Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Very Nice Holiday! Coral Level Iberostar

We were here last March. There are visible changes....not the fault of the resort, or the Cubans. The workers are always eager to help with what little they have. There were minor shortages. But not enough to complain about, who eats bacon every day at home anyway, chicken was missing for a few days, but made a comeback for the remainder of the week. We didn't go hungry. The beach is always beautiful....one of the nicest beaches in Cuba. The only downside that I was a little disappointe [... read more]d about was the lack of entertainment on the adult side. There is a piano, only used for very short time for one night. One other night was a short show by a local guitarist....not that good. The family side had the typical boom boom garbage. I go to the caribbean for the culture, and Cuba has some of the most talented musicians. More live music would go a long way in order for me to go back. Other than that, I probably won't be back for the lack of entertainment. Bedrooms are great, the beds are very comfortable. No supplies in the fridge, but the coral level is so small, you are a couple of minutes from your bars.

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: The best place to stay!

This resort is incredibly beautiful The staff are fantastic Our room was luxurious, the nicest hotel room I’ve ever encountered I can’t wait to book my next vacation I won’t stay anywhere else Thank you !

Iberostar Origin Daiquiri: Not worth the money

Issues from the start. We were given two options, to switch rooms or move to the 5 star resort. The rooms we were offered were no better and some had 2 beds instead of a queen or king. We didn’t move to the 5 star because we met a couple groups of people who told us they didn’t have food and they also had cockroaches. This was by far one of the worst experiences either one of us has had. The paint was peeling, the vents were rusted, the fan in washroom didn’t work at all, the outlet in t [... read more]he washroom was hanging out of the wall, the washroom door didn’t close, the light in the washroom had no cover so you could see right through to ceiling between floors, the food was so limited and if you didn’t get there once buffet opened you weren’t getting anything. There were days they didn’t even have different foods, it was just massive bowls of rice placed all over. Also got bad food poisoning from the meat we think. There was pork chicken and beef depending on day. There was cockroaches in the buffet area ( I almost died so gross). There was another patron at the buffet who screamed yelled “cockroach” and killed it. They had run out of tequila and vodka for a few days. Honestly I wish we hadn’t gone at all and had waited. The experience and vacation was not one I’d ever want again. The best part of the trip was the plane ride there and back.

Iberostar Origin Daiquiri: I would not recommend this resort

Although this resort was pretty clean as l have seen worst, the food was terrible there were not condiments no pepper, butter for toast or peanut butter or jam, no syrup for French toast some days no milk for coffee. The only alcohol was at times white or red wine, rum and beer. Mixes for the rum was scarce. The toilets did not work. I had to complain for 3 days in a row to get my toilet in my room fixed. Some rooms didn’t have hot water. Toilet paper was scarce so make sure you bring your ow [... read more]n. We made the best of a bad situation and did have fun as we met lots of nice people. The employees were very nice and friendly but very short staffed and those working were run off their feet and still managed a smile. Unfortunately there are so many wrong things l could not possibly recommend it

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: 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.

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: Good resort, but..

We stayed 15 days in February. The room is very nice and spacious. We moved from building 5 to 7 due to a noise that was right in front of our balcony ( show time), too hard to fall asleep. Room in building 7 -TV had only 5 channels ( others had 48), a technician couldn't fix it- no signal he said. Too strange and odd to have a string for drying the swimming clothes in the shower stall- too humid there for that - better to have it on the balcony. The food in the buffet was OK, no co [... read more]mplaints. A-la cart restaurants were not very impressive. We visited 2- Cuban and Asian ( Italian didn't work). It would be nice to have hand sanitizers everywhere in the public areas- I didn't see any. Also there were no tissues in the rooms, no coffee makers. The plates in the buffet looked as they were not properly cleaned. THE HOTEL HAS TO DO SOMETHING WITH FLIES IN THE BUFFET! They are everywhere- on the food, in the glasses. There are not enough lounge chairs on the beach- that's why people have to go early in the morning at 6.30 and reserve them. The neighbour hotel has hundreds of chairs on their beach. Comparing to Grenada's hotel- we could change the beach towels any time on the beach, here we had to leave them in the room so the maid would have left us the new ones- not very convenient. Hotel's marina was closed all the time- we had to go to Valentine to book a hoby cat. The guy made for us only 15 min along the beach, though the other boats were in the sea way longer. May be, because we didn't belong to Valentine? No bicycles for rent, it would be nice to have them. There is a grand piano in the lobby- nobody ever played it. I think, the hotel is OK, though there are some issues there, that can be solved. Cuban people are nice and hard working. My complaints are for the management.

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: Fun with my 4 year old

I wanted to write a review of this resort and focus on 2 things - stuff to bring and coming here with a young child. The rest I'm sure is covered in other posts... I highly recommend bringing the following items if you are travelling with young kids: - canned or powdered milk - their formula - their favorite juice (somehow) - ketchup (however we had French fries only once) - peanut butter/jam - mustard, BBQ sauce, hot sauce - salad dressing (!) - lots of potato chips (they are nowhe [... read more]re to be found around here) - Crackers - candy (they have some chocolate and cookies in the shops) - water/pool toys and beach toys (they have some floaties like inner tubes at the Kids club) - lots of sun coverage - finding shade can be a challenge - umbrellas get scooped up really quickly - wet wipes - movies/TV downloaded onto your devices - the wifi does not work well - 1 or more large travel mugs for cold and hot drinks from the bar Bringing kids: I came here alone with my 4 year old son. I had read there was a Waterpark which was why I booked it. There really isn't a "waterpark" although there is a cute kids pool with some things that spout water so maybe that's what they meant. We had an Aqua Fun room which just meant that it was right next to the Kid's Pool and Kid's Club. The ladies who work at the Kid's Club were great. They watched my son anytime between 10am and 5pm. He loved playing there. They had toys, play-doh and coloring books. They also have a little shallow baby pool (in addition to the kids pool) and a little swing set. In addition to the regular kids club hours, they would have "mini discos" at night some evenings for half an hour. They would dress up and play kids music and they had lights and would all dance to silly songs. My son loved it. Another night they played a kids movie in the lobby and put mats and pillows on the floor. Another night they had a "pirates dinner" and everyone got a pirate hat to wear. One very fun night they had a pjama party with games and lots of kids came out for this. I was a bit frustrated by the food situation there. For example, the lack of real juice, not having French fries, etc. The food was not very child friendly, although they had pizza one night. Of course my son didn't seem to notice. They always had ice cream and some yummy deserts. I'm glad I brought toddler formula along. We paid for 8 x 2L bottles of water because we went through it quickly and it was annoying to keep asking for more. There is no bath tub and my son hates showers so he only had one forced shower the whole week. Overall, it was a pretty, modern place with good staff. I'm so grateful that the Kid's Club staff were so willing to watch him so I could have a break. For Canadians: Please bring cash for tips in US $1 bills and some $5. They don't want our loonies and toonies, their banks do not accept them. If you're looking for a nightlife, this is probably not the place for you. But for a week sitting by the pool and reading it worked well for us. I didn't love the beach simply because of lack of chairs and shade. Maybe if we walked further along the beach we would have had better luck but it's hard to do that with a small kid.

Iberostar Waves Paraiso del Mar: very good resort

The resort was amazing, full of green trees, bushes and local birds/animals. Room was spacious and clean (junior suite) Food was good but not like before (we've been in the same resort 4 years ago) Very good entertainment, except theatre shows that were scheduled very late at night (10-11 pm) The worst thing we encountered was getting a sit at the table at lunch (waiting time outside the buffet approx 10-15 min) and at dinner (30 min). This waiting time happened because the resorts (del Mar an [... read more]d Beach) had opened only one Buffet Restaurant for dinner.

Iberostar Origin Daiquiri: Clean resort

Very clean. No hot water in my room....did not move me to a different room, even though I did complain, used friends shower, food was hit and miss...but it is Cuba...condiments hard to find, butter hard to find, no labels on food so you never know what the dish is, lots of rum but mix would run out every day....always cola on hand....not today....maybe tomorrow type of hotel...need more staff ....cleaning staff friendly.......again...it is Cuba....decent place

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: Wouldn’t Stay Again

My friends and I stayed here for a girls trip. We enjoyed the beach and pools, and the resort itself was beautiful. However, the food was atrocious. We were not expecting anything great as we knew going into it that the food in Cuba is subpar. The issue was that the buffet actually didn’t have a lot to offer, forget about taste. Some days there wasn’t even bread, or rice. They often ran out of fish too, so a member of our group who was vegetarian had a really hard time. We had two rooms betw [... read more]een us, one room on the first floor and one on the third floor. The room on the first floor didn’t lock properly and the room on the third floor was a mess. The AC didn’t work properly, the balcony door didn’t close and there was an infestation of ants. By the last nights there were ants in the beds. The staff were lovely and tried their best, but the service was lacking. Ultimately, we had a great time but we wouldn’t come back to this resort again.

Iberostar Origin Playa Alameda: Perfect beach

The resort layout and exterior appearance were very nice. . Rooms were very clean, but just needed a bit of updating. Especially the door locks, safes, and bathroom fixtures needed updating. Staff were friendly, but were very busy and it seemed like they needed a bit more training. The beach was the best part of being at this resort.

Iberostar Origin Tainos: Gone downhill

The staff on the beach, at bars, and in restaurants and buffet were awesome. I was disappointed in cleaning services and the lack of variety of food choices. The rooms looked tired. I have stayed here a few times. Might need to look elsewhere for next year.

Iberostar Selection Holguin: Enjoyed our stay

We enjoyed our stay, it was our first time in Cuba and didn't know what to expect, the food was average as they do have issues with supplies and it's their winter so the fruit selection wasn't the best. But there was always something to have, really enjoyed the buffet in the morning with freshly made omelets a wonderful array of breads, they even had fresh donuts being prepared. The staff at the buffet were the most attentive, one person stood out and made our stay that much more enjoyable h [... read more]er name was Katrina ( I believe her last name was Jenkins), her customer service was over and beyond. Highly recommend taking a horse and buggy ride, going to the market in an old 1950's car and taking gifts as the people highly appreciated this. Especially the children in the areas outside of the resort. If we returned to this resort, we would upgrade to the coral ( the upgrade was recommended from other guests) as we tried to during our stay but unfortunately were not able to.

Iberostar Selection Ensenachos: Beautiful Beaches

Hotel is good overall. Grounds including pools are well maintained. Staff are very polite and hospitable. General maintenance of accommodation structures and interior of rooms can be improved- for example painting of exterior doors, door handle and patio door stick and hard to open. Lobby beautiful and presents well but public toilets need to be better maintaining. Clean dining facilities for buffet meals good core food availability but limited variety.

Iberostar Waves Paraiso Beach: Absolutely PERFECT!

This is our 4th time returning to the Iberostar Paraiso Beach. It is in a great location and only 30 mins from CANCUN airport and only another 30 mins to Playa Del Carmen, so of resort excursions are easily accessible. Every time we have been so very pleased with the whole resort. From the staff, to the food, the rooms, the gym, the shopping mall, the pools and especially the beach! Everything is perfect. The staff are very friendly and helpful and the resort is exceptionally maintained and [... read more] very well thought out as all the rooms and restaurants are easy to find and labeled on a very detailed map. We will definitely be returning for another visit!

Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul: Amazing Resort, Better Staff

I can’t say enough good things about this trip; but, wanted to shout out some terrific individuals. Thank you so much to King Kong, Crazy Boy, Joey, Tony and the entire entertainment staff. They brought energy and excitement every single day and made my whole group feel welcome from the second we walked in.

Iberostar Waves Dominicana: Great resort

This was our second time at this resort we went just before COVID. The resort is beautiful and the grounds are very well kept. The staff is super friendly. We noticed that this time around that there is less staff who speak English but we just used a translator app, especially if you want decaf coffee in the buffet, lol. The food in the buffet was wonderful with lots of options and we preferred it to the a la carte. We did go to the French restaurant which we thought was the best, the Smokehou [... read more]se was good , the Mexican restaurant we were not a fan of. The beach is beautiful and very little seaweed as they clean the beach twice a day. The rooms are ok, the bed and pillows were extremely comfortable. We will return, love this resort.

Iberostar Waves Paraiso del Mar: Great Experience - again!

As before the resort is beautiful. The grounds, buildings, pools, and beach are very well maintained and clean. The seaweed issue is dealt with throughout each day to maintain access to the beach. Staff are wonderful and attentive and while there is quite a distance to some of the rooms and other amenities the ongoing shuttle service works very well.

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: 3 star at best

The good: spacious rooms, nice swim up, pool, beautiful beach, bottled water daily, mostly wonderful staff. The bad: buffet too small, not enough food for everyone, dinner starts too late, some days no bread, milk, eggs. Mostly pork, rarely beef, too many hot dog dishes, no pasta ever, ran out of wines, sodas, beer, rums, much too often. There were dirty utensils, no stocking of room fridges, no coffee makers in rooms, minimal entertainment on select dates in lobby, but it was always during  [... read more]dinner hour which made no sense, not allowed to use the resorts kayaks or other water sports, staff indicate it’s due to resort not paying them.

Iberostar Coral Esmeralda: Amazing Staff at Coral in Buffet, Snack Bar and generally

We found the staff very cordial and friendly. On arrival in the afternoon, Yinli greeted at the buffet and explained the times for meals and the grill meals in addition to the buffet. Juan and Danny, the butlers, were generous with their times in explaining the resort and its amenities. The massage was out of this world.