Quiet vacation

We spent 7 days at Coral Esmeralda and don't have any complaints. If you've been to Cuba before, you come with lower expectations than other countries. They have limited supplies and resources, but we never felt like we were missing anything. We brought our own condiments for meals and although there was not a lot of variety, we never went hungry. The lunch pizzas were quite good but normally a bit of a wait. The buffet restaurant could be improved as you often eat at tables that have not been c [... read more]leaned and do not have cutlery. No music around the beach or pools so it's not very lively, but you do have the option to go over to the sister resort for more action. Beach is absolutely perfect. Entertainment is extremely limited. If you are going for a quiet, affordable beach vacation, this might be a great spot.

Cuba Hotels in crises

Having been to Cuba several times before, I notice a significant decline in quality. This hotel is in an isolated location and clients were treated to many shortages and rationing of products. (toilet paper, eggs, sugar, soap, butter, etc.) The service was poor and lacking refinement. Iberostar did not meet my expectation for quality since my last visit in early 2023. Many clients from hotels in this area complained and the same shortages. I will not return to Cuba until the overall situation im [... read more]proves. My dollar would be better spent elsewhere.

Amazing location

Clean and very spacious rooms Great comfort Amazing beach Short distances to everything Relaxing environment Good food Impeccable service Public washrooms always clean Plenty of drinks & coffee No noise or pollution

Beutiful resort that needs work.

This is a very new resort, beautiful structures, comfortable beds, but is already showing signs of neglect. Our room in building 5, had a partial ocean view, and being on the second floor, you could see the ocean on the other side of the island as well. The view was beautiful. The screen door on our balcony was already half torn off from who knows when. I am grateful there were no bugs, as I prefer the doors open for air than using the air conditioner. The shower valve would not isolate either r [... read more]ain shower head or hand held. So one or the other was always dribbling. The tub had the same issue with the hand-held wand as well. There were plenty of plugs to use for phones, they even had USB ports which is a huge plus!!! Some were loose and popped out when removing cords, so be careful. The rooms were spacious, the furnishings are nice. You get a couch and table and chairs as well. Our room was cleaned daily, but our maid was less than helpful. She made it seem that it was an inconvenience to supply something that was missed when she cleaned the room. For example, she left us with a quarter roll of toilet paper with no replacement. When asked for another roll because we were low, our reply was "later". No apology, just "later". There was a water leak dripping on the tiles in the hallway on the first level the entire week we were there. The entire resort ran out of sugar for two days, which blew my mind!!! There were many other shortages, ie. tonic water, eggs, sprite and other sodas, to name only just a few things. Some of the wait staff were fantastic servers, they were helpful and enthusiastic. While others couldn't be bothered. These were folks in the buffet and bar!! The food options were minimal. When things ran out there were no replacements on some things. So you had to wake up early for breakfast, or eat an early dinner if you wanted anything interesting. NOTHING at the buffet was labeled, you had to guess what was in the heating dishes, and fresh food brought out was lukewarm or cold. I was always able to find something to eat that I recognized. Personally, I hate wasting food and I don't want to take something that I may not eat. I find it very frustrating when I see others waste half plates of food. The bartenders are crafty enough to make interesting drinks when some of the ingredients were not available. And, as always the coffee is amazing. The girl in the reservation office was AMAZING. She arranged, at the request of my husband, a Japanese lobster dinner on a night that was not normally available to guests for my birthday. It took her a few days, but was able to pull it off. Dinner was entertaining and well done. The check in was very organized and efficient, as well as check out. The porters are attentive and polite. They even escorted us to the sister resort for one of our special dinners at the Mediterranean restaurant, which I recommend. Wifi was free the entire time of your stay, you are given a user name and password. Was speedy enough to do face-time with loved ones, so I got to chat with the grand-daughter. :) The beach in the morning was almost non existent as the tide was way up, in the afternoon it was huge as the tide was way down, and the white sand is perfect for long walks. The beach seems to go on forever. (over 5 miles) Because there are only a few resorts on this beach, there is a lot of plastic garbage that has washed up on the shore. I think as more resorts are built, the beaches will be better maintained. The pools were amazing, we came right after a colder few days, so the pools were a bit too chilly for my taste, but was able to go in the last three days. You can swim the entire length of all three buildings! The lower levels on the pool side have 'swim out' rooms with chaise lounges and umbrellas on their patio and steps to go down into the pool. Overall the stay was good. I could see for some people who are fussy about their food, having a harder time in the buffet. There are excursions to do in the area. Some are an hour bus ride away, a few are walking distance. We are not excursion people, we love to sun, walk on the beach and relax.

One disappointment after another

We were so excited for our visit to Iberostar Coral Esmeralda, but from the moment we arrived we knew we made a mistake booking this hotel. I don't like to leave bad reviews but they really do need to know so they can improve. From the airport, we dropped travelers off to two different hotels. When they arrived at their resorts we could see they were greeted with warm welcomes, drinks and even a dance! When we finally arrived at our resort (almost 3 hours after sitting on the bus - was suppo [... read more]sed to be 75 minutes), we got nothing. Not help with our luggage, no greeting, nada. While waiting to check in, we were then brought a drink and given a little talk that they were overwhelmed with the 28 bookings they had that day (the most they've ever had). No one smiled, we did not feel welcome at all. We got to our room, although extremely nice and comfortable, it was not clean (beds were not made, bathroom and floors needed to be cleaned). Since we were starving we left to eat while they cleaned. The buffet was tiny and nothing was labelled. Since we don't eat pork we hardly ate anything because we didn't know what it was and no one understood when we asked. We had to ask the staff to clean a table so we could sit down. They did this very slowly and reluctantly. We then went back to the front to ask for Wifi details because they had not provided us with any at check in. They gave us the username and password for some other guests, which we pointed out to them. We had to wait for them to get us the right ones with them acting like they were doing us a favour. Once back to our room, the cleaners were still not done so we had to ask them to leave so we could use our room. We were lucky in that they had a sister hotel right beside them that we were able to use. For the rest of the days we ate most of our meals there. It was WAY bigger and better and sometimes had better service. The Asian restaurant food was unfortunately also disappointing, the food had way too much soya sauce. We could not eat it at all, so left and went to the sister hotel. The best place to eat at Esmeralda was the Snack Bar. They had burgers, hot dogs and pizza and for the most part the staff were nice although they often forgot about us and we had to reorder. They couldn't seem to cope with the amount of people. There were no activities or entertainment posted anywhere. Randomly they would have people at one of their very small pools teaching people to dance, playing bingo or doing yoga. These were nice but without notice we could not join. The night entertainment was done in the lobby where there isn't much seating room. Each day our beds were made, but our rooms would not be cleaned (i.e. hair and seaweed still in the shower). I don't know if this is their general practice. The best part of this resort is their beach. However, it was very windy for most of our stay so we could not enjoy it. In summary, this resort seems to have lots of staff, but they don't speak English and are not motivated to help anyone out or be friendly; even if you tip them well. I think this resort is better suited to older people who want to be left alone and have complete quiet.

Wonderful people!

The resort is beautiful and the people are wonderful, very accommodating and anxious to please. Due to supply constraints, the variety of food is limited; plenty of fish but a shortage of fresh fruit most days. Definitely take advantage of the spa - best massage ever from Alex. Thanks to Jackson for the Spanish lessons and to Ariel for the considerate attention to detail!

Amazing staff

Comfortable clean hotel. Great variety of food. Wonderful staff, ready to help in any situation. Great entertainment. It could do better with a little bit more maintenance on the property especially furniture and curtains.

Friendly small resort has it all

Excellent facility, 1st class staff, lots of food choices, lovely beach. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

POOR - for a 5 Star "this is going to be a long read"

I spent 11 days (Jan 9-20) in the Coral section and I was ready to leave by the 2nd day. I do not recommend the Coral section unless you're specifically looking to be left alone and like quietness. You do not get additional services, the buffet and a-la cart restaurants serve same food across both sides. Grounds - well maintained, the gardeners work hard and are very friendly. The layout is pretty easy to maneuver around once you know your way around. They were happy and surprised that we [... read more] acknowledged and chatted with them. We speak a little Spanish but shouldn't matter a simple "Hola" goes along way for them. Room - I asked for an ocean view room, well, I can't say I didn't get see to a glimpse of the ocean (that's all it was). They are having alot of issues with house keeping. My shower was not cleaned the whole 11 days. Depending on who you get, you will get floor mats as hand towels (I got it twice as the regular person was on a day off). Come on, that's not acceptable. empty fridge, 2 (500 ml) bottes of water. Exchanging of towels we had to call Public Relations and they would deliver to the room. Dining Rooms - Coral side is 2 years old and the dinning chairs look like they have been around for longer, they are dirty and a lot of stains, very disgusting. The first 9 days, we were given a very thin ply paper towel for napkins, unacceptable for a 5 star. Depending who is servicing, you get what you get for service (some great friendly staff and others, they look and treat you like we are disturbing them). A-la cart restaurants, not worth it, they pretty much serve what is on the buffet. I understand that the Country might be struggling with resources, but customer service, cleanliness and service need a lot of work, this is not a lack of resources it comes down from the Top "Management issues". They need to lower their rating because they are not working at a 5 star level. I have stayed at other 5 star in Cuba so I can compare. I have also stayed at 3 star in Cuba and had better service and amenities. Common area bathrooms, were a hit and miss (more of a miss) with having toilet paper, so I was always carrying it with me and lacked cleanliness with not working toilets. Again, definitely not a 5 star rating. All, my issues I'm expressing here were discussed with their Public Relations representative (Ariel) and his response was, here is a bottle of water, your towels (pretty much shutting us up) and the hand towel situation was addressed immediately. We were locked out of our room on two occasions (7th day - opps mistake, come to the front desk for assistance, again on the 10th day - oops - again come the front desk. We spoke to Ariel regarding a late check out and he said it's 11/hr. I'm like anyway you can compensate us for all the inconveniences we have been experiencing, he had the nerve to say "what inconveniences" and went on to say this is a Socialist Country and we do not negotiate, that is the price. We did not lower our head and walk away this time, we exchanged some words with him and walked away, but nothing rude. Staff / Guests - we met some wonderful people both staff and guests. They were the ones that made our stay better. I want to say thank you and a few shout outs to Yari and Mi (Taca Taca - they know what I mean) for their friendly smile and tried very had to keep guests engaged. Joseph (singer/pianist) what a great guy, it shows he loves what he does and that is entertaining and engaging with the guests. Some bartenders were awesome (hard to give shout outs by name, as they don't have name tags). Beach - absolutely amazing, calm, warm and crystal clear to the exception of a few days. Once my feet touched the sand, I forgot about all the issues that were behind me. The beach boys, were very nice shout out to Humberto, very friendly and engaging. But take this as you may, this was our experience in the 11 days there, maybe things just happened to us, but I would have a hard time believing it was just us.

Best Vacation EVER !!!

My husband and I spent a week at this resort, with a swim up room...We were in Building 6 and it was perfect. The service at this resort is by far the best I've seen in Cuba, and have been numerous times over the past 20 years. The food was delicious and plentiful. The grounds are lush and maintained just lovely. The bar service best around... Pools and Beach spectacular !

Disappointing

The people were so unfriendly. The resort itself was nice but just couldn’t get over how the staff was. Just to ask a simple question it felt like you were putting them out. Not the Cuba I have experienced in the past. I would not go back if someone paid me. Such an unwelcoming miserable staff.

Great resort

What a wonderful experience we had at Coral Esmeralda. We visited the resort late November 2023. Despite some shortages we had wonderful time. The young staff at the resort are great people and they will go out of the way to make your stay memorable. Thank you Jose Louis for the great entertainment, Darion and Ramses for the great service at the main buffet, Jessica at one of A La carts, all the staff at the lobby bar, Kayle at the spa, staff at the snack bar and the beach bar, very attentive s [... read more]taff at the beach. Also need to mention great customer service staff. Alway there to help and chat. Thank you Coral Esmeralda, till next time.

Fantastic Resort at an amazing location!

We had the fortune to spend 9 days at the Iberostar Coral Esmeralda. The rooms were clean, spacious, and comfy. The food was fantastic (especially the buffets). The staff was extraordinary, friendly, and thoughtful. We were lucky to enjoy the Christmas dinner and it was the best food we have ever had. The surf and turf were cooked to perfection. It was quiet which we needed. There are not many rooms and you can relax at the pool without blasting music! The beach was cleaned every morning. We lov [... read more]e it there!

Very Beautiful and CLEAN

The hotel, grounds, absolutely beautiful beach and staff was awesome. The food, well its Cuba so the choices was minimal and limited, never hot. The food was warm at best and salty. The snack bar The same. Fyi don't expect to get fries. ?. The drink was awesome.

Sadly Not Good...Avoid Cuba

Everything was as expected for the price EXCEPT the food. I'm the world's least picky eater and it was just BAD. Constant shortages of basic items (eggs, potatoes, toilet paper, Coke). Avoid Cuba rn!!

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda

Having just returned from a wonderful vacation here, I can report that by far, the good far out weighed anything negative. The ride from the airport is long (about one and a half hours+-) and that can be a turn off for some. It went by quickly with a great guide on the bus. The rooms were nice, clean, quiet...the grounds were well maintained, the beach was fabulous - the water warm and beach cleaned daily of any seaweed that may have been washed ashore overnight. The food (after reading lots  [... read more]of negative comments about the food in Cuba) was surprisingly very good. I always laugh about the comments that the food is repetitive. Sure, if you are inclined to eat 3 kinds of fish, 3 kinds of pork, beef, various salads, vegetables, pastas, ice cream and so many pastries EVERY DAY and every meal at home...lol. Well, you might find it "repetitive". But reasonable people, respectful to the food shortages in the country and the sincere desire to satisfy their beloved tourists, will be pleasantly surprised and I guarantee that you will not lose weight! Drinks...well, yes, they had a day or two of no Cola but that was about it. Any kind of liquor you wanted was available. Spanish Coffee...amazing Cappuccino (complete with the Starbucks style foam artistry), cold beer at every bar...no problems whatsoever with quality or quantity. The resort itself is new (two years this month I believe) and I would say it is of the more modern style. We generally prefer traditional resorts and find the newer modern ones cold, I didn't feel that way about this place. Modern but warmer than most. We had a second floor ocean view room that we paid extra for and I am not sure I would do that again. We did have a view of the ocean and a nice sunrise view but it was reasonably far away from the beach and probably not worth it for the most part. I did not see the top floor mega suites in person but, they looked really nice and only two per building..either facing the sunrise/ocean view or, to the inside of the resort. If you need a giant suite..go for it - it looked really nice. The low floor step into the pool rooms were very nice too. I am not sure how much extra. None were available when we booked. You lack perhaps a bit of privacy since most can be seen from the sidewalks but, you can step out of your room into your private area pool which are all connected to the main pools. Very cool and I think most people who had those enjoyed them. I think you can't go wrong with any of the rooms. When you are at the Coral level, you can freely go to and enjoy the many amenities of the attached Esmeralda main family hotel. It has a great lobby...huge pool, and other features not available in the smaller Coral level. We went a couple of times and enjoyed it (much louder and full) but were happy to be on our more peaceful and smaller Coral Level side. It was nice to be able to experience both whenever you wanted. Other 'stuff' to do. Well, there is a small 'village' for shopping within a 10 minute walk but many of the stores were closed and those that were open had the usual tourist trinkets, booze store, small grocery store (with crazy high prices), a nice spa and not much more. It made for a nice short excursion. There is also a very nice and newly built (not yet fully opened) Dolphinarium but no dolphins there yet. You can walk (or ask the hotel to drive you in one of their electric carts) there to see it for free right now. It is not yet open but they will let you walk around and see some huge turtles, rays etc. now. We did not take any outside excursions so I cannot comment on those. There is a deserted beach in that area too (a bit farther from the Dolphin area) for those so inclined too. Best of all for last...the staff are incredible....ALL of them...if I started to name names, I would fill the page...from the wonderful people at the buffet, the grounds keepers, the bar tenders at all of the bars, the life guards and staff on the beach, the front desk staff, management, the spa staff, the chefs and cooks, the amazing entertainers especially Jose Luis who entertained us nightly and often through the day in the lobby with great sing alongs etc. .... I KNOW I missed some and that's why I said 'ALL'....I did not find anyone who wasn't genuinely friendly and fun. Awesome people! Overall...we loved the week and had a great time. We would recommend this resort to others without hesitation if you like the amenities as described. We do like the Iberostar brand and this one does not disappoint (us at least). In all of Cuba, go with an open mind and slightly lower expectations remembering how much you paid. Trip Central and our rep, Tammy Beamish were great and thorough with reminders and email updates. Also, if you enjoy the staff and connect, you will be blessed with meeting and learning from awesome people. If you are the type who goes on vacation to snap fingers at people, demand and look only for the negative and not the overwhelming positive...well, you should probably stay home (from everywhere lol). Enjoy life.

Wonderful resort

I just came back from the 2 weeks vacation in this beautiful resort. First the grounds were exceptionally well maintained due to the hard work of many gardeners who are working there. The beach is beautiful, it does changes several times a day due to high and low tide, hence it’s difficult to predict the size of the sitting area. Beach sand is white and perfectly fine. Beach is also cleaned daily if any weeds come through the night. Food was good for Cuban standards and no issues at all findin [... read more]g something you like. Staff is exceptionally good and helpful anywhere in the resort. Front reception bar is top notch with premium alcohol served. Thanks to all of the bartenders and ladies working there. We had swim out suite and was definitely worth to have it. I will definitely come back to this hotel in the future.

Not what we were excepting, but we had a great vacation

We spent a week at the Iberostar Coral Esmeralda, Oct31 to Nov7. This being our 6th trip to Cuba and first post Covid, we thought we had a pretty good idea of what to except, ….wonderful people, amazing beaches, so so food and accommodations that may have a deficiency or two. Things have changed. Cuban economy and infrastructure was hurting before Covid, it has now reached a crisis level. Shortages of most everything, there simply are not enough resources to go around. The Cubans needs  [... read more]tourism dollars to improve their living standards, .. tourists expect toilet paper and butter , so the Cuban residents do without. Catch 22 However the shortages have become so acute now the tourism product is suffering and the price for vacations reflects this with incredibly low prices for all inclusive stays that after the Canadian air carrier takes its cut there can’t possible be enough revenue to cover resort operators costs. It’s a downward spiral .. Now. The resort is beautiful, small , just two years old, very clean. Our roof top suite was spectacular, a huge wrap around balcony with ocean views all three sides , The room advertised as 1400 sq ft. had two bathrooms, jacuzzi tub, huge two person shower and a very comfortable king size bed. We had water issues the first 3 days, first no water, then cold water only , then hot water only , then a broken toilet hose while we out of the room resulting in a significant flood and finally no water pressure. So we moved on the third day to another roof top suite that had even a better ocean view. The maids kept our absolutely spotless . The food at the Al a Carte restaurants was very very good you are allowed to book 3 meals per stay and all 3 were excellent. During our week the buffet had severe shortages , no eggs, no fresh fruits or vegetables, no orange juice , excellent tasting breads but usually no butter and never and jam or jellies spreads. The thing I found most odd that was missing was there were no labels telling what the food on trays and tables was. Not 5 star by Canadian standards but we didn’t leave hungry. Cuba is know for amazing beaches and blue waters, that is primarily what we go for, the beach here was a disappointment. Actually there are two beaches here, a very nice low tide beach and a basically nonexistent high tide beach. Not sure if recent storms or wave action has pulled away a lot the beautiful soft white sand recently, as most of reviews were very good, but at the afternoon high tide the water comes right up the shade palapas and many of the chairs are actually in the water . I have never seen a Cuban beach or any resort beach like this before. Mother Nature may have been removing the sand from the beach but she has been very busy bringing sea grass and floating garbage on to the beach. The resort daily cleans SOME of the beach area but not all it . We don’t play the before breakfast towel game and don’t normally mind getting stuck out on the far ends of the resort beaches when we arrive at 9:30 looking for shade spot, unfortunately the ends of the beaches get little or no maintenance and sea grass and garbage it horrific . We spent a half hour or so a cleaned up a couple shade palapas as the one we cleaned the day before was often taken the next day so would clean another, I thought we did a pretty good job picking up the sea grass and garbage and piling it up in the vegetation zone behind our palapa . I know that keeping a beach clean is an endless job and resort staff try to do a good job in the centre part beach but they had to do the job with a broken rake and without even a wheelbarrow to put the collected material in , they put it in a tub and dragged it away, such is the shortages of tools and materials in Cuba. However the one thing that the resort can control is investing time and effort to keep the beach clean. Toilet paper , bring lots , although toilet in the rooms is supplied daily do not count it in any other public bathrooms anywhere, airports, restaurants, beach bars, anywhere. There are no hand sanitizing stations anywhere , bring your own. I could go on but it comes down you get what you pay for. Talking to other people at the airport all the resorts were more or less the same although ours seemed to the only one without eggs all week , perhaps the Cayo Cruz area, being small and somewhat isolated is a lower priority for supplies? All and all we had a good vacation, meet some great people but we wouldn’t go back.

The good and bad.

First I want to start by saying that I rarely leave bad reviews based on a one week stay at any resort but this must be said. If you want to go on a vacation and drink good beer and good rum, vodka. This place is for you. The adult only side is quiet and beautiful. Unfortunately there are more negative things to say than positive. The level side of the resort(kid friendly) is much larger and has more staff to attend to your needs. The buffet is larger and has more options, although those opt [... read more]ions are sad at best. The entertainment was good but inconsistent. Some nights they did not have any sort of entertainment. And when they did sometimes they started way later than planned. Now I will talk about the food. If you can survive off of toast and canned fruit then great, unfortunately not everyone can. The meat was extremely inconsistent and some nights you could tell it was old or from the day before. There was rarely no fresh fruit and NO fresh vegetables. My girlfriend and myself got some sort of food poisoning from the buffet, in fact I may even have a parasite. Travel to and from the airport was fairly long and boring. There were some pink flamingos on the way but nothing noteworthy. All in all I do not recommend this resort. Pros: Large modern rooms, comfy beds, amazing beach and beautiful water. Cons: Absolutely terrible food(food poisoning possible), lack of toilet paper, lack of fruity beverages.

Amazing

The resort was amazing. We had a little difficulty with wifi first couple of days but they fixed it up. Everything was very clean, the food was good and the staff was amazing. We had a swim out room which made our stay that much better.