Playa Cayo Santa Maria: [not Playa] Hotel Cayo Santa Maria

To validate my comments, I am a mature, omnivorous world traveller and have NEVER had ANY gastro issues on any of my travels. Almost all other travellers we spoke with also had gastro issues within the first 48 hours. 1. Wrong Hotel: The airport transport took me to the wrong hotel where the wrong hotel checked me in [Hotel Cayo Santa Maria instead of Playa Cayo Santa Maria]. My relative joining me the next day was also taken to Hotel Cayo SM instead of Hotel Playo Cayo SM, but was hassled when [... read more] trying to check in. Without consultation, Transat agent and hotel agent decided we should stay in Hotel Cayo SM. We were not given the option of actually seeing or transferring to the hotel we had reservations for. Note that I was not greeted with any rum drinks, and rum was not present in the room. 2. Orientation: The transat agent did not show up on either of the two days we had reserved to receive orientation and make al la carte reservations. Other days a la carte lines were hours long and we had activities planned. We were only able to eat at the buffet. Offsite trips were expensive and involved long bus rides, as Cayo is a key connected to the mainland by a 48 km narrow manmade spit/road. 3. Food: One word - Inedible. Food safety is non-existent. Within 48 hours we were both experiencing 6-8 imodium per day gastro. The buffet is dirty, cross-contaminated [witnessed], and everything is PORK. Even what is labelled "turkey" turned out to be pork. Oh, but there was fish, cooked in the same dirty oil day after day. A noxious cloud of dirty fish oil stink surrounded the buffet building during the last 4 days of our trip. I was unable to eat for 3 days of the trip due to gastro. Home for a week now, I am still sick and undergoing multiple lab tests to determine the toxin, virus, bacterial infection. Do not eat at the snack bar--as grilled food sits for hours and hours. The beach pig roast beach grill is unsanitary. Pork renderings were spilled (gallons) onto the trail leading to the beach and plates of pulled pork were left out in the open and COVERED with flies.Note also that milk is not pasturized. 4. Rooms: We luckily had an okay room with cross breeze, so bugs did not blow into our room. Beds are hard as rock. Although I had no trouble locking the patio door [which turns on A/C], room service was negligent in locking this door, so we returned to a hot room every day. Staff helped themselves to personal items, but returned them when we left a note [in Spanish] that these were not tips. Mold and mildew were present. Upon arrival, room fridge contained no water and only 1 old beer. Room service brought minimal drinks 48 hours later and despite leaving copious tips and requests, were negligent in providing regular drinking water, soda, coffee, and tea. 5. Public bathrooms are disgustingly dirty. Restroom behind the check-in was dark, filthy, had liquid faeces on the wall and toilet seat on the vanity counter. The door handle was missing and I was stuck in the bathroom until I could push myself out. 6. Do not touch the cats! Feral cats are present in the bushes to control mice, etc. In spite of signs not to touch the animals, guests were seen touching the cats who likely carry campylobacter and other illnesses, which guests are then taking to food areas and pool areas. 7. Beach: The beach and view is nice, but the beach is very narrow. Passages to beach are not accessible to anyone with disabilities, and you have to carry your own lounger to the beach. 8. Internet: WiFi is a peso or two for half an hour, but takes 15 minutes to log on and is extremely slow. Most of the time, WiFi was not available at all. Better to use your cellular "roam like home" options. 9. Staff: The bartenders in the main lounge are personable and provide great service. Most other staff seemed indifferent or arrogant and were unhelpful, particularly a few behind the front desk.Not many attempt to speak even rudimentary English. 10. Air: Air travel to Cuba was fine. Trip home was fraught with delays, reloading, in both Santa Maria and Varadero. Trip home was elongated by 5-6 hours and NO FREE FOOD was offered. I would recommend not staying in Cayo Santa Maria. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Better to stay at a NON all-inclusive in Varadero for a more pleasant Cuban experience.

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: Potentially your best vacation!

Hotel exceed our expectation and potentially the best vacation for everyone. Beach: nice sugar white sand with low grading that extended 200ft away into the blue. Beach has narrower dry potion compare to other hotels in the area. most chair and shades was high up on the rock. Getting bettweem your shade and water can be difficult for young kids and grand parents. The open Water has nice days, but can be dramatically choppy that no one is allowed to going into it. Pool: best pool I ever been. T [... read more]here is shallower main pool for family and children. There is also a 60 meter long swimmers' pools near the building blocks which I used for my 1000 m routine exercise. Clean, beateful and close to bars drinks and snacks. Food: food was blend in buffet, but they did good job cooking everything, there is always something you like. The cook to order food could take times due to long line up during the high season. Nice and clean! Resteraunts are all amazing. Bar snacks and beach hot dogs were nice, we had no need to go to buffet during lunch time. Room: room is nicely renovated and clean. We were give an extra single bed and a crib for our preschool and one year old. Comfortable. Mini bar was stocked daily, but has only two beers, two pops and one bottled water in it, which is barely enough for a family of four. Staff: most staffs were friendly and very helpful except for the front desk girls. They just want to sign people in and out and ignore that they have much bigger duty at the front desk, the first line of impression for customers. Special thanks to the service manager Pedro, he is very professional and helpful getting the best located and equitted room for our family with small kids. I think I had great vacation with my family here that we should put Cuba ahead of Mexico for our winter vacation Spots. For all my friends, Playa Cayo is a pretty good one to stay in.

Resonance Blu Santa Maria: Not bad, nothing special

Hotel is claiming (at the entrance) 5 stars!. Honestly it is 3 stars but you get what you paid for. It is a huge resort and I suppose maintaining takes effort and money. Room that we were in, was with a 1 king size bed on the second floor. Room was cleaned daily. Problem we experienced was that the bathtub leaked water on the floor. It was fixed by sacrificing one of the towels that was rolled up and put on the tub to soak up the water. Beach is long and the sand is powdery white. I personally p [... read more]refer beaches with the trees but this was OK considering the beautiful sand. Did not enter the pool but it looked clean and it is really big (only one was open while we were there) Food was adequate, considering number of people that the resort has to feed. Not always enough cooks on grilles and for the first few days there was only one bread toaster so there were lineups there. I didn't mind much as I would find something to eat outside the lines. However, I honestly couldn't drink coffee that was served at the buffet room. Bar close to the main pool had better coffee but I started drinking Spanish coffee and that was OK Entertainment was sub-par but this is subjective - seems that some people were happy with it. Reception desk not always have people who understand English so this was sometimes frustrating, for example the last day I asked for complimentary access to the room for 30 minutes between our checkout time (noon) and the time our bus leaves (5:15PM) and one receptionist kept repeating that I have to pay 35 CUCs to stay in my room until 3 PM. I had to find another receptionist who could understand English and she gave me the access to the room Wi-Fi in the lobby worked fine for me although some people complained about bad service. Some staff is very friendly, others ignore you. Not the best service, but again not the worst. Overall, not bad but really nothing special. Price we paid was way too expensive but for stay over the New Year's day it was the lowest we could find. Could recommend but that is not without strings attached.

Valentin Perla Blanca: okay

bad food snobby workers not much of a fun place the staff are slow towels were only changed twice must be careful walking everywhere very slipery the drive is almost 2 hours to resort to long to sit nothing to do during thhe day just a bit of entertainment at 3 not at an adults level topless in the pool not a good thing for alot of older adults to see if you want to sit and do nothing this is the place to go if you want to have fun no shows are to late in the evening to stay up to see

Melia Cayo Santa Maria: Midium Title-3 staars. no moore

Of course the beach and the sea (without any changing rooms) than Cuba known. Good music and show program. Everything else is BAD:-Service, Food is monotonous without traditional type of seafood, anywhere in the begging tip. The room does not match the price. Distance from the airport takes up almost half of the day. We been bitten by Miskito.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Beautiful place

My husband and I stayed here for Christmas and we had a nice relaxing time. The resort is gorgeous all new!!! We were in building 29 3rd floor ocean view it was absolutely amazing the view and the room nice and clean and cozy!! The bed alittle hard but no big deal slept like babies haha!! We went to the buffet every day food was so so but that's Cuba always something to eat... Then spent the whole day on the beach which was absolutely amazing the water was like a warm bath nice soft sand and lot [... read more]s of room for privacy if you wanted some. We went for a ride on the catamaran had a ball and is free!!! Nice relaxing vacation loved it... Staff are great friendly and kind always smiling!!!!

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Tropical Oasis

On the whole, it was a great resort. The room was a little dated, the outlets in the bathroom and room didn't work and it would have been nice if the dance club was actually open. The beaches were phenomenal and the snorkelling was great! We quite enjoyed the food and selection and the weather was great minis the mosquitos at night.

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: Very Spacious well maintained Resort.

The Hotel itself has many large sitting Areas with Entertainment and Or relaxing Music playing. Many Large Clean Pools. Very Close to the Ocean. The Theatre is very Large and was full every evening. The Entertainment like always in Cuba was Awesome. Staff in all areas were friendly and very Grateful to receive even just a Smile. If you don't mind a Tour across the Cosway that took Ten Years to build and 90 minute Bus Ride to the Resort. And a little longer going back to the Airport. Then this Re [... read more]sort is Worth the Visit. I just wish I would have booked 10 days with the first and last day of Travelling.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Fantastic resort, perfect service,

Grounds where immaculate, it a new place so vegetation is still growing. Rooms are huge, and cleaned every day. Whatever you want just ask, its done asap. I will go again.free water sports, good food and remember where you are, there is no fast food, just good food.

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: Problematic stay

The main thing I would complain about the resort is the accessibility. My partner and I had accessed the clinic on site after a medical emergency and they would Only take cash. I bought medical insurance before the trip so that I wouldn't have to worry about this. Finding a way to get the cash took up a lot of energy and half of our trip since they do not take credit cards or debit and the customer service people at the hotel did not empathize with this situation. We were also told, we wouldn't  [... read more]be able to leave the country if we could not find the cash to pay the clinic. This of course was very scary to hear. Although this is a 5 star hotel, Im not sure about how clean the sheets were since I ended up bringing back fleas to Canada. The activities that were listed was outdated which was dissapointing. The aesthetic of the resort is very nice at least. There are many pools and the ocean is very close by.

Resonance Blu Santa Maria: Better than expected

This was my 2nd to trip Cuba with my 2 daughters and this year far exceeded last year. The beach was one of the best I have ever experienced in Cuba, the hotel, buffet, rooms and pool area matched the quality. The staff at the resort, were very helpful and friendly and went out of their way to help. A special note to Raphael at the pool bar. I would recommend this to any family looking for an enjoyable vacation.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Nice Resort...But....

I would not rate this hotel as a 4+, if anything maybe a 3+. No bathrooms close to the beach. It's a fair walk to get to the larger beaches, or main areas depending on where your staying. Food was edible, but extremely disappointed. Bring your own seasonings, salt, pepper, ketchup etc. The store is maybe 6x10', nothing to buy souvenir wise, unless you want to take a 3 hour bus ride to Havana (ONE WAY!). Ladies, bring your feminine hygiene products, they don't have anything. Bars were inconsisten [... read more]t with the beverages, you could order a cocktail at one, and then the next bar has no idea how to make it. Still a lot of training an upgrading needs to be done for this hotel to be highly successful. However, it's what you make of it, if you're not there for the food, the beach is beautiful with very soft sand. (Watch out for sand fleas though, ended up with a lot of bites). Service is pretty good, especially when they see the tips waiting for them. ;) Personally, I would not go back to this resort until they do some upgrades.

Melia Las Dunas: Difficult to classify

200 characters, so point form. Beach - beautiful, pools - very nice. First room had non-functional plumbing, toilet and shower didn't work, squished bugs on walls. Second room, semi-functional plumbing, oh 200 characters was the minimum! Okay so switched rooms given 7 days is a long time to go with no shower or toilet. Second room everything at least partially worked and they did bring around some water. Did end up with a case of Castro's revenge that ended up lasting a full week after I got bac [... read more]k (he must have kicked the bucket during the week). Good toilets are by the bar in the lobby, they actually seem to flush. It's about 50km to the nearest town (80ish CUC cab ride, or there are bus tours) so it is fairly isolated. Did have a very good time though.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Great vacation nice hotel

Amazing beach as always, this could be never wrong in Cuba. The hotel was very new at the time we stayed, only opened less than a year or so, we can smell the fresh paint when first walked into the room, only one buffet restaurant was available at that time, food was okay, we still had a large variety of choice, service was great, Cuban people tried hard to make everyone happy, overall, it's a very clean and beauful hotel, we are looking forward to visiting there again in the future.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Lovely resort with good food

Resort was nice and clean and the best part: adults only. The pool on the east side (turn right from the lobby) is the "party" pool--loud music, younger people, activities. The other pool is much quieter. The beach stretches almost forever in both directions, you just have to cross some rocks to get there. Take the chance-do it. Gorgeous clean white powder beach. If it's red flagged, go to the east (turn right) and you'll get to an area where there are tons of sandbars going pretty far out so yo [... read more]u can go in the water there without a problem (don't sue me if you get swept away, this is just my opinion-lol). Food is good in the buffet--always a decent selection (but no fries--supplier problems). The specialty restaurants are very good. The snack bar is awful. What you need to know if you're picky: This is Cuba... something goes wrong, don't expect anyone to bust anything trying to help you fix it. Apathy rules. Just because you have a reservation for a specialty restaurant doesn't mean you'll actually get a seat (especially Oh La La restaurant-very busy!) and complaining doesn't help. Fans above the beds in rooms are "decoration only". Air conditioning is good and cools the room fast, no worries. If you are easily offended by drunk 20 year olds and loud music and "sexy girl" competition, use the west pool in the afternoon. There seem to be several "supplier problems". We got one beach towel each for the whole week. Every once in a while there was a guy at the pool with towels for exchange but word travels fast and they're gone as soon as they're available. Overall, had a great time, but there were a few people complaining about things. If you're that type, go somewhere else. This will not be a flawless adventure.

Resonance Blu Santa Maria: Awesome Christmas Vacation

Wonderful resort, clean and organized. Hard working staff from the expert towel creating maid, the gardeners, bar staff, general cleaning staff and the grill masters. The entertainment staff are excellent and put on top notch shows!

Gran Muthu Cayo Santa Maria: Family vacation

Great Beach with white, soft sand, crystal clear "No Seaweed" water and lots of shade., Amazing 3-tiered pool system that overlooks the ocean. Swim up bar at top pool. Poolside service by waiters.Friendly, courteous staff. Food good compared to other Cuban hotels where we've stayed. The Beach Lunch BBQ has great chicken and pork. The weekly bbq by groundskeepers/maintenance staff is not to be missed.

Resonance Blu Santa Maria: You get what you pay for

We paid average price, got an average hotel. Location is a bit far from a small airport. Almost 2-hour ride in the dark has nothing to report. Check-in was quick but provided minimum helps and information(May due to the loud music paying in the reception hall). With no helping from bell boys, we walked in the dark for 10 minutes to find our room eventually. After long delay for the flight and the bumpy ride, we expected hot and agreeable food. But only to find that there were no arrangement, the [... read more] place we could find food was the grill in semi darkness, the only foods available were burger and hotdog, So much for first impression! The room was in good size, and clean. Bath room had no fan so smelled of dampness. Plumbing was working, barely. Air-condition was working but loud. Lights were working but forget about reading at night. After a quick inspection, I drew a mental list of things to bring next time, provided here: Must bring: Toothpaste and tooth brushes; Your own towers (You may still want to bring your own, even provided…); Shower gel, Shampoo, and Lot of hair conditioner; Boxed tissue; Slipper; Water proof Sun cream; Plenty of mosquitoes spray; After-Bite (Despite of mosquitoes spray, you will be bitten, many times!) OK, after all these negative first impressions, we woke up in a sunny tropical garden, with soothing sound of waves in the back ground and singing birds dancing outside of the patio door. The environment of the hotel was unreal. On our way to the beach, we came across a huge free form swimming pool. Plenty of sun beds. When we finally reached the beach, our over-all impressions for this resort had changed positively. The sands were off –white, creamy and soft; The sea was calm, emerald green with slightly salty aroma; Silky early morning sun clothed the beach with dream like amber hue. In other resorts, we spent little time swimming in the sea. Here, we spent hours in the water and never have enough of it. When swimming in the sea, you will find small fishes tickling your foot! This is easily the best beach we ever have been to. Forget about other aspects of this hotel. Everything else stands no chance against the beautiful beach. So you get what you pay for: an average priced hotel with many things can be better organized and managed. But what a beach! We will come back, if for nothing else!

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: Great

I would of liked to see entertainment every night. The location of the room was great, sea view. My favourite was a la carts. I likes the snack bars. The pools were nice. I would go back. The beach was clean and nice to go for walks.

Resonance Blu Santa Maria: very nice holidays!

We liked everything. A bit of criticism: spraying against mosquitos at the time when most people very coming to breakfast. It was not possible to walk through the cloud of gas. Too little of shading against the sun.