New resort

Overall fair resort, lack of staff, activities, room service , beach is nice , no money exchange available, gift shop the size of my bathroom, and hardly ever open , nowhere to buy cigars , wifi always crashing

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.

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

Great resort

the resort was the best the beach was beautiful the food was lol cuban style but we knew this i did see alot of shortages on certain things like no butter the whole week milk was hit and miss no jam or anything for toast but you didnt go hungy lol and the first four days were fly free then it was unbareable those bugs chewwed me alive and that was with spray i felt bad for the workers they were beating themselves like crazy lol and the distance from the airport to resort was a long drive not  [... read more]much to do but walk the beach and soak up the sun which was good for me lol wouldnt go back to that resort just becauce of the long drive to the resort and the bugs but it was a good trip

Amazing resort

Just got back from a week at this resort !! It was fantastic. The beach was amazing ,our room was beautiful!! The food was a bit hit and miss , nobody went hungry, The lobby was great with some entertainment, the whole week was sunny , can’t ask for anything better than that ! Thanks for the lovely week in the sun !!

Amazing resort

this resort was very new and extremely clean throughout. The rooms were clean, roomy and also well stocked with water, toilet paper and towels. it had an ironing board, iron , umbrella and a weigh scale.The only thing missing was a coffee maker which could have been useful.The mini fridge was restocked daily with water. The bed was comfortable with clean sheets and the cleaning maid was efficient and thorough. The grounds were clean with the ground crew , gardeners and pool staff doing an excel [... read more]lent job in keeping this resort clean. The public washrooms were always stocked with toilet paper and again amazingly clean. The buffet was average cuban food, better than expected as per previous reviews with most commodities on hand. No shortages of coffee, milk,bread, eggs, bacon etc. and the waiting staff was friendly and efficient replenishing your drinks and/or removing plates etc. The 24 hour snack bar had ample drinks, burgers, hot dogs, spagetti and chips when ordered. The staff did not bother us to change canadian coins and only did so when approached by us . We used only US dollar bills and exchanged them for larger denominations at end of or trip. The shortages people are talking about such as milk, bread ,mix were only temporarily and restocked later in the day or next day. In fact you could be missing a mix at one bar yet the next bar will have it. The weather was great, sunrise was beautiful, beach was spectacular with lots of loungers and shade. The best beach i have seen elsewhere. In closing, this resort is new, spacious but not large and extremely clean. i i

Not great beach

The reason I chose Cuba was for the beach. I have been to cayo coco and loved the beach so much. Not this beach sadly. The shore is short, It's not a wide long beach and not suitable for long walks. Just a bit away from the hotel, the shore was full of garbage. Beach chairs were not enough. People were fighting over chairs. Beach chairs were not comfortable one-piece chairs but rather old types with 2 separations. No fish, no sea shells. Just not the great beach I expected. Foods were bad as exp [... read more]ected. I was aware of that. I didn't gobcuba to enjoy meals. Every meal was more or less the same at the buffet. No butter, no cheese, no yogurt, no beef, no chicken, only cured pork like winners and ham they call it beef patties but it was clearly not. Not the one you expect to see in burgers we know of. Being your own foods! Don’t choose this hotel if the beach is your priority. Also 1.5H drive from the airport. Not worth it.

Great resort

This place was everything I except. With Cuba and supplies being short we did NOT go hungry or without booze. Plenty of toilet paper. There was nothing to complain about really. Go with an opened mind to Cuba and you won't be disappointed. Beach was amazing and the staff were pleasant.

Cuba 2023

The beach, pools were amazing! The entertainment staff was absolutely incredible. The food terrible… ran out of the basics, bread, eggs. Food not cooked. The service staff were ok but ignored people. Drinks were ok but not consistent at all. At all bars except the swim up. Bar tenders at pool swim up bar were excellent. Overall rating is a 3 but only because of the food

Beaches and hotel and staff great

The buildings are brand new. Everything works. The food in April week though is hit and miss. Snack bar does not have much food. Buffet has good and weird food. Excellent fish but scarce on some food. Seems food delivery is not constant. Friendly staff. Beaches are amazing with lots of sun shelters. 1.5 hours from airport. So consider that if doing excursions. Staying at resort to chill great. Doesn’t seem to be good for snorkeling. Best hotel. Food as usual for Cuba

Wouldn’t rate this a 4 or 4.5 star resort

My expectations are not high when travelling to Cuba. I love Cuba the people and their beaches and have travelled there every year (sometimes twice a year) for ten years prior to Covid. First time back. I expected shortages and it is what it is. However I was disappointed in the 1 restaurant we had. Never opened at 7. Always a line up to go in, made it hectic when the doors were open. The food was a little below standard. Not enough tongues for food. They were used for every dish. Cross conta [... read more]mination..no milk, powdered milk which is fine they just need to stir lumps out. End of vacation no milk what so ever. I found lots of veggies to eat, meat was hit and miss and fruit was limited. I love apples so ate them everyday. No bananas. The flies were disgusting. On tables, in food, in glasses on table. Maybe try fly traps. We sat outside for most meals and no flies? Go figure…. As for the rooms, cleanliness for Covid, unfortunately our towels were never changed, I’m ok with 1 change while we are there but they just folded the wet towels and put in rack. One day half way through our holiday we walked in room and commented the cleaning supplies must have arrived because it smelled clean. The rest of days not much done. No soap to wash hands, which they have containers for hand soap, shampoo, body wash etc. all empty. Used our own soap which I expected. Was disappointed there was no hand soap in any washrooms on the resort. There was to be 3 specialty restaurants but only 2. No big deal they were good. Pasta was in short supply. The drive from airport to resort varies from 45 - 11/2 hours depending who is being dropped off at other resorts or picked up on way home. This resort will not be an option for my next trip. I will be looking to Cayo Santa Maria or Cayo coco my favourite spots. Tried something new but will stick with places I’m sure will be a 4.5 resort.

New resort/ not managed properly

This resort was new but not managed properly at all. Like running out of sugar at one bar while there is more elsewhere..running out of wine and beer at different bars while there’s some at other bars. This is just managed improperly. Absolutely no condiments. None. Spoke to several people i met at the airport and those 3 resorts had all condiments. Why not iberostar Esmeralda? The a la Cartes are the same food as buffets..buffets usually had pork and chicken some pasta and rice . Some thin [... read more]gs i cannot describe as nothing had descriptions on them and looked foreign to us and not appetizing. Fruit….pineapple every day. Saw grapes one day and guava here and there..breakfast were the hardest to eat. Not a lot of variety. The yogurts don’t look right. The milk looked like the yogurts. Bread but no butter or any condiments as mentioned . They make great rice pudding! The furniture in the lobby is terribly uncomfortable as are the loungers but 2 of the pools. Like cannot lay in them uncomfortabe. Not sure what happened there. The loungers by the kids pool are comfy enough but the pool is 2 feet deep so we didn’t stay there. The mosquitoes are out in full force in the lobby. The sea weed was cleaned up daily but piles elsewhere..should have just taken away. Biggest issue was the actual booking with trip central. Be very careful while looking are resorts.. its deceiving. We booked what i thought was the iberostar Esmeralda Cayo Coco and that’s what it says in the actual heading when looking at resorts. But after booking realizing it was actually cayo cruz was not impressed. Talking to a few people there they made the same mistake;. Cayo Cruz in 1 hour and 45 minutes from the time you leave the airport to arriving at Esmeralda. Our bus stopped and one other resort which I’m sure adds 20 min to the drive.. the actual tour guide first said its 1 hour and 45 minutes long. That Esmeralda is way out there..and it was . The trip central girl said it as 1 hour…wrong. Worse i thought it was cayo coco which is only half hour away which is what we thought we booked again because of the headline under the iberostar Esmeralda .. wrong its cayo Cruz. So overall not impressed and will not return or book through trip central . One last thing big shout out to Christian at the buffet who has the nicest smile, very helpful and attentive.. many waiters and waitresses wouldn’t even make eye contact with people. The tables are not cleaned quickly enough and certainly not cleaned properly. They need to actually remove the placemats and clean under them after every customer ..the plates are not cleaned properly either and have grease residue..

Not a 5 star resort

It was a beautiful resort. The rooms were great. The beach was beautiful but if you want for a walk there was some garbage. We found that the entertainment staff was lacking. Not alot of things to do as we are so far away. The service was lacking as well. We already new about food shortage but we were able to find food to eat

Good resort

For the most part the hotel and the grounds were well taken care of. Staff and grounds keepers were very polite and always greeted you. Sometimes you had to ask the cleaning staff to make sure the floors were cleaned, but for the most part they did a good job. Make sure to tip them the service will be better. Room safe locked on me once and A/C gave out a couple of times, the technician was not always available. The beach was absolutely AMAZING, one of the best beaches I've seen to date. Enterta [... read more]inment staff had music and activities on the beach which was nice. The beach grounds men did a very good job at cleaning up any washed up seaweed and tried to keep the sand clean. Food was pretty good, alot of meat options but not alot of vegetables. Also not a lot of fruit. But you definitely won't starve. Dining area could use a good clean up after each meal as sometimes the floors and table mats were dirty. The entertainment staff were great, very friendly and always interacting with the guests and making sure everyone was having a good time. Shows at night were pretty good as well, mostly when the guests were involved. Overall it was a good experience for a fairly new hotel.

Paradise Beach and amazing Staff!

Not sure why Sunwing and Iberostar are rating this a a 5 Star. Although the hotel is new, the beach amazing and the staff incredible, it lacks on other things that are very important. The food and also only having beverages for some. I personally don’t drink during the day but I do enjoy a glass of wine in the evening, and throughout my whole stay there was nothing but rum and vodka! I honestly thought that people paid a premium for March Break and expected some pretty basic things such as bu [... read more]tter, jam or milk for the morning cereal. I understand that Cuban people are going through a really hard time, this is a Spanish owned resort and they cannot be rating this a 5 Star when they are not. charging their guests Premium Rates and expecting us to accept it because it’s Cuba! Not impressed with the Iberostar or Sunwing!!

Beautiful Resort

This is a newer resort the rooms clean ,bed comfortable and everything works. The resort is well lite up at night. It's is very clean. Majority of the staff are younger and provide resonable service.The lobby bar staff quickly get you your first drink but are a little slow on the second even if you are tipper. Thr bar assistant manager was very good.But some of the staff work 8 and 10 hrs the bar staff work 12. The staff travel 2 to 4 hrs a day each way. Very long days. The beach is beautiful [... read more] and raked by hand lots of loungers and shade.The beach boys are quick to find you a place. Beach bar staff very good. The pools are very clean. The bar staff provide good service. The biggest issue is there's not a lot of shade. The snack bar staff are very good. On Cuba day very good food.I did ask for pizza one day at lunch and was told the wait was two hours. The buffet lots of food waiters and staff hard working. The down side was there was a lot of pork almost to much. There was ground beef and beef strips. No chicken until the last two days. Lots of eggs limited bread and no butter. Thete was s lack of fish also.There was no pasta until the last two days and it was only spaghetti dishes. The la cartes were terrible only the Cuban snd Asian open no Italian or Metterian due to lack of supplies. But service was good. There is a shortage of liquors such as tequilas , red and white wine. The entertainment was lacking in the lobby. We did have a piano player for three out of the seven nights. His name was Joseph and he is very talented. The Hobbie craft operators were excellent always approaching people offering there services. I never seen this at any other resorts before in the Carribbean. We did one excursion to the City of Camerey don't waste your money it's about $100 Canadian each. It is a long day over 4 hours of travel. The only thing I learned was the same bus beer in Camerey is one dollar not five dollars like the bus. Remember the two beer for five dollars they were still making money. This resort is a long way from anywhere it's not Varadero, Cayo Santa Marie, Holguin or Cayo Coco areas. That have taxis,buses,and some shops setup. But the area of Cayo Cruz is still under development.Ten more resorts in the works for this beach area. Thr WiFi worked very good everwhere on the resort. Lots of internet boosters around the resort. The resort quest was a mixture of Canadians from Ontario, Quebec and a few martimers. The majority of the other quest were Russian. The Russians kept to there selves. Only issues some are rude and try to jump a head of you in line. Only happen one day some drunkan ones made comments about Canadians. But I did notice extra security was around when the last plane of Russiand arrived. This is to Canadians try not to tip with our coins. The Cubans can't use them only paper. They want Canadian or US paper. They either use it to buy items on the black market or they take it to the bank and deposit it to there bank card. One Cuban had a bag of tips well over $500 in coin. We came back with over hundred dollars each in coin.We were approach numerous times by workers once they got to know us and we cashed some of their coins. I wish the staff had name tags very few had tags. It would be great to give credit to ones who stood out above the rest. Just to let people know this was likley our twelfth trip to Cuba and I like to give my honest opinion on these reviews. I use trip central reviews for our travel.I think over time things will improve. Rum and cigars aren't cheap anymore in Cuba in the tourist areas. Once again thank you Carol Webber for your service.

So much potential

We stayed at the iberostar selection Esmeralda from Feb. 24- Mar. 3 After a long wait checkin was seamless . Our room was beautiful , clean , nice layout and a beautiful balcony . It’s a lovely resort , small and easy to get around . Staff were very friendly , everyone you past said “Ola” with a smile . The difficulties lies within communication . Huge language barrier with all staff, we learned this throughout the week . . The buffet was okay , nothing fancy , basically the same thing e [... read more]ach day done a different way . When in Cuba no expectations work the best . Things for the resort to consider : Post when events or games will happen so one knows when and where to participate. A bigger exposure of the entertainment team through the day would benefit more participation . The buffet restaurant is beautiful however the system in place doesn’t allow great flow amongst the buffet . Lineups for egg station in the morning and lineups for lunch and dinner grilling is poor . Consistency in the drink preparation would be beneficial , what you ordered at the lobby bar differentiated from any other bar 🤷‍♀️ Overall this resort has huge potential , It has a beautiful beach and the ocean was fantastic . The people are kind and willing to help if only they could understand you . Every public washroom through the resort was spotless , one of the best I’ve seen . In advertising this resort please say it’s a one hour drive from the airport not 40 min. Overall with a few hiccups here and there ( no batteries in safe upon arrival ) . We had a lovely week and if it wasn’t so far from airport we would return

Fantastic Holiday

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Iberostar Esmeralda Cayo Coco. The layout of the resort makes it easy to get around without too much walking, and still enjoy all the amenities. The pools, bars, restaurants and entertainment areas are all fairly close, and easy to get to.

Isolated paradise with an amazing beach

this resort is new built and has all the amenities we needed. We enjoyed the gym with good selection of cardio and weight equipment and onsite free personal trainer ready to help out. three or four pools and all beautiful and clean. the beach is breath taking and the best part of the journey. it looked like a cover of a magazine and it was really hard to leave....make sure u bring sun screen and bug spray. the staff are really kind and friendly and we had the best time. the food is what you get  [... read more]for Cuba and not what we went for so we expected average food. everything else is extra ordinary and wonderful. one of the best resorts we ever visited. highly recommend.

Very good vacation with only a few cons

We are a family of 3 and we’ve been to Iberostar Esmeralda Selection from Feb 19-26. The flight was operated by Off We Go, the first time I hear of them, and the experience was excellent, they left on time and arrived early on both flights, they served a full meal and they had decent departure and arrival hours. The hotel is on a newly open for construction island – Cayo Cruz. From what I’ve seen, there are only 3-4 hotels and they are building more. The ride from Cayo Coco airport to th [... read more]e hotel is 1h (80-100km), and you travel on a causeway with beautiful seascapes. The resort is new (opened in 2020) and consists of seven 2-storey buildings plus restaurant, lobby, gym arranged in a circle, buildings 3, 4, 5 being closer to the beach and with partial or full view to the sea. The check in was slow: although there were 4 posts, only one clerk was working, and I noticed during the week that somehow there were always guests at the front desk waiting to be attended. The rooms are very good, ours had 2 full beds, very nice shower cabin with ceiling shower as well as hand-held shower head, very good ventilation in the toilet room, sparse but effective furniture; AC worked fine. However, one of our 2 rooms had an unpleasant and stubborn musty smell, one had to keep the window open, but that was not a problem with the mild temperatures outside. No complaint about cleanliness of the rooms. One complaint about the noise, though. We were in building 4 which also has 2 small a la carte restaurants and a bar and is right next to the pool theatre were all the entertainment blasted their music and their games. Luckily the shows went from 3-4 pm and then again 8:30-10:30 pm. This was not such a big deal, but on several nights, there were loud groups of people at the nearby bar (right under our room) laughing until the wee hours. I believe that, due to proximity to hotel rooms, the bar should have been closed for the night. The food was good, I had read horror reviews and was worried, but it wasn’t the case. The roasts (pork, veal, fish) were excellent, and so was the grill. Also, the stews were delicious, including veal. Good selection of salad ingredients: cabbage (I had it with every meal) tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, occasionally lettuce. Excellent cheeses, I think they were all Spanish. The desserts were varied and very good: meringues, cheesecake, flan, choux a la crème, ice creams, all yummy and very tempting. The food was not abundant, they frequently ran out bacon and one had to stalk until it was replenished, only once were there fries and the lineups were huge, there was no butter nor milk at breakfast and no cold cuts, except for the last day, and one morning there were no eggs. One or two days the fruit were scarce. Anyways, we did not go hungry. What I didn’t like at the buffet was that it was crowded. They didn’t open it at the time announced but rather they kept people waiting 10-15 min at the door, and when they eventually opened, all servers were lined at the door and clapping as guests entered. I disliked that. I confirm what another reviewer said about the plates not being squeaky clean, but on the contrary, with traces of grease. The tables were not cleaned fast enough for the flux of guests coming, and also, if you went late, the service was slower. I do not imply that the servers were slack but rather that more personnel was needed. We booked 2 a la carte restaurants, Asiatico and Cuban, but we went only to Asiatico which was bad: uninteresting food (better at the buffet) and very poor service The lobby bar was very good, but I mainly got cappuccinos and an occasional pina colada and Spanish coffee and the bar tenders were nice and efficient. The beach is amazing, with fine white sand, huge swaths of beach to walk. It faces NE so one can see the sun rise from the sea. It also has sizable tides, towards 11 am it engulfed most of the beach. It was pleasantly breezy the whole week and there were waves. Towards the right, beyond the Valentin resort, the beach turns rocky and it was fun to escalate that area. Towards the left there are kilometres of wild beach, another resort is being built. Unfortunately, there is a lot of litter that accumulates in that area. What I deeply disliked was that people reserved their seats on the beach. On the first days we arrived at the beach between 8-8:30 and we literally caught the last seats. Next to us 4 seats stayed reserved with towels but empty until 11:40. Maybe increasing the number of seats and shades on the beach would sort this problem. Overall, this was a good vacation, very good hotel, very nice beach, good food, great relax.