Gran Muthu Cayo Santa Maria: Exactly what was expected

There were no surprises here. Everything you need to know about this resort can be found on the web. beautiful beach, great hotel, food was good for Cuba, but the resort was understaffed a bit, not s problem if you don't mind waiting a bit for food or drinks.

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: 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 .

Melia Cayo Santa Maria: Not what I expected

I though for a melia I would expect more but . The room was nice the water sucks I went and ask about it and said they would fix it more then once, no hot water all week went to a friends room down stairs to shower ( bad) and very little water pressure. Pool area very well look after , nice pool guy and hard working. Dinning alacarte was good buffet ok . We made the best of it but 4 1/2 ? Water was bad , I heard others talking about too. Not what we were looking forward to .

Gran Muthu Cayo Santa Maria: Very good trip

Hotel was in great shape and well maintained. Beach was fantastic. There was always something good to eat but that is an area that could be improved upon. Rooms were a good size. The main pool area is great.

Valentin Perla Blanca: give it time

awesome beach and grounds clean rooms but even in cuban standards the food is awful very little selection and what was offered was bland servers were helpful but unerdstood very little english in time it could be a great resort running out of food and juice lack of variety can be improved maybe roast a pig or have different themes

Resonance Blu Santa Maria: Amazing beach and beautiful resort

The beach is absolutely amazing and one of the best parts! The room was clean and spacious. The resort is huge and the staff is absolutely wondeful. The only issue is that the front desk wasn't as attentive and didnt answer the phone all the time. The ocean is clear blue, ive never seen water that clear. one day snorkled for about 6 hours! The food was decent enough for Cuba. All and all I had a wonderful stay!! :)

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: 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!

Valentin Perla Blanca: Resort good with great potential

Grounds are new & will be much nicer with time. Lobbies- beautiful with comfortable furniture. Pools were good, didn't go to the beach. Bars & entertainment were good. Room was very nice, but cleaning of room was not great(I asked for bedding to be changed on 9th day but the bottom sheet wasn't changed. We never went hungry. Long lines at most stations due to one section of buffet not open. Specialty restaurants We went to were all good food & service.

Melia Las Dunas: Beautiful beaches

Larger resort than we normally go to a lot of walking, grounds well kept, staff friendly, food was good, relax pool area was excellent for quiet time. The beaches were excellent white sand, water nice and clear.

Gran Muthu Cayo Santa Maria: Amazing

We enjoyed our stay so much last year that we decided to return again. I will not repeat all the positive things that have already been said regarding check in, cleanliness of our room, activities, food, evening entertainment and staff. Due to the ongoing rebuilding of the International restaurant, the International alternated evenings with the Cuban restaurant on the beach....

Memories Paraiso: You get what you pay for

Amazing time at this resort. Not due to the staff. very few of them enjoy there job and want to be there. Got what I expected from the price I paid. Beautiful beach, ok buffet and great a la carte Meals. Had a wonderful time because I look at the good side of everything. But I can see why people give this resort poor ratings. Over all the resort is maybe a 3 star. Needs better staff and a faceLift. Beach and pool area are wonderful.

Sol Cayo Santa Maria: Good deal for price

Just returned from our week at Sol Cayo Coco. Started the late night check-in badly: although it says "ocean view room.......that doesn't exist! There was no water at all in the room. The phone didn't work. The blind covering the huge window in the bathroom was broken. The safe didn't work. The airconditioner didn't work. Not to impressed . But, the service was very good and very quick!.......All issues were fixed before immediately, or by the next morning. My husband improvised with the broken  [... read more]blind. The grounds must have been beautiful when new. The lay out was nice and interesting, with quiet spots and action areas around the pools. There was a lot of shoddy workmanship everywhere, buildings and rooms were dated and showed lots of wear and tear. Food was not that great, but the attempt was there. By the end of the week, though, most issues are forgotten since the service and the beach and water far surpassed any other issue. You also get what you pay for, so remember that.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Not ready for number of visitors

This destination was under staffed and unable to fully service the number of guests. Their were issues with unavailable towels, long food line ups, and no snorkelling equipment or staff available for information on snorkelling locations. There was a water outage during our stay and issues with wi-fi access. The beach and pool area was beautiful and available staff were helpful and very nice.

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: 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

Memories Azul Beach Resort: The great the bad and the ugly...mostly great.

This resort has the potential to be great but falls short because of the disrepair of the rooms and as a result is difficult to properly rate. It is definitely not a 41/2* as rated by Sunwing. Be prepared for the long bus ride from the airport. Tour guides shorten the journey and provide a lot of history . We stayed on the Azul side in building 56 and it is the largest resort we have ever stayed at. My husband and myself are both walkers and we had no issues with long walks to the buffets and re [... read more]staurants. Wonderful to have the beach vendors all located in the little village instead of pestering everyone on the beach. I highly recommend getting the Diamond Club if booking here. Much better service and not the long waits. I'd buy Diamond Club for the speedy check in and private beach section with wait staff alone. We travelled Jan 29th to Feb 5th. Firstly, the beach is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Miles of white sand and turquoise waters teeming with small silver fish, tilapia and we even saw a couple of small barracuda. Clearest water I've ever seen. Even chest deep you could see your feet perfectly. While we were there lots of jelly fish in the mornings but they seemed to disappear by afternoon and we didn't hear of a single person getting stung. The grounds are gorgeous and extremely well maintained with beautiful gardens and pathways lined with all manner of flowering shrubs. The quality of the shows is above average and the Michael Jackson show the most professional I've seen and not to be missed. The food was good, the serving staff and bar staff simply amazing. Always cheerful smiling and friendly. I especially would like to give huge praise to Maria in the Italian restaurant and also say goodbye to her as I was unable to before leaving. Bye Maria! Beach grills have amazing ham and cheese melts and wonderful hotdogs and hamburgers and very friendly cooks. Tips are appreciated, but not expected. The maintenance staff however seems non existent. I was extremely happy if not in our room. Thus the difficulty in rating the service. We booked a Jr. suite with balcony and this being my 5th trip to Cuba we had much higher expectations of our room. Our first two days here we had no water. Hot or cold. We arrived on Thursday and I couldn't shower until Saturday night. I was in tears and wanted to come home. It happened to be cold until Sunday (not the resort's fault) and we couldn't even swim. We did finally have a chilly dip in one of the beautiful pools. We were told that the water was shut off to the entire island which we later found to be totally untrue. Other resorts did not lose their water at any time and we soon found out that only part of ours did. We complained and were told that we could change rooms but they could not guarantee any improvement. I stepped out onto our balcony to view rebar poking out of the ground and got locked out. The screen door jammed so badly my husband had to remove it. I am bruised from springs poking through the mattress. Towels are very tired and grey and hard to come by. One of our cupboard doors was missing, our toilet seat broken and cracked. We asked to have it replaced and it never did materialize. Not surprising as the majority of public washrooms were missing seats entirely. I wouldn't even mention these issues if I was at a 3* just not what we expected for a 41/2* resort. The plumbing pulled out of the wall when removing the shower head. When the water returned there was a lot of pressure and we never ran out of hot water though. The safe worked, the air conditioning very cold and the fridge was very cold and re-stocked every day. The cleaning staff did a great job with what they had to work with. We heard that many rooms have been upgraded so just the luck of the draw I guess. As we also heard that many rooms had similar issues to ours. As this was the only downside we did not let it ruin our vacation Our friends joined us mid week and flying out of Toronto were able to book a ground floor suite and it was lovely. They upgraded to Diamond club upon arrival. We enjoyed the convenience of flying out of London, a smaller airport with much more convenient flight times but that category of room was no longer available when we booked. All in all, after the water issue was resolved, we had a wonderful time and I cannot say enough good about the staff. The bulk of the time was spent outside of the room so I was able to get over the ugly. :)) I would return but only to a suite. Then the 41/2* rating is totally accurate.

Resonance Blu Santa Maria: Very Nice resort beach amazing

This resort is very nice lots of great entertainment great beach, wonderful people the management are trying very hard would go back stayed for 2 weeks would return enjoyed the free lobster at the buffet and the baked potatoes

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: 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.

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Nice resort

Very large resort. Disappointed with towel service for our room. We had no towels for 2 days after repeated requests. Also, no water for 2 days due to major pipe bursting. Front desk staff not very helpful. Bank closed for 6 days with no money at the front desk to change. Ground keepers and pool/beach were very helpful and very nice.

Melia Las Dunas: Could not have asked for anything better

The Hotel is large but easily accessible, food was amazing especially the 24 hour restaurant, staff extremely pleasant and helpful, never without a smile..would recommend for either adults or families.

Melia Las Dunas: Good resort in Cayo Santa Maria - Melia Las Dunas

It as our 6th trip to Cuba and 3d time in the row to Cayo Santa Maria hotels so I guess, we have apples to apples to compare. Overall, from the hotels experience it was the best hotel we had so far in Cuba. Food: Good variety of food in the buffet including choice of fish (snapper, tuna, catfish) and not “just fish” and meat (chicken, pork, beef) to grill. If you are not grilling it to eat, some stuff may be not hot enough, depends when you are picking up. Still, from the food perspective â [... read more]€“ best from all we had before in Cuba. Food in Restaurants are not really good (if you expect it to be better there) – we tried Seafood; Italian; Japanese. Japanese was better than others if you do not thing about it as Japanese  Grounds: pretty good maintained, clean, no complains. Big advantage in my view – the grounds are very well planned so we did not noticed any long walks required (as for example we had in Memories in Varadero) Rooms: They are good. The hotel is not new, meanwhile all is in a good shape. But we are not very demanding guests. We had 3 rooms for our company so we had a chance to compare. They all were pretty much same good. We had no significant issues with water (hot or cold) except one time noticed there wasn’t any one night somewhat after 1 am but who cares that time. Was back to normal in the morning. Drinks: again Good choice up to Hennessey VS in the Bars (of course you need to ask for higher stuff, will not be offered as first choice, but it is not hidden and is on display so you can choose). As usual Cocktails will depends who is making them even in the same bar. Sometime just amazing, sometimes just OK. We got not the best weather, so if it would not be the hotel itself – it could be not good vacation. The hotel made it feel better.