Nice, but...

Let me start with the good part. The room was bright and spacious and overlooked the pool and sea! Great! Food was OK. But... there were quite a few shortcomings which I will list here with the hope that the management will improve sooner rather than later considering a hotel of this calibre. First - the toilet roll holder was broken when we checked in and never replaced. The toilet roll (cheapest quality) was placed on the trash can or on the flush tank. The bathroom door was splitting open a [... read more]t the bottom and not fixed. Most hotels, of lower rating, that we'd visited over the years had a kettle and coffee/tea in the room. Nothing here. The mini-bar fridge only had one beer - no soft drinks (pop) at all anywhere in the hotel. Management and standards should be improved. I do understand that the economy is bad and tourism scarce, but with so many hotels along the coast one has to do better to entice tourists now that the peak season is starting. Also, most staff do not speak English. How do you expect tourists to be taken care of properly? Thank God for Google Translate! Housekeeping and restaurant staff were pretty nice.

Beautiful beach, old resort needs work

The front entrance is renovated. The bar area has very old chairs. Can be improved, among 4 elevators only 2 works. It was not busy season but they could open more elevators. People at reception are nice and friendly They tried to help. The waiters are friendly as well.

Worest experience!!!

First I want to say, this is not my first time to Cuba. This was my third time, and after this vacation I will not be going to Cuba ever again. The hotel lacked in food, I mean shortage and sometimes ran out of liquor so I couldn't get drinks. The wifi needed to be refeshed ever 5 hour at the lobby. They ran out of beach towel and limited food at the snack bar, I mean they mostly had bun and cheese. This was one of my worest experiences I had.

Good

Except food all are good. People of Cuba are so nice and friendly behavior. Nice transportation. Beach are so good. Delphine right are excellent Entertainment are so nice. Location of the Hotel very good for communication. Travel to other city very nice with in two hour which is cooperating by the management staff to enjoy other destination.

Terrible resort

The resort was dirty and service non existent. Went to same resort in 2019 but this time it was awful. Pool was hot and dirty and had nothing at the bar but rum. Beer was always running out and pool bars had barely enough food and beer. Will not book Veradaro again.

Good summer trip!

My bestfriend and I took this trip and were pleasantly surprised it exceeded our expectations. There was some small hiccups but overall it was great value for the price - the beach was beautiful with clean white sand!

Good

Everything was great except for the food and mosquitoes. Food in the restaurants was the same as in the buffet with less options to choose. Line to get to the buffet was an bummer in the heat. Also, they might think about more entertainment options.

Worst vacation ever

I am not sure where they have the 5 star title from, but it is barely a 3 star hotel. Not sure where to start from but to say if you want to be disappointed definitely go to this hotel. Rooms were nit cleaned, sand on floor and baby bed upon arrival. All buffet and a la cart restraunts were sauna as no AC and had to eat sweating. All restaurants were full of mosquitoes and flies on the food. No small spoons in the entire hotel for a baby's mouth or desert. Had to line up for baby chairs as not  [... read more]enough. Had to line up for buffet several times. No clean tables without cutlery or napkins, service was terrible all around except the pool or lobby bar. Food warmers in the buffet restaurant not working so cold food was being served. Buffet floors were slippery saw few people fall from the grease. Public bathrooms had no toilet paper and no hand soap. Beach was never cleaned it was full of seaweed. Pool water was green and chunks of bleach everywhere including pool bar counter, not safe for kids. Pool bar was closed due flooding and pool bar had no beer had to walk to snack bar to get beer. At check out we got courtesy room due our flight was in the evening, this courtesy room was super dirty eithout toilt paper, also had no soap, no towels. We asked for towels at front desk, and we were told that in the whole hotel they didnt have any clean towels, if we wanted we couod fo back to our old room to use our own dirty towels, so we ended up dying ourselves with our own old clothes. In general this hotel is not well maintained and service is terrible so don't waste your money.

Not impressed

There were reviews that I saw about the flies in the buffet but obviously not has been done about it. So many going all over the food and people really not sanitary and gross. Overall service was ok but customer service not available over the phone. Beach staff were doing their best to create fun and interesting atmosphere. Food not good, no chicken, fish or sea food.

Amazing beach but resort was not good

Resort definitely needs a lot of renovation and improvement. Water pressure and water temperature at the room was inconsistent. Elevator knobs are broken and out of 4 elevators, only 1 or 2 are working. Room door won’t close. A lot of flies in the buffet which was disgusting. Mosquitos are so bad. You can’t even stay at lobby / bar area because of it since you’ll end up having a lot of bites. Not much food variety. Same everyday. Never had chicken nor beef. Fish only one time. Mostly p [... read more]ork. Had soda after 2 days. First day there was 2 big water bottle at the room. Succeeding days they only give you 2 small bottles. They don’t change your towels at the room daily. Room had a good view and staff were friendly. Beach was awesome though! Resort is definitely not 5 star!

Melia Marina Varadero Cuba - 04MAY2023

We have been to Varadero many times, staying at deferent resorts. This resort is located at the end of the Varadero peninsula, overlooking the catamaran marina. We were a group of 6, 2 couples chose the Level package and 1 Standard. The Level package allowed us to access to roof top Level restaurant for any meal and the food was good …. Not busy this time of year. Expectations of 5-star restaurants in Cuba is unrealistic, but this resort had really good A la carte meals in the evening. As  [... read more]always, there were shortages of certain types of foods. Comparing this resort to others, they were above average. We always had water, beer, and clean beach towels in our rooms. The staff tries hard to please guests with requests. The beach was a short walk over a bridge, you could also get a ride on the extended golf cart if you waited. Not really an issue. The two pools were large and warm. The highlight of any Varadero trip would be,” The Beatles Bar”. Live Rock and Roll music from 9-12. All 6 of us piled into a convertible for $30 US and headed into town for dinner and drinks at El Rancho, across form the bar. Overall, it was a good stay and we enjoyed ourselves

Melia Marina Veradero

Hotel had a nice view of Marina. This Hotel is not on the beach, it is across the street. Our room safe didn't fully lock and 110$ went missing. It was reported to staff, no report was taken. Staff not concerned. Hotel elevator hardly worked, we were on 5th floor, lots of stairs to walk. Food was rice, beans, cooked pumpkin, lots of cabbage. Its Cuba, we don't expect gourmet food. View was nice from our room, hotel room was clean. They prefer American $$ and credit cards, you are billed in [... read more] ||USA funds on your card. |The airport does not accept Cuba currency to purchase anything, so if you have any left over, it's a souvenir.

Elevator hardly worked

Hotel had a nice view of Marina. This Hotel is not on the beach, it is across the street. Our room safe didn't fully lock and 110$ went missing. It was reported to staff, no report was taken. Staff not concerned. Hotel elevator hardly worked, we were on 5th floor, lots of stairs to walk. Food was rice, beans, cooked pumpkin, lots of cabbage. Its Cuba, we don't expect gourmet food.

Poor resort

I suspect this was once a good resort but not now. The chairs in lobby were ripped and stained, no umbrellas around the pool, food and alcohol very limited. Beach restaurant not open. The beach, however, was beautiful. We had a room with a Marina view which was nice. Would not recommend.

Stay Away From This Resort, Not A 5 Star

Stay Apr 15-22 This resort definitely not a 5 star as advised. The food and service were horrible, breakfast, lunch and dinner were the same in the buffet, the over cooked chicken wings, pumpkin, cabbage and the white beans. I never ate this much pumpkin and cabbage in my life, though there were grilled fish for 3 nights, and grilled chicken breast nightly, I'm not a white meat fan, so never tried the grilled chicken, the fish was good, this is the only food I like, but long line up. There a [... read more]lso a pasta place so you can order pasta. One think I don't understand is why we cannot carry a purse or backpack in the buffet, they afraid we will steal the food in the bag? This place need lots of maintenance, one night was raining, I was waiting for the pasta, and water was leaking from the ceiling, I was complaining loud to myself that I can't believe it this is a 5 star resort, then a lady over heard me and started to complain her room no hot water, toilet paper, and the water is not draining. luckily our toilet was broken only once, and got fixed, but the phone was not working, we reported, but never got fixed. It was a hassle that we had to walk to the front desk to reset the wifi every time when it exceeded the 5 hours limit. The so call mini bar had 2 cokes and a big bottle of water. One morning we were still sleeping, the guy knocked on the door to drop off the cokes and water, he didn't wait for our permission to allow him to enter and he just walked in. I was so mad and complaint at the front desk, then never received the water and cokes again. There was 1 a la carte restaurant every night, but you cannot booked in advance, you need to book in the morning and only 40 seats available. The front desk said they starting to take order at 8, and everybody was waiting and the person didn't show up after 9. If you come late, you're out of luck. It was a terrible experience in the restaurant, we didn't get served for 1/2 hour after we got seated, not even a water and manual. We were looking at them walking by without an acknowledgement. I was running out of patience and shouted out loud for service, then got their attention. After we ordered, another 1/2 hour for the food, and it came so slow between the appetizer, entree, and dessert. The food was so bad, all I can taste is salty, I just had 1 bite, didn't wait for the dessert and left. This is my first time in Cuba, and do not have high expectation for the food, but kind of surprised to receive this lousy service, tips cannot motivate them. Basically everyone we met no one is satisfied with this resort. We will not return to this resort ever again. They offered free drinks at the beach, and the beach was gorgeous, that's the only think I like about Cuba.

Avoid. Horribly managed

Terribly run, which exacerbates the problems innate to Cuba. They supposedly run out of food all the time but in reality are too lazy to resupply from the kitchen/storage. Staff dont care about guests, entertainment staff were rude. Room broke repeatedly. Drinks were good. Beach is excellent. But definitely not worth the experience. It was so stressful that we were thinking of leaving early the first few days

Not a 5 star.

Cuba has few if any 5 star resorts and this one isn't one. Melia Marina Varadeo is 3 star at best. Room was good. Beach was excellent. Staff was competent. Property is unimaginative, mostly concrete with very little shade or natural features such as flowers, coconut trees, shrubs, etc. Unless you're a sun freak don't go here. Resort is based at a huge marina with dozens of catamarans and cabin cruisers going out everyday so it's not surprising that activities for landlubbers were scarce. Go [... read more]ing at end of season is not good since the resources seem to be spent, i.e. food was lacking in variety, taste, and quantity. We will not be returning to this resort or Varadero as we prefer small more natural resorts.

Very Nice Property

We hadn't been back to Cuba in about 12 years because of the food, no improvement here. There were shortages of menu items and even Coke due to covid. The hotel itself was very nice, the rooms were as nice as any we've stayed in (4+ * in DR or Cancun). The beach was less than expected compared to Cayo Santa Maria. The service was pretty good but the hotel was only about 25% filled. The location is interesting with an empty marina and condos surrounding the property. Other issues WIFI not g [... read more]reat, we had no hot water for 3 days, it rained heavily 3 straight nights and there was a smell of sewage from the marina and swim up bar. We had a clogged drain in our room but it was attended to immediately. Beyond that better beer and rum than DR or Mexico. Basically was all we were expecting from post covid Cuba.

Not as per expectation

Varadero is a good place and we expected a lot from the hotel as it was our first trip to Cuba, but we got both sweet and sour taste. Talking about the resort ,its a good resort located on the other side of the beach with a walking distance of 100-200 metres, with full on bar service. If you are an alcohol lover you are truly going to like the tastes of cocktails specially pina colada, the swimming area is good and well maintained, 24 hours snack bar is a good place to hangout. The resort has a  [... read more]24hours bar to chill with some authentic dance performances on few days. But the food of the resort is horrible.We stayed for a week and it was the same food all the days with just few add-ons/changes. The rooms didn't have sound proof glasses and we could hear all the noise inside the room. The inbuilt AC and the mini bar fridge created a lot of sound which was very annoying at night. Overall staff was cooperative but the food was a thing which led us down.

Pleasant Melia Marina

- Free WiFi did NOT work - toilet paper not delivered to room when requested - key card locked me out of room on second last day. - towel rack fell off wall - out of most foods - food has improved over previous 3 years. - beautiful view, pleasant pool, and steps to gorgeous beach - grossly overpriced!! @ almost $2000 - was rushed over the telephone by tripcentral agent stating his wife wanted to go shopping!!