Interesting

This was my third stay at the Palma Real. I have been to Cuba many times and don’t expect nor go looking for anything extravagant and welcome simplicity. I don’t mind this hotel for its location as it’s close to many amenities. The walk to the beach is not too far and it’s beach bar is pleasant and offers the drinks I wanted. The snack area there is also very nice. Probably the nicest bartenders and servers from the whole hotel were at the beach and snack bar. Unfortunately, the food [... read more] at the beach was not great. Although is free to the hotel guests, the bread/buns were so stale that it wasn’t edible. The rooms are aging but quite comfortable if you were lucky enough to have the air conditioning working properly. The rooms have refrigerators but again, you’re lucky if they actually work. The grounds are very well maintained and workers are out there every day attempting to keep it clean and tidy. The staff are quite helpful and pleasant. The food was good and plentiful unless droves of locals came to stay for a few days (which is their right because it is their country) but then there was slim pickings left for anyone else and lineups to get into the dining room. Garbage just tossed onto the ground and in the pools rather than into the trash which was readily available. Some are very bold/rude when there are lineups at the bar. Many times they were served before anyone else because they pushed through people. Very little manners or respect for others staying at the hotel. After three straight days of that, I was a bit fed up but then they left and things were back to normal. In saying that, not only locals were rude. Other groups of tourists staying at the hotel were beyond obnoxious. These people were also pushy and had no regard for anyone else. Blasting their music in the lobby for everyone else to suffer through. I don’t go to Cuba to listen to Russian Techno or French Canadian whatever it was but sure had enough of it by the time I left. Nobody could sit and have conversation over a drink at night because of other tourists and their behaviour. Glad they were having a great time but for everyone else it was over kill. None of that was fault of the hotel though. My biggest complaint when it comes to the hotel itself would be the terrible condition of one of the pools. Filthy and dirty. Literally falling apart. Mouldy and just plain gross. The hotel needs to fix this pool or shut it down because it’s a safety hazard! Would like to return to the hotel again sometime in the future but at this point I’m not too sure. All in all, I really liked my stays there including the staff but after this time I’m not sure if I will chance returning in the future. 🙁

We love Palma Real!

This year was our 4th time to Palma Real. It was great to see returning guests we'd met over the years and awesome to see the employees of the resort. The easiest way to give an accurate review, is to say, 'you get what you pay for'... it's fantastic for us, works with our budget and we definitely love Varadero. It's dated, the food is okay, the bar drink choices are limited and the rooms are satisfactory...but for our family, it's what we can afford. It's walking distance to fantastic entertain [... read more]ment and the markets and the ocean is a two minute walk. The best thing about the resort is the staff, they're awesome

Home away from home

Party resort for sure from morning to morning. It never ends. Not a family resort. Stop bringing kids. Specially in the swim up bar. Im still gonna smoke, swear and drink and be as wild as i want. Sucks for your kids to see but get the OUT of the ADULT pool. 🙃 Their is a kids pool for a reason. we had a lot of cubans staying same time of us which was pretty annoying cause they get all the attention. The staff are amazing and make you feel just at home. They always remember me. The drinks ar [... read more]e strong and tasty but repetitive. The beach is only 5 min walk and is perfect. All white sand and clear blue water. Was quite a few chairs when i was there mid april. Beach is huge, you always get your own spot. Food sucks completely but thats not what i go for. Except the fruits are good. I brought a bag out sauces like ketchup, peanut butter, honey garlic. It all helps a lot. Walking distance to everything cause you're right in town. This was my 6th trip to this resort and im only 20, i go for a good time and big party. My only complaint was all the kids and food. Definitely recommend to come here for a cheap good party.

The good and bad

The grounds were well kept the beach was amazing. The entertainment crew were fun the maids in building 2 were great. The children should NOT be in the pool with the swim up bar. I do not enjoy drinking with children. There are 3 other pools they can have fun and splash in who wants to party with their babies? It should have an age limit.

Going down hill....

Stayed at this resort 5 times. Grounds are beautiful. Beach is incredibly beautiful. Food is awful, same thing served all week. Dishes are filthy dirty. Staff is so so The swim up bar should be adult only !!!! Kids using seats for diving boards while splashing pool water in your drinks.... PARENTS TAKE YOUR KIDS TO THE KIDS POOL !!!!!!!! A lot of locals stay there.. Staff cater to them first... Pay the extra and stay somewheres else ..

My 2nd home

We just spent the week of 13-20 at the palama, we absolutely love it here. The staff acknowledged us and know who we are, our rooms in building 2 fantastic! Entertainment team, swim up bar team even security amazing. The food wasnt good at all ate off resort alot which we didnt like. The swimup bar needs to be kid free it serves alchohol and too many kids splashing and shouldnt be in that pool. We didnt like that the Cubans staying on the resort butted infront of us or we would all be standing w [... read more]aiting for the pork/beef to cook and one would walk up the cook gave them the entire plate full leaving us to wait in line longer. There was barely plates clean or food even my friend was helping clean tables a few times. The staff always made us feel welcome and brought us flowers and even had a table ready for us everyday! We will be back we love the palama just need some Canadian choices please. Love the Canada squad xoxo

Good resort

rooms where ok clean front lobby bar was good service, the food at the main buffet was ok not great but could find something to eat .tried the Italian restaurant enjoyed that .the pools appear to be clean .would go back again if the price was 700.00 or less

Location is key!

I was very pleased with this resort. When I arrived, I was greeted with a smile and was able to get access to my room right away (got the at 11 am). The rooms are a good size. There were minimal food options, but when in Cuba!! It is only about a 5 minute walk from the Beatles bar which is exactly what I wanted.

Reasonably Decent for Cuba Standards

The grounds/gardens were lovely and maintained]\ The grounds, gardens, public areas were good, maintained. A little bit of a walk to the beach but I was fine with that as the beach was beautiful with the unfortunate exception of tourist littering despite plenty of garbage receptacles available. Room was okay for Cuba as I had to be reminded of that, very old and would have liked maid service to be of better quality. Disappointed th [... read more]at although there was a coffee machine in the room, there was no coffee. Dining was reasonable, managed to find enough to eat despite food allergies, kind of lacked variety from day to day. I would have preferred a commercial toaster as I had brought my own bread which needs to be toasted, so I was disappointed and surprised about that as they offered a variety of fresh breads/buns. Hospitality/service staff were great, friendly, accommodating, they even replaced my room fridge with one that worked which was needed due to food allergies. Parks, restaurants, bars, entertainment, shopping, etc all within walking distance.

If the price is right

We arrived late at night and our room had no lights. We were told there were no rooms available until the next day and to come back then at 2pm. When we did it took nearly 1.5 hours to straighten everything out. Slightly frustrating at the time. Once that minor inconvenience was taken care of, I had no significant complaints for the rest of the week. The resort is a little run down, but our rooms were cleaned everyday and the air conditioner worked well (but our safe did not at all). Our house [... read more] keeper was lovely. The bartender Tactica at the pool bar is adorable and super friendly! The food is kind of "stereotypical" of what you hear about Cuba but by no means did we starve for the week. The location was great. Very close to downtown bars, restaurants and markets and the beach was very nice. If you want extravagance this is not the place for you. If you want a decent enough room, a good beach to swim, to walk outside the resort, cold drinks and nice people - you'll do just fine. High maintenance folks will likely not be happy.

Great resort for the money

A lot of improvement have been done since last year .The public washrooms were all redone completely and very clean.The room we stayed in was in building #1 with new mattress and newly painted.The pools were always cleaned every morning also with new edging.All the staff were very friendly and eager to help.There is a lot of work in progress.

Great spot!

Had an excellent stay at this resort! Was clean, great location, beach was beautiful, people were helpful and nice. Rooms were upkept everyday. Lots of stuff was going on. Food wasn’t great but it was bad either. Would definitely go again!!!

Good

It was a great vacation...................................................................................................................................................................................

Very very poor

Dear Vicky it was the worst resurt that I have ever seen. Once we arrived no attention lobby in a very poor shape. No indication that we asked to go in our room. Once we did find it it was a dump dirty baseboard eating by bugs the safe didn’t work the door in bathroom would not close and no light in bathroom. Got bug bight. Visited 2 other rooms after the same disaster not one secure safe to put our passport and money. My hubby very hangry and also myself so disappointed. Met with Sunwing age [... read more]nt that was on our time sheet the next day. I was crying just wanted to come home but she did find us a better resort that cost us 20 pesos for the taxi and more then400.00 for a nice resort. I do not mind paying but Vicky told us it was nice. Lots of bed bugs. For the snack they opened at 10pm hot dog and hamburger we were hungry I took a hamburger and the meat was not cooked. The worst experience of our 7 trips to Cuba. The next day taxi and Memories here we come ouf. We did manage to relaxe

Worst resort of my life

Where to begin... Bedroom: no storage space for your clothes; they don't have enough towels in the hotel so we had to share 1 towel for 3 people for the week, refused to change the linens when my son vomited because their washer was broken, all the elevators are broken yet reception refuses to have someone help you carry your luggage... Pool is broken everywhere, alguae in there... Buffet has very limited choices, no fruits... Some of the waiters refused to fill the water bottle. Not at all beac [... read more]h front, like they said - you have to cross 3 avenidas to get there. Beach guy refused to help us get a lounge chair. Beach is dirty with plastic glasses, bottles, etc everywhere - clearly not cleaned. Waiters in the hotel bars prefer to serve the staff (ie cleaning lady and animation staff) before taking your order. The animation isn't too bad, but they have nothing for the kids, no games, no mini disco. The only fun stuff was the aquatic ballet show.

Great Value

This hotel is great value and in an amazing location. It’s just a short 5 minute walk to the Main Street in Varadero. The hotel is clean , has great pools and the staff try very hard It can be loud at night if you are near the Disco but otherwise is quite acceptable. The food is simply typical Cuban fare.

Fun Trip with My Sister

Although I had a great time spending the week with my sister. The resort was nothing to write home about. Extremely dated, and lacked the quality that I thought it would be. Although clean the rooms had holes in the walls and the trim was damaged. The staff was friendly and accommodating.

General resort

As for this hotel the location is awesome close to park beach town markets pharmacy banks car rental scooter rental. As for the rooms it's a bit dated rust an some mould very basic no alcohol in rooms no refills in fridge have to pay for beach towel had some plumbing an hydro issues but expected for an older hotel. Nightly shows very creative the food is good as I'm not one for spicy foods fruits were okay drinks ok didn't do a LA care dinners wasn't advised as to how to book an not always open [... read more]. Pool an swim up bar are great..snack bar was good but very limited. Overall I enjoyed myself an now know wat a 3 star hotel is like an what to expect.

Bad resort

Should have taken into account these poor only reviews before booking...We chose it because it was the cheaêst 3* at that time. Should be 1* hotel. Not worth. Never been in such a lousy hotel since I started to go to Cuba 20 years ago. Does not represent Cuban Turism or Cuba.I usually tip but this time not even once. Grounds: sad, mostly concrete. When raining: super slipery. Someone bleeded and it took them forever to remove the blood on the tiles so gross and lazy employees. Public area: [... read more] not fun just one loby, full of people smoking like hell even when you see the no smokin sign. Not enough space for such a big hotel Bedroom: ugly really stains everywhere missing piece of furniture and small!! Though bedroom was clean and no cucarachas or insects. One poor light for the whole bedroom and in order to have air condition I discovered we have to use the breaker No option for A/C just super col or no AC. After complaining a lot they supply a functional fridge. Only one bottle of water for the whole week for 2 people!!! You have to buy them at the depanneur inside the hotel Service: low quality, the maid for our bedroom was kind of rud and needless. So we asked her to stop coming in our room which was not a big deal since she was just placing our bed. Tip : bring your own bathroom towels they only give 2 tiny ones per bedroom!!! Beach: could add some palapas not enough. Really hard to relax when you are surrounded by russian music drunk russians and smokin like hell Food: cuba's quality so no surprise. But I really did not like when cuban were fighting and grabing food at the buffet as if there was a war. Healthy but poorly educated and arrogant for sure. Solution: to go out to some restaurants outside the resort plenty of choice. Snack bar was running out of lunch food at 12h30!!!...Only one little coffee machine at one lobby bar. Anyway will not go back there, neither to Varadero.

Get what you pay for

We weren’t quite expecting what we got when deciding to stay at Allegro Palma Real. Walking into the loud, smoky lobby at 11pm after our flight was a little shocking, and being brought to a room that had 2 double beds pushed together and cracks in the walls we decided to give it a few days before losing our cool. The next morning at breakfast Osiris and Iedy at the back of the buffet restaurant made it so much better! They were so kind and friendly to both my sister and I that it made us forge [... read more]t that we had been quite disappointed with the resort so far. We of course returned to their section every breakfast and lunch from then on! The pool was also quite good; a few rough patches around the outside that could be mended, but overall well kept and the entertainment each afternoon paired with the swim up bar made for a pretty good experience. Although the beach was across the street (about a 5 minute walk) it was definitely worth it! So beautiful! And the snack bar had decent food & drinks as well if we didn’t feel like trekking all the way back to the resort. The location near downtown Varadero was also convenient to check out different markets and restaurants when we got sick of the resort food (the fondue place was quite good!). We also went to the Italian a la carte on the resort twice, but wouldn’t recommend it - I wasn’t sure what exactly was in my lasagna and the pizzas were made on pitas. Not quite what we were hoping for since the food at the buffet wasn’t wonderful either. The nightly entertainment was quite good as well, though I don’t have much to compare it to! Overall, despite the mediocre food and the not-so-great room, Allegro Palma Real was an okay resort, that I’d be fine with returning to if travelling on a budget again in the future.