Aston Costa Verde Beach Resort: beautiful Solo getaway

I went on this trip Solo, and had a great time and met great people. Beautiful people (as always in Cuba). Cuba, regardless of the region, is always a delight to visit. If you are looking for tranquil time and/or good laughs with fresh faces, this country is the place to be. This was the first time at this resort and I would revisit. As I was Solo, the security on this resort surpassed my expectations. Taking walks in the evenings were very pleasurable and relaxing.

Muthu Colonial Hotel: Wonderful Resort

This is our second stay at the Hotel Colonial and we have had great experoences both time. The Hotel is clean the food is good and the grounds are kept immaculate. The employees are the best at this resort.

Aston Costa Verde Beach Resort: great staff, great layout

we really enjoyed our week long stay at Blau Costa Verde, the layout was such that most amenities were close by. we loved the piano bar, the little impromptu entertainment sessions, the staff who were walking around looking how to help us, the staff could not do enough for us and grounds were such that it was a pleasure to just walk around and look at the scenery. i would rate the service a 5 star operation. will go back for sure next year.

Punta Peninsula Varadero: Better than expected

My boyfriend and I visited Blau Marina in the last week of November 2015. We stayed for 4 nights, which if we did again, would have stayed for at least a week. The hotel is at the end of the peninsula, so it was less busy and quiet. However, that makes you the last set of persons to be dropped off, or the first set to be picked up to go to the airport or go on excursions. The hotel staff was very friendly and helpful. At the buffet, the wait staff, and chefs at the meat grill made meal times e [... read more]ven more enjoyable. The buffet staff saw to each table, and kept drinks topped up, and dishes cleared. We ate at the buffet for all meals - there was a wide variety and we surprisingly always went back to our table with a rather full plate. The food in the buffet did not keep its heat very well, but other than that we found it tasty and satisfying. Our room was clean when we arrived, and the cleaning staff did an excellent job at maintaining our room. While the room blocks and grounds are not the fanciest to look at, communal areas such as the lobby, bars, beaches, main corridors were well maintained. The hotel was not crowded which we had read from previous reviews - not a lot of hustle and bustle and we were always able to find lounge chairs at the beach and at the poolside, who can find a fault in that :) We didn't go into the pool, but saw that it got cleaned every morning and looked gorgeous (we were more Beach people).

Muthu Colonial Hotel: Awesome two weeks at the Colonial!

It was our tenth trip to Cuba and first to Cayo Coco. After posting several questions on TA’s forums and doing further research, we selected the Hotel Colonial, as it appeared to be quite charming, was close to the beach and offered a variety of upper floor rooms. ARRIVAL Our carrier was Sunwing. When we arrived at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, it turned out the baggage allowance had just been increased from 20 to 23 kg, yet the personnel was quite strict with the carry-on’s 5 kg limit and  [... read more]I had to transfer some of my belongings to the check-in luggage. For the first time my backpack was also weighed and I also had to remove some stuff from it and put it into the suitcase. The plane took off at on November 09, 2015 at 07:40 pm and after 3 hours and 19 minutes we landed at Cayo Coco. During the flight we had complimentary food/beverage choice including pizza, wine and coke. Cuban customs officers questioned Catherine’s supplements which were in hand, but eventually let her keep them. We got on the bus, which dropped off tourists at two other hotels before coming to the Colonial. It was a short, 20 minute ride. We were given room number 1609, on the lower level, despite having emailed the Hotel beforehand requesting a quiet upper level room. Unfortunately, we were told that there were no upper rooms available, but advised to check back in the morning. That very night we had dinner (served until 10:00 pm) and after wandering on the hotel property for a while, we went back to the room. It was a nice room, across from the pool, yet for us it was very important be on an upper floor, so the next day we went to the reception and managed to get another room (number 1836) on the second floor. HOTEL The Colonial was the first hotel built on Cayo Coco and was opened by Fidel Castro on November 12, 1993—during our stay it was celebrating its 22nd anniversary. It used to be called Guitart Cayo Coco, Blau and at one point was part of the adjoining Tryp Hotel. In 1994 and 1995 a Cuban exile group attacked the resort with machine guns, without causing any injuries. As it had been built by the Spanish, the architecture was very pretty, it was very cozy, had a character, atmosphere and style, resembling a small, colonial town. • The reception area was lovely, there was a fountain in the middle—and the reception staff was always friendly and helpful. I got two English issues of “The Granma”, one had an interesting article on the friendly and playful dogs used by Cuban customs officers at airports. • There were a number of swimming pools, including a large salt water pool, yet half of them were under construction/being renovated. • There were plenty of coconut trees on the property and it was possible with private arrangements to have fresh coconuts upon request. • The beach was narrow, but nice and sandy, with plenty of lounge chairs available. The width of the beach kept fluctuating (quite significantly, I must add) due to tides and it almost disappeared during high tides. For about 50 meters the water was very shallow. Much of the main beach was somewhat hand-raked daily for seaweed, yet manmade ocean debris and garbage was ignored which was a head-shaker. • There were several stores (‘tiendas’) across from the lobby building, selling cigars, beverages, beer, rum, souvenirs, clothes, etc. There was also a hairdresser as well as a dental clinic, offering various dental services at competitive prices. • There were plenty of big blue and Halloween crabs everywhere, especially in the morning and late afternoon. It was fun watching them emerge from the holes or even eating something. They were very shy though and scurried into their holes at the slightest sound. • Behind the Plaza buffet restaurant and the El Caribeno Restaurant (which was closed) there was a pond with a live flamingo. It had apparently arrived at the hotel several years ago with an injured wing and had been there since then, regularly fed by hotel employees with raw veggies/bread. The pond also had turtles and fish. • Beach towels were available from the Club House, after obtaining a voucher from the reception; there was a fee of 15 CUC for a lost towel. Supposedly tourists who lose them, steal from other tourists, so it is best to bring cheap towels from home and put them on the beach loungers to reserve them. • We spotted 4 black cats, usually hanging around the back of the main building. I think they were well fed by tourist as they were quite picky! We also some a couple of dogs sniffing around. The hotel’s staff was very friendly. We had several long conversations with Daniel, a travel rep (trained as a lawyer), who told us about many interesting places in Cuba (some of them we had already visited). Señor Prado (first name Andreas, I think), an engineer responsible for the hotel’s telecommunication (phones, television) is certainly the person to talk to if you encounter any problems with your phone or TV! Last, but not least, I would like to thank Viviana from Public Relations, a very charming lady, who was very helpful and always ready to resolve our problems. OUR ROOM # 1836 It was on the second floor, had a balcony with a view of the ocean (we had paid for an ocean view room) and plenty of coconut trees. It was the furthest building from the buffet and a bit of walk on cobblestone surface for those with mobility issues; the Tryp’s property was just several meters from it. The room had nice furnishing, safe (free!), bathtub, bidet, hair dryer, closet, one big, king size bed, small fridge and perfectly working air-conditioning. The HD TV was nice, but there was no English-language channel from Canada. We mainly watched CNN (the other main news channel, CCTV, was Chinese and as I had been able to determine in the past, quite biased and boring). I wish it had had a CBC and/or CTV channel. Although we do not have and do not watch TV back in Canada, we ended up watching the news a lot: it was during our stay, on Friday, November 13th, 2015, when the Paris attack took place. We did not notice any bugs in the room, just an occasional mosquito—quite often we turned off air-conditioning and kept the windows open and just drew the curtains. RESTAURANTS AND FOOD The main restaurant (Plaza) served buffet-style breakfast (from 7:00 to 10:00 am), Lunch (from 1:00 to 2:45 pm) and Dinner (from 6:00 to 10:00 pm). The servers were very polite, fast and efficient. Tables were indoors but supposedly in high season there was patio dining. Breakfast Two egg stations were preparing excellent omelets and fried eggs as well as there was a pancake station. Plenty of yogurt and juice was always available. Really good selection of fruits, vegetables, cooked sausages, meat, eggs, tomatoes, cheese, bread, buns, etc. Coffee was so-so, but at least servers brought the whole pot to the table so we did not have to get up to get a refill. Lunch I only had one lunch, otherwise we skipped it. I had a tasty hamburger with fries, tomatoes and beer. There was also beef and pork made to order. I think that the food was more-less similar to that served for dinner. Dinner We never had any problems with the variety of food. There were various kinds of meat (beef, pork, chicken) and fish, grilled by cooks, as well as shrimps (excellent!), rabbits, several salads, vegetables, desserts, ice cream and many others. One station was preparing ‘made-to-order’ pasta. Passable red wine (and good beer) was also served. Oftentimes bands were playing during dinner, some of them quite nicely, and they were never pushy. The La Placita snack bar, located in front of the La Fontanella, served drinks as well as very good sandwiches (we had tuna and ham sandwiches just before departure) as well as French fries. Several times we had very good Spanish coffee at the Lobby bar. Except for an occasional beer, we did not have any alcoholic drinks at the bars, so I cannot comment on them. We much preferred to purchase juice, coke, rum and liqueurs at the store and later enjoyed them while sitting at our room’s balcony. A’ LA CARTE RESTAURANT We had 5 a ’la carte dinners at the Fontanella Restaurant—which also had the live piano/flute/singing bar—every evening different performers were there. We went to the Italian, Cuban and Caribbean-style dinners, they were excellent! We had a choice of any starters and any main courses, plus a dessert. The presentation was outstanding and so was the service. They were served with Spanish red wine. After dinners we usually spent some time at the piano bar (located in the other part of the Fontanella restaurant). Several times Augusto was our waiter; he was very fast and worked like a ‘workhorse’! Incidentally, we met him during our visit to Morón. In fact, all the servers at that restaurant worked very hard and professionally, we did not have to wait long for the dishes to be served. And of course, kudos to the ‘invisible’ chef and the kitchen staff who did a wonderful job-THANK YOU! How to book the a ‘la carte restaurant: go to the Fontanella a ‘la carte restaurant, between 4:00 and 5:30 pm and make arrangements for which sitting and which menu—3 dinners per week are allowed. ENTERTAINMENT Each evening featured a different show. We only went to the Michael Jackson Tribute which was quite good, yet we found it too loud. Another night a band was playing in the lobby, but again, it was so loud that I just left. That was why I really enjoyed the Piano bar—that was my kind of music! CONCLUSION It was an excellent trip! The hotel was very good, the staff very friendly, pleasant and helpful, the food tasty and abundant. There were several rainy, cloudy and even cool days, but they did not spoil our vacation. We wish we could visit the hotel again in the future!

Aston Costa Verde Beach Resort: Amazing time!!

We really enjoyed our time at this resort...we upgraded to the newer plus side for a reasonable fee. Totatlly worth it! The food, drinks, pools and room were all great. Cuba standards are always assumed to be lower than else where but we found this resort to be very mondern and the staff to be very easy to work with. We went as a family of 4 and found that our upgraded room more than met our needs. We stayed during the third week of December and the weather was fantastic!

Blau Varadero: One of the best resorts in Varadero

Excellent beach area which is cleaned and raked each morning. Lots of huts for shade. Staff will set up and brush sand off loungers for you. Fairly calm waters unless there is a storm passing. We came after a storm, so there were waves the first day, then calm green flag waters the rest of the week. Free catamaran rides. You can pay to go snorkeling. We found 100s of beautiful shells in waist deep water near shore. Rooms clean, but basic. Make sure you shut your balcony door and put your room ca [... read more]rd in the slot near the door to turn the air con on. We put an old Starbucks card in the slot to keep the air on when we were at dinner so the room would be cool for sleeping when we returned. I felt our AC was weak but my sister's room was good. Beds are hard. Food is plentiful. Some stuff delicious, some not to our taste, but we ate well. You can pay for better wine than house if you want. Top notch musicians every night! Classically trained opera singers, violinists, cellists, etc. I have never experienced this level of excellence without paying top prices to attend the opera in Toronto before. It was a nice surprise. A few locals on the beach asked us if we could leave our clothes and toiletries for them when we leave. They never asked for money and insisted on giving us shells to thank us when we did. Service from staff was excellent when tipped or not. Elevators are small and slow when they have to stop at every floor but we were lucky to get the 4th floor so we walked up and down. We went for dinner at 6:30pm so never had to line up during the Christmas break. We ate delicious lobster on Christmas Eve at the buffet. Unusually weak coffee. The currency exchange is brutal. We got 13 CUC for $20 Canadian and 17CUC for $20 US. The hotel was not able to give me 1CUC notes for tipping. They gave me 3CUC notes which add up to a lot of money quickly. Staff obviously accepted Canadian or American notes. High effort from staff. You see management monitoring everything constantly. Ocean view rooms cost extra. We had lots of hot water in the shower. We asked for a light to be fixed in the bathroom but they were unable to for some reason. Returning guests told us this was one of the best resorts they had been to in Varadero and we believe it. They fumigate but I came back with lots of bites, hoping they are sand fleas as opposed to bed bugs, which is probably more common in Toronto than at the Blau. My room mate did not get bitten at all. Lots of entertainment for the kids near the pool-animal shows, dancing, games. Clean and beautiful pool area. Hammocks available in an area between the pool and the beach.

Punta Peninsula Varadero: Very nice

Very nice resort . 2nd time there this year. They have done a 180 degree turnaround for the better since my last visit there in February 2015. Great location and all around good resort wetter your a family or single .

Muthu Colonial Hotel: extraordinary moments

Even though it has an historical style the rooms are fashionable and clean , it is a prime location with adequate sunlight and shade .the beach is breath taking ,the water some days are so warm and comfortable and crystal clear .the staffs are very pleasant and make you feel at home .

Punta Peninsula Varadero: Great Vacation

Just returned from a fantastic vacation. Would definitely recommend this resort. The staff are very friendly and helpful. A special thanks to Midiala & Fernando! Beach is beautiful - rooms clean - plenty available on the buffet & the Italian & Spanish restaurants delicious!!

Muthu Colonial Hotel: Nice to stay

Beautiful view from my room, clean ,beaches are the most beautiful in Cuba. Shows every evening nice to see, I like salt pool the most as I am not very good swimmer in ocean, Everybody can find something to have a good time.

Punta Peninsula Varadero: beautiful setting

The grounds and beaches at this resort are amazing. I upgraded to the exclusive island but was disappointed to have broken AC, broken phone and lots of bugs in the room. I was not moved to a new room for two days and that room had several burnt out lights which were not replaced during the two week stay.

Muthu Colonial Hotel: Great Time!

Check in was fast and efficient. The room had a water pressure issue for a couple of hours one day as they were repairing a pipe but that was the only difficulty. The view from the balcony was amazing! I gained 5 lbs. while away so I would have to say there was lots to eat with friendly servers and preparation staff in the buffet. Since we enjoyed the buffet, we decided we didn't need to hit any of the specialized restaurants. We were disappointed the beach bar was being redone while we were the [... read more]re, but we were told it would be ready before Christmas. The rest of the bars and wait staff were great. Good, efficient service. A great trip!

Punta Peninsula Varadero: Amazing vacation

The hotel was very clean but the rooms smelled a bit musty. The food was quite good, a lot of variety. Staff was very friendly one waitress in particular Cheylin was fantastic.Washrooms in the main part of the hotel were not great, 2 of the 4 stalls were out of order and there was rarely hand soap. The hand dryer was also broken and there were only paper towels sometimes.

Punta Peninsula Varadero: 2nd Stay...Love the Blau Marina!

Friendly staff, beautiful resort, amazing beach, very clean, awesome swimming pools....highly recommended. Food was good.. Easy bus ride into the town of Varadero, and not too far from Havana. Great choice for anyone.

Punta Peninsula Varadero: Gorgeous beach, lovely people.

First time to Cuba and this resort and we will definitely go again. The rooms do have a humid smell that fades over time , but they are clean and comfortable. The food is good if you go to the pasta bar and grilled meat station and the breads are to die for! The pools are beautiful and the entertainment was excellent there is always something going on. Loved it!

Punta Peninsula Varadero: Discussing food!!!

The experience started bad with a front desk attendant that gave us the furthest building despite a request to be ground floor and close to the main building. After seeing how far away and discovering only maybe 50% occupancy we managed to get a closer room. Rooms typical Cuba, little run down and in need of repairs. Not the end of the world because we only really sleep in room. The rest of the resort about the same but bearable. The real problem is with the food! We had lunch, dinner and breakf [... read more]ast the following day and all three were DISCUSTING. I have never seen such poor quality and poor variety. For lunch and dinner the fish they had smelled and tasted fishy! This means it's starting to rot. Not what you expect in the Caribbean. We meet a couple who had been many times in the past and they said the same. They said it use to be good, obviously something has changed to effect the quality being served up as food. My advise is to go elsewhere, this resort should be downgraded to a two star at the best! After less than 24hrs on site we had to pay extra to get transferred to a real resort with fantastic food! I highly recommend the Melia Las America.

Aston Costa Verde Beach Resort: Great staff fun atmosphere!

The resort needed upgrading and redecorating for sure, but the staff was amazing. although the decor was tired looking, it was clean. There was lots to do and the beach and pools were awesome. Food was bland as is usually the case in Cuba.

Punta Peninsula Varadero: nice beach and staff

resort was tired, but ok in main areas...food was soso as expected for cuba, we found bar service was great with tips but was really understaffed as was the front desk..took us an hour to check in with only 1 staff working..which was disapointing especially after our west jet had experianced problems and had to turn around to go back to toronto when we where only 30 mins away from landing arrival in cuba , change to new plane and then retun to cuba..lol we could have been in europe for the amoun [... read more]t of flight time we had...no towels in rooms and so very hard to get some ..even after tipping chambermaid nicely...pools were nice and the coffee AWSOME in hte lobby bar as well as the bar staff were fabulous even tho they were understaffed they really tried to keep up!...beautiful marina on other side.and veiw from our room..lol no boats yet but lovely. we were close to the beach and loved how they pulled a chair to where you wanted it.for the time you were there.....stopped any one from saving chairs unnessarily if they wernt there...nice experiance that was!..but not so nice was the sand fleas..probaly time of year..[nov]...

Blau Varadero: Lovely resort

This hotel will most of your needs. The food selection is excellent by Cuba standards, lots of variety and something for everyone. They even have a smoothie station where someone will blend up a smoothie with the fruit you have selected. The coffee in the food court is not very good but thankfully there is a barista at poolside bar who will whip you up a great latte or cappuccino. I didn't participate in the poolside activities but there were certainly a lot listed to keep all members of your fa [... read more]mily busy. There is a decent tennis court too. Our rooms were very clean with working air conditioning. They were also very quiet. We had a huge bed that could easily have slept 3 adults! My friends had a double with 2 double beds. The staff were very polite and very helpful.