Starfish Jibacoa: Third time not so lucky

This was my third visit to Tropico (Villas Jibacoa) April 15-22. While I did see some improvements around the resort, I also saw some declines. We were in Bungalow 19, which is a great location and close to everything. The bed was comfortable and the room was clean, although it did need some TLC (huge stain on the ceiling, AC leaked, duct tape across the top of the door.) This did not make or break the holiday, however my husband was sick for 5 of the 7 days and ended up on antibiotics. El  [... read more]Medico was excellent and the cost very reasonable. I did find a decline in the food. While I always found something as I am far from a picky eater, when the doc says to my husband, no fish, no pork, no beef, and no eggs . . . there isn't much left. He ate rice and toast 3 meals a day for 5 days. I found the food was the same every day for lunch and dinner. There should be a bit more variety. My biggest concern was the number of locals at the resort. I do not begrudge a local resident a visit to the resort, however, they took over. As paying customers, we were treated as an inconvenience. It was very disheartening for me as I truly did like this resort. When the extended local families arrived, the music was turned up, the staff catered to them, and we were left feeling that we were an intrusion. When there are families of 8, 10+ people, it was difficult to find a chair by the pool, or a table in the dining room. Anyhow, with the exception of the repetitious food and the influx of locals, I enjoyed my stay. Not so much for my husband. Due to these two issues, I would hesitate to recommend this resort to anyone.

Grand Memories Varadero: 7 days at Memories in Varadero, Cuba

My wife and I travelled to Memories Varadero with our 2 young boys for 7 days (April 17-24). While we enjoyed ourselves overall, here is the feedback for this hotel. The room was very dated and unkept. They still have old tube tvs. Our room was very dirty: the shower curtain was black with dirt and mold, the pillows were filthy, the toilet didn't flush well, the patio door was held closed by a simple chain, the sink drain was backed-up so the water stayed in the sink after we washed our hands or [... read more] brushed our teeth. The grounds were generally well kept. There were always workers either planting or weeding. The activity pool however was very dirty. There was a lot of dirt and dust as well as lots of cups floating inside. We booked through Sunwing and was also very dissappointed with the Sunwing rep in Cuba as she never had time to talk and always walked away during mid conversation. We selected this hotel because we got a good deal however I would not go back to this hotel.

Club Kawama: Charming resort!

Note: this is the first time that I have experienced a tropical all-inclusive resort. Overall, my experience was fantastic!!! Club Kawama was very charming with an authentic Cuban feel to it! It was in a very picturesque setting and enjoyed the many attractive outdoor areas on this resort! It felt like paradise!!! And the beach was amazing!!! The room suited our needs. Thankful that there was running, warm water every time it was needed. The toilet and bathtub were clean. And thankful that the [... read more] mattress was clean...and was able to sleep well without a pillow.The pillows and curtains need a good cleaning though. The all-you-can-eat buffet was in a very cosy atmosphere with varying choices of food every single day. The food was mostly cold.. though it seems to be a common complaint at every resort in Cuba...regardless of the star rating. Everyone there was doing their best to make our experience satisfying. The hotel staff did their best to make our stay enjoyable. Everyone was good to us there...from the moment that we arrived until the day of departure! Appreciated everyone's good efforts at Hotel Kawama for us to experience a fantastic first-time to Cuba!!! In the future, when I will consider another vacation to Cuba, I will return to this resort in a heart beat!!

Muthu Playa Varadero: May as well book your trip in the ghetto! Worst hotel ever!!!!!

I stayed at Hotel Playa De Oro from April 15-22/2017. I have been to cuba 2 other times at different resorts and decided to take my 5 year old daughter to Cuba Varadero for her 6th birthday. Not only was this the worst resort I have EVER experienced, we were treated with the utmost disrespect. This hotel is rated by Air Transat Vacations as a 4 star. I feel completely deceived by Air Transat Vacations for telling its customers this hotel is rated a 4 star, when I would not give it a 1 star. Plea [... read more]se see below the issues I experienced on my $1,900 vacation for just myself and my 6 year old daughter. Please keep in mind that I am not a prissy, nit picking traveler and always make the best of it, but this was unacceptable. 1. The staff was rude, disrespectful. Staff would ignore you, roll there eyes at you and make you wait for 30+ minutes for food or drinks on a daily basis.Staff put no effort into having quick service, or any service at all for that matter! We were treated as a nuisance every single day by mostly all staff and weren't even given the basics . 2. When arriving at the hotel, staff did not greet us and had us wait over an hour to get our room key at 11pm at night. There was no priority for children even though I was part of the kids club with Air Transat. They put us in a room with no working TV, no phone and dirty bed sheets that smelled like sweat. The room was filthy and not cleaned. The towels had stains and also smelled like sweat. 3. The hotel did not have hot/warm water and we had to shower with COLD water the ENTIRE week and so did everyone else in the resort. That was the worst part of our trip. I'd say. 4. They would not bring us toilet paper or clean towels after asking. We were left with no towels and toilet papers for days. They just never came!? 5. There was barely no phone service, no working hotel phones, and no WIFI. The WIFI cards that were purchased also didn't work. 6. There was 1 buffet in the lobby that was way over packed. I would wait over 30 minutes for basic eggs. There was no bacon, no sausage, and the scrambled eggs were always with filled to the top of the container with water. There was no options for food other than waiting for fresh cooked. The dishware was dirty and would find lipstick regularly on the utensils or glasses. They reused plastic cutlery as we would also find lipstick on the plastic cutlery. 7. The snack bar: It had a beautiful menu with several food options. NONE of them were EVER available the entire week other than hot dogs and ham sandwiches. The breakfast in the buffet at the lobby ends at 11am and if you miss it then you are stuck eating hot dogs or ham sandwich for breakfast. They do not service with French fries, it is services with soggy chips every single time. It was the worst snack bar I have ever experienced at any Cuban resort. We essentially lived off hot dogs because that is all you can get at off schedule buffet times. 8. A La Cart options: The food offered at the A La Cart restaurants was ALWAYS cold and was the exact same food served at the buffet. Extremely disappointing. The staff also booked us for 2 instead of 4 and then made us leave the restaurant because the staff made the error. They did not make place for us. Horrible. 9. The swim up bar and fountain advertised in the Air Transat ad is not functional. They will not serve you at the swim up bar, infact they will give you a dirty look and make you get out of the pool to be served. 10. None of the staff spoke English, including the health care center. My daughter had sun stroke so I took her to the hotel nurse to get some fever medication. I CLEARLY asked for fever medication ONLY. She didn't speak any English whatsoever. They could not take her temperature because they said the thermometer didn't work, tapped her stomach. She then gave me a bill for $150 Canadian dollars and ordered Ibuprofen, stomach medication, and ANTIBIOTICS? They ordered the medication without my permission then slapped me with that bill. I told them I did not want to give my daughter all of that medication and they became upset with me. It was a nightmare! 11. As Canadians we believed we could trust the hotel staff. We believe the hotel exchange rate would have to be followed accordingly. We did not know much about the Cuban Peso and didn't research the exchange rate before leaving as we trusted the staff would treat us fairly. We received $60.00 peso's back for our Canadian $100.00. We were deceived and stolen from regarding $$ and completely taken advantage of by the hotel staff. On our $100.00 we should have received over $1000.00 peso's in return!!!!!! I am only realizing this now that we are back. 12. To top it all off, Air Transat cancelled our flight to pick up Quebec residents instead of fly us out to Ottawa as scheduled during the evening and we were forced to stay another night in this horrifying hotel. Our flight was then delayed again at the airport. *************In conclusion this was the worst hotel I have ever been to in my entire life. Air Transat completely deceived all its customers by rating this a 4 star resort. This hotel should be rated 2 or less. It was horrible but the customer service was even worse than the hotel. This was a waste of my money and vacation. I will be leaving this review as many places as I possibly can to prevent from anyone else having to experience the horror we did.

Melia Las Americas: excellent resort-people very friendly-clean-activities were outstanding-room was exceptional

there was a variety of food with tastes for everyone the staff was very friendly & helpful and we wanted for nothing the room was outstanding and far above our expectations next vacation to Cuba will be at Melia Las Americas for a longer stay

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Resort was excellent

The resort was excellent. This is probably one of the better places I have personally stayed at in Cuba, during my six trips. The bathrooms were nice and clean, the room was very spacious and we upgraded to an ocean view, which was more like a pool view but it was really nice anyway. The food was also as good as food in Cuba can be. The restaurants were disappointing. After one reservation we wanted to cancel the other reservations but went a second time as well which turned out slightly be [... read more]tter but other than being served was probably same or lesser quality food than the buffet. Surprisingly there were some sauces to flavour the food. I had brought my own hot sauce but didn't end up having to use it. Overall nice resort, good food for Cuba and would definitely recommend it. Thanks to Michelle who helped me book it and helped me to choose this one over Iberostar Varadero. Payam

Roc Arenas Doradas: Okay resort beautiful beach

Resort was okay. Beach is gorgeous. Food was okay as well, we were able to find things we liked and stuck to them all week. The service in the buffet was disappointing. Dirty dishes would mount up on the table before they would clear them and rarely took a drink order. Pool area was nice, lots of lounge chairs, music playing, good and fun vibe. Rooms were very outdated. Beds and pillows AWFUL! Beds hard and springs sticking out and pillows were ridiculouslying flat, couldn't even call  [... read more]them pillows. Maid service was so so. If your looking for a nice beach and a place to relax and chill it's an okay choice but if your a foodie and need an actual pillow to have a good night's rest you might want to consider a different resort.

Starfish Varadero: Beautiful resort in need of repair

This is an older classic resort with many features and buildings that need a lot of repairs and maintenance. The staff are mostly friendly and helpful and the rooms are comfortable yet somewhat dated as the resort was built by the Americans before 1959. Since you are getting such a great deal on the all-inclusive package, you will have a great time exploring, relaxing, and enjoying the all you can eat food and beverages (food is good and healthy but not memorable). The beach is so beautiful t [... read more]hat you will think that you are dreaming when you see it for the first time! And make sure that you check out the excursions which are offered at the Hotel (or beforehand) by Sunwing's Nexus tour partner.

Gran Caribe Sun Beach: Loved the entertainers!

The pool needs serious upgrades, elevator stopped working a couple of times throughout the week we were there. As with anywhere you travel; some of the staff were friendly, courteous, and helpful....others not so much. Location I found too smoggy therefore would choose not to stay in town in the future. However met alot of great people, went dancing at the downtown nightclubs (pro about staying in town),and had a blast! The food was healthy, loved the restaurant staff.

Melia Marina Varadero: Perfect to relax

Amazing. Food is great, rooms are clean, resort is large, and the drinks are strong. The only thing I wish they improved was their beds. Their pillows were very flat, it might be a good idea to bring one. Additionally, it is hard to get new towels, I would also bring one with you.

Punta Peninsula Varadero: Great resort, but needs some cleaning up!!

The Blau Marina Resort has gone down hill badly since we stayed there 14 years ago! The staff is still friendly, the beach awesome, the food ok, but the rooms needed a good cleaning, the sheets were scarce, the bugs were on real. ( we are still dealing with many bug bites each!) The nightly entertainment was fabulous! One thing I noticed was the cooks were using the same tongs to handle cooked and uncooked meat, without washing in between. The ice cream scoop was always a mess, no running wa [... read more]ter here and scoop was broken. We missed eating lunch at the pool side grill as it was closed for repair. Clean beach towels were impossible to get, so used same one all week. We were happy to have a late check out for 25 CUC. The marina across the street was a great place to spend an afternoon and enjoyed the double decker bus a couple of times. We will likely not return to this resort, and we have stayed at many, so are aware what is the norm!!

Grand Memories Varadero: Beautiful beach😀

Our stay at grand memories in varadaro Cuba was a mixture of good and bad, the beaches and pools were great, there was never any toilet paper in the bathroom and the service at the bar was very poor always pushing you from place to place to get drinks, the reason in going to this resort was because my mom stayed at the sacuary part 6 weeks prior to taking us and had a wonderful trip, the rooms and service were awesome. However the grand memories was not so great, the food was good if you could g [... read more]et a server at the buffet to get your drinks to go along with your food, we also seen sercuity guards stealing towels off the chairs on the beach that people had put there to save there seats and people would have to pay $20 to replace the towels that there staff were taking. We wanted to take the double decker bus into town one day and a worker told us to wait here, the bus stops here, he reached into his pocket and gave us all a bracelet that his "wife" makes so we all gave him a tip and we waited for the bus, only to miss it because the bus did not stop there. 2 days later he tried to pull the same stunt on us and we just kept walking to where we were told to wait for the bus and he mumbled something in Spanish. It is a very large resort I think around 960 rooms and they did not have enough staff to keep it running properly. We went to complain to the lady in the customer service room and she even told us she has been there for 18 years and she was planing on quitting herself, that's how bad it was 😐

Melia Marina Varadero: Amazing resort

Remember that when in Cuba you are in Cuba, not some rich country where they have everything, but a place filled with very friendly hard working people. We were really impressed by the resort. Very clean room and friendly staff. Buffet has plenty of choices. The view on the marina is beautiful. Beautiful beach. Sunwing rep was extremely helpful. No complain at all. Simply awesome 7 days.

Melia Marina Varadero: A good time

I like the hotel but needs a bit of reno. Staff was great. Food was great. The restaurants were good except we were very disapoint from the Asian Restaurant which was not what the menu presented and the staff never smile or interact with us. Italian and Mexican resto were good. Beautiful place My only thing is that the beach is far and we had to cross over a highway.

Melia Marina Varadero: Worst resort

We have travelled over 15 places in past 8 years and this resort was the worst so far. We arrived there at 11 am and we had to wait for the room till 5:20. Front staff was very rude. Resort is very run down. Sheets smelled like pee and they were smaller than the bed. Food was really bad. With two kids it was the worst experience. Al cart was only allowed 3 nights out of 7 which I have never seen before. Resort was over crowded so Buffett we always had to wait in line. Will never go there again.

Club Tropical: Tropical hotel

Hello my booking with plane was amazing élite plus always for me thanks But as for the hotel I got hungry often and lots of kids but as for service it's ok they ran out of sandwiches often that's the only thing available between kitchen hours no fridge in room no water either but am please with my vacation thanks

Melia Marina Varadero: A good resort for Cuba!

Alright, so going to Cuba, I was warned about the food and I was told not to expect too much of anything. I got to Cuba and I was very pleasantly surprised! The food was good (considering it was Cuba), the resort was big and very beautiful and the rooms were good. The problem was that our room was never cleaned, the first day we put out the "please clean room" sign, and they did it, so we told the reception and they said the next day they would make sure to clean it, but they continued to skip o [... read more]ur room, that was the disappointment I had with this resort. I was also worried because I was told the beach was across a bridge from the resort, but trust me, the walk is really not far and the beach is so much fun and its filled with activities!

Club Kawama: Poor

Pool and beach was ok but room was dirty and old. Service was poor no smile. Never have change. Show was good when done by exterior group. Did not explaine how restaurant reservation work and all service at arrival..............................................

Memories Jibacoa: Fourth time just as good as the first time.

My wife and I just finished a week at this Resort. We keep going back because the staff is wonderful. On this visit, it was by far the best buffet we've ever had. There were actually several meals that we would recommend. And because the resort is not overly large, we did not feel there were guests crawling on top of guests.. There was always room at the restaurants and on the beach. Highly recommended.

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Hit and miss

Pros: beautiful beach with lots of room (sand) and plenty of shade. Even if you arrived around 10 a.m Food: flavorful and quite the variety Beautiful country Ability to truly relax Feel very safew travelling off resort. Cons Resort quite large and maybe not enough staff Bathroom a bit inconvenient if you spend your time at beach. Closest one by pool and it was out of service our entire week as were other washrooms on resort. Bathrooms other than in your room often lacked toilet pa [... read more]per, soap or paper towel so make sure you bring plenty of packs of tissue and hand sanitizer. Our room had issues, first toilet didn't flush and then once it was fixed, it would constantly rUn once fixed. It took 2 more days for that to get fixed. Safe was closed when we arrived but they were quick to send someone up to open. Downfall was you had to be in room when they opened safe even though we hadn't put anything in it. Bar fridge didn't work, took 4 days before it was fixed. Overall lots of small things needing repairs for example locks on bathroom stalls Need to remember supplies are limited and countries standards are a bit lower than ours.