Very Nice Resort

We very much enjoyed our stay at Patriarca. The resort is well kept, staff are fabulous and they give their best to the guests. The entertainment team are super talented. Shows were very good and the beach/pool staff were fun. Our room was spacious and clean. The food is typical Cuban and again they give the best they can. Oh and the desserts were really nice. I would go back to this resort.

Not great

Resort definitely needs a management shake up. Allowing late check out past check in time isn't cool! Probably 1/3 of their staff actually care about service. Won't be back for sure. More attention to providing a quality product than just doing whatever is the bare minimum you can get away with is how we felt about our stay.

A nice and calm vacation

We had a good time with a variety of activities. Food was OK, not a lot of variety but the quality was good. Service was friendly and consistent. We would come back if we had the chance. The massage at the spa was amazing!

Great beach

The beach was great! However, the resort itself needs a lot of attention. It seems it has fallen into neglect. The rooms are tired and need some attention. For example, our bathroom had mildew at the back of the countertop, and the shower head spewed water over top of the glass door and onto the floor. The food was good. This resort should be downgraded to a 3 star until things are updated and properly maintained.

Would not recommend this resort

The resort could be beautiful if they took the time to upgrade it the rooms were old and dirty no clean towels sheets not changed the whole time received clean towels once never a clean beach towel Staff smoking and on cell phones customer service was not seen The young girl at the inside bar was amazing maybe the only smile we received all week

Great resort!

What a great place! This resort is well maintained and clean. It is not luxurious but very cozy with the friendliest staff. The rooms are nice, equipped with the safe, fridge and coffee machine. We always had bottled water in our room. The grounds are nice with blooming hedges cut into nice shapes. The gardeners are working very hard every day to keep everything fresh looking. There is a buffet that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food is nice with a reasonable amount of food sele [... read more]ction. Fresh fruits and vegetables are on the menu every day. Full roasted turkey and pork couple of days during the week. Fresh seafood grilled for you on the spot and one day we even had lobster for lunch! WOW! And there is the best ICE CREAM which comes daily for both lunch and dinner!...so delicious! :-) There are also 3 different A la Carte restaurants for which the reservation is needed. This is a little bit difficult as the reservation can only be made at 9 am in the morning for the same day and there is a limited seating. People were lining up since early morning to get a spot which is not something I want to do at the resort. We tried only one restaurant. The food was good but we definitely prefer buffet with a wide selection of dishes. There is also a restaurant by the ocean where they serve lunch. There is a pre-set menu of 4 dishes to choose from. One day a week they have a BBQ lunch They served pork, chicken, ribs, salads, soup, desserts and so on ) and there is a live band playing for you. Very nice ambience! I need to mention desserts. We normally do not eat desserts but Cuban cakes are so delicious that it is hard to skip them. Fresh, fluffy, tasty and without artificial flavours. It's a real deal :-) The beach is amazing, sandy with crystal clear water, no seaweed and it's very quiet and relaxing by the ocean! No blasting music. There are enough activities to join for fun time by the pool and also by the ocean. The evening entertainment is awesome. The lady signer was out of this world! The dance group that performs 3 times a week is superb! Their costumes and different choreography are the top notch! There is nothing to complain about. This resort is very good and we will for sure be back!

It was ok. We have stayed at better, in Cuba.

The palm trees, blue skies and Island grounds were lovely. Beach was beautiful. The Resort was spread out so no crowded feeling.There was a good variety of food items. They had various entertainment, most nights, in the Main Lobby which was great. The Disco from 10pm to 1am, every night, was too loud and kept many guests awake, who were trying to sleep. Not enough lounge chairs at the pool but they are ordered and haven't arrived yet. We used wicker, straight-up chairs from the Pool Bar for four [... read more] days until we complained to a Female Rep and demanded to see the Resort Manager. The Female Rep handled it and obtained chairs as the Resort Manager was never 'available'. We gave her a large tip and some Womens Make-up items that we intentionally took there to give to deserving workers. We also gave a tip to the Pool Attendant who kindly saved the chairs for us. The rooms were adequate for holiday needs. We had no 'hot' water but usually warm or cool-to-warm. We are so blessed in our own country! It was nice to get away from the snow. The country is struggling after Covid and doing its best. Let's all be grateful and not grumpy.

Resort

Rooms dead bolt not working,no hot water for 2 days,a lot of bulbs needs to be replaced on entrances and side walks,lighting to dim in rooms..some patio doors broken cannot lock,I came on Thursday and as of Tuesday no clean towels.false advertising on website.had to book a la carts.website said a la carts all day.did not like the food.no face clothes I will come back to cuba but not to this resort. They need to update there website

Mediocre

Was here 3 years ago under Ocean El Patriarca Varadaro and was a bit disappointed this trip. Still advertised no booking for a le cartes which is false. (A main reason I took a group of 15 people 3 years ago) Some facility issues ie: no hot water for couple days, tv didn’t work, no butter, no potatoes or fries, no fish. Pool was pretty dirty. Most days would run out of red wine, gin, vodka, tequila. Next day a few more bottles would appear. Almost like they were rationing them. Rooms real [... read more]ly starting to look tired. Had 10 others join me this time and next years group which will most probably be larger, WILL NOT return. Listed as a 4+ but this trip I’d say 3* Weather was fantastic and the staff were great! Our group overlooked the issues and enjoyed meeting new friends and had a great time together!

Nice Resort with one big problem

We were recently at the Valentin El Patriarca for a two week vacation First the positives. The resort grounds were very nice and well maintained, the beach was absolutely amazing, and the people/staff were very friendly, helpful and worked very hard so that you enjoyed your stay. The room needed some updating. The mattress on the bed was sagging towards the headboard. The first night we slept with our heads at the foot of the bed. The next two nights we were given additional pillows and th [... read more]e mattress was changed for the fourth night. Now for the big problem. We were expecting bland food, but were not prepared for what we encountered. The food was terrible. Here are a couple of examples. The Italian a la carte had no pasta, a ham and cheese sandwich had no ham or cheese, but was a weiner between two pieces of bread, I observed staff watering down milk because of shortages, they ran out of butter for bread after the first week. The deal breaker was when we saw cockroaches crawling the food at the buffet. The buffet was repetitive and seldom varied the menu. Even the scrambled eggs were like porridge. Beef was non-existent and hamburgers were made with ground ham. After talking to other people at other resorts, they had the same issues. Food for us is an important item when on vacation, for this reason we will not return to Cuba.

It's a resort

Beautiful place and tasty food. The staff was scarce, but they were training new people. The pool was dirty and and beach is crawling with mites. Don't lay in the sand direct, get a chair, must get up early for this.

Friendly staff

We stayed at the upgraded Elegance, which is definitely worthwhile over the basic package. Speaking with other guests, the beds were more comfortable, there was beautiful and artful bed making each day, the rooms are closer to the beach, breakfasts are in a private and small Elegance dining building, private butler to arrange a la carte dinners. A suggestion to the resort, would be to not label their a la carte dining rooms as Italian, Gourmet or Caribbean, for (perhaps) due to food shortag [... read more]es, the menu was the same - pumpkin or chicken soup, rice, chicken and most likely boiled cabbage. Service at these locations was cheerful and quick, but food did not resemble anything that was billed. For valentines, we signed up for a surf and turf meal, that was a pumpkin soup, tasty pork stuffed with walnuts, eggplant ravioli (very tasty, but was simply eggplant with tomato, rice, and a Cuban dessert. This was the best meal of our stay, but not the surf and turf that was advertised. Basic package includes the main buffet, that changed little from day to day. I believe there were some food limitations. Food is simply prepared without spice. Fruit was beautifully cut and presented, Cuban pastries, breads were good, but butter sometimes lacking. Bottled water always provided by servers. Open bars and evening lounge performers at 8 pm. Tipping is appreciated, first US$, then Cdn, and rarely pesos. We did not use pesos during our stay. There were no Covid restrictions at the resort or on the buses, guests did not were masks, but most of the time everyone is outside. We did not sign up for day trips. We did hire a taxi for a tour and trip into Varadero - dinitely recommend travelling this way. We also took the hop on, hop off bus that stops at each resort with Varadero as a destination, we stopped in the plaza Americas, which was expensive shoes, tshirts, expensive cigars. Simply took a taxi back to resort. Rating is based on our upgrade. People in other tiers, were not as comfortable or happy.

Nice Resort

Not a five star as they advertise. Rooms are dated but exceptionally clean, the grounds are beautiful, and the staff is incredible and can't do enough for you. I was happy during my 2 week stay with the beach, pool, entertainment.... The only complaint is the food, the buffet was repetitive and the A la cart was also a disappointment.

Not for me

This is my fourth trip to Cuba. First Trip at Valentin El patriarca. Varadero beach is beautiful. This Hotel is run by Gaviota, the Cuban government tourism organisation. It is not an international chain like Melia and Riu or Barcelo. If you understand what that means, read no further. It is terrible in every possible way. It used to be run by Ocean and must have been nice in the past. But It is near the park so mosquitoes are numerous as well as other creatures. The privilege suite is an [... read more] extra which seems worth it until you do the math, with added cost it becomes more expensive than competitors, who offer better amenities. I could go on about food and dirt etc.. but I have no time. Please see attached photos, the place is dark so stepping on a snake walking to my room, I didn’t even see is no fun. But that is not too much of a bother to me, dirty pillows and cockroaches in the food (zoom in on photo), is worse. I get one week per year to relax, I imagine most of us do. I do not recommend this place.

Sadly not a good time...disappointed

sad to say the resort was definitely not as advertised. short notes; NO TOILET SEATS OR TOILET PAPER in the various bathrooms and they were dirty and smelly and just gross, a/c cut out, no clean towels, no drinks (including water) in our fridge as advertised, we requested a king bed but got 2 doubles that we had to push together and then end up sleeping on one or falling through the cracks, sand fleas attacked a few in our group quite severely, food was worse than usual (wieners substituted for [... read more] ham!) and just really scarce, bar staff were not the greatest...inattentive and a little rude at times. we really didn't feel we got what we paid for...many others from surrounding resorts said the same. excursions were less than advertised to say the least. bus ride to town was jam packed and took forever. we will not be returning.

What was expected!

This is a cute place to go for a quick getaway! If you upgrade to a suit! But still don’t expect the best! This maybe a 3.5 star ⭐️ at best and even if that, your still going to be disappointed. The shortages are still apparent everywhere, not just this resort. The great part of this resort are the people (Staff) and the distance of the marina from the hotel. The shortages are not the staff’s fault. It’s the government and post Covid. Invent your own meals, create your own stay on  [... read more]your terms. We took a 10$ taxi ride to the marina and bought what we thought would make our vacation rewarding. We had everything we needed for a great week. Thanks to the great taxi driver Omar with the most spectacular blue eyes and very accommodating, he took us anywhere we wanted to go. Varadaro 60 is a great place for great food and drinks. Thanks to Javier our dear friend for coming out with us to dinner. We can’t wait to go back. Maybe not this resort but somewhere new.

Love cuba

food was half decent. i enjoyed the buffet. room was not the greatest everting seemed to be broken and damp sheets was a regular. the shows were great. and the staff super friendly and nice. if u don't plan to be in ur room a lot, like us, then perfect. beach amazing. as always. and pool was good too. not too much selection of drinks. no pina colada. otherwise i would recommend and go again. love Cuba

Good Resort

Overall this resort was quite good. There were a few issues, which were resolved after mentioning to the PR person. There was no hot water upon arrival and the bathroom sink was leaking from the top. Also, there were no lights on at night in front of our building. The light situation was never resolved.

Satisfied!

Beach was beautiful but the pool was not so deep. If your room is close to the Disco hall you will hear loud music until late night. The room was a bit old but I didn't spend too much time in there so it didn't bother me so much. Food was fine overall. Only problem I had was small rocks inside rice. I had to be really careful not to break my teeth. Their paella was amazing and they have fantasitic cakes.

First Visit to Cuba

I stayed in a Privilege suite and found the room to be simple, clean & comfortable. Spent most of my time at the beach because the ocean was gorgeous for viewing & floating. Ate most of my meals at the Privilege restaurant. The food was better here than in the general buffet but still limited in variety but no complaints. The resort staff were ALL friendly and very helpful. Would definitely recommend this resort.