. On day 2 the resort became jammed packed. This in itself wouldn't have been a bad thing if they were tourists and the resort was prepared. It turned out that they were locals and ALOT of them. We learned that the Melia resorts have started to host certain groups of locals for music festivals held at the One Gallery Hotel that is down the road. The more well off locals are offered a discounted price to stay for the festival and are bussed in. They took over the entire resort. The majority of this group behaved in a terribly entitled way and placed excessive demands on the staff and food supply. There were two days during our stay that we actually had to fight for food. The buffet doors had lines before it opened and you had to wait for more than an hour just to get inside. When you did, there were literally crumbs left. The other food venues were tapped out. You couldn't get a table or food to take away for hours at a time. The locals would send one member of their family and order 20+ sandwiches/omelets...or whatever was served at a time. Mulitply that by 20 families. If the staff didn't wait on them, they would treat the staff horrbily. It was very difficult to watch. After about 3 days they were all gone and the quiet resumed. When asked, reception informed us that there will be more events such as this and it was not a one time event. Apparently, the next one is in February. This is the only reason why i have given Service only 2 Stars. Lastly, both me and my husband ended up with food poisoning. I do think that the resort being so short on food played a role in us getting sick. Luckily, there is a doctor kept on staff who assessed us and was able to provide gravol injections. We were very thankful for this.

Wonderful Family Resort

As usual, the Melia Cayo Santa Maria provided us with another wonderful vacation. Friendly staff, great a la Carte dinners which were easy to book, a sparkling clean pool, and a beautifully maintained beach were some of the highlights of this smaller family resort.

Awesome Beach!

If spending hours in the azure water, going for long walks along a pristine beach is what you're looking for, then you'll definitely love this place. The resourt is great, the staff is friendly, the nature is unspoiled. The only minor problem I personally had is the lack of fresh green vegetables, but this would be the same in any place in Cuba. The meats, fish and seafood is plentiful though, so nobody goes hungry.

Home away from home

Beautiful friendly staff, like family, always make you feel welcome. Grounds are kept so nice. They do the best with what food they are lacking. Feel sad when leaving my Cuban family.. Beautiful beach, great staff.

Amazing people

Fantastic vacation. Beach , pool, service - really nice resort. The activities and service were great. Big thanks to Jorge and Albert for making our stay very enjoyable with great activities. But everybody at the resort was going extra mile to make our stay comfortable. If anything could be better I will say more veggies and better selection of veggies will be welcome (I am mostly vegetarian).

Excellent resort

We did a lot of walking on the beach, swimming in the pools, dancing during the classes and in the evening. The food was very good and the staffs were friendly and helpful. We will go back there for sure and stay a bit longer than 7 days.

Totally disappointed!

My 3rd time to the Melia Cayo Santa Maria. 8th time to Cuba, so we always go with low to medium expectations. But this time things were below low standard. Many resorts in the area were the same. The food was the worst I’ve ever seen. IE: no eggs until day 6. No nutritional food at all and selection was dismal. Simply unexceptional. Only 1 out of 5 restaurants opened so we only received 1 a la carte which was not very good at all. Beach grill never opened which is an awesome place to have lunc [... read more]h. Spraying for mosquitoes while people were actually walking to the lobby at 8am and 4pm. Was always done early mornings and evenings. So many small things that simply indicated management (Melia) does not care about there visitors. It has nothing to do with most staff. I spoke with the Melia district manager and all he could say was he was sorry. We brought friends for the first time and they were shocked and would never consider Cuba again. I’ve been to this resort on 2 other occasions in November and never seen things this bad! This experience made us decide never to return to Cuba again, as we’ll be spending our hard earned dollars somewhere else. So disappointed as we will miss the people and the lovely beaches.

Paradise

The hotel is the perfect size. We came For a girls trip and we’re not disappointed!!! The staff were amazing, pool was clean, lots of beach and pool chairs, never went hungry. Not a ton of variety in terms of food but it’s such a small resort likely can’t afford to throw anything away. Rooms were clean and spacious.

Great resort

The hotel is very well maintained with lovely landscaping and great pool area. The rooms are roomy with good housekeeping daily. We found the staff to be very friendly and always ready to accommodate your needs. The beach is beautiful and cleaned daily.

A wonderfull resort

I have been to Cuba many times the food at this resort was the best there were no shortages the staff were great in all areas my room was clean and of course the best beach lots of chairs I had a great week and will be returning

3rd time at this resort

Beautiful resort as always, however Covid has not been kind and Cuba still very much suffer. Gettimg supplies is very hard for them, they try their best. We all know cuban food is pretty bland but now it's even worse. Toilet paper was never an issue anywhere. You can't beat the super friendly staff alwsys eager to please and of course the Beautiful beach. We will diffently return.

Amazing resort

This is a really beautiful resort. Grounds are well maintained. The staff are very friendly and go out of their way to make sure their guests are happy. The rooms are big and need some updating but overall no complaints. I will go back.

Another incredible vacation

Every time we go to the Melia Cayo Santa Maria, it's like we are going to our families home. The food was plentiful, a few issues with the power grid, but that is expected. It is actually the first time since we have been there in 13 years. There is no sign of COVID on the island. We were never without water during our 3 stays since November. The entertainment has returned and is very enjoyable We will be returning December 2023 for another 10 day vacation

Comfortable and clean with amazing staff!!

My husband and I have been going to this same resort for 20 years. It is always clean and the staff go out of their way to make you comfortable. It wasn't as busy as normal this year but we still had a great time. The ala-carte restaurants served very good food although fewer of them were open. We will most definitely return!

Excellent Smaller Resort

Melia is a smaller hotel which means less walking but with lots of amenities. Restaurants were excellent with lots of choices and great service. Beds were comfortable and maid service kept the rooms well stocked and clean. Staff were friendly and very helpful. Every time we return to Melia Cayo Santa Maria, it’s like coming home! We highly recommend this hotel!