Resort was lovely but

Well I will start with nice room, beach, food pretty good staff were nice but overworked. Shortage of towels in room I pretty much had to pay to get a washcloth or fresh towels. resort washroom never had any toilet paper you always had to look before entering .was not impressed with the shows except the 70's one, never a bar tender to serve you had to wait in long lines for drinks. Needed more dancing music around the pool rather boring atmosphere. shortage of staff I found they just pretended t [... read more]o not understand because they didn't have time to help.

Excellent Value For The Money

Arrived Feb 26th for a week staying in building 11 top floor with partial ocean view as requested 20 minutes from the airport. Checked in at 10:30 a.m. and brought suits/towels/sunblock in our carry on. Room wasn't ready until 3 p.m. [no biggie] so we checked our bags and off to the pool we went. Beach/pool had lots of loungers BUT if you wanted a preferred/shaded area be at the beach before 7 a.m. and the pool before 7 a.m. Spent one day at the pool which is super convenient to everything, the  [... read more]rest of the week at the beach. Beach was beautiful with lots of sites/sounds and really enjoyed snorkeling at the reef just off the shore. Lots of couples/families/seniors with fewer of the college crowd. Room was well appointed with nice shower, air, cable tv and fridge with a 2 litre bottle of water [keep your empty and fill at the lobby bar]. Food was the best we've had in Cuba which was good by our standards and we stay at 5 stars in Vegas. Never did any a la carte as we don't like being scheduled and heard the buffet was as good as any. Did like the beach restaurant for lunch. BBQ pork, chicken & fish, salad bar on a balcony with wine & beer. Beach snack bar was good for fish [yum], hot dogs [good] and burgers [ok]. Buffet always had something but beef was always tough and the bacon undercooked [so we brought a plate to the omelet guy and he cooked it some more for us]. Buffet opens at 6 for dinner and is a zoo between 7-8 BTW. Wine beer with meals bring packets of ketchup/vinegar available at fast food places if you want. Pool 24 hr. snack bar had fries [yum] poutine, dogs, burgers, pizza & sandwiches with a full bar overlooking the pool. Lobby bar great in the evening for coffee and entertainment and we usually were in our room by 9-10 and ready for breakfast at 7 in the morning. Generally spent 10 pesos a day on tips. One for the room and brought some stuff for her as well. Sailing [free] and beach/pool chair guys as well as restaurants all one. Bar guys 1-4 a day. Hardly any bugs but did manage to get bit at dawn getting chairs. Recommend the vip room departure at the airport 25 pesos..nice if you're lazy [we are]. So, very relaxing low key stay. What would we do different? Water shoes for the beach and maybe building 10 ground floor. Closer but still quiet and those top floor hikes at the end of the day/night are a killer. Hope this helps we will be returning!!

Pestana

Service in the buffet is bad. Staff over worked, not enough of them. Food not replaced when done. Great beach, always enough chairs! Overall appearance of the hotel is good. 20 minutes from the airport.

Okay vacation

Hotel lobby well kept, room was good, well-cleaned. Beds were very hard. Food was okay. Buffet food could have been warmer. Some selections ran out early in the evening and were not restocked. Drink selection okay. Small glasses. Very friendly staff.

Exceeded my expectations!

The photographs on the website don't do this hotel justice. Beautiful resort as well as clean, new, modern and well maintained. We always managed to get a great spot at the pool and got great service at the swim up bar. Our room was spacious and well kept by friendly staff. Our maid left beautiful designs on our bed everyday, made of towels and flowers....very creative! The beach was breathtaking with its beautiful blue water and lovely sand that you could walk for miles. It was a little windy a [... read more]t times but the cool breeze was nice on a hot day. Had a relaxing massage on the beach, with the waves and tropical music playing in the background. The nightly entertainment was very impressive and all the entertainers had star quality. Overall terrific experience and our tripcentral rep helped us stay within our budget!

We had a blast!

We would recommend this resort. It is a good value vacation. We enjoyed the warm temperatures, the beach, our guided catamaran snorkelling adventure and a personal massage on the beach. The drinks were plentiful, the staff personable and helpful. Our rooms were great, very comfortable , the air conditioner efficient, lots of hot water. The resort was very clean. The food was fair, but we never went hungry. We enjoyed the Cuban and Portuguese restaurants. We wish we were still there!

Nice resort

Good food, friendly stuff, nice big lobby to entertain, big and clean rooms, cozy resort, not too big and not too small. Well kept grounds. Music a bit too loud during the shows, but good performance.

Excellent Value

The hotel is new and very clean/modern. General layout of the property is good, walkways everywhere needed. Food was the best I have had in the past 3 trips to Cuba, great veriety and selection. Waiters and bar staff were the best I have ever seen in Cuba. The beach was incredible and lots of chairs even when busy. The front desk staff were at a min. helpful, always seemed to have something else better to do than assist with guests needs. Prpoerty is some what isolated and there are not a lot of [... read more] off resort adventures available with out paying. Overall an excellent value for your dollar.

Was great...until I was bitten

This was a really nice hotel. I liked the theatre a lot - great shows...the lobby bar areas were quite nice and an evening gathering place. The room was good - some issues, but nothing to raise a fuss over. Linens were a bit sparse and I should have remembered to take my own facecloths. The pool is great and once you figure out how to get a chair (most are 'saved' selfishly by people who are off to the beach or somewhere else for hours), there's no problem. However. There were biting ants in the [... read more] room, in the beds. I had sprayed the sheets with bug spray just in case and found a dead ant one night. I had a few bites, then on the second last night, I got a bad bite on the side of my foot, causing pain, swelling and limping. The last day, I went to the health care site at the hotel. The person there spoke very little English (and I know..it's a foreign country but when the hotel's staff including wait staff, cooks etc all speak a fair bit of English, it really would be great if the health rep spoke English as well). Anyway, when I finally got through to her what had happened, she said to 'rest'. I said I couldn't since I was travelling home that day. She recommended Ibuprofen - when I said I had none and thought she would have one or two to give me, she brought out a bottle for me and I'm thinking, how generous, this is great. Then she wanted 12+pesos for it, which converted to about $18 Canadian! For a bottle of Ibuprofen! For something caused in the hotel, no less! I was less than impressed and didn't pay and she just left. So that was quite a negative with the hotel overall. As for Canjet - great trip!

Great value

Great staff, great beach. very enjoyable. chairs in the loby and bars were not very comfortable on my back. Lots of chairs available at the beach, terrific weather. Too bad there were only 7 different shows and we were there for 14 days.

Third time's a charm!

Great for little kids! Close to airport. Short flight. Canjet flight serves food and 1 alcoholic drink free! Great people! Food is bland, but at least you don't have to cook! Beach is amazing! Best beach compared to Memories and Melia Jardins which are on either side of Pestana! We Love Pinky, Mary, Dani, Danelis, Daniel, and Saily! We had another great family vacation! Thanks and see you again next year!

Amazing Resort with excellent staff!

We were very impressed with everything at this resort. The staff were great, the food was excellent, rooms were very nice and the beach was beautiful for swimming and for long walks. The ride from the airport is around 20 minutes so that was very good. This is a place where we would definitely love to go back to. We were there for 2 weeks and neither of us was ready to leave!!

Amazing resort

I just returned from the Pestana Cayo Coco, I traveled with 5 girls the first week of February. We had an amazing time; the staff was excellent and friendly. The resort was beautiful and well maintained and the food was amazing. I would recommend the Pestana Burger, seemed to be a favorite with everyone. There is no Disco however they make up for it every night by bringing in a DJ and big screen TV to play video’s into the lobby and get the party going there. I would surely return

Awesome resort

Our room had a king bed, modern and clean. The grounds are kept very well. The food was to our surprise great. All the staff very helpful and we never waited for anything. The pool is quite large no worries about bumping into someone but the best part of this resort is the beach. Unbelievable .....we spent the whole time on the beach. This resort is a little gem its small so everything is 2 minutes away. It's modern, clean, staff very attentive and helpful and good food. What more could you ask  [... read more]for. This is our 6th trip to Cuba and we would definitely go back to the Pestana.

Great vacation!

The resort is beautiful, very modern. The beach is fabulous! Unfortunately I found it was cold while I was there so I didn't do any swimming or snorkeling as planned. Lot's of area to walk for long periods which was great. The food was okay but you don't go to Cuba for the food, right? Myself and the people I was with always found found and had no worries about going hungry. The service was good but they need to be much more generous with the bottled water in the rooms. Another good thing would  [... read more]be to provide maps as to where the buildings are when your checking in. Both myself and my father (we came in on different days) got lost trying to find the right buildings. Lighting up the signs with the building numbers would be a big help too! Overall I had a great time and wouldn't hesitate to return other than the fact that I'd like to try a different island than Cuba (that was my 3rd trip to Cuba).

Nice resort. Spotlessly clean room,lovely grounds

Staff was very friendly.each was beautiful. Kind of typical Cuba food, but one does not go to Cuba for the foode. I still managed to gain weight while there! One thing I would like to see changed is for them to stop playing that LOUD thumping music all the time, and stick to more Cuban music, or something that could generally appeal to many; not just YOUNG people.

One of the best in Cayo Coco

I have visited and stayed at many places in Cayo Coco. Pestana Cayo Coco is one of the best.resorts I have stayed. Keep in mind that January can be a bit cool because Cayo Coco is on the northern side of Cuba. The check in was probably the worse part of the experience. It took over 4 hours to get a room. After that, all was wonderful. The room was great with HOT water and was kept clean. The lobby was always being cleaned. Very few line ups for food or drinks. A bit crowded by the pool because t [... read more]he beach was very cool and rough..A few days the weather was better and most people went to the beach. Great! Like all resorts there are a few problems but for the most part it was EXCELLENT.. If going to Cuba for the first time. Check out NOTHING under a 4*, it is worth the extra money.

Relaxing vacation

this resort is good for those who don't have problems with walking or doing a little hill climb. We found it clean and relaxing. It seemed to us that they didn't have enough staff at times. The restraunts are nice and all in one area which is good. Our room was ok we did have problems with the door handle falling off a couple of times and it did concern us as we were on a ground floor. At the begining of our stay things were good with our room but a couple of days before we left we weren't getti [... read more]ng clean towels garbage was left and we did notice that the bathroom sink wasn't cleaned one day, we don't like to be picky a vacation is what you make it. We totally enjoyed ourselves.Food was ok. When arriving they should take you to your building as at night it's very difficult to find your way around. It's very dark. The staff work very hard and we just felt they need more. There is no where to go for a walk really except for around the resort. The beach on one side is wonderful on the other side of the walk way it is rocky. We feel if you are older and have need for a walker or wheelchair or just have problems with your legs or back this is not the place. Great family resort I believe the children seemed to be having fun but then again there is the challenge of the small hills from the rooms with a stroller. All in all we don't complain about every little thing which you may find wrong but we went to relax and relax is what we did.

Best Yet

Traveled the Carbi for years. This is our 3rd trip to Cuba & by for the best resort for the $. Staff where the most friendly. New resort, clean, normal food, # 1 beach on our strip. 20 min from airport.

Nice stay at the Pestana

At night, this is such a beautiful & romantic resort with lovely little cobblestone pathways meandering throughout & lit up with quaint, romantic lanterns; lovely just to stroll about. However, the lanterns were burned out for a good 2 days while we were there, leaving us walking the pathways in pitch darkness. Very clean resort. True that toilet paper is missing from public washrooms about half the time. Always have a roll with you. It is also true that despite this being such a new resort, the [... read more]re is already noticeable disrepair throughout. Great new tennis court! And nice (small) gym, with brand new equipment. Two staff worthy of mention: Annelys at Customer Service - so sweet & friendly! And Yusimi, who keeps those lobby floors spotless all day long - always smiling & friendly! ROOMS: Rooms always well cleaned every day. Chamber maids leave cool animals with the blankets & towels. Lots of hot water, but be very careful stepping in & out of the shower – many injuries with this. Watch for the wet floor, because the shower curtains don’t cover the entire length of the bathtub & the floor gets wet. We & many others ended up moving from Bldg 1, which is too close to the lobby & the loud, thumping music til the wee hours of the night - impossible to sleep, even with ear plugs. Music in the lobby is fine – buy why so loud? What makes them think that the guests even want this? So, just avoid Bldg 1 altogether. FOOD: The buffet was totally fine, except that the food was mostly barely lukewarm. If you want piping hot food, you have to go to one of the station (omelette, pasta, fish or meat). The fish station has delicious white fish that tastes like butter & almost melts in your mouth. For shrimp lovers, you’ll be on heaven at the fish station. However, seeing as the “stations” usually had at least a little lineup, I made do at the buffet, which had a very good variety of (lukewarm) food. Try the flambéed bananas. Delicious ice cream (especially the coconut). And yummy pastries at all 3 meals. God soup too. The wait staff is run off their feet. We made a nice connection with the head waiter (name escapes me), but most staff is just scrambling to stay on top of their work with not much time for chit chat. Salt & pepper shakers were regularly empty. And the salt was jammed up due to the humidity. Myself & others took to removing the plug at the bottom of the shaker & removing the salt this way. Also, it wasn’t unusual to end up with 3 – 5 shakers at our table, til we found a salt and pepper that wasn’t empty. The 24 hour snack bar has a “Pestana” sandwich, which is amazing & everyone loved it. Great fries too! The 3 à la carte restaurants were beautifully decorated & we loved them all. Highlight was the rigatoni with spinach, olives & shrimp at the Italian restaurant. So good! Everyone loves the waitress Saila at the Cuban restaurant. She’s a sweetie! All 3 restaurants had very good food. DRINKS: Great rum based drinks with good tasty Cuban rum. Drinks seem less watered down than in Mexico. Bartenders will quickly & expertly whip up any drink you want. Beer was excellent. Red wine is very good. White was awful though - couldn't even drink a sip. Bartenders & waiters while friendly enough, appear to be more focused on doing their jobs & being competent rather than being super friendly. They don't seem to be looking for opportunities to make warm connections with guests, but rather are more focused on just doing their jobs. A little different than in Mexico. Great cappuccinos & Irish coffees. POOL: Warm, clean, huge pool with swim up bar. Go hang out here if you want to socialize & meet people. Guests are super friendly! Lots of French (but often bilingual) guests from Québec, and from throughout Canada from BC to the Maritimes. Some Europeans too. At night, the pool is beautifully lit up with different coloured lights for a gorgeous effect. BEACH: Absolutely fantastic! You can do some light snorkeling right there. Water is so calm, you can easily swim “laps”. Plenty of comfy beach chairs for all. First resort I've been to that has enough chairs for everybody. Got some bug bites from the knees on down. While I never felt or saw any bugs, I suspect they were sand flea bites. Some guests were visibly terribly bitten Loud “house/techno” music at the beach all day long. Ughhh. I don’t know why they play this awful music, as no one seems to like it. I’d prefer just pure quiet at the beach, or at least some lower volume Cuban music. LOBBY: Everyone congregates in the lobby in the evening for drinks, to access the net, play cards, socialize & listen to the amazing entertainment. Entertainment is in the lobby before the shows & sometimes after as well. A variety of pianists, flutist, an amazing singer with the most beautiful Elvis voice doing Elvis songs (& others), quartet singers, kareoke & more. Chairs in the lobby are very dirty & very stained. STAFF: Apart from the front desk staff, most other staff have very limited English. Even the Doctor(s). Brush up on some Spanish! The staff work so hard. They are wiped out. I think a lot of them are students from the “tourist school” in town doing their unpaid internship. They work long, long hours & work 6 days/week. They also travel between 2 – 4 hrs every day to get to these resorts & back home. While I didn’t find them as friendly, relaxed & happy as the staff at Mexican resorts, I think it’s because they’re so overworked here. I feel very badly for them & wish their work conditions could be better. SHOWS: Shows are amazing with very talented & amazing dancers, of which many appear to be ballet/classically trained. Fantastic costumes too! I think I would go back to this resort, mostly for the unbeatable beach. Simply amazing! While there is certainly room for improvement, especially for such a new resort, it's really not that bad. My biggest issue is that they are too short staffed & the staff seem way too overworked.