Valentin Perla Blanca: Will not be going back....Love Cuba, but wont be visiting this location again.

Not enough variety in food choices, the buffet is too small for the size of the resort. They were always running out of food at the buffet and the wait time was over 30 mins before it was replenished. Buffet and bars were always running out of supplies. Highlights, the staff, weather and beaches were amazing.

Paradisus Rio De Oro: Amazing resort

This resort was truly beautiful. We had an ocean view bungalow with an out door shower which was so unique and totally cool. The ocean was great for snorkeling, saw a lot of pretty fish. The staff were amazing very friendly and helpful. The food was really good with lots of options at the buffet. The entertainment staff were always on the go with games and dance lessons, always a lot to do. The really amazing thing was there was always beach and or pool chairs available and any given time of [... read more] the day. Lots of friendly people to hang out with over a drink and a chat. The shows at night were also very entertaining. Would we go back to this resort...in a minute.

Grand Memories Varadero: Great resort!

This resort is one of the largest I have visited. The grounds were beautiful. Rooms were comfortable and clean. Pool area clean. Dining area was busy (we visited over spring break!) but food was plentiful, there was something for everybody. Entertainment was great. Staff were friendly and helpful. The beach was absolutely beautiful, one of the best.

Melia Cayo Coco: Perfect holiday!

Loved the view from our balcony on the lagoon. Very peaceful and could watch the sun rise and sunset over the water. The food was EXCELLENT. Staff lovely. I can see why so many people return to this resort year after year.

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Beautiful

The resort itself is beautiful! The rooms are dated. Do not upgrade not worth it! The food was ok (it’s Cuba) The hospitality was great. Overall great resort. Just need to focus more on the rooms - hard to get clean towels etc Travelled Feb17-24 Would return again

Iberostar Selection Holguin: Beautiful Resort

Vacationed Feb 17- 24 , 2020 ....Beautiful Resort, We stayed in building 26 which was close to beach, pool and kids splash pad area. About 4- 5 min walk to the buffet. loved the beach and our Maid was outstanding. Could not book one alacarte for the week unless we took a 9:30pm , which is not suitable for anyone I would think and we had small children. I have been to a few different resorts in Cuba and have always been able to get pizza and fries, this resort had neither. One would think  [... read more]when a resort is promoting a great resort for children they would certainly have pizza and fries. Cereal for children was only available last 2 mornings. The food at buffet was pretty much same every night. I have had much better in a 3* for an Iberostar I was disappointed.

Royalton Hicacos Resort and Spa: Great Resort

The grounds were beautiful, as was the beach. Food was good. Buffet got a little old, but there were lots of other restaurants to try. Enjoyed all the a la cartes that we tried. Staff was mostly friendly. Rooms were clean and nice and cool. Would definitely go back.

Valentin El Patriarca Varadero: Beautiful resort.

The first time I went to this resort, it was a year old. It was a fresh beautiful resort but after 3 visits the resort rooms need to be updated. The grounds are still as beautiful as it was or more... Public bathrooms are impressively clean. The staff, are the most kind. The cleaning of the rooms should step up a bit...they never mopped up the floor for 7 days. The towel system is bad, you have to wait for the cleaning person to change your towels and that usually happens late morning. T [... read more]he walkway tiles around the lobby, restaurants and ect.. need to be changed to a rough type of titles because I've experienced and seen people slip after it rained. In several occasions, I went to the front desk to ask them to put a sign at the entrance. The beach is beautiful! But I think it should be swept daily, not every 2or3 days. The entertainment is really poor compared to the early years. Overall this resort is beautiful and I'd go back in a heartbeat. 4+

Paradisus Princesa Del Mar: Beautiful resort but needs some work

Lovely resort but showing a bit of wear and tear, videos and pics are misleading. They showed the royal section which is only available if you book it, otherwise you are on the crowded side of the resort. Room was clean and chambermaid was lovely and always greeted us with a smile. The room was musty when we turned on the AC. The bathroom fan was broken. But otherwise quiet The sand fleas /no see ums were horrendous, I counted 150 bites on one of my husband’s legs and he had to visit the hospi [... read more]tal upon our return. 1 month later and we still have signs of the bites. The beach is gorgeous, no aquatic life so don’t bother with your snorkeling gear, but don’t forget bug spray and wear it at all times, as the resort doesn’t appear to fog or spray. So stay off the grass as the bugs hide out there. This is my 10th time to Cuba so I am not new at this but I have never seen bug bites like this in my entire life. I enjoyed the entertainment and had a great time at the piano bar for karaoke the lovely lady who plays the piano and sings is great, so were the guests that sang. The food was alright, no complaints, it’s Cuba not Mexico. Occasionally the odd bar would run out of things like tonic water etc so they need to refine their supply chains. The 24 hour had no food one night, how does that happen? All in all the weather was good, most of the staff we encountered were kind and helpful, but varadero is just different compared to guardalavca where we have been in the past. I spoke to other Guests who had been there previously and noted that things have gone down quite a bit. If they fixed everything up along with supply issues maybe fixed all the facilities and make use of all the empty hot tubs around the resort it could go up a star rating but it’s definitely not 5 perhaps 3.5 star The royal section is lovely and so are the pools but I wouldn’t pay what I paid To return. If you get a good deal then go, but make sure your room is what you paid for, my friend had to switch 4 times because things just didn’t work or were broken.

Iberostar Selection Holguin: Amazing time

Couldn’t of been happier with our stay here! Amazing staff! Entire resort was spotless and clean! The pools and beach were incredible and well taken care of Very happy customers....Heather our travel agent was great and helped us when we needed it!

Hotel Roc Casa del Mar: Just OK

First off, we are not all-inclusive people. We went to one in Punta Canta about 12 years ago, Dreams in Cabo for a wedding in 2016 and before that visited a kid-friendly resort in Jamaica called FDR for 6+ years back in 1999. We went away in February because both of our kids were in uni and had Reading Week. After I had decided on this trip I then realized it was a very expensive time to travel south. I picked Cuba because it was economical, and I chose Ocean Casa del Mar for its beaches. We ha [... read more]d always been told the food was not great at Cuba resorts, but we figured everyone has different expectations and we were there for family time and relaxing on the beach. Although we had read up on Cuba, we were not prepared for needing to bring cash. All other trips we have taken, we have been able to order the country’s currency ahead of time and bring it with us. We thought once we got there, our credit card, plus an ATM would suffice. I don’t need to get into detail, but between the 4 of us, we had absolutely no cash until we were able to exchange at the hotel “bank” after 1pm the following day, and the exchange included a hefty service charge. SO BRING CASH! We arrived at night and in typical resort hotel style, one of our 2 rooms could not be found. Luckily they had no problem finding us a room, but they were in separate buildings. We were told to come back in the morning and they would try to get our rooms closer together. We were pleasantly relocated to the same building and floor. Many people said to choose at minimum a 5-star hotel in Cuba. This was a very tired hotel. Horrible pillows (and they had a musty smell), the drawers did not work well and the patio door almost took my back out every time I had to open it. We were in multiple rooms, since we had 2 and moved from buildings 2 & 8 to building 1. Eight was considered a “privilege” building because it was the closest to the beach, but since the beach was not really visible from the resort, that didn’t mean much. We expected a little more — especially when our towels would not be exchanged for fresh ones — even when left on the bathroom floor. That really grossed me out because we would use our towels after showering to wring out our bathing suits and stuff. Even when we dialled “5” for housekeeping (like we were told to do if we needed anything), nothing showed up. Even though they didn’t change our sheets daily (I don’t mind that), please change the towels! Once my daughter asked for clean ones as we were leaving our rooms. The room had been cleaned, but the towels were wet. He basically took their wet towels went around the corner, refolded them and gave them back. If you aren’t going to change towels daily, just let us know, and we will hang them up to dry. We were each given a beach towel in our rooms to be exchanged for clean ones. I like that idea in terms of conservation, and people being less likely to claim beach chairs with towels and never come back, but the cabana where they were stored was either closed or didn’t have clean ones, so we didn’t really get to exchange those much either. I’m sure most resorts have that problem with beach towels. As stately earlier, the beaches are beautiful. You had to get out to the beach or pool area early to secure your spot, and quite a few of the beach chairs were cracked or broken. Why not remove them? There was a good selection of free, non-motorized water equipment like paddle boats, kayaks and hover cats and the marina staff were awesome. Food & drinks. Let’s start with the drinks. We found one really lovely waitress who remembered our drinks from the night before. She came over as soon as we sat down and asked us if we wanted them again! In general, we found going up to the bar to ask for a drink other than beer was a crap shoot. There were cocktail menus everywhere, yet other than the one night of true mojitos, (I was told no to a mojito the first night we got there) anytime I asked for a specific drink, they basically made what they wanted and gave it to you. I understand that some ingredients might not be available, I’m no diva, but one time we went up to the bar, asked for 3 different drinks, and all received the same type of drink! They ran out of white wine and cola while we were there. After a few days of drinking stuff I didn’t ask for, and didn’t enjoy, I stopped drinking during the day and just had red wine at dinner. The food — we were warned, multiple times, but we thought people exaggerated. I realize they are limited in variety, but I found the buffets extremely wasteful, repetitive & slightly bland. We went into Remedios one day and had a wonderful meal. So we know there is the possibility of good food, it just isn’t at the resorts? Mike’s Cafe had great coffee and my son loved their iced Cuban coffee. We hired a wonderful taxi driver named Eduardo to take us into Remedios for the day. He was our own private tour guide, giving us little history lessons along the way. He seemed to know everyone and took us to the Church of San Juan Bautista where we were given a tour by a very proud & funny church administrator. We went to the open air market, our son decided to get a haircut at the local barber and we had a lovely shrimp lunch at an old hotel. The staff were a range of really helpful & kind, to indifferent. The staff in the buffet area were wonderful, always making sure we had enough to eat & drink. The second day of being seated by the same waitress, I was greeted with a kiss! One waiter always shook our hands. The kindness & hospitality of the majority of the staff definitely balanced the scales, but I really did not like feeling obliged to tip for everything. You could tell some staff just expected it. Again the all-inclusives we had been to in the past we would tip our room staff and tipped for things done beyond the ordinary. There were shows every night and although we did not hang out by the pool during the day or by the main beach bar, the entertainment staff seemed really into making sure people were having a good time. I am back home and reading through reviews of people who were there at the same time as we were, and of people who have been to Cuba multiple times —and we have very different sometimes polar views. In the end it boils down to what you consider important and what you don’t. So I have tried to give a fair review of our experience, so those reading can decide for themselves. Hope this helps.

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Good value resort

This hotel offers many features for teen-twenty year old families. Many sports, games, dancing at disco, nightly show performances and the best beach in Cuba. Victor leads the entertainment team well and interacts positively with guests. Maintenance falls a bit behind lately as some signs of wear but the resort itself overall is good.

Valentin Perla Blanca: Great resort

The hotel outside on the grounds definitely needs some maintenance and repairs, pools were both large and well maintained. Food was ok(but you know that in Cuba), hard to book a la carte restaurants. Rooms were very nice, clean well decorated.

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Good resort

Friendly personnel, beautiful landscape, good food and amazing beaches. The availability of using the non-motorized sport equipments is a nice feature. Rooms and bathrooms are spacious. The towel service may need an improvement. The boardwalks need better maintenance.

Gran Muthu Cayo Santa Maria: Nice resort!

Resort was nice, nice beach nice pool. Rooms need a little upgrade. The pillow is paper thin and I found bugs in my room. Found a cockroach as big as my palm aswell. Overall other then that the staff were nice

Valentin Perla Blanca: Best resort in Cayo Santa Maria Cuba!

Stayed in the Privilege Garden view junior suite bungalow 27. We were so close to the pool, lobby and, best of all, the gorgeous white sand beach. The ocean was beautiful...turquoise blue. Pelicans diving close to the shoreline as we frolicked in the warm water. The a-la-carte restaurants were great. I especially enjoyed the Spanish restaurant. Even the buffet was well stocked with a variety of different tasty dishes. Our hotel room was spacious and mini fridge filled daily with beer and bot [... read more]tled water. The 30 minute massage was so relaxing I booked another. And the service and attention of the staff was top notch. Will definitely return!

Sol Rio de Luna y Mares: Sol Rio de Luna y Mares

The hotel is a bit outdated ,but very clean . Everything else is beautiful, the nicest beach, the hotel band - outstanding . People are very nice. Definitely will visit again .Thanks for the nice vacation !

Paradisus Rio De Oro: Wonderful resort

This was our 3rd time at paradisus rio de oro and it did not disappoint. We have tried other Cuban resorts and always come back to this one. It is absolutely the best. The people are so friendly and efficient, they make our stay perfect. The rooms are superbly clean, well appointed and bright and airy. The staff goes out of their way to ensure your stay is perfect

Playa Vista Azul: Beautiful resort

Clean and newer resort. Welcoming lobby with view of infinity pool and ocean. I enjoyed the variety of food available from the fresh grilled fish, roasted chicken, stewed beef, pork to the sauteed vegetables and salad bar with fresh lime wedges. There was definitely something for everyone. I completely disagree with comments about food in Cuba being subpar...it is different. Just as Cuban people visiting Canada could say about some of our food. I thoroughly enjoyed trying new dishes and app [... read more]reciated the cultural diversity. We made the decision to upgrade to privilege. We thoroughly enjoyed the privilege restaurant for breakfast and lunch and the butler who made reservations for us in all the a la carte restaurants. The privilege pool was a quiet Escape.

Melia Marina Varadero: Amazing Overall Experience

Hotel met our expectations, food and drinks were so good, pools and beach is absolutely amazing. Except for the overly late waiting for our room, we will still recommend this property to all our friends, families and colleagues.