Sol Rio de Luna y Mares: Nice resort - great beach

I knew before going on the trip that the rooms would be dated and they are - hopefully they'll renovate soon and the hotel would look great. If I went to this resort again I would ask to be in the Luna part of the complex. I was in the Mares part on the 2nd flr. (origionally they gave me a room on the 1st flr but I didn't like it and they were very accommodating and switched me to the 2nd flr. My room was near an elevator so I heard noise from the service carts early in the morning. We didn't [... read more] have warm water for 1 1/2 days. I wish they had designated smoking and non smoking rooms or not allow smoking in rooms at all. The new people that moved next to my room were smokers and I smelled the smoke in my room. I found that there was a lot of variety of food at the buffet restaurant but they didn't change it up enough, so by the middle of my stay I was getting tired of the choices. The beach is beautiful, lots of room for chairs, and there are trees and palm umbrellas so you could always find a shady spot. One thing that made me mad was the internet card I purchased with the intention of going to a computer to check my email. The 2 computers that they had were located outside the Italian restaurant and one day were covered in dust. I was told that I had to enter the two numbers on the card. After trying several times I wasn't able to log on. I asked a few times for someone to help but the people who were selling the cards didn't know much. One day I went to Customer service and she said she would send a computer engineer to meet me at 3pm that day. I went there but nobody showed up. I happened to see another couple who were using the computer and they had told me how to log on. I don't know why they don't locate these computers closer to the lobby and print clear instructions how to log on in ENGLISH the universal language so it's not so frustrating for people. Otherwise the staff are friendly and helpful.

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Beautiful beach!

This resort is being slowly renovated so at this time it is more of a 4 star resort. Our room was updated so the bathroom was quite new but the door is made of sliding glass so it is a problem for those needing to go during the night. The shower was awesome as it had not only a hand held but also a rain shower head. We also had a balcony which is quite handy for hanging towels and bathing suits. The beach is very long but not very wide but has a lot of palapas for shade and lounge chairs. It [... read more] is very quiet meaning no boat traffic that we have had at other resorts. There is a great kids/teenager club who keep them busy and they even put on a show for the parents. They were very entertaining even for people without kids. They also offer workouts at the beach and poolside and dance lessons to everyone who wants to join them. The food was quite surprising as there was lots of good meat, an unending supply of fresh fish, vegetables, cheese, fruit and other desserts. We went to all of the a la carte restaurants and they were all excellent - we even went back to a few. Our favourites were the "Bistro" and "Italien". All restaurants offered red, white and rose wine which to my great surprise were quite good but you can also purchase wine from a wine list. The buffet that is conveniently located right near the beach was good but can be repetitive for food choices but that is to be expected since it is smaller than the large one located further away at the reception area. The grounds are quite beautiful and they are constantly working on improving them. Overall this is a great resort and we really enjoyed our time there.

Melia Marina Varadero: Good Resort.

We found that even though the resort was not very old, that it was starting to show some wear and tear. It was clean and the rooms were decent but the beds and pillows were very hard. The entertainment nightly was excellent on every level-something different every night-the best I've seen at an all inclusive ever! The staff were pleasant but there was a huge communication gap as hardly any of them spoke any English. The food was good (not great as expected) and we had brought our own seasonings  [... read more]and hotsauce, etc. Unfortunately, they would run out of certain good foods early in the day or evening. The pictures in the advertisement on Sunwing/Trip Central do not reflect the actuality of the exterior of the hotel grounds. All in all, we had a very pleasant and relaxing holiday in Cuba at this resort.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Exceeded Expectations

I had lowered my expectations beforehand and the hotel exceeded them, especially with the food and room. Overall, good bang for buck. The Good Beach - great clear water when not windy; soft sand; some good snorkeling close to shore; lots of starfish, sand dollars, etc. Great for long walks on either side of the resort. Food - I had lowered my expectations considering that it's Cuba, but the food was really good, surprisingly. Ropa vieja, jamon serrano, manchego - tonnes of good st [... read more]uff like this. Was never hungry. Lots of imported food from Spain. Kids loved the ice cream bar (when it was open...) Rooms - Rooms were large and clean; good water pressure Bad Grounds - poorly maintained, ugly landscaping, lots of tripping hazards. Not up to the standards of a 4 or 5 star in the rest of the Caribbean. Service - long lines at times, a la carte waits were unnecessarily long; service at the buffet by the beach was sub-par - the wait staff had a lot of attitude.. Overall, most of the staff didn't have a good service mentality. Wait times could easily be remedied by adding more staff... they were severely understaffed for a resort of this size. Hours - stupid schedules for certain services e.g. one beach bar would close at 3pm, resulting in huge lines at the other beach bar. Not enough palapas - had to wake up at 6am to reserve beach chair, otherwise you'd have no shade or be in a palapa way down the beach. This could easily be remedied by having another beach bar, as they have the space... Beds - cheap and uncomfortable. Flight - I wouldn't go Air Cubana again - plane was dirty and on takeoff one of the 3 bathrooms already didn't work. By the end of the flight, none of them worked. Pool - was absolutely disgusting. There were no chemicals in the pool for most of our time there and there was lots of material floating in the water.. For 2 of the days, you couldn't even see the bottom of the pool, which isn't very deep...

Melia Jardines del Rey: Great Staff

This resort was well maintained for the size of it but unfortunately there was limited food at the buffet and lines ups for everything . The staff were amazing on the resort which made the vacation . Wifi cards were available but many times you could not log out so your card would run out even if you only used it for 10 mins. The beach was beautiful with plenty of chairs for lounging the staff would bring the lounger to your spot , dust it off for you . The pool area was well mainta [... read more]ined and the staff very friendly.

Melia Marina Varadero: Amazing and wonderful place

Very good place for families vocation. The variety of warm foods should be more but the quality was perfect. Fruits were good and also many kinds of salads and icecream and sweets were available. Also gulf cars were available all times with poliet drivers. Room services also were very good. I will visit this resort again.

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Great resort

The resort was great. As an adults only resort it seemed to cater mainly to the older crowd, music activities etc. Pretty quiet if you are just looking for somewhere to go and really relax then this is the place for you.

Melia Las Americas: Great resort

Nice bright lobby, our suite was very spacious and in a quiet part of the resort. The staff was helpful and Roberto on the entertainment team was awesome! Best meal was at the snack bar, Jolie is the best chef and never let us down with what ever we ordered! Can't wait to go back.

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Good vacation

The hotel grounds are very attractive with a nice beach area. Our room was clean with a balcony overlooking palm trees and was a good size. The bathroom was in need of some maintenance the shower head was insecure and there was a broken stopper in the sink. The buffet restaurant didn't have a lot of variety and occasionally ran out of some items.Staff was friendly and tried to be helpful . We had some good day trips and saw a lot of historic sites and Cuban culture. Over all we had a good ho [... read more]liday.

Paradisus Rio De Oro: An amazing resort

This was the best all inclusive that we have ever been at in 10 years. The food was great, including the desserts. We had an ocean view room, which was wonderful. The staff at the resort were very friendly and always smiling.

Melia Cayo Santa Maria: Great Resort!

This was our third visit to this resort in three years, the last two times during our anniversary. We noticed that there have been some renovations to the lobby area and looks very bright and inviting to relax and listen to music and enjoy your favourite beverage. You can get great cappuccinos here. We enjoyed the dining room for most of our meals. The staff there are so friendly and helpful. Several of the staff both by the pool and in the restaurants remembered us from our previous visits a [... read more]nd we were happy to see them again. We had no issues with hot water or anything else in our room. Our maid did a great job keeping our room tidy. The only issue we had at all were bites received on our arms and legs which after doing some research looked to be bites from bed bugs. It would be good for the resort to check into this and if this is the case, do whatever is necessary to remove this problem. Other than this small issue we had a great time at the resort.

Paradisus Rio De Oro: Great Resort

The hotel experience was good. We had a lovely cabin style room with an incredible ocean view. However, we had to upgrade to this option for an additional $700 dollars. The original room with a garden view was dark and not very nice. The best part about the hotel was the spa. The staff was kind, helpful, and went completely out of their way to make you feel pampered and taken care off. The buffett and all the restaurants had decent enough food except the Japanese restaurant. If you di [... read more]d not get seated in front of the cooking station (which we did not) the service was incredibly slow, and the food was really quite awful. All in all, the hotel is very laid back, the atmosphere is mostly quiet and we had a very relaxing time.

Melia Cayo Santa Maria: Great resort

Pros: - Nice grounds - decent food - amazing beach - nice rooms - good shows - very friendly staff - junior suite is very roomy - short walk to any place in the resort - artists in the lobby every night - if you have any problem in your room - you get assistance very fast Cons to consider: - long drive - 1.5 hours at the night and 2 hours during the day time. - waiting line to enter the buffet in the morning if you come around 9 am or later - no self-serve snack bar (only full serv [... read more]ice) - if you want chop sticks at the Japanese restaurant - bring it with you :-) - ask about size of entrees - nobody warned us at the Italian restaurant that the pizza as entree was full size (!!!) and not the slice! - people are taking lounge chairs at the pool and the beach even though did not appear for half-day. We were lucky to always find chairs at the beach though - old style a/c in the room - the cold stream can't be directed away from your bed. May be it is nice in the July, but in April we just turned off the a\c while being in the room

Melia Jardines del Rey: Great experience!

Great experience. Staff were friendly. Beaches were great. Nightlife was excellent. I have no complaints. I can't wait to return. Bombino (Animacion on the beach) was fantastic. Very helpful. We enjoyed spending time with him and learning about Cuba. Thank you.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Enjoyable stay!

This was my second time to this fabulous resort Melia Jardines del Rey. I was impressed by the extended beach and care of the staff for all of its guests. This time the amount of guests had more than doubled leaving the staff overworked and some of the lineups quite long. The care of the ground and guests is exceptional. Unfortunately, customer service in the main lobby does need some attention. They were the only staff that were not pleasant or accommodating during our staff. Big call out of [... read more] many thanks to Yakira, Yuniel, Danni, Yandry, Joel, Alberto, some of our favourite staff! Hoping to return to Melia but my husband would hope to either have more staff available or less guests at one time to limit lines. Excellent resort- so appreciate the staff.

Memories Cayo Largo: Adequate

The plane was good but it was old and dirty. We did however get a small meal. Staff was good. Hotel was good. Food was adequate. Rooms were good. Went to an ala carte and was very good. The areas on and around the resort were very nice and clean. Beach was nice but could not go into the ocean as it was very very wavy (we were told it is always like this). Rented a quad to go to other 2 beaches (Parieso and Serenis) that were just beautiful and went into the ocean there. We had to call [... read more] front desk everyday to tell them that we had no water to wash/shower. They always told us that they were working on it. Overall we had a good, relaxing vacation and the view from our room was fantastic (3024).

Melia Cayo Coco: Nice place, greate staff

Very nice place perfectly suited at the Cayo Coco beach and split between ocean and lagoon. Good for all ages, couples and group of friends. The management keeps the resort and its staff is perfect in each and every way (mainly thanks to the general manager). However, some improvements might better to do now before it will be too late (I will talk about it later). We stayed from March 30 through April 13 at the beautiful lagoon Grand Suite #1411 close to all amenities, yet totally quite. We lik [... read more]ed it as perfectly fit to all our needs and generally exceeded our expectations. The lagoon bungalows were clean and we used each sqf of its layout wisely planed. We enjoyed from private built-in fully screened gazebo with very comfortable loungers. We had even a private railed walk way along the bungalow to observe the lagoon (and where we had a place even to dry our swimming stuff). The waters in the lagoon are salted and there are no mosquitoes or any other “nice pets”. The GS has two powerful and quite AC units and we barely run one that made the bungalow comfortable even at the most hat days. Women will definitely enjoy from the new updated shower set and bidet. Fridge was re-filled twice a day with beer, soft drinks and water. Lagoon Grand Suite is good for family vacation and party time of group of friends. Resort is small but it was never crowded at the public areas. However, if you want to reserve a good place around the pool, you better will be there earlier (well before 7 am). Guests of the bungalows also will enjoy from an extended check-out time (which was very convenient and we appreciated it very much – special thanks for sales manager Gyppsi!). The lagoon homes also have 2 TV, DVD and home theater set and better internet signal. Grounds are simple and well kept. Shows were absolutely stunning, well organized and generally lasted for ~1.5 hr up to 11 pm. After this time the resort was mainly quite (large portion of all gusts are 40+). However, civilized night life of the resort continued through the night at bars and lobby with great selection of local and imported drinks. Different fruit juices were prepared from fresh fruits at the buffet right in front of you. You could make any mix you want! Food was very good with large choice of vegetarians and meat-fish eaters. The big guy at the egg-stay did amazing job appreciated by everyone who tried his omelets! The guy at the fish grill also did a great job satisfying individual test of each guest! Many thanks to all staff! We enjoyed from swimming with dolphins and snorkeling at the reef and ride on the boat with glass bottom. Beach, sand and waters are marvelous (if you lucky with the weather!). Well, we were not that lucky and at 8 days from 15 we had windy weather with rough-to-very rough waters. Some improvements maybe required to keep environmentally sensitive waters of the lagoon at better shape. It seems to be some problems with sewage-septic system at the lagoon homes. Also the pool is rather small and especially at colder days when the majority of people trying to gather around the pool. Otherwise, everything is just great. Cube is getting better and becoming more expensive (which was expectable as more and more Americans started to come over), but we definitely will be back.

Paradisus Rio De Oro: Absolutely Amazing time

All the rooms are now refurbished and it shows. Pool area is large and clean with plentiful chairs, cabanas and a few big umbrellas. The beach is deep enough for lots of thatched beach umbrellas (palapas?) and breezy enough for sun bathing. Chairs at the beach and pool were still available after 10:00 a.m. every morning since it's an older, more mature crowd that isn't into rushing everything. The food is the best we've had at a Cuban resort. Remember, this is Holguin, it's in the heart  [... read more]of Cuban agricultural country not the touristy Varadero so the few resorts here can get a fresher and larger variety of food and Paradisus Rio De Oro gets first pick since it's rated the best resort in Holguin. Also, GREAT music throughout the week in the lobby although the shows at night were typically cuba-tacky. And the animation staff were a lot more active and fun to be with than in the Varadero resorts we've been to. This is the first resort out of all of those we have stayed at in Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic that we have agreed to go back to.

Paradisus Rio De Oro: Excellent time

The room was very clean and nicely decorated. Our room was cleaned each day and the maid always left us with a small towel decoration which was very thoughtful. The property is beautiful and is well maintained. The food was good and especially the A La Carte restaurants. Unfortunately for the regular "everyday" buffet men had to wear long pants at supper time which did not make a whole lot of sense and was a huge inconvenience. I mentioned this to the Air Transat Representative and she said she  [... read more]would pass along my concern. Beach was very nice...a little rocky to my taste but still a beautiful area to walk along and to see the sights! We unfortunately had a very LARGE cockroach in our bathroom one evening. We got rid of it but I have to admit I have never seen one this large. We advised and we were told that they would spray the building

Melia Jardines del Rey: Very nice!

The hotel is large with many services, lots of pools, great food. The only downside was the water contamination. Would have been great to know this in advance but the hotel did everything to ensure that we had enough bottled water on hand.