Playa Vista Azul: Very Nice Resort

The rooms are beautiful, clean and well kept. The staff is excellent and the shows are great. The food is very good, but it is definitely worth booking privilege. You will be well looked after here .

Brisas Sierra Mar: Short of beach chairs

This was my 5th time at this resort. As opposed to my past visits, this resort has slid a little downhill, figuratively speaking. There were nowhere near enough beach lounge chairs on the beach causing people to come down just after sunrise to put their possessions on chairs to reserve them. This did not always work. There was no orange juice, often no mango juice, no lettuce, often no cucumbers. However, there was a good variety of meats, root vegetables, and breads. One major change that  [... read more]affects smokers is the sudden change from allowing smoking almost everywhere to forbidding smoking in all rooms and at the main lounge. I understand that there are many people who do not smoke and who have difficulty with the contaminated air. However, they could have gone half way with smoking and non-smoking rooms and public areas.

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: Very good

The waiters and bar tenders etc were amazing very friendly and efficient I will come back because of them The room was good and clean and the maid service was excellent There were tiny little bugs sometimes in the bathroom counter but have to expect that Towels were clean and so was linen

Hotel Camino del Mar: Absolutely Awesome!!

This was an amazing vacation! The Melia Cayo Guillermo and their staff more than met our expectations!!! Rooms were charming...grounds were gorgeous...Food was very good...and the staff were phenomenal ! A special thank you & great job!! goes out to; Rec organizers Dioni, Amile, China and Miguel Wait staff Natalie and Adelmo Bartenders Barbara Yaniel and all And the very talented dancers. We need not look elsewhere for Cuba resorts...we have a Cuban family here. Thank you everyone...see [... read more] you soon. Jill & Sheri

Playa Cayo Santa Maria: Disappointed

We were very disappointed on our 2nd visit to Playa. We were there 5 yrs ago and were very happy with everything and decided to return. The resort has not been kept up at all. We found it to be on the dirty side. The throw pillows on the bed were very very dirty, asked housekeepers for clean ones but they just took the dirty ones and never came back with clean ones. Buffet was cold all the time. they had 2 coffee machine but only had one operational the whole week. They also didn't have enough m [... read more]ugs so people were using soup bowls just to get their morning coffee. They also had 2 toasters but again only one operational which can make quite a long wait with that amount of people wanting toast for breakfast.I had gotten ALOT of bug bits, not sure what from but very itchy and only went away after being home for this past week. They still are some of the best beaches I have ever seen. Very windy most of the week but can't control Mother Nature. Sorry to say but I will not be returning to Playa Cayo Santa Maria.

Palma Real: Planning to come back

The staff and the atmosphere of the resort was amazing. Non stop things to do. Whether you are dancing by the pool, getting a drink at the beach bar or hanging out in the lobby. Location is amazing and perfect.

Melia Costa Rey: So,so good

We got back from Pullman on Jan .28 where we spend the very best holiday ever. We have no complains, we had hot water and pressure all the time, although some people in other part of the resort experienced problems. Food in Main Buffet was so,so good. Our room was always cleaned to perfection. If we could complain about anything it would be the staff behind the bar in Main Lobby they were not very friendly at all, so we stoped tipping. Everybody else treated as their friends. We are planning to [... read more] go back again. The worst part of the trip was to check in with Air Canada at the airport. Just HORRIBLE.

Resonance Blu Varadero: Great resort and easy on the bank account

For the price this is a great resort! The second we got out of the airport we all the staff were extremely friendly and helpful, especially the resort staff, always have a smile. The bar service is generally pretty good. Waited a couple times but that’s to be expected when only 2 servers are on the bar and half the resort is there. The Buffett food isn’t anything special but plenty of it!! The excursions are a touch expensive but worth it to experience Cuba. Rooms were clean but unfortunatel [... read more]y ours had bed bugs and we walked away with a few bites. The snack shack was hit and miss. Most of our stay they only had a hot dog and chicken on the menu. Overall we enjoyed our stay and was very stress free, would we go again? ABSOLUTELY

Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria: Average resort

The grounds of the resort was very well kept. Rooms were well kept. The buffet dinning room was not as well kept. Chair cushions were dirty the place mates were dirty. There was a shortage of spoons really bad shortage. The menu at the buffet never change. Not enough variety. Staff was awesome. They displayed bottles of alcohol that they didn't have and never have.

Muthu Playa Varadero: Nice Resort

The hotel was clean. Maid Yeni provided excellent service. Staff were very friendly. No matter which bar you went to they always remembered your beverage of choice. A couple of complaints I have would be the need to change up the buffet with more choices and selection rather than providing the same options everyday for both lunch and dinner. Breakfast was exceptionally good. They need to provide more night entertainment shows for the kids; around 8-8:30pm. Then after do the usual entertai [... read more]nment show. They had 2 games per day for the adults and 1 for the children. They could do one between the children's entertainment show and the regular shows; providing they implement a childs show. I have been to 2 other resorts in cuba and this is how they do the shows/games.

Club Karey: NOT a 2 star resort

When I booked this resort I knew I was getting what I paid for but when I arrived it was a totally different situation. The light in the Hall in 7 days I was there did not get fixed. I was asked to pay a Key deposit fee which I was never explained before and a towel rental fee for non existent pool towels I did get my money back $20.00 CAD when I checked. The room itself was fine it was the over all service on the resort that lacked and communication lacked with the staff on the resort you wo [... read more]uld get a different answer every time. I had 2 small hand towels for showering the 7 days i was there they were never changed. The food situation was minimal at best I managed most of the week at breakfast, the lunch bufftet and the dinner buffet were the same daily there were no desserts, also the snack bar closed at 4pm when the website says 6:30. This resort is a very low end resort and you basically get what you paid for but this resort really lacked in other areas no toilet paper in the pool area bathrooms, alot of things missing

Playa Pesquero: 3rd Time Here!

We brought our granddaughter here to see the real Cuba. The tour guides were the best and very knowledgable and spoke English very well! The entertainment at night was disappointing, not worth sticking around for. The rooms were always clean and the maids were very nice and always polite welcoming us and thanking us. The resort itself I saw improvements and upgrades. The food for a big resort was a little disappointing, no bread somedays and never seen a strip of bacon the whole time we had br [... read more]eakfast there. It was tuff somedays to find a 12-year-old something to eat so we did with a lot of repeats ( pasta for lunch & supper). Hey, we're in Cuba, we always found something to eat so the food thing was minor. This beautiful country and its wonderful people are being hurt thanks to Trump's blockade. Said and done we got our money's worth and happy overall with our whole trip. Thanks again to Manuela @ Trip Central, GREAT JOB!

Iberostar Origin Daiquiri: Amazing Resort

I have to say the staff at this Iberostar Daiquiri was very out going plus they went out there way to make sure everything was okay Room service was very good and room was all the time clean and as the same would go out there way too. The same go's for the food and staff. All I have to say is my stay at Iberostar Daiquiri was very good and looking forward to go back down there on Saturday Nov 28/2020 and see all the staff again.

Sirenis Tropical Varadero: Beautiful Resort

This resort is beautiful and very clean.The staff are very kind and friendly. The animation team was amazing. Shout out to Raul, Denis, Ismael and Elizabeth.The buffet was amazing! People who complain about Cuban food should just stay at home. You will find at least a few dishes you will like. You can always bring condiments from home to Cuba. Amazing resort to go as a couple or family.

Grand Memories Cayo Largo: Jan 2020 Great resort

Been to Cuba over 40 times and stayed at over 20 hotels Pros Food is above average for Cuba Drinks are cold and served in a glass not plastic except around the pool. Rooms are cleand daily with a free safe and bottled water Always someone on reception ready to change your money and answer questions Great customer service Lady Staff All great people no matter where u go with almost everyone speaking several languages. Island is safe and able to walk anywhere Quads or ATV for rent Cons [... read more] There is no beach but the hotel pays for a bus and boat trip to a great beach on the island The path to the restaurant at the edge of the ocean has limited lighting. Bring a flashlight Other Take the free bus trip and wonder around the village at the marina. Marina bar is a great place to sit and watch life go by. If you expecting great food you should take a cruse If you eat somewhere other than the hotel and get sick don't complain to the hotel. Rember your fly swatter and always carry toilet paper in your pocket. You will only forget once

Club Tropical: A bang for your buck

Clean, staff is nice, food is good and the beach is amazing. Located in downtown Varadero. AC worked thankfully. Don't expect great luxury or commodities. Good place for a low budget. Family friendly. Quiet place to relax. Staff is flexible on all requests. The towels are too small. Bring your own! I was shocked when I was told I had to use that small towel. I requested big towels and they were able to accommodate and give us 2 big old towels. Bring your own towel as a piece of advice.

Iberostar Origin Daiquiri: Super friendly staff !

I went with my mom for a batteries charging week ! We had a great time ! It was Super relaxing, the staff was crazy friendly ,the entire resort was very clean but unfortunately NO HOT WATER in our room all week!

Villa Tortuga: villa tortuga

I like the staff very much cubans are always happy! Tourist Yell at them a lot but the conditions are not the staffs fauld and they shouldn,t take there anger out on them and if they yelled back they would lose their job very sad to witness behavior from people who don,t understand the living conditions of the people or the country. The hotel was full lots of people mostly Russians.They seem to be very loud and fight at lot it was funny but a lot of people fear them me too! I know they were not  [... read more]coming to Cuba a lot and for 3-4 years they where not seen so their economy must be doing very well! The meals where extremely very poor same slop every day morning and night this is the worst yet! I have travelled to Cuba since 1995 and usually 3 to 4 times a year! I go to restaurants. There was a beach towel and room towel problem and it must have been a broken machine where they are cleaned! There was a seat shortage on the beach and the blue material was black mold?I do not get angry it is not the staffs falt !! There is a shortage of products and food this is hurting the Cuban people very much No cooking oil bread dish soap and laundry soap.Gas also for cars and stoves! among other things. I do not blame the people but the powers to be! The problems have been going on through out their history since Columbus.I love Cuba very much the people and will continue to go believing maybe some of what I pay go to the citizens ?? I trust this note will not show up in Cuban hands as they question all the Cuban stamps in my passport it,s only 2 years old but it,s a 10 year maybe I,ll put it in the washing machine.

Blau Varadero: The number 1 resort

I can't say enough about this resort. It had everything you would want for a great vacation. Everyone was friendly and helpful and looked after you for all your needs. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sirenis Tropical Varadero: Cuba Rookie's Review

My wife and I didn't know what to expect, and given the abundance of conflicting opinions about Cuban all-inclusive vacations, we kept out expectations on the moderate to low end of the scale. We were advised to "keep our stars up when booking in Cuba." Given our modest income, we are not "5-Star" clientele and we didn't have those expectations, so we focused on 3.5 - 4 star properties. Ultimately, we were looking for a clean resort (no mold and mildew in the rooms, no cockroaches or other bu [... read more]gs, clean beds, linens and towels) and a nice beach. I can confidently say that we found that in the Labranda Varadero Resort. Beginning with our flight, the Sunwing flight was efficient and uneventful. It was disappointing though that my wife and I couldn’t sit together on what was our first vacation together since we married in 2016. We booked months in advance, but this didn’t matter. Sunwing should address issues like this. We spent enough money on a vacation that I shouldn’t have had to pay for a seat selection just so I could guarantee sitting beside my spouse. The resort has been renovated fairly recently, and it shows. We stayed in the Beach Club (Building #1 . . . the BEST ocean view!) and the rooms were very clean. On occasion, we had to chase down clean towels, toilet paper, and drinking water, which we've heard is common at most Cuban resorts, but it wasn't too bad, and as a means of self-preservation, we learned how to creatively create a stockpile of these resources. At times, we did feel like a deliberate shortage of these items was created in order for service staff to attend to us and create an opportunity for them to receive a tip, but I don't play that game. A lack of hot water was not really an issue at the resort, as we’ve heard stories from experienced Cuban travelers. The grounds/territory of the resort are quite nice and maintained regularly. The beach is FANTASTIC, and I would dare say the best beach in Varadero (and we did walk the many kilometers up and down the beaches beyond our resort in order to compare). The two rock outcroppings on either side of the resort provide a natural privacy to the public beach. There are plenty of palapas and chaise lounge chairs and non-motorized water sports. The animation team (Bravo Club) was wonderful and provided as little or as much as we wanted to participate in. The only disappointing thing about the beach, but hard for the resort to control is human behaviour. By this, I mean that the utter abundance of smokers who seem to congregate at all-inclusive resorts tend to treat the beach as their personal ashtray. The resort does have people who clean the beach, so they are able to attend to the larger garbage that people inexplicably feel entitled to leave on the beach, but the cigarette butts are hard for them to gather. The food was OK, but not stellar. It was tastier than I expected, but the quality was sub-par. Meat was often fatty and filled with gristle, etc., and was of a lesser quality than Canadian cuts of meat, not that this was unexpected. Fruits and vegetables were fresh though not as tasty as they looked. Salads and ready-cooked food was often watery and seemed to be just a concoction of whatever didn't "go" the meal prior. When I can’t distinguish what’s in a dish, I usually won’t eat it. They ran out of cheese for the last 4 days of our holiday, and the ice-cream lineups were often intolerable. While it sounds like I might be "down on the cuisine", my wife and I are quite fussy eaters, but we never went hungry. We did find the variety lacking for those who rarely eat red meat or fish. Most people don’t go to Cuba for the food anyway. The a la carte restaurant options weren’t worth the wait in line each morning, with the restaurants offering much the same food that could be found on various days at the buffet (save for a little bit of nicer beef at the Fusion Restaurant). While the a la carte suppers are featured as a kind of incentive, we didn’t really feel that they were worth the time and effort. The reason for this is because we found out that you can only book an a la carte on the day that you want to use it and that the chef only decides on that day which type of cuisine will be made available, so you have no way of knowing what’s being offered unless you line up each day. Additionally, there is the risk that you can line up and by the time it’s your turn to book, there may be no availability anymore for what you want. The two nice features were that we were able to get away from smokers at the a la carte restaurants (because they were indoors) and we didn’t need to fight for food at the buffet. Given that we were in Cuba to enjoy the sun and the beach, being in a long line each morning for a la carte restaurants seemed like an unnecessary “time sucker.” The evening entertainment in the lobby was outstanding and the nightly main shows were good too, though again, inconsiderate and ignorant smokers made for unpleasant experiences and the hotel staff seemed quite reluctant to even enforce the non-smoking bylaw in areas where it was applicable. As an aside, my wife an I joked that in future years, we may take our own professionally-created and adhesive “No Smoking” sign and stick it up wherever we sit, with the hope that even a few people fall for it and we can enjoy a smoke-free environment a few times during our vacation. The one area of the resort that could use some serious improvement is its organization and service. We did have a few employees who exhibited fantastic service that I would compare with a North American or European standard and it was a refreshing breath of air in an otherwise sometimes frustrating experience. Upon check-in, the woman couldn’t find our reservation and after some digging and still not being able to find it, despite my documentation, she asked us if we had perhaps canceled our original reservation and re-booked. We hadn’t. We were invited to go and have some supper at the buffet and comeback after they had figured out what had happened. We never did receive an explanation, but when we returned from supper, we had our beach club ocean-view room, though it was less than what we expected, seeing as how we had booked months in advance. Happily, after a few days in our initial room, we were able to move to the best beach club building and an amazing ocean view. As previously mentioned, we did spend some time trying to track down the most basic of amenities, and my wife joked that it seemed like the staff were well trained in the “friendly lie.” By that, I mean that we would repeatedly call to the front desk (when the phone would work) and ask for clean towels, drinking water, and toilet paper, and were assured in the friendliest of voices the assurance that our needs would be taken care of. Sometimes this was true, but most often it was not. Probably the most frustrating experience happened on our last day, when we had to check out. We were staying in the Beach Club, which is a complex of 3 buildings set away from the main resort building, about a 5-minute walk. Because of the weight and quantity of our luggage, not to mention the 35-degree heat, I ordered a bellboy and a luggage car at about 11:30 AM, so we would be on time for our 12 PM check out. Further, we had to be in the lobby, waiting for the shuttle to take us to the airport at 1:45 PM, so we thought we’d have time to store our luggage in the secure area by the Reception Desk and eat lunch at the buffet, which opened at 12:30 PM. None of this happened. We waited for 30 minutes and the bellboy never came. I called the front desk numerous times from the telephone in our room, and was told the “friendly lie” that he was on his way. We waited 30 more minutes and he still hadn’t arrived. In most instances, I would have normally just hauled our bags to the main building, without question. However, my wife wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t help much; our bags were heavy; the beach club isn’t exactly close to the front lobby, and we were running out of time to check our bags and have lunch prior to the airport shuttle arriving. By now, the maid had knocked on our door to ask if we were checking out. We explained the situation to her and that our room phone had just stopped working properly. It sounded like my call would be connected and as soon as I spoke into the receiver, the call was cut off. The maid tried to help us by using her walkie-talkie and relaying the information to the appropriate staff to try and help us. We were assured that a bellboy and car were on the way. We thanked her and waited for 15 more minutes and then realized that it was foolish to keep waiting for this guy to show up, so we made the difficult trek, on our own, with heavy bags, to the main building. Because my wife wasn’t feeling well, I loaded myself up like a pack mule and we opted for a slightly longer route on a circuitous road to the main building, in order to avoid having to haul our heavy bags up a large flight of stairs. We did all of this in 34+ degree heat, and I was absolutely soaked by the time we arrived at the lobby with little time for us to freshen up, change our Cuban money back into Canadian, and have lunch, before our airport shuttle arrived. Because there was only one possible road for the bellboy and car to drive en route to us during our walk to the lobby in the main building, we were able to ascertain that the car and bellboy had never made the journey to us during our whole ordeal. Instead, the only bellboy working during that time seemed intent on staying close to the lobby to take care of the newly-arriving guests and raking in the easy tips, despite us being promised that he was “on his way.” This was typical of the type of disorganized “service” we received while we were at the resort, save for a few exceptional employees. That being said, it doesn’t sour our entire experience, and knowing what we know now, we know what to expect when we return, and return we shall to Labranda Varadero!