Cuba Dream

We had an excellent vacation at the Be Live Experience Varadero Cuba. The resort was small which was a plus. There was no line up at the Buffet or the Pool Bar. Plenty of beach chairs and Palapas to use for shade on the beach. Very clean and well kept. The only complaint is the line up in order to book an Al la Carte restaurant. You could only book for 1 hour each morning with incredible line ups. The Buffet was our choice as we could not book the others. The food was good and plentiful i [... read more]n the Buffet. 2 restaurants behind pool bar and an all night restaurant open at 11 p.m Both outdoor restaurants serving hamburgers and hot dogs as well as grilled ham and cheese. Clean beach as well

Very well

The villa was very well, old but very clean. Staff was great and all our demandes were fur filled. We would go back, and recommend this place to any one that looks beyond luxury. Buffet and snack bars menus were always the same, we found our favorites and never went hungry

Good choice

We were happy with our choice of resorts this year. Be Live Experience (Villa Cuba) is a good size resort with a choice of hotel rooms and villas. We had chosen the villas as we like to be outside as soon as we open door of our room, but we were put in a hotel room when we got there around 9:30 in the evening. We protested that we had booked a villa but were told none available at the moment and that we were sure to like hotel much better. Next day, we went to reception to ask to be changed  [... read more]to a villa which they agreed they would do. We were shown a villa which was perfect for us but had to wait until maid had done the room. All in all, we lost more than half a day with this change! We thoroughly enjoyed this room but be aware that it might get noisy as you never know who is in the other rooms of the villa. As for the food, it is very satisfactory, as well as the service. And the beach is great! Thank you to the tall guy at reception, the bellman, and Angela at the buffet.

Unsatisfied and Disappointed with this resort

First off when we reached the hotel the rooms that we saw online were nothing like this room. Hotel was run down room was run down hotel falling apart. Water stopped running and electricity stopped working at least 3-4times in the section we were staying around supper time when you really want to take a shower and it’s getting Dark outside, like we were rejects cause half of the hotel is Renovated and half isn’t they placed us on the side that was not renovated. I woke up to bugs crawling on [... read more] me while I slept. Spoke to the receptionist who said he couldn’t do anything to speak with “public relations”. Claiming the whole hotel is booked which was impossible. We finally changed rooms the day before we had to leave and even that room had ants crawling every where on the tables the walls and the ground!!! Customer service and management is a big zero. Food wise most items were cold and under temperature. Animation and pool activities boring. No I wouldnt recommend this hotel to anyone. If I had of known I wouldn’t have booked there not how I wanted to spend my birthday week :(

Ok resort

Grounds were nice. First room 533? Broken safe, phone didn’t work. Second room 514 was ok, maid did a good job but on her day off relief forgot toilet paper. There was no handle on the outside of the patio door, l reported it but never put on. The light outside the entrance was out and I reported it several times. In the 14 days we were there the light worked on three days only. The food was good, except on the few days that there was bacon it was very uncooked. Ice cream was never hard always [... read more] like cream but still tasted ok. The buns were very fresh. Would liked to see more fruit like apples pears etc. The sand was very soft ant the water very good. The bathroom could use a toilet brush as it all doesn’t wash away when flushed. The staff at the bars and the restaurant were very cheerful and always had a smile.

Absolutely stunning!

Since this was my first vacation, I had the most amazing experience! Live music every night and activities during the day was outstanding! Everyone was so courteous and friendly and very helpful and patient considering the fact I speak a little bit of Spanish. Best time of my life so far! Would love to go again

Ok

Staff was super friendly food was bad but rooms were clean entertainment was not very good the pool was cleaned beach was nice had good coffee pretty close to town so that was nice had elevators but were spotty at best not at all a good place for people with handicapped as there were tons of stairs wherever you went you had to climb stairs not a lot of food choices breads were the best on the menu front desk not friendly at all unles you spoke Spanish always had peso on hand I’m use to better  [... read more]resorts but for a mother daughter cheap vacation it was ok if you go without expectations it will be fine also bring food with you three out of five of us got bad bellies

Things are looking up!

This hotel is trying to do it's best to keep up with the other resorts .. This is a beautiful place to go but if you are looking for a 4 + this is not the place for you ... We go there so often because we know what to expect and we rather like it there ... This hotel is really cleaning up as best they can .. It is getting there .. The staff is always amazing and will do the best they can to make you happy .. The food is changing for the better but the dishes and glassware could use extra cle [... read more]aning ... I would like to see new dishwashers come to this resort and not have the waiters wash our silverware where they stand when cleaning off our plates ... The gardens are coming back after the hurricane in Nov. The gardener's are always hard at work rain or shine you will always see them out .. Hard working people in Cuba and the friendliness you will ever meet .. Like I said, if you are looking for a 4+ this is not your resort .. but if you are looking for a quiet and friendly 3* then you found it!

Great place to party

It was a full send kinda resort, brought the group of friends and a whole week worth of booze, and cool bartenders like Santiago. Note food, was edible, but they ran out of hot dogs our week. The food could have been better, but we went for the private villas, and booze.

Great resort

First time to Cuba and loved it, service was good and the pools and villas and over all views were better, some of the furniture in the villas were falling apart like dressers but no big deal your not going there to hang out in the room. Most of the staff was great but some of them looked a little salty if you didn’t tip every time even if you just tipped generously an hour before. Half to say though almost all of them were great in English, no language barriers were an issue. It was a great e [... read more]xperience met some amazing people and the staff was very accommodating to our group ordering lots of drinks and brought them over to our table tray after tray.

Small Comfortable Quiet Resort

This hotel is old but is slowly getting some upgrades...we have been here 21 times and it has been improving over the past 3 years since being purchased by the Be Live Hotels. The people are amazing, the beach is incredible, the accommodations are adequate and very clean. We did have problems with our villa not having any water at all 2 days but only for a few hours at a time....always at the end of the days when people were requiring showers and getting ready to go out for supper. It is at b [... read more]est a 3 star hotel but we love the proximity to the town

Good stay for the price

Hotel grounds were nice but somewhat dated. Rooms are ok. Typical Cuba so it is to be expected. Bathrooms need updating but the A/C was extremely good. Hotel staff were amazing and made the trip worthwhile. Short 25 min walk to downtown Varadero.

8 our of ten

I found the washrooms very small in the pool bar area , I have been at this resort before and would return again. Wonderful staff . Good shows nightly and afternoon I did the tour of Halvana and enjoyed it very much

Loved it all

Everyone was very accomdating..the beach was great and a special thanks to Esnay and Harleys from the entertainment staff. A special thanks to the head chef Mr Boris for our amazing dinner. My only concern was that out rooms air conditioning was not working and flooded our room..but it was fixed quickly

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.

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.

An okay resort

The grounds were great..food not so much..weather fantastic..location was good...Service was great..Bathroom in rooms plumbing very slow..broken hair blower they did not replace..took away did not bring back..

Great resort!

We had an ocean view room that was very comfortable, our housekeeper did an amazing keeping our room clean. The food in the buffet was good, I was surprised because of so many bad reviews on Cuban food. The entertainment was very good, both the afternoon and evening. We really enjoyed pool and the pool bar.

Great Resort

This Resort is nice & clean as the cleaning staff is always on top of the cleaning requirements... The food is good... Various types of Pasta is available for lunch & dinner... Along with Chicken, Fish, etc. and lets not forget the assortment of deserts... Breakfast, there is chefs making fresh Crepe's or Omelets, or if you prefer eggs Your Way... along with the various buffet style foods... (bacon etc.) Also I think it is Very Important to mention that this Resort is on the Beach, unlike [... read more] some Resorts you have to go across the street to get to the beach... There is Nightly entertainment here... The people & staff are VERY FRIENDLY... If you go here Please remember to Tip the Chefs & your Servers... Be kind to them as they work very hard to please YOU...

Good resort

Hotel was good I stayed in a villa which was very nice and well kept. Housekeeping did a good job. Beds were very comfy and thick and no issue with the air conditioning or water. The beach was very nice and close to my room and the hotel. The pool bar had good drinks and the snack bar he my favourite think French fries every day lol. The entertainment was very good and I always had something to eat at the buffet it is cuba. I meet other awesome Canadians Audet and Jan and Dawn who was a sw [... read more]eetheart for coming over to talk to me thanks. Can't wait for the next one in April and a special thanks to my travel agent for all her help and making the travel plans simple and easy thanks Martine Ried from trip central.