Amazing Resort

This is a very large resort with a lot of things to do and see. We had an awesome time and got spoiled by the employees. I highly recommend this resort to families. The buffet has a large select of food for all types of eater.

A Relaxing Vacation

First of all we have been to Cuba 6 times - Varadero, Holguin, and Cayo Coco so we had reasonable expectations of what to expect for food and accomodations. WIth that being said this is one of the best we have stayed in. Did we have minor inconveniences? Yes. Did it ruin our holiday? Absolutely not. If you go in to your vacation expecting to relax, take things as they come, enjoy what they do have rather than focusing on what they dont, you will have a wonderful time. We were in building 52  [... read more](room 5223) on the adult side. We found the adult side extremely quiet. No activities by this pool scheduled which was fine for us as we were there to relax and enjoy. The Good: check in was fast. Our room was clean and nice. Our fridge was well stocked with water (ask for extra and they will give you - tipping helps), beer and pop daily. The grounds are stunning and well groomed. The gardeners work hard to maintain this beautiful resort. The beach was nice. Staff were very friendly. Food was good and flavourful but repetitive. We enjoyed our a la carte restaurants (Cuban, Italian and Oriental) and had no issues getting reservations for both 630 and 730pm. For the most part, chairs at the pool and beach were easy to get. The ice cream parlour was a wonderful treat. The beer garden was a lovely shady spot to relax and enjoy a bottle of Cristal. Money exchange at the front desk was nice vs waiting at the bank and you did not need your passport to exchange money at the front desk. No issues getting single pesos. Note: exchange rate when we were there was $20 canadian got you $13.20 CUC. Lots of activity in the lobby in the evening. Pool was well kept and clean. The layout of the resort was well thought out. It is large but manageable. The market attached to the resort was nice to walk to. The double decker bus ($2 CUC/person each time you get on the bus) or the train (free) that picks you up in front of the resort and goes to Plaza Las Dunas and Plaza Estrella was fun to buy souveniers. Areas for improvement: The resort is very dark at night - some walkways/buildings were lit at night and others not and then the next night it seemed the areas illuminated were different. We suggest bringing a flashlight. Our key didn't work to our room twice but a technician was sent very quickly and fixed the problem. Our bath towels were only changed twice in the week and we tipped daily. Wondering if this has to do with the laundry issue they also experience with the pool towels? Wasn't a big deal, we just hung them up after using to dry out before our next shower. Some rude travellors (not the hotel's fault) hoarding food, littering, yelling at other tourists about pool chairs, some noted to be rude to staff. Service at the snack bar was hit or miss. Some days food options at beer garden and snack bars were limited, We did not enjoy the imported beers (preferred Cristal when they had it). Overall we loved the resort, the staff, the beach and the numerous food and snack options. Planning our trip back in December already.

Melia Las Dunas

Large resort.....caters to a large crowds. Fairly clean resort. Majority of staff are helpful and friendly. Always plenty of evening entertainment. Food fair with limited choices (specialty restaurants only slightly better) Lobby bar and beer garden open all night for the late birds. Location a bit far from airport.

Not the Melia quality we expected

The resort is showing its age like most places in Cuba. It seems they build these nice resorts but dont have the means to maintain them because of the lack of money or manpower. It seemed to us there were too many guests for the number of staff. They were always running out of some kind of food, bread, french fries, hamburgers, ice cream cones etc. The buffet became uninteresting very fast. At the al a carte restaurants I believe they tried to present food as best they could but fell well short [... read more] of what we normal expect. The staff in general were very pleasent and they tried to accommodate you as best they could.There was the usual difficulty in finding shade seating at the pool and beach, mainly because people would throw their stuff on the lounges and then take off somewhere else for a good portion of the day.

Great cuban people

The only problem was they are always out of alot of food that is on the menu. I have been there twice now once in the fall and once in spring and it has been the same both times. They where out off pizza sauce. No pizza unless you have a reservation. They where out off almost everything at the snack bars all of them every day.

Beautiful Resort

Just spend another week at Melia Las Dunas in Cayo Santa Maria. This is a beautiful resort with a wonderful beach and gorgeous gardens. We stayed in the adult section with a view on the ocean and near a beautiful pool. The food was excellent and the room was perfect for us. The nightly entertainment was great every night. The resort was very clean and the personnel was very nice with us.. We had a wonderful time.

Santa Maria Meli las dunus

Second time there and again loved the beaches Blue cheese and calamari fantastic. A fantastic family afternoon on a cateraman cruise. Always fresh food and every meal can be cooked infront of you I love Cuba!!

Large,Mediocre Resort

Be prepared for a long bus ride from airport to resort.Shuttle service from lobby to room very poor.Customer service and communicating with the staff can be a source of frustration.Our room service was good.Nice beach and pool.Unless you get up early you will have a hard time finding a chair at the beach or pool. By the end of our stay when the resort became less busy chairs were easier to find.Problem stems from people hogging the chairs and then not use them for hours at a time.Resort should p [... read more]ass some kind of policy to prevent this from happening or supply more chairs.Food at buffet not bad by Cuban standards.Food at snack bars not the best although meat prepared at barbecue wasn't bad.Pretty well same food every day.Never tried the other restaurants.Mixed drink quality at the bars very inconsistent.Constantly running out of toilet paper in public restrooms.Resort in pretty good shape.The rooms are another story.Very dated.Could use major renovations.Example:old worn out mattresses,recommend you do not flush toilet paper down toilet(gross),terrible mildew smell in some of the ground floor rooms(We went through three ground floor rooms before settling on a second floor room).Never checked out late night entertainment so can't comment on that.Like many of the resorts in Cuba don't expect a top quality experience.Price dictates what your expectations should be.We have been to Cuban resorts many times over the course of the last few decades.This is probably our last,unless things improve.

Wonderful resort

Clean, well maintained resort. Friendly staff, although at times seemed understaffed. Excellent customer service when we had minor issues with our room (plug for tub broken) were attended to immediately. Very good, varied entertainment through out the wewk’s stay. Second time to this resort and highly recommend it. Beach breath taking.

Fine

The grounds are large and lovely. The food was the same as the last 2 times I have been to Cuba, so so. The beach and water was beautiful, other then having been stung badly by a jellyfish. The staff were ok....maybe just a difference in culture. I'm Canadian and expect people to be friendly but obviously that's not always the case. Rooms were nice and clean, beds pretty comfortable.

Beautiful beach, good hotel

Melia Las Dunas is probably among the better *all inclusives* in Cuba and certainly Cayo Santa Maria. The hotel and grounds are fine, of course there are rooms that are run down but also rooms that are looking quite well. Probably still not 5* but nice and comfortable. Grounds are kept quite nice. If you haven't been, the beach in Cayo Santa Maria is gorgeous. Shallow entry for kids, white sands, turquoise water...gorgeous. The food was okay. I didn't see anyone NOT eating, and I believ [... read more]e almost anyone could find reasonable choices for meals. At every meal there was always fresh cut vegetables and fruits which was important to me. SERVICE in restaurants is where there's serious room for improvement. It's really not okay, even in Cuba, to keep waiting 20 min for cutlery for at your table despite asking your waiter repeatedly to bring it or point you to a source wherw to get it, so you can feed your child. It was a common occurrence to be among people desperately trying to find a plate. Even though the food manager did frequent the restaurants, it was not enough. I don't know if it's more staff they need or just more attentivness to guests but it was truly at almost every meal that we had to wait and wait for the service. I know it's not an easy job but unfortunately it does NOT make for plesant experience if you're being ignored at your table. The whole system from the check in to food services seems very disorganized. Service at reception was helpful though.

Nice Resort

The resort is nice with clean pools and an amazing beach. The food was okay. It was very busy may be because of March break and that could be a reason that in the buffet area, they would run out of plates for which we had to wait a bit. In the snack bar as well, most of the items which were on the menu were not available. The waiters were grumpy and irritated maybe because of the busyness but we found that attitude very unusual especially among Cuban people. We could only book two a-la-carts (ag [... read more]ain,because of lack of availability) - Cuban and oriental, which were very nice. Overall, we were satisfied as we were not too picky. Might go back again but not during March break.

My honest opinion

The resort was nice the set up was nice there is a kids side and an adult side which is where we were put even tho we were booking with a child which I found odd. I went on the Monday to book out al la carts and was told they were booked until Friday which was the day we left but someone traveling at the same time as us who was in the information session managed to get them every day they were at the resort. Most staff were very nice but they were enough that stood out as rude makes us never wan [... read more]t to go back. Went to get wifi and the lady was on her phone which is not a big deal but we really rude and made me and my daughter feel as tho we were wasting her time by wanting access to the wifi for an hour, we went for supper one night and sat at our table and the waitress cleaned two tables off on each side of us filled water for everyone but our table we didn’t even get a first glass until we went to another server and asked for water and even still it wasn’t filled by our server. There were so many little faults on rude staff that even tho the resort is nice we will look at different resorts for any future vacations to Cuba.

Great beach

sprawling well maintained property,no mosquitos garden staff does an excellent job and are very helpful with directions . Please remember to also tip them.My room had a very well designed bathroom and was well cleaned. The maid was exceedingly efficient .A fresh cost of paint is very much needed to compliment the room and complete the total resort ambiance . The beach is the best and one will be surprised how far one can wade into the ocean and still stand up. Good for non swimmers . Bars and R [... read more]estos on the beach are great .Getting a beach chair even at busy spring break was not a problem. Great job by the beach attendants. Wifi service worked very well. Take time to read the terms of usage from first log on .Bar staff and bar entertainment was great. My disappointment started with the food .The buffet does have a few good offerings . No one will starve however most all of the food was very bland no dpi you sauces available salt and pepper shakers needed to be unblocked and refilled,rice was at most times very salty as echoed by a few ppl with whom I chatted. I observed that leftover of one offering was dumped into the other container and would magically appear the next day as a choice. A microwave or warming station should be set up for those of us who like their food hot.would accommodate that preference after having to wait in long lines and walk to the table. Getting a hot cup of water was a struggle . Spoons don't seem to exist as part of the table setup .The waiter's serving area for juice or coffee needs a good cleaning .dirty walls from poring spills. After 3 days the food is monotonous and some not as fresh. Salad bar was always surprisingly great .Desserts were just good period.,lots of the usual choices with some surprises.Some recycled fruit,didn't. Always look fresh .plenty of different meats from the chef prepared stations, Fish also but sometimes very salty. The best tasting food was from the oriental resto. Italian resto pizza was cold burnt service very poor .The 90 mins drive from the airport is a bit much but the coach was comfortable and the driver was careful . The Air transat rep on the return leg was very detailed about the different sights along the way and I got a better understanding of the way of life in Cuba , Made me kinda sad, Honestly,if you don't mind paying a lot of money to be dropped unto an island with a great beach ,this hotel is for you . Did I feel safe? YES. Would I go there again? NO. Glad for the experience .

Good resort

Beautiful beaches but very hard to find beach chairs because people put towels to save them and we had to wake up at 5:30 am to reserve couple if lucky to find any. Same thing for the pool. I had a nice room but my brothers room was moldy and smelled very bad, also they had big black cockroaches. The rooms always clean thanks to Carlito. The best thing on this resort is ENTERTAIMENT and the worst think is not having beach towel change for 10 days that i stayed in. Thank god i got thin towels f [... read more]rom home so washed them. Overall we had fun I will recommend this hotel to friends but also give them tips how to be prepared

Another unforgettable time in Melia Las Dunas

Returning guests to the Melia. Clean resort, friendliest staff (shoutout to Alia and Andry at the Family pool!). Food was short this year, lack of pizza at the snack bar. Everything else was amazing. Miss the sports bar already! I would definitely return.

Great beaches, nice resort

We’ve been going to this hotel for the past four years because of the beach, resort and great staff! This year we were disappointed! The food just was not the same, hardly any entertainment and very low in staff. Good supply was low, the variety we were used to just wasn’t there, services in general have gone down! Beaches, sea and weather still great though!

Had a Great Time !!

Wife and I had an great time at your resort ! The hotel and the grounds were well maintained . The staff from the lobby right down to the grounds keepers were very friendly and helpful . The 4 restaurants we went to were very good and of course the beach was beautiful. The only issue we had was that we had to ask for fresh towels for our shower and our room was not swept. Other than that we had a great time , thank you !

Loved every minute!

Resort was amazing. Absolutely stunning beach, great rooms and amazing entertainment. Staff were friendly and engaging! Pools were really nice, and the grounds are well kept. No issues what so ever, would love to go back some day.

Not bad resort

The resort needs a bit of renovation. The beach was excellent. I wasn’t empressed a long waiting lines. We didn’t have a beach towels for 3 days but asking people who cleaned our room were fast finding them. Also, we didn’t have tv that was working for 3 days. Sunwing busses didn’t wait for us when we arrived. Just left us behind.