Staff were great, management and housekeeping not!

I am writing this review on the last day of our week here. The bed, on which I am sitting still shows the small ballpoint Xs that I placed on the sheets and pillows 3 days ago, proof that linens had not been changed, testament to the sloppy and indifferent housekeeping standards of hotel management. One linen change per week is well below the standards I would expect from any hotel claiming to be a 4 star. Ditto the towel situation and the pool towel situation which barely allowed 2 changes dur [... read more]ing the entire week Overall, the hotel itself rates physically as one of the better ones I have seen in 12 visits to Cuba. The only minor complaint would be that some of the access routes to the beach are not for the physically impaired. Wait staff at bars and restaurants are friendly and accomodating and seem to treat tippers and non tippers with the same degree of courtesy. Our tour coordinator lauded the place for it's food quality compared to other resorts in the area, citing the input of 3 "top" Dominican chefs. Based on my experiences, they must have been on sabbatical. First of all, there is no chance at all of you burning your mouth on any of the food served. Lukewarm was the hottest I ever encountered. Cold was closer to the norm. The made to order stations are poorly placed, with lines blocking access to the pre-made buffet items. While breakfast service was efficient and pleasant (if you didn't want toast) the same cant be said for the often clumsy efforts of staff at the seafood station at lunch and supper. While some knew what they were doing several did not, rendering a finished product that was either over or under done. While the buffet offered an extensive selection of choices the overall quality was sadly lacking. Perhaps management should consider reducing the number of selections and concentrate on improving the quality. They might also consider investing in a couple of decent toasters too since the current single relic in use had all the browning power of a "magic oven" The a la cartes were about average- nothing to really complain, or write home about. Ditto for the snack bars. Would I return to this resort? Only if management did their job. The staff are doing their best but until management fixes the issues I addressed in this review, they will probably start to slip from their #3 position. I fully expect at best a cookie cutter response to this review from management but I seriously doubt that anything will really change. Luckily my job allows me to interact with hundreds of people every week, many of whom value my insights into where and where not to stay when travelling overseas. Having stayed at other resorts in this area, I do have some better options to recommend.

Nice beach, great people

The overriding feeling I have as we bus our way back to the airport in Santa Clara is that Cuba is "close". It is close to becoming a first choice destination instead of the fallback position for travellers who have abandoned Mexico because of perceived violence, and the"B" islands (Barbados, Bermuda, Bahamas) for price. Cuba offers a sense of safety that Jamaica and Mexico would die for( I couldn't resist) and beaches that are truly world class. The airport staff, bus drivers, tour guides, clea [... read more]ners, gardeners, serving staff, and bartenders, are overwhelmingly courteous, friendly, and well-trained. That is no small accomplishment in a world where travellers are increasingly made to feel like unwanted house guests at many holiday destinations. So...what needs to change? 1. Get rid of the nearly 2-hour bus ride to and from the airport. It turns a flight from Ottawa, Montreal, or Toronto into a full day of travel, and there is no need for it. The island of Santa Maria houses many resorts within a couple of kilometres of each other. There is a long landing strip that you pass just after arriving on the island proper. We were told that it was used for excursion flights to Havana. With the money that was spent to build the 48 kilometre causeway linking the island to the mainland it would make sense to do whatever is necessary to beef up the local airport to accommodate tourist charter flights. On the morning home, we got the hotel bus at 7am as ordered, arrived at the airport at 8:40, had cleared immigration by 9:15, and spent the next 3 hours sitting in a cramped departure lounge, with no access to the outdoors and a shameful excuse for a greasy spoon as the only source of food, until or flight left at 12:30. The fact that we spent 2 days of our holiday just getting there and back is enough to make me look elsewhere next time. 2. Buy some new beds. An awful lot is forgiven after a good night's sleep. The reverse however, is also true. This is our second time in Cuba (the first time in Holguin) and the consistency of the stiff mattress with the hump in the middle was surprising. It left me wondering if they had shipped the old mattress from Holguin to Santa Maria when they found out I was coming. 3. Designate a non-smoking area or two. I am not a non-smoking zealot and in fact, continue to enjoy the odd cigar. That being said, we were travelling with children on this trip and it was virtually impossible to find a place in any outdoor restaurant, and in particular the airy hotel lobby, that did not have the pervasive pall of heavy smoke. With most of North America non-smoking in public places, it seems to make business sense to provide some accommodation to that crowd. 4. Food. People always talk about Cuban food. So my experience is Cuba 7 years ago in Holguin, and Cuba today. With the passage of time, it seems to me that there is now a greater variety of food available than ever before. There remains however, a lack of imagination. The buffets evidenced pineapple and coconut, limes and local fruit, garlic and ginger, an endless variety of meat and fish. I found it difficult to understand why these ingredients seldom, if ever, bumped into each other in a sauce. An occasional visit from an experienced chef would do wonders for the cuisine and provide some variety to the menu. Yes, as is often said, I could always find something to eat, but that's not really the object of the exercise. I would have preferred to find something that I wanted to eat. 5. Upscale the hotels. This comment may be restricted to the Hotel Playa where we stayed, but the square pools, surrounded by the square buildings with the cookie-cutter square rooms, compare poorly to the average accommodation on the Mayan or in Dominican Republic. The accommodations are Spartan but functional. I do admit to laughing out loud when I was on the balcony trying to get the screen door back into its track for the third or fourth time, and looked out to see no less than 3 other hotel guests on their balconies doing the same thing. Ultimately, as the week progressed, guests gave up and just began leaving the screens leaning against balcony railings. So overall the people and the beach are 5-star. The food, the accommodation, and the travel are something less. There have certainly been a lot of improvements since I was there last, but It is likely to be another 10 years or so before, "I can't wait to get home", becomes "I can't wait to go back."

Not impressed

The layout of the resort was good, the beach was incredible and the staff fantastic. The room was not great. The shower head didn't spray enough water to rinse your hair I had to rinse under faucet. the bathroom always smelled of urine although it looked clean. The pillows on the bed were throw pillows that every guest was to use absolutely filthy they had regular pillows in the closet that we used but the maids kept putting the dirty throw pillows on the bed. The cleaning staff needs a lot of i [... read more]mprovement in building 7.

Relaxing - Better than anticipated !!

We stayed for 2 weeks Jan 29-Feb 12/15.Left ++ snow at Halifax airport @ 6:30am & on beach @ 3:15pm same day !! Can't beat that!! Room was fine . Bed a bit hard . Flat pillows . No water for @ 2 hours only once - all water is pumped over to island. Overall - great time -- wonderful beach - lots of shade / lounging chairs , food at buffet was fine , A la Cartes were quite good . Great Brazilian coffee !! Very good value

Had a blast!!!

Beach was amazing! Rooms clean, staff friendly, had a great time. Food is not the best but then again I don't know anyone who goes to Cuba for the food. The food was bland but it was edible. Pancakes for breakfast were the best thing there so we would fill up on those. Its a far drive from the airport and because of that we wont be going back. The buses need bathrooms especially if they will offer beer on the bus. All and all it was a good trip. We had a blast!!!! Probably nicest beach we will e [... read more]ver see.....Beautiful white sand for miles

Great relaxing resort !

1 1/2 hr. Bus ride was no problem - quite nice actually. Check in was a breeze. I had no problem with the language difference, most of the staff were quite good in English. Both the room & bathroom were spotless & kept that way thanks to a great housekeeping staff. This is the first hotel I've stayed in & I've stayed in hundreds , where when you turned on the hot water you had hot water by the time you counted to 4 -- GREAT ! All the amenities worked perfectly. The pools (5) were super ,very cle [... read more]an,well maintained ,& had more than enough lounges. Plenty of well staffed bars. On the negative side, 2 things; Cuban food leaves a lot to be desired. I heard about this from many other reviews & from people we met from other resorts so it is not only applicable to the Playa - it' just Cuban food. There is going to have to be HUGE improvements if the expect to attract the Americans. Second thing, there was no instructions on how to use the phone or information in the room about services ( not overly important but with the phone instructions would be nice in case of an emergency). All in all a beautiful resort .

Best vacation ever!

Where do I even start... My boyfriend and I traveled to the Playa at the end of January 2015 and completely loved it. We were extremely sad to leave after our week, and are already planning on returning next year. There was always a large selection of food available between the buffet, snack bar, beach snack bar, el Criollo grill (for burgers at lunch), el Ranchon restaurant at the beach, and many a la carte restaurants. Unless someone has a very restrictive diet (ie: you're not going to find a [... read more] ton of gluten free or vegan options here), there is definitely something for everyone to eat, even with the most "discerning" of tastes. The service was always lovely and the staff were a pleasure to chat with. Most of them went out of their way to accommodate requests, and they do their absolute best to communicate with guests -- many of them speak 3 or more languages! The rooms, pools, and common areas were spotless and always kept clean. We loved the pools on the windier days, but preferred the beach when it was warmer. The beach is incredibly beautiful, with soft white sand and turquoise water that you can see through. There is no coral near this part of the beach, so it is very clear and easy to swim in. We did the "Havana by plane" excursion which I would highly recommend to anyone. It was an incredibly culturally enriching experience, and was extremely educational as well as being a treat for all of the senses. It was a long day (up at 5 am and back to the hotel at 10 pm), but I enjoyed it so much I would even do it again. Besides the warmth and the ocean, the thing we will miss the most is the delicious Cuban coffee that we started every morning with, that you can get from the lobby or snack bars. Everything from start to finish on this trip was wonderful, and we are looking forward to returning!

Clean and friendly

It was clean and the staff was very friendly. The food was ok. The drinks were cold and endless. Shows were good. Coffee was amazing and for the fresh squeezed orange juice you have to find the 1 bar in the buffet that has it. Beach is great

Large resort but beautiful ocean

The resort is still in great condition. It is a very large resort and be prepared to wait your turn. We went during high season and it was busy. We had to tip to get served promptly. The ocean had big waves and very windy. Ample space to accommodate, never had to save chairs. Food was ok, my daughter and I had mild stomach problems. Large variety but a lot of canned goods get ready to search for veggies. Fish was great! The kids shows at night were epic And my daughter enjoyed them immensely! Ov [... read more]eral good value for quick break.

Good resort for the price paid!

Resort was well maintained and rooms were spacious. Very clean and modern looking. The layout of the resort is simple and easy to get around to which is nice. We stayed in bungalow 6 which was closed to everything and still in a quiet area. Many pools to choose from and lots of lounge chairs so there is no need to wake up early to reserve spots by the pool. The beach is lovely, however very narrow and difficult to get too for those who having mobility issues as you are required to walk down a sl [... read more]ope of rocks, there are some stairs at the far end of the resort however also on a slope. I didn't enjoy that the beach was narrow, was way too crowded. It was very windy so not many people could swim out in the ocean. Seen some jelly fish washed up on shore...that was pleasant! The service requires some improvements, it almost seemed as they were under staffed. The waiters however tried their best and you could see they were working under pressure. The food at the buffet got old very quickly, alot of repetition for lunch and dinner and often times cold. We don't go to Cuba for the food anyways so it wasn't much of an issue for us. We did enjoy how they cooked the seafood and meats in front of you, that was a plus. Breakfast was lovely, great variety. I really enjoyed the deep fried donuts..yum! The snack bar by the beach was by far the best for their stone oven pizza. They also barbequed fresh meats of your choice. The a la carte restaurants were amazing for Cuba, We ate at the Asian and Romantic and enjoyed them both very much. The lobster was cooked very well and they had an abundance of seafood entrees available. My biggest disappointment was that the resort had a ton of children and yet not a great kids club or activities available for them. There were no kids competitions during the day, the club lacked many supplies for kids to play with. (crayons all broken into pieces, no paper, few toys to play with, enough probably for one person at a time). I asked staff if they did crafts or had structured play time and she stated only if they have enough participants. One day I noticed there were 7 kids and there was no play of any kind, instead they had a PS3 system in which the kids spent there time with while staff were talking on their cell phones in another room. I have 3 small children and would not feel comfortable leaving them in the kids club. All in all, the resort is nice,people are lovely. This is my 4th time to Cuba and 2nd in Cayo Santa Maria. LOVE LOVE Cayo Santa Maria. I would probably return to Iberostar Ensenachos next time as there beach was alot nicer and my children had a blast at their kids club. Oh and they have a lovely water park which is a plus.

Playa Cayo Santa Maria

This resort has beautiful grounds and the pools were very clean and easy to access. The beach was beautiful but difficult to get to as we also had my wife's father and had to climb down rocks to access it. Food was very good and something for all. Staff at the resort were very pleasant and always smiling. We were somewhat disappointed that the Canjet rep was only there 1 hour a day and not very accessible.

Home away from home

Visiting 12 resorts over the years this is the favourite the Alacarte restaurants were very good the Buffet average. The lobby bar very relaxing with magicians musicians fashion shows and the drinks and service was excellent. All staff very friendly and efficient. I would definitely recommend this resort.Since our 1st visit Jan 2014 for 2 weeks and 2 weeks Jan 2015 5 couples have joined us at this resort.We will be back in 2016.

Surpassed all my expectations!!!

The resort was beautiful!!! Always clean, amazingly friendly staff and lots to do! The rooms were clean and cleaning staff were super sweet. The food was decent for Cuba! Was surprised with the A La Carte restaurants! Delicious! The resort is large but never feels crowded! At night the lobby bar is full with but never exploding, that there is not seating. The beach is beautiful! Narrow in high tide, but during the day, plenty of room! Always found a beach chair no matter what time it was. If I w [... read more]ere to go back to Cuba I would definitely stay at this resort again! There is a bit of a ride from airport to resort. Totally worth it! Lots to see and learn, never got bored and went by fast! Amazing to see the little "cities" of Cuba

Nice Resort.

Nice place for the money. The staff are very friendly. It is an hour and a half drive from Santa Clara Airport to the Resort. If its daylight you get to see some of Cuba. If its dark when your flight arrives it would be a long hour and a half. Beach is nice as well as pools. The shows were ok. I would go back.

Great resort! We would go back.

Nice clean hotel, very friendly staff. There is lots of seating both in restaurants and on the beach. Staff are very helpful from groundskeepers to chambermaids. The beach is beautiful, nice sand and lots of room including beach huts. Staff on the beach help you to look for a lounger and hut and even cleaned off chair and set up where you like. We didn't use the pools but they were really clean and lots of loungers available. Good bar selection with options. Good service sometimes a little bit o [... read more]f a wait during busy times but that's to be expected. The food is good by Cuban standards. The seafood restaurant is excellent serving large Caribbean lobster tails! The resort if perfect for families with young children. There is evening entertainment shows but no disco or casino on site. This is a great place to relax. We would have liked to have one of these available. It was top notch value for the price.

Great resort!

My boyfriend and I travelled Jan 9-16 to Playa Cayo Santa Maria. It was a great vacation!! My boyfriend had never left Ontario before this trip so I didn't want to go somewhere too expensive in case he didn't like the whole laying around for a week. This resort is incredible for the price, great rooms and staff. The pools were beautiful, i wasn't the biggest fan of the beach as it was alittle rocky as you want down to the water and almost like two tiers. The sand however was beautiful and water  [... read more]was great. We had fantastic weather. We are very picky eaters but we really enjoyed the food here, the 24 hour snack bar was awesome, whenever your hungry there's always something to eat- at 6 am, midnight, anytime- with good selection of food too!we were in building 15 which is what our travel agent recommended for us, the lady at the front desk said it was the best building when we arrived and we soon found out why- closest to the beach, right beside a large pool, and the snack bar right there as well! It is a large resort, but you can walk from one side to the other in less than five minutes. We tried the Italian a la carte restaurant and the cubn buffet, both had decent food but you can get the exact same food at the regular buffet at a quicker pace- I guess it just depends if you want to be waited on! In this townit is only resorts, no one lives there... There is a market you can take the bus ( if you want to wait all day for it for one peso) or taxi is abou t 5 min drive, it costed us 3 pesos each way. The market has little souvenirs to buys, restaurants and bars. The entertainment staff was incredible, always getting people to join in, decent shows each night. We had a blast on our week away, already starting to plan our trip for next year!!

Amazing resort first class service

The resort was very neat and well maintained. The staff working there is amazing and very generous on the drinks :). I have already recommended this resort to 10 other friends. I had the oceanic view from my room and its just breath taking . I will definitely go here many more times.

Excellent resort compared to many others in Cuba

Very clean premises and beach area. Beautiful white powdered-sand and flat beach, easy to walk on. Transparent clear water where you can see the bottom and your toenail. Very clean pools without the awful smell of chlorine. Excellent international drinks and mixed drinks. Good food, lots of restaurants and choices, better than similar resorts in Varadero, although still very oily. Excellent charcoal custom-made pizzas and burgers. A very convenient and good a la carte 24-hr restaurant. Rooms wer [... read more]e large, clean, modern and pretty. Staff very friendly, more so than in Varadero. Osuhe, the Air Canada representative was always ready and most helpful to communicate our needs to the reception area. Lifeguards were plenty and very attentive to protect resort clients. Good program for honeymooners but we needed help from AC rep to get all frills delivered as service at reception is inconsistent and manual. The best animated lobby we have ever seen, with lots of happy people, live music which changes twice every day, specialty flambé caffe cart. Overall, excellent features and we will come back there next year.

Great family holiday

We stayed at this hotel at one of the busiest times of the year and it was at or near capacity yet given the welldesigned layout of resort, including 4 pools, space was not a problem. There were always chairs available at one of the pools or the beach, regardless of the time of day. Restaurant options were great and the quality and variety available at the main buffet was appreciated by our whole group. Rooms are fine although could use some upgrading, especially with towels. Over all great firs [... read more]t experience here.

Great Family Resort

We stayed at this well run resort from January 4th to January 11th. This is our third time to Cuba. We have a 5 year old son and felt the atmosphere of the resort was perfect for families… not as much of a party resort. The resort overall has a lush tropical feel with gardens and palms filled with coconuts everywhere. At first the resorts layout seemed a bit like a maze, but it’s actually quite well laid out and has the illusion of a nice small resort. It never takes too long to walk anywher [... read more]e, and if you’re too lazy to walk, there are lots of golf carts available to catch a ride in. The resort is well lit and feels very safe. Check in was quick and painless, as was check out. It is the gardeners at this resort that make a difference. One in particular befriended my son, called him by name, gave him coconuts all the time, made us souvenirs from palm leaves (rose, bird, and grasshopper)… my son called him “Manwell” but I don’t think that was his real name, lol. All of this he did without the exchange of money or goods. He was just a nice guy. Dining The resort has a large buffet with a selection that was surprising for Cuba. Still very repetitive, however. We never had to wait more than 5 minutes for delicious fresh made crepes, omelettes, pizzas, etc. However, we did often have to wait for beverages to be served and a few times left without so much as a glass of water. Make sure you don’t miss Lester at the flambéed banana crepe station every night! Favorite part of my meal! The lobby bar serves delicious cappuccinos and hot chocolate! We were told we were entitled to 3 a la carts, however, the wonderful ladies in the booking room let us have 5! The is also an ice cream bar that serves Nestle Ice creams and drumsticks, which is a nice treat and something I’ve never seen in Cuba! There are 6 additional restaurants: Cuban: This is new, seems to be an experiment they are playing with… it was just food from the buffet! I would skip this unless it improves… Asian “Panda Rojo”: Delicious! We ate here twice because it was so different from the buffet and well prepared with a good number of items on the menu. Italian “Garibaldi”: Pretty good, they have a little meat, cheese and olive buffet to start off your meal with, and they give you buns with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, followed by 4 courses with lots of selection. The restaurant was 1000 degrees inside when we ate there, so we did not finish our meal because we were so uncomfortable! Gourmet “Romantico”: Even though we booked our a la carts on day 1 of our vacation, somehow this restaurant was already fully booked! The menu looked great though. Seafood “Puerto San Juan”: Would have been not bad but our lobster was very over cooked. Snack Bar: Do not be fooled, this is no ordinary snack bar… they served many varieties of wood fired pizza, seafood, chicken salad sandwiches, hot dogs, French fries, burgers, chicken and fish fingers that were hand battered… Great service, 24 hours, delicious food BUT very greasy if it was fried. They also made the best drinks on the resort. The Beach Well, this is why people come to Cuba… long, gorgeous stretch of fluffy white sand and the most turquois water you could ever imagine. This beach is unique from other beaches in Cuba that I’ve seen… this one has a significant change in tide levels! When the tide is out you have about 40 feet of beach, when it’s in, maybe only 15 feet in places, however it goes on forever so you can always find a quiet secluded spot. There are also TONS of lounge chairs and staff to position them for you. They clean them off and arrange your towel for you… they also have drink staff walking up and down the beach. The only down side was the weather for us… every day was very windy so the red flags were up every day but one during our vacation, but obviously that is no fault of the resorts. Pools There are a total of 7 pools (a kids pool, a wading pool, the garden villas private pool, 2 main pools and an east and west pool). All are very well maintained, beautiful and have an abundance of loungers and tables. The main pool has an island with “beds” in the centre. The east and west pools each have their own bars and are very long, longer than an Olympic size pool, with varying depths for families with children. Rooms Our room was my only complaint; however I have a vacation attitude and saying: “make the best out of everything, never complain during the vacation, and remember, someone else is cleaning it up”. So this is the phrase I repeated to myself about the room during our vacation. It was a large room with plenty of storage, on the second floor of block 6 with an ocean view. It was a great block, quiet and away from everything and a very short walk to the beach. We had a king size bed and a cot for our son. The bed was pretty terrible. My husband slept on the cot one night in an attempt to get good nights sleep. The room smelled like mildew pretty badly the first day and I aired it out and sprayed a solution I bring with me every vacation (because I find most Cuban hotel rooms have a mildew scent). The decorative pillows on our bed and the comforter smelled TERRIBLE like a thousand people had slept on them and they've never been washed. They stayed on the floor the entire vacation and away from the bed. The bathroom leaked everywhere. The sink faucet sprayed everywhere, the tub showers curtain didn't close enough to prevent the entire bathroom from flooding… but like I said, somebody else’s mess to clean up. We slept in our room, showered, and otherwise spent all our time at the beach. The air conditioning worked well, the fridge was always stocked with drinks and water, we got lots of channels on the TV… we were happy. Our room attendant was Miguel and he made the coolest blanket sculptures every day on our bed. Entertainment We only watched 2 shows, the clown show for kids (which my 5 year old LOVED) and the Michael Jackson show, which was also pretty good. That guy can moon walk better than MJ! The speakers in the theater are painfully loud, however. So, would we stay here again? Yes, and I would recommend it to anyone unless you are a 20 something looking to party.