Can not wait to go back

Beautiful Hotel. Service great. Grounds well kept and plenty of space by the pool.Food excellent and as always, friendly service. Patchy at the gym always helpful. Sports Bar, and entertainment amazing. Look forward to our next stay at The Grand Aston,

Top resort in Varadero

This resort is so clean and friendly. Not to mention the first stop from the Airport when you get there. Food - Was great every morning there were baskets of fresh eggs and they cook them to your liking. Never ran out of eggs or bread and one morning they even had fried bologna which us once from the Maritimes love. Staff - Excellent and friendly, go out of their way to see a smile on your face. Speak very well in English so it was easy to communicate when ordering or getting directions etc [... read more]. Grounds - It is not a small resort but it's not the biggest either so the pools, bars and restaurants on the facility are all close in walking. The pool is a great size for the size of the resort and beach has two accesses one on east and one from the central area of the resort. They also have a Tiki bar between the pool and the beach with a Tiki bar on the beach as well. Yes of course the pool has a swim up bar. Facility - Clean, comfortable, easy to follow map in the main lobby that will direct you to any number of restaurants that cover food from all over the world. You can relax in a spa or workout in the gym. Non stop activities. Entertainment - Music and dance shows every night of the week.

THE BEACH

Soooo, this is what everyone has been talking about. THE BEACH. When it's wavy because of the drop off which levels back out in a few meters, the waves pumble you into the rocks right at/under the shore line and have a VERY difficult time getting out. DO NOT ENTER WHEN RED FLAG IS UP ON BEACH. When it is not wavy, this beach is just fine. BUT BE VERY CAREFUL of the 2 peers on each side of this beach. IT IS FULL OF SLIME AND VERY DANGEROUS TO WALK ON. On the left side peer, there are gorgeous wav [... read more]es hitting for film and photos, of course when the waves are angry. lol There are a lot of gorgeous sea shells to be found on the right side peer. GO! have fun!!!♥ FOOD=Excellent ROOMS=Excellent CHARLIE VIP CONCIERGE=Excellent BEACH=Depends on weather LOBBY/POOL/DINNING ENTERTAINMENT= A bit repetitive but great quality TRANSFER=Short bus ride (10 mins) DRINKS=AMAZING (Catalana and sex on the beach= MUST HAVES) POOLS/SWIM UP BAR=meah PARTIES=Lacking #LOOKBEOFREYOUBOOK @ www.youtube.com/@resortwalkthroughs

Take the bad with the good.

We arrived December 31, 2024 and were excited to get into our room and join the New Year's celebration. Unfortunately it didn't go well. The room we got was a basic room, overlooking a parking lot. We paid an upgrade for Ocean View Deluxe. I returned to the front desk and the lady tells me they are full, she cannot move me. I persist and she asks me to show my confirmation. Thank goodness I had an email with the full details. She goes to talk to the manager and gives me a new room. We ta [... read more]ke off again to the new room, however when we get there, it smells, I notice stains on the bed quilt and I go to take a shower, no towels. Then I notice how dirty the bathroom is. When I got to sit on bed to call front desk, I notice no pillow cases, stains on pillows, and no bed sheets, just the quilt on the bed. Now I am absolutely grossed out and really upset. We head back to the front desk and she tells me, sorry, she cannot move me and expects me to take this dirty room. This is a 5 Star resort?? I start crying, cannot believe this. I am single mom, travelling with my 12 year old daughter and she can't do anything for me. Standing there crying my eyes out, she gets the Customer Service agent to come over and take me away from the counter and there are a bunch more checking in and I'm sure it doesn't look good for their reputation. Customer Service tells me to go eat. They will see what they can do and come see her after. After.... she lets me know, they found another room and it is being cleaned. The doorman comes with me to help move my luggage from the dirty room to my new room. I show him the stains and how disgusting this is. He dismisses it and says, let's go! My new room (at this point is room number 3 now) is better till I pull the sheets back later in the evening and see more blood stains. I am too tired to complain at this point and sleep on other side of the bed, my daughter sleeps on pull out bed. The next day I see the room cleaner, I show her the sheets and she says ok no problem, she'll remove this sheet. She literally removes the sheet and doesn't replace it. So at night, I now have one sheet on the bed and nothing on top. I call the front desk again several times, 20x or more. They kept hanging up on me. Transferring me to Customer Service where no one was even there. It took 3hrs to get a sheet delivered to my room. The front desk are rude and refuse to help you with anything. We noticed a line up every day with people complaining about their room. The rooms are modern, but sheets and bedding have stains, toilet paper is hard to come by. No daily water unless you tip and request it. Other than that, the food was great. The staff, chefs, cooks at the grills, everyone really friendly and doing their part. The pools are VERY cold. Could not swim whole vacation. The ocean was really rough, so it wasn't a great holiday for swimming. Beach was nice. No one could use the pools except for a few who braved it, but their dip in the pool quickly ended after a couple minutes as they couldn't take it anymore. The photos of the resort look great, but it's definately NOT a 5 star hotel. I would say 3 star at best. Great price! But, Sadly I'll never go back. Not worth it.

Not a 5 Star

Beautiful resort however they need to improve on customer service, i.e service with a smile, would have given more tips…the resort should have more to do in the evening very boring Jennifer was the best server in the lounge area

Better than expected, given some of the reviews.

My wife and I travel to Cuba frequently. We know and understand the troubles of the country... politics aside, Cuba needs a lot of work. In the meantime, let's not forget we don't go there for the food, or the quality of anything... we go there, because it fits our budget!!! That said, a lot of attention to detail is missing, a lot of staff training is required, service industry etiquette needs a ton of work; BUT... Cuban resort workers are just beautiful people and deserve better working condi [... read more]tions, supplies, materials, and all they lack to make our stay better. Just pay attention to detail, please!!! Great round of applause to Chef Santiago [man, you work hard!], the ladies at the Sports Bar and the Cuban Restaurant. Thank you Ismary for making us laugh all the time. The Chef at Cuban Restaurant is just a magician. THANK YOU all!

Nice New Hotel

Service was non-existent... Wasn't even able to acquire bottles of water. Had been asking for days. Bars have no menus and servers can be rude. Beach was possibly the worst in Varadero. The hotel itself was beautiful. New and modern. The food was surprisingly not too bad. The A la carte options are great. Night entertainment was a hit and miss

Amazing resort!

The resort was amazing. The vibe was good. The service was good. The only thing I don't really enjoy was the food out of 10 I'll give it a six. The varadero area. It's pretty good. Just watch out for people on the street. Trying to sell you cigars.

It was better than my expectations

The hotel and service were great. But I would not recommend taking a tour to habana. I felt like I went shopping just to buy cigars and rum instead of taking a tour. The lunch was not good either. Don’t waste 150 USD for worthless tour to Habana. Stay at the hotel…

Great new location in Varadero!

Good freshly new hotel, nice facilities, good restaurants and very good food choices. Nice rooms. Good management, top notch entertainment. Staff not as happy and joyfull as other locations but great services overall. Piano bar and pool service extraordinary. Coffee station one of the best. Best cuban restaurant, highly recommend. Beach rocky and weedy, many jelly fish.

Amazing Resort

This was one of the best resorts I have been too in Cuba the resort itself was amazing, rooms beautiful, Had all amenities plus some, like bath robes in rooms along with Beach towels. Food was plentiful and Delish. Nice sports bar that made amazing drinks more than the normal at the Reg bar. The beach was just ok. I prefer a long beach I can walk but I would still go back to this resort!

Exceeded our expectations in every possible way!

The hotel is new (11 months old at the time of our visit in November 2024), stylish, and in great condition. Our expectations were exceeded in almost every aspect of the trip, especially when considering the price of the trip compared to other destinations. The hotel is luxurious while simultaneously taking great pride in Cuban culture and hospitality; we thought this was a perfect combination. I'm not sure if it is typical or not, but the hotel was not busy at all during our visit - it was g [... read more]lorious to not have to worry about crowds! There were nice little extras appearing out of nowhere throughout our stay - e.g. one day there would be a pop-up fruit smoothie stand, the next day you might come across a silver ice bucket filled with 3 different types of sparkling wine surrounded by champagne flutes, another time there would be a man with a charcoal grill making pulled pork sandwiches, once there was a giant tub of ice by the pool with many different beers inside, another time there was a man with a giant mechanical contraption making rum drinks from fresh sugar cane, there was a live band playing at breakfast, etc. It seemed like there was always something special going on and they are really putting in a lot of genuine effort. Rooms: The rooms are spacious, clean, and nicely decorated. Everything looked exactly like the photos on the Grand Aston website. The beds are comfortable. The A/C is modern, quiet, and very effective. It has an energy saving feature where the A/C shuts off when the patio doors are open, so be sure to perfectly close the doors (this requirement is not obvious). The curtains are good and block out light effectively. There is a mini fridge in the room. There were no insects of any type. About 90% of the time, there was endless super-hot water in the giant shower. There is a TV with 50 spanish channels and 6 english channels, but we did not use it. There is an electronic password safe in the room for your passports and cash. The plugs in the hotel are 220 volts but there are also USB charging ports built in next to the beds. We were on the ocean-view side of the hotel, which is good because it faces north so the room doesn't bake in the sun. You do hear the pool and nightly entertainment if you are on this side of the hotel, but it all ends by 10:30PM. We had plenty of towels, toilet paper, etc. and there were no power outages. Wifi was adequate and covered the hotel and pool area, but be aware that lots of websites seem to block Cuba (not the fault of this hotel). E.g. we could email / whatsapp / google without problems, but we couldn't do online banking, or make online purchases. You have to sign in to the wifi again whenever you change location in the hotel (e.g. if you go from your room to the pool). Food: There was an overwhelming abundance of good quality Cuban-themed food, no issues with shortages during our stay. There is a buffet and also 5 restaurants. The restaurants have beautiful decor and atmosphere (way nicer than most restaurants we go to in Canada). The restaurant food was slightly more fancy than the buffet, but at the same time, it was not substantially different from the buffet - for that reason, we usually preferred to eat at the buffet out of convenience. We ate 42 meals at the buffet, which sounds as though it would be repetitive, but we really enjoyed it and looked forward to each meal. They have a very professional baking staff who make tons of beautiful breads and pastries every day. There was top-quality butter and cheese. Lots of local healthy vegetables (squash, beans, yucca, plantain), fish/mussels, pork, and chicken. The secret to buffet success is to embrace the Cuban-ness of the cuisine, always try new things, and combine items. E.g. mashed plantain on its own is boring, but mashed plantain with picadillo on top is tasty. Or maybe you grab some prosciutto and fancy cheese from the buffet and have the egg lady cook them into an omelet for you. At first glance, the food may look similar every day, but on closer inspection it is not, and you can change things up to keep it interesting. They had anything we could want, but we did sometimes have to look for things (e.g. they have USA-style ketchup but it's at the salad area, croissants were at the coffee bar rather than with the rest of the pastries, hot sauce was at the snack bar, etc.). The people who we overheard speaking negatively about the food may have had unreasonable expectations. It's not logical to go to Cuba expecting to have the best Japanese food of your life - that's what a trip to Japan is for. The pasta won't be just like the dish you always get at your favorite chain restaurant in Canada. Don't expect "just like home" but with a beach. You're in Cuba, so relax and take the opportunity to embrace the good Cuban things and you will be content. They keep the restaurant very clean, we never saw any insects or pests aside from a few random houseflies - nothing to be concerned about. We were 100% healthy the whole time, all of the food agreed with us. Drinks: They seem to have a lot of options and are willing to make whatever concoction you request. There is no posted cocktail menu so you have to do a bit of guessing or asking "what did you just make for that lady", etc. If you are particular about your wines or specific brands of alcohol, you will have to let that go while you are here. The sports bar was less busy than the main lobby bar, but still had the same inventory of ingredients, so it was sometimes quicker to get drinks from there. Beach: During our stay, there were not a lot of people at the beach - it was fantastic! At any point of the day, you could just walk up and have your choice of location and get as many chairs as you wanted. On the absolute busiest day, I counted 12 people swimming in the ocean - usually it was only 4 or 5 people. The sand is beautiful and the beach was clean. The beach here is separated from the main Varadero beach by a canal; there were zero vendors, beach dogs, or random people passing by - it was entirely hotel guests and staff. It was very safe, we often left our belongings unattended while we went in the ocean. Ocean: The ocean was warm and clean. During our 14 day trip, there were big waves about 3 days (i.e. no swimming), medium waves for 9 days, and total calmness for 2 days. It's best to enter the ocean on the west half of the beach to avoid some rocks that are under the water on the east end - this was not a problem and we quickly figured out where to go; the swimmable area is large. The water is about 4-8 feet deep for quite a long distance out into the sea. Pool: It was giant, clean, and people would sit by it but hardly anyone went in. Lots of room to swim for exercise if that's your thing. During our stay the pool was a bit on the cool side, but the weather was stormy for a few weeks prior to our arrival so that might be the reason. No problem getting a chair - at most maybe 1/2 the lounge chairs were occupied. None of that 'reserve a chair with your towel at 6am' nonsense here. People were regularly coming around offering you drinks at the pool and the beach. People: The staff at the hotel were all so genuinely kind and friendly. It was very sincere and felt different than the service in Canada. Everyone speaks some basic English, but be prepared to practice some basic Spanish yourself as well - load the Google Translate app onto your phone and download the spanish translation file so you have it handy without relying on wifi. We saw 2 or 3 tourists whose favourite vacation pastime was being rude to the staff. Life is difficult for the people of Cuba, so please be compassionate. Bring a stack of US $1 bills for tips (maybe budget $8 per day, depending on how much service you require). Nobody at the resort ever made us feel even the slightest bit obligated to tip, we just did it out of appreciation. We tried to spread it around rather than exclusively focusing on the bartenders, since they seemed to be getting the bulk of the tips. We never needed to use Cuban currency, Canadian currency, or our credit cards. Entertainment: Honestly, we aren't typically interested in this sort of thing and we planned to skip it. But to our surprise, the hotel had some really talented and professional people! There was often live music in the lobby bar or restaurant, and the musicians were very good. If I had any constructive feedback on this, it would be that they like everything loud in Cuba - if there's an amplifier involved, it's pretty much a guarantee that the volume will be too high. We solved this problem by enjoying it from a distance. The Michael Jackson impersonator had shockingly good dance moves! Overall: This hotel completely exceeded our expectations. There was a pleasant surprise everywhere we looked. The hotel goes out of its way to make your trip a good one. Important: If you are going, please consider buying a cheap extra suitcase at Goodwill and bringing down some items for the Cuban people. Avoid trinkets or junk, and bring necessities of daily life like medications, adult or kids clothes, food, hygiene supplies, etc. Life is very, very difficult outside the resort and anything you can offer will help and be greatly appreciated. It will cost you $35 for the extra bag, but it's worth it. Also, don't wait until the last day to give away your gifts. We made this mistake and some of the people we wanted to see weren't scheduled to work that day.

Nice resort

The resort was great ,only issue was only 2 hangers per suite needs to add at least 6 to 8 hangers for 2 people . Nice pool and great staff all around the resort. Servers in all restaurants were helpful and friendly

Very good

I recently had the pleasure of staying at a truly remarkable resort where the hospitality was second to none. From the moment we arrived, we were greeted with warmth and genuine friendliness. Ada Lagra and Dairon stood out with their exceptional service, making us feel right at home. Their attentiveness and personal touches were truly impressive. Jenifer Joaquin added a special touch to our experience, always available to assist with a smile and making sure our needs were met. The entire staf [... read more]f, including Listett, contributed to a seamless and enjoyable stay, ensuring that every detail was perfect. The resort itself was beautiful, with stunning amenities and an inviting atmosphere that encouraged relaxation. The combination of excellent service and a lovely environment has guaranteed that we will be returning for another visit. If you're looking for a place where you'll be treated like family, this resort is definitely the one to choose.

Amazing Resort

Very clean hotel, housekeeping clean room and change the towels every day, staff was very friendly and helpful, joleo from customer service was very nice and helpful he managed to give us late check out which was very good especially with our flight was at 10:40pm.

Amazing rizort

Great service. Nice rooms. Pool is good. Manager was great to upgrade us when we told her it was our anniversary. Food quality and selection needs improvement. Sports team and activities could improve. Beach is nice - kinda windy when we were there. Bartender Richard and the girls were great. Had a nice anniversary few days there. …

Fly and mosquito infested trip trip to Grand Aston

As far as the room quality air conditioning service location and unit 5 star. But not so much the food and hygiene. The food is really repetitive of average quality too much salt and most important not hygienic they do not fumigate the dining area so the entire area is full of lies and mosquitoes they sit on the buffet on the food and it is very dangerous you don't feel like eating the food so this is my worst rating as far as the food quality and hygiene is concerned Hope the hotel looks at it  [... read more]before somebody falls sick because of these flies and mosquitoes hovering around and sitting on the food you cannot even enjoy the food you have to keep moving your hand to keep the mosquitoes away and also the flies away. The mosquito bites left my skin very sore for days after coming back from the trip in spite of putting mosquito repellent

Excelente Resort

Excelente Hotel, fui con mi esposo a celebrar su cumpleaños, nos encantaron todas las instalaciones,muy moderno y muy bonito!! El servicio súper bueno, la piscina preciosa y el servicio de los camareros en la piscina buenisimo. Las bebidas en todos los bares muy buenas. Los shows de la noche muy profesionales!! La habitación muy cómoda y moderna, todo funcionó a la perfección! Lo que más nos gusto fue la playa, el agua cristalina, el agua tranquila, la arena súper linda y lo mejor que siemp [... read more]re encontramos donde recostarnos a descansar y disfrutar de la tranquilidad y de la vista. Definitivamente volveremos lo recomendamos 100%!!

Fantastic Resort!!

We really enjoyed our stay at the resort. We had a great corner room with an amazing balcony where we could enjoy both the sunrise and sunset as it went around both sides. The food was good, everywhere was clean, staff were friendly and helpful. Lots of hot water and water pressure. Short trip from airport, we were the first dropped off and last picked up. (App 25 mins ride) Would definitely return if going to varadero again.

Beautiful New Resort

The hotel is beautiful. Rooms are very nice, beds comfortable. Our room was facing the highway traffic was quite loud in the mornings. Our friends were upgraded to oceanview and it was spectacular. Buffet and a la cartes were very good. I understand what to expect from Cuba in regards to food and this was the best I have had while visiting this beautiful country. Pool is lovely and nice temperature. Beach is nice but a bit rough with the current. I found management need to provide better custome [... read more]r service, front desk management and staff not very friendly. Being first point of contact is very important when arriving at your destination. Overall I had a good time at this resort.