Club Kawama: Fantastic Experience

My friend and I stayed at the resort for a week and I personally thought it was fantastic. Depending on which part of the resort you stay at, it is either 30 seconds from the beach or 2 minutes. I am more of a beach person, but we did stick our feet in the pool a couple times and it was a nice temperature and decent size. There are a lot of bars, which all provide you with fresh drinking water. At the first night of your stay you get a bottle of water, which you can then fill up whenever you [... read more] like...or just bring a 1L cup like we did which you can fill with either alcohol or water...or have both at the same time. There is always someone at the front desk, and the staff was extremely friendly during our stay. The only thing that was not as great, contrary to all the other people we heard ravaging about it, were the restaurants. We both preferred the buffet over the two that were available during our stay. Though, the staff was considerably more friendly and efficient by the buffet. The location is also perfect, not too far away from the airport so you don't have to leave 6 hours earlier. Speaking of location there is also a double decker bus, which will take you to the next little village where you can buy little merchandise and things to bring home. All in all, I absolutely loved my experience at Club Kawama and it was heartbreaking for me to leave. This is definitely a resort that I would recommend and would come back to every time if possible.

Hotel Villa Cuba: below average

Dining was good, snack bar was bad, room & balcony were spacious, mattress was terrible, air conditioning fell directly on the bed which was quite miserable with a continual draft hitting me. Changed rooms the next day as I wanted a room on upper floor and the room was in bad shape, the next room had been renovated but still time lost on my vacation to meet with reception several times to get a new room. The pool was small and shallow, didnot use it. The bar had a good selection of drinks but th [... read more]ere were not softdrinks or water in refrigerator. The first day received a bottle of water which we had to go to restaurant or bar to have refilled for the 7 days or buy bottled water at store, same thing for coke or juice, we always had to go out to get something to drink which was bothersome. Beach was great but I would not go back as it is inconvenient to lose time for room changes as reception was not very helpful. I also like to have drinks in the room, why put a fridge in the room without any service.

Muthu Playa Varadero: Go for the beach!

Don't expect amazing rooms, they are quite outdated.. Service is poor (very different mentality) but nothing outrageously bad. Good, let's just say you won't stay hungry :) Beach (sand, water, chairs, umbrellas, etc) is perfect.

Iberostar Origin Bella Vista Varadero: Great Vacation

This is a new hotel and we just loved everything about it. There are no cons from us in regards to this hotel but there are many pros that made our vacation amassing. Highly recommended from us for a vacation in Varadero Cuba.

Iberostar Origin Bella Vista Varadero: Beautiful new hotel

We were a party of five adults and just came back from a week vacation in Iberostar Bella Vista Varadero. Everything about this hotel is superb. Keeping in mind that you are visiting Cuba and carry a positive attitude once on vacation, there is nothing to complain about our stay in this hotel. The hotel is brand new, clean to perfection, excellent service, rooms larger than most hotels we have been to, amassing food and drink quality and the best beach around. I recommend this hotel for vacat [... read more]ioners with positive attitudes and we will visit this hotel again soon.

Gran Caribe Sun Beach: So so

Decent hotel if your ok with limited food selection and slow service. Buffet would not open till at least 15min after posted time. Check in was slow and slower at fixing problem. However my room was spacious and kept very clean. Fair value for price paid. Varadero beach cannot be beat

Hotel Villa Cuba: CUC- aroo!

I will make this review as detailed as possible for potential guests. First off, the entrance is really nice. Very impressive, staff smiled and was friendly right away. Front desk ladies were full of smiles and spoke all languages. Unfortunately, the first thing they said was that our room wasnt ready :( we spent our first night in a community villa that had many small rooms with 2 double beds. Not happy. Good for a family but not a couple (although not all villas are bad) entire first day w [... read more]as spent in and out of lobby waiting for a room that was not ready until after 4. We met many others upset at the lobby fighting with front desk reception that didnt deserve to get the ear full. Again, not happy. My bf and I ended up getting a gorgeous room looking out to the stage and wonderful pool. The problem was that we had to jam 5 days into 4 as our beautiful room was handed to us late. The room was clean and well maintained although all toilets in resort and around Cuba required paper to be thrown into garbage which was rather disgusting and outside of the resort women would stand outside of washroom asking for money in exchange for toilet paper. I recommend bringing napkins and wet wipes to be safe. Grounds were always clean, excursions were a blast, and we met great people. We got there just in time for a cold front and beach was too dangerous to swim in due to high winds so 3 days of our 5 were also very cold. We had no choice but to stay in to drink and eat. The food in my opinion was grosse. I expected bad food but it was not edible in my opinion. My bf is less picky and ate the food anyways but I ended up getting sick on the first night after eating at the restaurant across the street for $25 CUCS each. Needless to say i ate fries and salad the rest of the trip **I recomend ketchup that you like** i brought mine and it saved my trip. The service in the cafe and restaurants were not very good either. No smiles, rude, and no manners. However, as mentioned, front desk and bar staff were very nice and polite. There were some cool amenities such as pool, table tennis, volleyball (although we didnt get to play as the beach was too windy to play). Very sad. In terms of the currency, for Canadians, please do not exchange your US cash. Bring Canadian cash. No one wanted to exchange our american money as they de valued the US bills less than $50 or $100. We were left without money some days as the only people who exchanged our cash were front desk and banks. That was also a shocker as they gave us less CUCs for the american dollar. Big waste of cash!! Big waste of time!! Now for the worst part, Be Live Resort is not organized well with sunwing. We had a flight that landed us in our hotel at 930p. There were no rooms because check out was at 4pm. So, we didnt have a room as a result. Jumping forward, our excursion the last day was from 8a- 430p but we had no place to shower or stay as we had to check out at 11am. It was a mess waiting for a room to shower before we took off. There must be a better way. We left very dissapointed with a very bad taste in our mouths (and i dont just mean the food). I would never return to Cuba after this trip and I hope to be compensated as I spent $900 for 5 days and lost one due to the disorganization that was definitely not my fault. Im yet to know who has the fault. Now Overall, the hotel is clean and very well put together looks and structure wise. Pool is beautiful. Beach looked beautiful. The staff and service was below par and the food was a 1 out of 5 in my books. And the overall experience was not worth the money we paid. Its worth it if you go for 1 week + and are willing to sacrifice a day or 2. If you go, I recommend the safari and catamaran excursions. I recommend walking to city 20 min away for a nice night out and cool local bars like Beatles and Calle 62 where there is dancing. I also recommend you bring spices, ketchup and pills for nausea or diarrhea. Hope this helps.

Melia Las Americas: Lovely resort

We had a great week at this resort. We found the food and service to be good with plenty of choices at the buffet. The restaurants had to be booked and at times it was difficult to get a reservation for the time we liked. However, it was not a big deal for us. We stayed in a bungalow with an updated bathroom which was nice. The curtains, bedding and towels have seen better days but believe they're getting around to renovating. Overall, I'd say this resort is a good choice for an adu [... read more]lts only vacation with golf course within waking distance.

Paradisus Varadero: Family orientated peaceful relaxing resort

First of all, I want to send a big thank you to Deborah O at trip central.ca square one location. She was very helpful with my last minute getaway. My daughter had a blast with the activities available for the kiddies. Sadly the food was a bit of a letdown, but the grill at the beach was the spot for me. They did book a la carte each night we were there but the sun burnt my kid out that we couldn't make the time of reservation. Friendly staff they felt like family.

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Way to Go

The physical infrastructure is very nice; they are already renovating the buildings; having the Transat rep on site helped save us a prebooked tour; was blown away by the professional entertainment every night; genuinely friendly and accommodating staff;no issues till very last day; omelette bar was serving heavily cracked eggs with chicken excrement and blood on many eggs; this is a Public Health violation; cracked eggs and raw chicken are automatically considered to be contaminated with Salmon [... read more]ella bacteria; it can kill immunocompromised people in infants and seniors and make you very ill; Salmonella typhi is Typhoid Fever; one of many strains of this bacterium; I told the chef behind the counter but he didn't speak English; also advised the resort manager on duty before we left for the airport; will be following up with Public Health Agency; I am a Public Health Inspector/Supervisor with 40 years experience in Toronto/Durham Region.

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Not bad

I hated the bad reviews that reuined my first day at the hotel, so I decided to review it myself Please when you come to cuba you should have an expectations Cuba is cuba For the hotel, it was okay, not really four stars but still good The only real bad thing was the food quality and quantity The beach is five stars The bed sheets and pillow cases were not clean on the first day but after i left a tip and put them on the ground they got changed Most of the workers were nice,with a sm [... read more]ile tip or not The hotel set up is not bad, i enjoyed it The washroom in my room was renovated and have hot water I had missing towe for couple of days until I complained Havana’s trip was amazing Sea tour was okay Catamaran was not really free, u have to pay to go deep and snorkle and wasnt cheap 20 per person which is too much for all inclusive I would come back if the food gets better Forgot to mention this is my 3rd trip to the area, so i know the expectations

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Fair Resort

All in all our stay at Laguna Iberostar was enjoyable. It got off to a rocky start which cost us a half a day into day two. We were initially brought to our room and discovered no door to our bolted down safe!!!! That was first of a couple of things wrong. With no safe to put our stuff in, we were forced to carry our passports around and money until it got solved. Our daughter and her boyfriend's room same thing, no door to safe. Really???? No shower head up on wall of tub. Same thing in o [... read more]ur daughter's room. Three big cigarette burn holes in our bed spread. That wasn't too inviting. We went back to desk and spoke to ladies. They sent us on a run to look at two other rooms. Again, no door to safe and one room we couldn't even get into. Also, our daughter's initial room wouldn't even automatically lock when they left. Another issue. So the front desk informed at 9ish pm to come back tomorrow around 10 to check about another room for us as people were going to be leaving then and we would have to wait till rooms got cleaned before we could move which brought us to lunch or after. When rooms were cleaned we had to go over and let ourselves in to check them out and go back to desk to let them know. We just got so annoyed with the run around we got, that we went right to Sunwing rep and in conjunction with Guest service manager they asked what they could do to make up for it. Guest manager offered us a "Private breakfast" and I said no!!! I want a massage each for all four of us!!! Our Sunwing rep made it happen. Also, they left a bottle of rum and an apology letter in our rooms. So, all in all the week went very well once those issues were fixed but we should not have been made to wait that long for it to be solved and if we had not gone to our sunwing rep I'm not sure how much more of a run around we would have gotten. Grounds, beach were all great. It's not a great feeling when you walk into a room which you are supposed to be staying at for one whole week and see unfinished things like this. Disappointed at how Cubas resorts are running down. We have been to Cuba six times and never to the same resort but it would be nice if they kept day to day maintenance on things. Safes without doors is a big issue. You need your customers to feel comfortable and safe. Thank you in advance for your time. Sherry and Robert Wells.

Melia Peninsula Varadero: Some good - some bad

The resort is undergoing a lot of construction - which is good. But there were things that were not good and had nothing to do with construction. Usually we always had to call and ask for more water - they are supposed to deliver water everyday - but that did not happen. This also happened with the other beverages as well.. There needs to be more shade available around the pool - there is nothing at all. The food was pretty good - but the same every day. I would like to have face cloths i [... read more]n the rooms.

Club Tropical: beautiful beach

we enjoyed our stay at club tropical,the staff are very nice.met new friends there, the food was good and the weather was great the 2 weeks we were there. The hotel is not a 5 star, but we did not go to live in a room, just a place to sleep that was kept very clean.

Club Tropical: Great for the price!

Beach is phenomenal. Rooms are what you expect for a 2.5 star hotel but the buffet was decent and being right in town means access to many restaurants and markets. Staff were friendly and our stay was great overall!

Resonance Blu Varadero: Could be good with some upgrades

Stayed at The Memories Hotel from Mar 8-15 (March break in Ontario). The hotel needs a lot of upgrades. The rooms are old and smelly, the bathrooms in rooms are horrible. There is no fan or proper ventilation in bathrooms so the smell lingers. The maid was nice and tried her best to keep the room clean but due to luck of proper cleaning tools, the floors always seamed to be dirty and with sand on it. The beach is beautiful and sandy with lots of shade. The pool was nice but the water cold. The [... read more] service at the Snack bars was very slow and the bars often run out of vodka and beer. At the snack bars the service was slow unless you tipped. Our waitress at the main buffet restaurant was very nice and very helpful and always with a smile. The worst were the public bathrooms, some with no lights, no toilet paper, no hand soap, and had an awful smell. When exchanging money to Cuban pesos, there was never enough change for tipping as the bank and the front desk kept saying no change available only 5 or 3 pesos and very little in 1 pesos. At one time I had threatened them that I will not be tipping unless I get the change. There are some people that do go out of their way to keep you happy but not many. The entertainment team was very good, the shows were good, the Japanese restaurant was interesting and the food good. Other ala carts were also good. Cannot complain about the food as it was good for Cuban standards, at least our family enjoyed it. We stayed in block 39 which is close to the pool with the slide and close to the beach but too far from the main buffet. Lots of walking at the resort as it is spread out a lot.

Palma Real: great resort

I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel. Although a 3 star it was clean and the grounds were well maitainted and most everything worked. The staff were always helpful. The location was fantastic. The food was not the strong point but there were many choises.

Los Delfines: What a little Gem!

I had heard mixed reviews on trip advisor but was pleasantly surprised. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The food was actually very good .. we've been to Cuba many times and know not to expect high end food. They even had Sushi one night as well and a great pork dinner and all the fixins! Our room was very clean ..however I think they could use a bleach for the towels as you could see old stains on some which was not great ...but they were clean. The location is great .. the bank on one [... read more] side a block away and a large store on the other side for shopping. All in all a great trip. I would definitely go back!

Sol Varadero Beach: Nice Resort

The resort is starting to show it’s age but they are doing renovations. That being said the resort is clean and the staff is very friendly. The beaches are fantastic, lots of lounge chairs on the beach. We have been going to this resort for a number of years and love the people there, our only dislike is the that the food although good, it’s not hot, warm at best.

Playa Vista Azul: Very nice resort

The staff was amazing. The hotel room had no working hairdryer but I had brought my own-so no big deal We had quite the time trying to get the correct water temperature in the shower but we figured that out eventually lol so we have a very funny memory for sure! Blonde moments lol The pool was great and swim up bar areas were fabulous- despite the down time due to something breaking and needed fixing the hotel did an amazing job of going to plan B. Really great food and servers. Entertaining eve [... read more]nings and afternoon music with lots of really great musicians. All smiles everyday all day...great beaches and views. The People of Cuba are proud people and I felt privileged to see and share their home.