Iberostar Origin Playa Alameda: Decent value for money - nothing fancy

The grounds are well maintained. The staff was very friendly and helpful. The food is good but not great. Lots of fresh items to choose from. Skip the specialty restaurants. the three are all the same and the food is not tasty. The Cuban BBQ at lunch one day was very good - don't miss that. The beach was good. Lots of chairs to choose from - though many are saggy. The pools were quiet. Rooms are tired looking - the bed was a box spring and the mattress on the floor - very hard and  [... read more]uncomfortable. It gave me a sore back. the fan in the room was so loud that it made it difficult to sleep well. Value for money - it was good for a four-day break. I cannot imagine staying there any longer.

Iberostar Origin Daiquiri: Not a good stay

I would never visit this resort again. The hotel room air conditioner didn’t work. The buffet was disgusting with flies on every piece of food. Cockroaches running everywhere. The food even raw chicken being undercooked. No cocktails were available except for the very basic. Never been to a resort that had absolutely nothing in the mini fridge in the room. A lot of staff rude and unhappy. Would love to ask for all my money back because all I wished for was to be back home but I know that won†[... read more]™t happen

Iberostar Coral Holguin: A TRUE GEM!!!

Amazing time at this resort! If you want to be treated like royalty in paradise, this is the place to go! From the outstanding staff, to great accommodations, beautiful views and many options for food,entertainment and excursions, you cannot go wrong! Can't wait to visit again!

Iberostar Coral Holguin: Absolutely wonderful!

We visited the Coral Level at Iberostar in Holguin from April 30-May 7th and had the most wonderful time. This was our first ever time in Cuba and it will not be our last. The resort was immaculate. Very clean and comfortable. The grounds were beautifully maintained and the staff were beyond wonderful. We were pleasantly surprised by the food and selection as we had heard about the shortages. There was always lots to choose from and our bellies were always full and happy. We enjoyed the pool [... read more] everyday, and made the trip across the bridge to the big beach a few times. Definitely a must as the waters are beautifully turquoise and the white sand is spectacular. There were always chairs and cabanas available by the pool and beach which was amazing. No need to get up early and reserve a spot. Carlos the entertainer made our time at the pool so much fun. We enjoyed volleyball, merengue lessons and his beautiful singing and guitar playing. Yunior our butler always made sure we were well taken care of, and arranged a few beautiful surprises for our anniversary. We made lifelong friends during our week at the Coral Level and cannot wait to return.

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Peaceful and relaxing holiday!

This was our second time returning to this resort. Last time in Cuba was 2014. Times are hard for the Cuban people but they really try so hard to make everything nice for the guests at this resort. We stayed in building 34 and it was really nice. To us the bed was surprisingly comfortable ( not sleep country but not bad) as we have had bad experiences with mattresses in the past. The room was clean and spacious. There are food shortages in Cuba and although there is always something to eat  [... read more]and we by no means went without, sometimes there were no eggs for breakfast or sugar for coffee, or no chicken or beef at any meals. It made us think of the local people and what they are short of. Beer and wine were missing some days but rum is always available. You can manage just fine if rum is available! Right? We liked that we could use Canadian money for tipping so no need for bringing American cash and no exchange of currency needed. The beach is absolutely one of the best in the world, hands down! So crystal clear and stunning. We never had trouble getting a palapa and chairs. As a side note: the filtered water is so much better since the Cubans no longer use plastic bottles. I always felt after a few days that the water tasted funny from the bottle. Like it was sitting in the plastic bottles in the Sun somewhere for too long. They now use glass bottles on this resort. So much better! We would definitely return to the Iberostar Ensenacho Santa Maria.

JOIA Rose Hall by Iberostar: Amazing Resort

We had a wonderful stay, perfect room location, amazing balcony view, All the amenities one could ask for. Never been to a hotel where they are concerned about guests getting sunburnt and provide factor 60 suncreen for guest use at the towel bar! We had our own but it was a very thoughtful addition! Food, Entertainment great, Bar Staff outstanding and lots of fun. We were not disappointed in the Grand in any way but would have to say the Lazy river at the Suites resort is a huge disappointment. [... read more] It is so lazy you have to drag or walk yourself around. Barely anyone using it and is such an attraction on the marketing of the property. They really should fix the jets and have it actually functional.

Iberostar Origin Playa Alameda: A GREAT RESORT

THE GROUNDS/SWIMMING POOL/BEACH WERE VERY WELL KEPT AND THE RESTAURANTS AND SNACK BAR WERE CLEAN THE STAFF ALL WERE VERY PLEASEANT AND HELPFUL THE FOOD WAS GOOD FOR CUBAN STANDARDS AND PLENTYFUL THEAR WAS SHORTAGES FOR SOME ITEMS THE LAST WEEK AS IT WAS THE END OF THE MONTH I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS HOTEL AS THIS WAS OUR 8th VACATION 14 DAYS THIS TIME STARTED OF WITH A WEEK THEN 10 DAYS WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT SO ONLY BY TRYING CAN YOU FIND WHAT YOU WANT LOVELY SAFE BEACHES FREINDLY PEOPLE THIS RESORT [... read more] HAD ENTERTAINMENT NIGHTLY THAT WENT TO MIDNIGHT AND BEACH PARTY TO ONE am ENJOY JOE L

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: NEVER AGAIN

I went to this resort in 2014 and thought the quality of the stay would be the same boy was i wrong. Absolute joke for a "5 star" hotel, Food was mediocre at best. There were days in our stay that they had no milk for breakfest, no cheese, no sugar. Wait 30+ min in line to get an Omelett or any kind off eggs. There were times the bars at the beach had no ice, drinks were pathetic. Ask for a drink at any bar and get different mixed drinks, how can you mess up drinks? So much more to say but i al [... read more]ready wasted my time attending a horrible hotel, not going to spend more time on this. Save yourself from this "hotel" and for me NEVER again Cuba.

Iberostar Selection Varadero: Mediocre

The grounds and beach are simply beautiful. The rooms are outdated but clean and spacious. Our patio door would not lock and they didn’t do anything about it. The food was always fresh and plentiful but very repetitive. You will find fresh fish daily, chicken and pork occasionally. The a la carte restaurants serve the same food as buffet just prepared a different way. One thing that shocked me was the attitudes of some of the bartenders and serving staff. Some were quite rude and would hav [... read more]e conversations with friends and co workers and ignore guests. This resort is lacking the personal touch I believe because of its size. You have different servers and bartenders daily. The music was extremely loud at the pool and beach. The entertainment was good but had the same performers every night just different formats. I will not be returning.

Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada: Amazing Resort

This was an incredible experience!! We went with 18 family members of various ages and each one of us had a great time! The food was incredible, pool was warm, and the drinks were cold! You will not be disappointed here!

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Hotel needs alot of work

This is far from being even a 4 star. This hotel is very run down, walls dirty with paint chips, lobby washroom not clean. Actually saw a cleaner mop the floors in the lobby washroom and use the same mop to clean the counter top. Our room did not have a shower, it was a hot tub with a hand held shower head that only pointed towards the wall. Our room was not cleaned for 2 days, the room is very dated and sheets did not smell fresh. There are cockroaches in the restaurants, birds eating the food  [... read more]in the restaurants, plates are left for long periods. The grounds and beach are beautiful BUT the pool with the swim up bar is very dirty with black mold everywhere, lots of TILES missing in the bottom of the pool which can be very dangerous for cuts. The maintenance of the pool is done pretty late in the morning which is odd as people are in the pool at the same time. The snack bar that is open 24 hours limits the food you can get depending on the time (ie: can't get fries from noon to 3pm). A La Carte were good, best one was Japanese. Even the service was not the best, some of the staff seem to have attitude...and we're not the demanding type at all. A handful of staff were the absolute best. We expected some changes due to Covid like lack of certain foods or alcohol, but providing service and hotel upkeep was not one of them. I will not be returning to this resort.

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Will be Back

Dates travelled: April 22-29 Family type: Family of 4 with kiddos aged 17 and 14 Rooms: Building 16, Rooms 320 and 308 Visitation History: 4thtime to Cuba, first time at this resort Overall rating: we all gave it a solid 9/10 After reading some of the reviews, we were honesty a bit hesitant about coming here. So glad we did. Honest review based on our personal experience. Rooms: Building 16 was awesome. Same floor as lobby and very close to buffet, pools, main lobby bar, etc. R [... read more]ooms were gorgeous and bright (our furniture was painted white). Everything worked, including the shower head. Hot water with good pressure. We had a king and the girls had two singles. Beds were very comfortable. Was there signs of wear and tear? Some plates outside rooms? Sure. But so minor that doesn’t warrant mention. I did hear from other guests, however, some challenges but this was not ours. Food: As everyone has said, and knows, you don’t go to Cuba for amazing resort food. That said, there were some great dishes on the buffet and a fairly wide selection. If you like added salt, which I do, I would suggest bringing some. We didn’t bring any added food with us. My girls did struggle near the end finding things they wanted to eat but they are also kind of picky. Usually always a bit of a line-up for the ‘made-to-order’ foods (pasta, omelets, etc.). There is no toaster so if you like toast in morning, just bring it to the omelet station and they’ll grill for you. The snackbar/24 hr bar also puts on lunch buffet and is only location that makes fries, starting at 1pm. Line up early if you want some or don’t want to wait in line for 30-45 minutes for a plate of fries. We ate here almost everyday. The ice cream shack was never open; we just hopped over the buffet and grabbed some there. A la Carte: We messed up on one of our reservations and missed it, so only ate at Cuban and Japanese. Both were good and a nice break. The breaded fish at Cuban are just like chicken fingers, but really good. No ketchup but they have a yummy mayo sauce you can ask for. The rose wine at Cuban was fantastic but same ‘wine’ at Japanese tasted like it was watered down 50%, as did the white and red. Order beer instead. Drinks: Everything we like (wine, beer, pina colada’s, etc.) we were able to access. The lobby bar does an amazing blended ice coffee (virgin or with shot or dark rum) and an amazing blended mango tequila (ask for the mango tequila with the orange cap, imported from Spain. So good and runs out quickly.) The lobby bar can get quite busy in the morning and evening so expect to wait a bit. The bartenders are excellent at serving folks in order they arrive, regardless of money waiving attempts. Entertainment: Just fantastic. Loved the musicians playing in lobby before nightly shows, and all the shows. They also have a wonderful little trio who perform down at the little bar a couple of nights a week by the pool to the left. They are awesome, pay them a visit. The staff doing day entertainment (pool activities, beach dancing, etc.) are amazing. The level of energy they bring despite long days and doing this every day is inspiring. Excursions: We did the jeep safari via West Jet. Was awesome, although you drive SUVs vs jeeps. Would recommend. If you do this, bring candy, crayons, goodies for kids. You drive along a portion of road where kids come along the side for goodies but you don’t actually get to stop, per se. We’ve done Havana twice before and loved it each time. We did the hop/on bus before too, so didn’t do it this time. The questionables: There were a couple of not-so-great things. First, one of our towels was taken off our chair from the main pool while we were all in the pool. All our towels were on one chair with one drying on the back. This was not a mistake but a purposeful take, which really sucked. It did not turn up in lost and found not at the towel hut. The second was returning to our room one night to find 3 full cups of tea on our table; we can only thing (hope) that it was room ordered and delivered to wrong room. Nothing else was out of order. Third, we had a full bag of sunscreen (about 5 bottles) ‘go missing’. While we like to think the maids took by accident thinking it was part of the gifts/tips we left, the bag was not in a location that would suggest it was for taking. Fortunately, we had enough (just) to last us till our last day. While we intended to leave all our left over stuff, it was quite violating that it was taken without permission. That said, overall we loved it, would recommend and would return. Future travelers, enjoy your stay, have empathy and compassion and don’t sweat the small stuff.

Iberostar Origin Bella Vista Varadero: Great resort!

The hotel was one of the largest hotels in Varadero. It was convenient and everything was almost as expected. The stuff were very friendly. The room was clean and regularly cleaned. Drinks were abundant everywhere (in the lobby, pool, restaurant). Didn’t take towels as we already knew they are available there. Food was good and acceptable and you could find something to eat. (salad, fish, chicken, bacon, beef, pork, milk, scrambled and boiled eggs, ice cream, cakes, and other desserts) You co [... read more]uld also book for Italian or Japanese dinner but we couldn’t manage to reserve for those restaurants due to being busy with during the booking times. The recursion programs were nicely organized. We were only able to register for one of the program (dolphins and fish seeing deep in the water, although the equipment was not very convenient). There were about 7-8 recursion programs (including Trip to Havana, Jeep safari, …) Our 6-year old son was busy with playing in the beach or pool and at the end of the day was tired enough not to ask for more activities. Although we had balls and game apps that he could enjoy.

Iberostar Selection Paraiso Maya Suites: Iberostar Paraiso Maya

We have now been there 53 times. Need I say more? And, on this trip, they added a weekly dinner buffet on the beach. It was great! Try this place just to debate whether the Golden Margarita or the Mango Margarita is better!

Iberostar Origin Playa Alameda: Fabulous Staff!

The hotel is small and easy to get around. The rooms are spacious, and clean. The food was good, much better than last year. Had a nice variety of salads, always had chicken, fish, pasta,veggies. Had butter for about 1 week or so,always had lots of bread,buns,cold meats,and cheeses. Even the bars had a better selection of alcohol,great cocktails,and fabulous cappuccinos. Their entertainment this year was very good. Always something was going on either at the beach in the mornings or exercising  [... read more]in the pool in the mornings, and in the afternoon music,and bingo.Was usually live music in the evening’s up by the lobby bar around 8pm u til about 9:30 pm. Then a show on at the theatre around 9:30pm,or else they had a DJ playing outside at the theatre that went from 9:30-10pm to around midnight. Also every Friday night they had a beach party starting at 10pm until 1am.So lots to do.Like all hotels in Varadero they are getting weary looking,but they are renovating some of the buildings slowly. It’s Cuba! But a great hotel for the money.

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: Beautiful resort

This hhotel was beautiful the grounds were impecably kept and the rooms were very large. It was very clean. All the staff were very friendly, helpful and willing to do whatever they could to make your stay a special one. Sadly the food was a big disappointment.. What you saw for lunch is what you got for dinner. Many times there was no milk. The servers did their best to accommodate us as best as they could. The mosquitoes were unbearable and you couldn't sit outside for being swarmed. [... read more] Not sure if the hotel sprayed but it was very uncomfortable. If the food and mosquitoes could be itaken care of it would be a wonderful place for a holiday.

Iberostar Selection Varadero: Awesome Resort

In my opinion this is the best resort in Cuba, the beach is absolutely breath taking it is just gorgeous. The resort it beautiful very clean the people working there are always nice and respectful, (the guests should remember themselves to be as respectful to them as they are to us) Food was good I am not food driven so I found plenty to eat all the time. I am 100% going back to Iberostar Selection Varadero that is my place now. It will be hard to beat that beach!! See you next time :)

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: LOVED THIS RESORT

This hotel was so clean and beautiful - the pool area is the nicest one I have ever been to with plenty of chairs - cabanas for shade and built in lounge chairs in the pool. The rooms are very big - with a walk in closet - so impressed

Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada: Amazing All-Inclusive and great, prompt service from TripCentral!

Great all-inclusive resort with very friendly hospitality! The resort was a bit dated but well maintained, for the price I am not complaining! Very family friendly, however, keep in mind there are no elevators for higher level rooms so make sure you check with concierge if you have babies w/ strollers! Overall, would go back! Thank you Iberostar and Tripcentral.

Iberostar Origin Daiquiri: Amazing resort

Grounds and public areas: very neat and clean Rooms: Clean, needs better pillows, toilet seat needs repair Staff: very friendly and courteous Beach: beautiful - ample reclining outdoor beach beds Fishing: good fishing at extended pier. Pier is lighted up at night. Restaurant: compared to our previous stay, shortage of staff, tables were not cleared quickly enough; there is a shortage of butter, bring butter and peanut butter