Good resort

The resort was nice it was dated but clean the staff were friendly and helpful food was ok a la carte restaurants are nice I wish there were more options to choose from. Beach is lovely too bad we didn’t have beach bar service on the beach or around the pool.

Not a 4+ star resort!

Hotel needs renovating - rooms all need some tlc and the lobby leaks, a lot, when it rains (which it did for several days). Smoking seems to be everywhere, especially at the entrance of the hotel. Had to change both rooms as one A/C very loud and door not locking in one room and toilet not working in the other room. Had to justify why we wanted to change rooms but persisted and got it done. Food is very repetitive and limited for anyone not eating pork or pork products. Dessert and fruits pretty [... read more] much the same every meal. Food at the Mediterranean restaurant is hit and miss but service very good. Don't bother making a reservation for the Cuban restaurant - not worth it! A long walk to the beach but once there, no problems getting loungers. Not all staff happy about you trying to get a clean beach towel even every couple of days. The staff in all areas, for the most part, are very friendly and try their best to make your stay comfortable. The entertainers were very good and the shows enjoyable.The courtesy room for changing in between checking out and leaving is a joke - the worst I've ever seen - just gross! We were lucky to get clean towels only because we were quite friendly with one of the cleaners who happened to see us going to the room. Would recommend it but only after letting everyone know what they can expect. If I do stay there again, it would only be because of the staff as they do try their best.

Good value

The resort was nice. There is one pool and there was lots of seating and cabanas so we were able to have shade when needed. There is a bar right by the pool, and there were some activities each day by the pool. The beach was very nice. There is a bar close enough to the beach to make it easy to get a drink - but I would recommend bringing your own refillable cup. The service was okay, all the staff are friendly with the exception of the woman who books the a la carte. The food was fair, we could [... read more] always find something to eat. The rooms were fair... we had some issues with one of the rooms we booked and had part of our group moved as a result. The location was great!

Good Value Resort

Located on beautiful Varadero Beach. Grounds are beautiful. Well maintained by the gardeners. Rooms are comfortable. Bathroom could use an upgrade. The maid cleaned the room nicely and always provided fresh towels and linen.

Sex and salsa

I thought I would write a book after our stay ( me and the misses of 35 years) The name “” sex and salsa”. It’s an adult resort fill with string bikinis and Latin music. Unlimited drinks great food super beach great pool area friendly bartenders and Cuban entertainment. Well I need not say any more. Try it your self Oops did I mention second honeymoon.

Great value!

Have to admit we had a bit of a rocky start. The man at the front desk was not friendly when we checked in, the room was very outdated and worn (especially the bathroom) and because of the later hour our first meal at the buffet was cold, tasteless and mushy. All subsequent meals at the buffet were much improved, good service and the omelette stations at breakfast were great. The a la carte restaurants were okay, nice atmosphere at all of them and very good service. We ended up having a wond [... read more]erful one week holiday at the Las Antillas. The beach is one of the most spectacular we have ever been on and the pool was large with lots chairs for all. Plenty of palapas on the beach too, but late comers were sometimes out of luck. This was our 11th all-inclusive vacation and many very fancy resorts had inadequate pool chairs and palapas. Our drinks were always cold, even the beer, and well prepared so very happy with that also. We really enjoyed the little beach bar close to the beach and the bartender there (can’t remember his name) gave awesome service! So, despite our rocky start the Las Antillas quickly won us over. Even though our room may have been very worn, the maid service was great, the bed was comfortable, lots of hot water and everything in the room worked perfectly, even the fridge! Would definitely go back if the price remains reasonable, the Cuban people are wonderful!

Great beach! Great staff!

I had been at this resort back in November 2018 and enjoyed myself so much I rebooked & returned April of 2019 and plan to return again. Staff was very gracious and helpful. Melia has continued to invest and improve the resort. A new Health Bar has been constructed, the entire boardwalks to the beach have been replaced and hand railings are being replaced on the balconies. I will be rebooking again to Melia Las Antillas!

Very Nice Resort

The hotel is a bit older, but , the staff are exceptional. Friendliest, safest people we have ever met, all the way down to the gardeners. The housekeeping staff are wonderful, the bartenders are friendly and accommodating. The Buffett and Ala Carte restaurant staff are friendly and wait on you hand and foot. You cannot ask for better service at this resort. The grounds are kept up and have a lovely view from the lobby bar of the whole resort.

Ok vacation.

Hotel was just OK. Food was always cold at the buffet. Service wasn’t very good. Very clean hotel. Grounds were well kept. Concierge service was good. Always entertainment at night in several areas .

First trip ever!!!!

The people are all so friendly, you just want to take them back home with you to keep them in your life forever. There was a large variety of buffet foods, sometimes not sure what they were but I found the food flavourful. Their bread and cappuccino are very good. We also liked the health bar. Pina colada drink was very good. Our room was clean. No bugs when we visited (March break) The nightly entertainment was very good. Never made it to the disco as we were so exhausted by 11pm. We didn't lik [... read more]e the smell of sewer, not sure if it was the shark pond or if it was their actual sewer system but sometimes we found it very bad.

Awesome trip at this resort

The food was pretty good. The entertainment was great. The grounds were clean. The rooms are basic but big. Only stayed in the room to sleep. Went snorkelling for the first time. The beach was the best!!!

Disappointed, first time writing a poor review.

The grounds are very nice and of course the beach is spectacular as are most beaches in Cuba. We have been to Cuba 13 times and this time we were disappointed. To be more specific, the bathrooms were very neglected. The cleaning staff never properly cleaned the bathtubs and they were very bad. It was not just one room, we were a party of 8 and all 4 bathtubs were nasty. In addition, the service at the main bar was laughable, don't even know where to begin but in a 8 day stay I can honestly  [... read more]say that our order was taken and forgotten over 20 times. The service at the pool and beach bar were excellent. We booked an a la carte and asked if there were vegetarian choices as several of our group are vegetarians. When we got there the only item was a soup, the other item marked as vegetarian had fish in it. We had to leave and go to the buffet. We also had a pair of pyjamas and a camera go missing and unfortunately never noticed until we were home. This resort is on par with a 3 star in Cuba and like I say, we have stayed at many places in Cuba but never again at this one.

OK resort

The resort was dated and tired! We were with a big group one tub was almost rotted through, 2 tubs were black on the bottom, our bedroom had questionable stains on the bench cushions. First night there was no water or air conditioning. It wasn't busy and the staff was friendly enough. Great staff and activities available at the beach!

It was one of the best resort in Cuba

it was well organized .staff were very polite and friendly. but some of place of building were leaking it should be repairs. stuff were very polite and service was excellent .Melina hotel is one of the famous resort in Carrabin sea. we almost try to stay at this resort

Melia Las Antillas

Really enjoyed this resort. Beach is spectacular and the grounds beautiful.The rooms we large and spotless. I was pleased with the meals and choice of food. The workers are very friendly and helpful. The bars were well stocked. My only disappointment was that you had to get to the beach very early (between 6:30 am to 7 am) in order to get a nice lounger.

Not a good experience for me

Stayed February 21-28, 2019 Package - The Level (Concierge service) Our package included 4 a-la-cart meals and a special lobster dinner upon request. Rooms for this package are located on the 4th and 5th floor of the main building. The concierge is located in a lounge on the 5th floor and is generally open from 7am to 7pm, but does close from time to time briefly for the ladies to have their meals and presumably take breaks. The 2 ladies working in the concierge lounge were very nice and it [... read more] was lovely to have all our a-la-cart meals booked for us quite effortlessly. There is also a small bar, a coffee machine, and light snacks for breakfast and lunch up there and a computer you can use to log into the internet if you buy the access card from the main lobby. No wi-fi up there though, only hardwired to that one computer. Room - View from room We got a room on the 4th floor. Although it is technically an ocean view, what you could see from our room was a bit of water pretty far out and we got to look out over the hotel grounds and pool in the foreground. This is because the palm trees have grown quite tall and obstruct most of the view of the ocean. This was totally fine for me and I have no complaint about my view at all. If you want to be able to see more of the ocean, ask for the 5th floor as you can see a bit more with the additional height. Room - Nice touches, or at least, attempts at nice touches that mostly fell a little short. The shower had a retractable clothesline for hanging bathing suits to dry. Well, actually, our room had the hardware for that, but there was no actual line in it unfortunately. There was a double wooden bar mounted out on the deck for hanging things to dry. The bathroom had a bidet as advertised, but the end of the nozzle where the water comes out was crusted with that green corrosion that forms on old plumbing. Electronic safe in the closet, though most other people when we were checking in were receiving keys to a safe, our room had an electronic one. I'm not sure if this was because of the upgraded package we bought or just a fluke. Curtains had extra material around the outside edges so light didn't come peeking in around the sides in the morning :) But there was a giant stain on our curtains :( Bed is locate on one level with 2 steps down to the seating area and balcony. This makes it easier to lay in bed and look out your balcony door at the ground below, which is quite nice. TV had two English channels - CNN and CGTN. Closet had quite a few hangers, iron, ironing board, 2 umbrellas, shoe rack, and a dresser. We also had 2 robes. According to our paperwork there were supposed to be slippers, but we didn't have those. There was also a peg-bar mounted on the wall to allow for extra hanging. Hair dryer mounted to wall in bathroom worked well enough. Makeup mirror mounted to wall in bathroom was fine. Bathroom mirror itself was discolored behind the glass. Honestly, looked like massive amounts of dripping blood. High potential to give nightmares. Bathroom tiles in our room had several holes drilled through. These were mostly filled in with clear silicone plugs. Bathroom had a window of glass blocks to let in light, but could not be opened for ventilation and there was no fan to move air. I was hoping to have a coffee machine and a bit of coffee in the room. Nothing quite as nice as a private cup of coffee on the deck in the morning. There was a kettle and a few packets of instant decaf, no sugar. Our package included 3 bottles of alcohol in the room. We had a bottle of London Beef eater Gin, a Cuban sparkling wine, and a bottle of white Ron Mulata (we asked but were told dark or even amber rum were not available). Plumbing No shock here. I think anyone who has been, or is thinking about going to Cuba knows the plumbing has issues. Our bathroom sink, bidet, and toilet all actually had great water pressure though :) Unfortunately, the shower seemed to have flow restricted as there was very little coming out of there. It probably took me twice as long as necessary to shower each time just because of the lack of pressure to rinse the sand out of my hair. Also, there was a constant trickling sound in the wall of our bathroom that kicked up a notch every time the people upstairs from us flushed or showered. And not the same location as the pipes, because you could hear it coming from two different places. Fortunately nothing was leaking into our space, but I certainly wouldn't want to be around if that wall ever has to get opened up. As for flushing the toilet in our room, if you just pushed the button it did a little rinse, if you held the button down for a few seconds it would get up enough water to do a real proper flush. Main Building The front of the hotel is nothing spectacular, but who cares? That's not where anyone spends their time. The main lobby has the standard beautiful bouquet of tropical flowers. Sadly, as the flowers died they were just left there. They could have pulled the dead flowers out and replaced them with new ones, or even just pulled them out and gotten rid of them, but after a few days the beautiful bouquet was just sad looking. From the main lobby you could look up to each level and there were beautiful trailing vines growing along and draping down from flower boxes. Each level was totally open in the middle with windows that were opened daily to let in fresh air. It was lovely. There is also an ornate staircase going upstairs and a beautiful rounded staircase going down one level to where the restaurants and exit to the pool/beach are located. There are 2 glass elevators located in the main lobby (3 large panes of floor to ceiling glass in a bow out, looking out toward the beach in each elevator). I saw many other comments before going about these being under repair. They were both working-ish when I was there. One had the center pane of glass shattered and the door wouldn't close for what seemed like ages despite pushing the door close button. The other the door started to close so quickly that if there were 2 people trying to get on it would pretty much be guaranteed to start closing on the second person. This second elevator also got stuck on the second floor for a day and a half with the door open and binging incessantly. This was when I was leaving so I have no idea if it ever started to work again. The main lobby bar was easily the slowest service of any of the bars. Much quicker to walk down to the pool bar for a drink and walk back with it, but the lobby bar had actual glasses instead of plastic cups. Also on the main level was a small gift shop, a wicket to exchange money, and a room where you could buy internet cards and 2 computers in case you didn't have a device to use them. The wi-fi only worked in the main lobby area. Almost all the rooms in the main building faced over the inner grounds with an open air hallway running along the front side of the building. When we exited our door to this hall we got to look out over some kind of mechanical area (lots of pipes so I'm assuming water or sewage treatment) and the staff entrance/exit area. I realize this isn't the main view for enjoyment but the issue I had with it is that it was quite noisy in the early morning so I was woken up every day by trucks and people hollering. Grounds There was a winding pond with footbridges going over it throughout the center of the grounds. This was home to several tiny fish, some medium sized cat fish, and two rather good sized sharks. They mostly like to hang out in the shade during the heat of the day but they are quite friendly and swim up to the edges of the pond or circle under the bridges if you pay attention to them. Only drawback to this is that at one end there was a fountain circulating the water (presumably to provide movement and aeration for the fish) and it smelled bad. It's a sulfur smell, like rotten boiled eggs and depending on how the breeze is blowing sometimes you get it all over the pool area too. There was a cute little gazebo that always had a table with a white linen table cloth all set up for a private fancy dinner. I never saw anyone actually use it for anything, it was just constantly set up for nothing. There was mention of a health bar which wasn't open while we were there. We did watch it get built while we were there. There is some tropical landscaping throughout the grounds. I like plants and taking pictures of flowers so this is something I was looking forward to, but I would say they don't waste a lot of time on keeping these plants healthy. There was a large tile checker board (one of the tiles was cracked) and a second large board for chess set up. Only one bench at each location so one participant couldn't sit on their side of the board to consider their next move. There were several hammocks set up between palm trees throughout the lawn area. None were hung level. Pool I burn every time I'm in the sun so shade is very important to me when I go on vacation. There were wooden shade "umbrella" stands around the pool, but not really lots of them, the shade from the surrounding palm trees was limited to later afternoon when the sun was starting to go down. There were some pretty Balinese sun beds around the pool area that you could rent for $20 CUC per day, but I believe only 2 of them actually had a solid material and the rest were just lacy stuff that didn't actually block the sun. There were also 2 hot tubs in the pool area. They were quite small and the water was not really warm. The pool itself is technically 2 pools, but only in that you have to get out of one in order to transfer to the other side. The water is actually circulated between both sections. One side was about chest deep for most folks at one end and maybe waist deep at the other end with two sets of access stairs, and a "waterfall" section in the middle. The other pool was the same on the deep end but had a gradual walk out on the other end for those who prefer to ease into the water. There were no access stairs on this side. Both sides of the pool had tile repairs done rather poorly with mismatched tiles or just a slathering of grout over the bad sections. The grout between the tiles was NOT clean in either section. I've stayed a other resorts where they shocked the pool with chemicals each night to keep it clean, but I never smelled that at this resort and I never saw anyone with one of those scrub brush things to clean anything. I did see several guests removing the plastic cups and straws from the bar out of the pool and taking them to garbage cans, but I never saw a staff person doing that. The pool area was also the location of an open air building that contained a bar, restaurant, and washrooms. The womens' washroom had 3 stalls, 3 sinks, an air dryer for hands, and a papertowel dispenser that never had anything in it. I'm told the men's had one stall and 2 urinals (not sure of the rest). The floor here was completely flooded all day from pool swimmers going in to use the facilities. The restaurant in this area was technically the snack bar, but it was quite formal for a snack bar. There was always servers that would seat you and bring your food and drinks. Over lunch it wasn't snacks any more, it was sit down dining. The bar in this area was the best stocked, even better than the lobby bar but still amber or dark rum were hard to come by. They were VERY generous with the white rum though. Every cup was half filled with white rum, then a bit of ice, then your cola. If you asked specifically for a dark rum, you might even get it, or you might not. I couldn't determine a pattern. There was a hut for exchanging towels by the pool. Other people told me that one day it closed for a few hours when they ran out of towels, and it did close every day at lunch time for an hour, but I never had an issue with getting fresh towels. Beach There weren't a ton of shade huts but there were 3 rows deep. I generally didn't bother trying to get one because they were all claimed by early in the morning. One day, I lucked out and grabbed one as another couple was leaving the beach for the rest of the day. I ended up seated next to a rather large group of locals taking up the next 3 shade huts over from me. It was quite an enjoyable afternoon of chatting, but it does go quite a way toward explaining how hard it was to get shade. After that I took note each day of how many people taking up the shade at our beach did not have wristbands of any kind and had taken picnic lunches to the beach with them. The staff from the hotel was often quite friendly with these folks and I never saw any attempt to have paying guests given priority for use of the shade huts. Also, there were a few garbage cans along the beach but I never saw any staff make attempts to clean anything up. The beach was often quite littered with plastic cups and straws from the bar, and various tissues and cigarette butts. That was a bit of a surprise to me as I have seen other resorts raking their beaches to keep them clean and I never saw that once here. Dining Again, anyone who has been or is thinking about going to Cuba knows you don't go for the food. But that said, this was my biggest challenge all week. From my previous trip to Cuba I had been looking forward to the yogurt more than anything. Sadly, their version of yogurt wasn't the little individual sealed cups I'd had before, here they had large jugs of very watery milk based drink that tasted somewhat like yogurt. The guy that makes your omelette int he morning though was a bright spot in my day. There were actually a few different guys, but one wore all black jacket, pants, hat, and crocks on his feet and he was always really nice - humming and dancing to himself as he made my breakfast every day, and flipping them with great flair :) The main dining hall served the buffet breakfast, lunch, and supper and was quite closed in and noisy with no effective air conditioning. There were a very few tables outside this area and we were only lucky enough to get one once. I could go on about this for days, but I'll keep it brief. I never thought I was a person who cared about table cloths, but it turns out I am. I had an expectation based on previous knowledge of Cuban resorts that there would be table cloths and open air dining and neither of those came true for me on this trip. The painted wooden tables had plastic woven place mats that I never actually saw get wiped clean, just flicked off with the place mat and then the place mat turned over. It was all quite sticky. The tables where the food was set out and the grills were people cooked to order for you were not any better. I saw cockroaches on both those surfaces each and every time I entered the dining hall. Worse than their presence was the fact that nobody seemed bothered by them at all. Just totally normal to have them crawling all over the food tables all day long. Also, I never saw anyone take away any of the food trays, but several times I saw staff come up to them with a plate full of stuff and pile new on top of the old. Hubberz made note of one particular slice of sandwich meat with a distinctive notch out of the corner and saw that exact same piece of meat on the same tray for 4 days. Also, every single thing that came out of that room was so heavily salted I figure it must have been washed in the ocean water, and then sprinkled with a salt shaker after it finished drying. There were 3 a-la-cart restaurants. A Mediterranean place, a place called Romantico, and the Cuban place which was the only open air dining place which doubled as the snack bar the rest of the day. These meals were the only ones that I could actually eat as they weren't salted to death and they were in fact quite good. The enclosed dining rooms did also have very limited seating outside but inside was quite noisy and again, no table cloths, but Romantico at least had linen napkins instead of paper. Entertainment I did enjoy the shows in the evenings and most days I also enjoyed watching the entertainment troop practicing for the evening show. General Melia has a good name, but this particular resort just didn't live up to it. Even small details showed a lack of quality and care, such as the sparkling wine and orange juice in the lobby to greet guest was always warm, never ice in the bucket, or the tiles that needed to be replaced in flooring being done with a completely different colour and finish (brown matte hallway with black shiny tile once every few feet just looks weird). The staff were friendly and helpful when asked for something, the hotel in general just isn't managed well and it really shows. There is a facebook page called "Melia Las Antillas Cuba friends" full of people who seem to love the resort. When we posted a comment on the page outlining some of our experience we were told by other members that you have to just not look around at the hotel, have lower expectations, and only enjoy the people. Overall I would not recommend this resort, particularly as the package we booked was several hundred dollars more than we could have paid to stay down the street at a much better run place.

Beautiful Resort although the rooms need updating

We, my sister and I just returned from a week at the Melia Las Antaillas. We have both been to Cuba 20+ times are we are very familiar with what to expect in Cuba. We Love Cuba! The property is absolutely beautiful and the staff for the most part are amazing. First the cons.... A couple of issues; first when we arrived my sister was feeling very ill and we asked for a room sooner than 3:00 (we arrived at 12:00 noon). Apparently, that was impossible which is difficult to believe based on [... read more] the size of the resort and the number of people we saw there. There are no coffee makers in the rooms as advertised. There is an electric kettle, that's it. We were very disappointed as you have to go to the main lobby anytime before 9:00 am to get coffee which can be a bit of a hike. they could easily set up a coffee station in the pool restaurant as staff are there long before nine setting up. Also Sunwing tell you the bus ride is 25 minutes when in fact it took us an hour and forty minutes to actually get to the hotel. We had to stop at every downtown hotel first. We opted not to go to Cayo Santa Maria this time because of the bus ride. We were very surprised and disappointed to discover the length of time you spend on the bus is actually longer than the Cayo Santa Maria trip. We took a cab to the airport on the way back and yes, we were there in 35 minutes. When I mentioned this to the Sunwing rep she got quite defensive saying, well, we have 65 resorts on Varadero. I understand this I was just pointing out that the information in their package was incorrect. The first room we were assigned had a very strong chemical odour. We emailed in advance of our arrival, both the resort and the Melia head office to express our concerns about cigarette and other odours in the room as my sister is very sensitive. We were promised this would be taken into consideration and we would be taken care of. This was not the case. I was shown three other rooms and all of them had the same strong chemical odour. I spoke with several other people who experienced the same issues and moved rooms several times before they found one they could tolerate. We wound up staying in the first room with the air on full blast to dissipate the smell.the patio door was almost impossible to open and close. The rooms need some updating, the lighting in the sink area is dim at best, the tub is rusty and the grout needs replacing. All that being said we didn't let any of these issues ruin our vacation. I understand they are upgrading the rooms but none of the three I looked at were upgraded. A new health bar was completely constructed and opened while we were there but personally, I think the rooms should be upgraded first before adding additional venues. We tried the specialty restaurants and only had an issue with one, Don Peperone. At Don Peperone the sparkling wine is an extra charge even though it is free everywhere else on the property including at the buffet! The service was beyond slow and we wound up leaving after 20 minutes without even being offered a glass of wine. I take exception to the lobster being an extra charge everywhere on this resort as many of the 4 and 5 star resorts we have stayed at in Cuba include lobster at no additional charge! $20.00 Canadian no less. The Pros... The beautiful property. The amazing staff. The best beach in Cuba. Great food. Great drinks. Direct Flight.Super Clean. Beautiful weather, etc. Would we go back. If you asked us on the first day the answer would have been no. But, having spent the week we have changed our opinion and would definitely go back. Next time we will pack a coffee maker and coffee and we will take a cab from and to the airport!

Very nice people

the grounds were well kept. the cleanliness of rooms was satisfactory meals were a little less than satisfactory buffet was very similar lunch and dinner every day. breakfasts were good. difficult to get a hot cup of coffee, we gave up and had tea. cream for coffee would be a welcome change the sunwing rep was useless, on the two occasions we asked for help no language problems beach and pool were beautiful hotel staff very friendly and helpful

I wish I could get my money back....

Between the mould in ther grout in ther bathroom and in the pool to the cockroaches on the buffet table...... no, just no. I'm not going to babble on about this to make up 200 characters. I just want to forget it.

Big Disappointment

Would not recommend this hotel. Food was good and the beach was nice. Service wasn’t good. Took about half an hour in the lobby bar to get a drink at any given time. Room air conditioning, fridge, and hair dryer all did not work upon arrival. Expected a much better room for price paid. Service in the dining areas was good and the cleaning lady did an excellent job. Only allowed one water bottle per day between two people. Hotel in need of updates.