No more Cuba

This has been my fifth time in Cuba. Unfortunately this will be my last time. I am saying unfortunately because I loved the country and most of people; however this time the food was beyond awful. The majority of my group got sick a d we spent nights in the washroom. Our suite was nice and we had wonderful view. The ocean was amazing but we couldn't enjoy it as much as wanted as we had to be near washrooms most of the time. While most of the staff was amazing, one lady in the customer service a [... read more]lso a waiter in the seafood restaurant (she wear glasses) was beyond rude. I will give this trip and the resort 3 stars due to the food.

Little value for the money

I am not going to talk about the resort and facilities as there many reviews on it. But meals are a big part of any trip and I will drop a few words. Apart from breakfast, lunch and dinner at the buffet is always the same. To the point where my kids did not want to go to the buffet anymore after three days. This is my third time in Cuba and this is the only place where the menu is always the same. Not even a dish or two different the next day. If the menu going to stay the same, at least they co [... read more]uld do a better cooking. The only thing that helped our family going thru the days was the a la carte restaurants. No complains there, but if the number of a la carte you can go is limited, then at least improve the buffet menu. The snack bar was ok but the good items were always out.

Beautiful place!

This was our 8th time in Cuba and first time at Playa Cayo Santa Maria. We loved everything about this place. Bus driver told us that it is 100% owned by Cubans and we were impressed. Beech looks unreal, heavenly (14 km long) and the garden around the bungalows is the most beautiful we've seen so far in Cuba. Place is very well maintained and very clean. Food was the best we had in Cuba so far and people are amazing, warm, friendly, proud and humble. We were looked after Ernesto for our lunch [... read more]es and dinners and he did a great job serving us. We highly recommend this place and we'll certainly be back next year again.

Okay for the price

got an awsome price so we took 2 weeks. We are a family of 4 with 2 young children. Hotel location and landscape : 8.5/10 Beach: 9/10 Service : 8/10 Amneties: 6/10 most are run down or non functioning. Room: 5/10 Average cleaning Old beds. Nasty pillows. Bathroom below average Nice view good insonorisation Food: 6.5/10 repetitive with good choice of fresh fruit at breakfast entertainment: 6/10

Amazing Beach and Sand!!!!

Concerning the resort, here is the low down: Pros - Beach was absolutely amazing! We had one day when it was rough waters, but we were still able to get in. Other than that crystal clear! We went out on the catamaran and I asked the guy how deep the water was and he said about 4-6 m, I was still able to see the bottom. Had WiFi available throughout the resort. Food was pretty decent - repetitive though. Stir fry, pizza, noodles, grill available for lunch and dinner. 24 h snack bar [... read more] was really good, but wait is a bit long. They have a seafood, Italian, and Asian restaurant as well. Didn't eat at the seafood one, but the others were really good. Ok - We were at the resort 7 years ago and noted that not much had changed. Rooms were the exact same as when we went years ago, but still a bit more modern then some of the older hotels. Cons - MOSQUITOES! We were perfectly fine until Thursday and then they just kept swarming us when not on the beach. For some reason they weren't fumigating like they used to, not sure why. Service - It was good don't get me wrong, but noticed that they didn't know how to speak English very well, especially in the buffet area. We would say something to them, good or bad, and all they would do is just nod yes. My mom was telling them about a dirty spoon and the waiter kept nodding yes. She was like I want a clean one and he was like yes you have a spoon. I just noticed that they weren't as wanting to help out as they did before. There was a waitress at the lobby bar in the morning - wouldn't do anything. Asked for a latte, she said go to the coffee bar. I said they're coffee was better and then she was like the machine is broken just as another waitress was bringing one out from the back. I looked at her and then she was like I can't leave the front and there isn't anybody else to cover the front. Unfortunately with this waitress, it wasn't the first time she tried this, but a few. Otherwise, all was good! I would forget about all of the other things just to have the nice, calm beaches again - with no mosquitoes!

Dated Resort

This resort is rather dated. Although the price for the resort was reasonable and people would argue that you get what you pay for, there were still some issues with the resort that no one should have to tolerate. Our room safe would not lock and repeated calls to have it fixed went unheeded. Some of the floor tiles in the room were cracked and the shower head struggled to provide an adequate supply of water. Having said that, the room was always kept clean by the cleaning staff every day. The [... read more] pool area around the swim up bar had what appeared to be black mould on the walls and the water in the two main pools was often quite murky. The pool staff would often ask everyone to leave the pools while they shocked them with large buckets of chemicals, then walk away and not monitor the pool. People would come off the beach and jump into the pool seconds after the chemicals had been applied. The rinse showers beside the pools closest to the beach were broken so people would often rinse off the sand on their feet in the pool.. Food at the buffet was poor with minimal variety and often cold. However the a la carts were quite good (Asian, Italian and Seafood / Romantico ) and the service was excellent and very friendly. The beach is second to none and the water was beautiful with a sandy bottom with no foot surprises. Having been to Cuba over fifteen times, we would say Santa Maria has the best beach, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for the Playa Santa Maria resort. I would not recommend this resort to our friends.

Incredible resort

Our stay was amazing can't say enough good things. Food was much better then my past Cuba trips, service was great always fast and very friendly. Are room was a welcome place to come back to after our day cozy and relaxing. Great sleeps every night we had one minor electrical issue and it was fixed in minutes. Happened to be fixed by one of our Cuban friends we met earlier in the week and he was just as happy to see us as we were him. The beach was mind blowing and as were were searching for a r [... read more]esort was our number one must have. I'd highly recommend this resort will definitely go back again!

Great stay at playa Cayo

This was my first time traveling anywhere and I am so happy we picked this resort, we had a great time, the beach was amazing and the staff were all so friendly. We had such a great time we didn’t want to leave. A lot of people tried to warn us about the food in Cuba but we had no problem finding something to eat and enjoyed most of the things we had. And booking our trip with tripcentral was the easiest thing. A 3 minute phone call and everything was booked and done for us! It was amazing! We [... read more] are planning on going away every year now thanks to our stay at playa Cayo in Santa Maria!

Fantastic Beach!

Hotel was very clean: room, pool and beach were well taken care of. Food was ok. Hotel staff was friendly. Beach was beautiful. Water was green and blue. Had a lot of cabanas to escape the sun. Nightly entertainment was good.

Fantastic vacation.

Just returned from a perfect week at Playa Cayo Santa Maria. The room was large and beautiful. The bathroom had the biggest and deepest bath tub that I have ever experienced in over 20 years of travelling. We always had hot water, even to fill the deep tub. We ate mostly at the buffet, and have zero complaints. Ate once at the Cuban A la Carte, and the food and service was great. The beach and Ocean at Playa Cayo Santa Maria is stunning. The best part, was could always find a spo [... read more]t in the shade. The pools are large and clean. Never felt crowded once. Everyday, could get a lounger in the shade with no problem. Every experience that we had at Playa Cayo Santa Maria was positive. Everyone was always smiling am and did a great job. I would go back again.

Okay resort

The resort itself was beautiful. The room was just okay, nothing spectacular but the beds were hard and not very comfortable. The pool selection was great and the beach was nice and clean and amazing. The food was not very good and did not have much of a variety. It was the same options for every meal, everyday. Howeve, all the staff seemed nice, friendly and approachable.

Beautiful resort

The pools were beautiful & plentiful. They were kind of grimy some days & they were cleaning them during the day. The room was not good. Beds were uncomfortable, maid service was terrible. Most of the resort spoke the native language of Spanish, therefore it was hard to communicate with 1/2 of the staff, their English wasn’t great. Others were fabulous. The bar tenders served you faster if you held a peso in your hand. They had all bottled water everywhere for non-locals. The ice cubes were ma [... read more]de from bottled water, this was great! The nightly entertainment was not the best. Only 2 nights it was actually enjoyable, other nights it was kid-focused. The food was... well Cuban food. same thing every day. The beach was incredible! Breath-taking. There were waiting staff coming by every now & again to see if you needed a beverage, This was very nice. There were plenty of lounge chairs, no matter the time of day. I also went during a non-peak time. Overall the resort was nice. The beach paid up for all the disappointment.

You get what u pay for

Overall look of the resort was nice, buffet food was not good, Asian a la carte was awesome, drinks were alright for Cuba, they ran out of Cristal beer within 3-4 days of our stay, we were finally able change our beach towels the last day due to them never having clean towels, bedding wasn’t changed until the last day of our stay as well, entertainment staff and swimup bartenders were great, sometimes we got clean room towels, on the wknd when all the Cuban guests stayed they were constantly  [... read more]running out of plates and food in the buffet, beach was beautiful. Very far drive from the airport but beautiful scenery on the drive.

Nice place

It was a great place the food was good the hotel staff was amazing.over all it's a place to go.the pools where great the no sortage of anything all friendly people shops limited stuff.other than that all was great thx for a great time playa

Great experience!

First off, anyone going to Cuba needs to have realistic expectations. Second, I had a great time at playa!! The resort was way above average for Cuba, the food was great if you went to the buffet within the first hour, the beach is unbelievable but if you want to get a spot out of the sun you have to get there early in the morning. The best part was the service we received, Cubans are so kind and go above and beyond, tipping does pay off if you expect amazing service because they will remember y [... read more]ou!

Beautiful, well staffed, and well maintained amenities

The grounds were beautiful, with welcoming staff and the lobby has the best live music - especially the violinist! The amenities are plentiful and well-maintained, and the food is good (no travelers diaherria from Canada!)

Great location to stay at

Public areas are beautiful, restaurants are decent quality - good for what you would expect in the area. Staff were quite friendly. Internet connection was poor, however you get several hours included whereas I have paid for internet by the hour previously.

Good resort

This was our 7th stay at this resort the staff are very friendly and go out of there way to keep you satisfied the food is fairly good, beef terrible god beaches pools and bars short of lounges on the beach people go and save areas some at 5am

Wonderful Stay

We stayed at the Playa Cayo Santa Maria the week of March 15, the weather was just right in the high 20s and at night low 20s, cool breeze at night time, no mosquistos or bugs. The resort is big but because of the layout, it's easy to find all the restaurants and swimming pools. There are 4 swimming pools, the noisy one where they do the entertainment and games it runs around 3pm to 5pm and it has the swim up bar, the big one with nice loungers this one has the 24 hour restaurant where you can [... read more] order dinner, lunch and breakfast, coffee and alcohol. Then there's the quiet pool, it starts to your waist then it gets deeper, not too deep. Food wise, if you're a 7 day holiday you get a 2 day a la carte dinner choice out of the 4 restaurants, so we went for Seafood and Romantic. Seafood serves lobsters, so that was nice, and Romantic, well, I overlooked the date so we missed that one. The buffet, pretty much have the same dinner every night, they might add one or two different food, but pretty much the same line up of food daily, so a lot of people line up for the chef cooked meals like pasta and meat. I wish the food would be more on the hot side, but they are more on the warm/colder side. During the day we never eat at the buffet, we either eat at the beach buffet restaurant, the food there is much hotter, they have bbq meat, they also have a separate bar at the beach, and a George Forman grill for hot dogs, right by the Bar. There's also a restaurant right beside the 24 hour restaurant, cant remember the name, but they make hot delicious lunch every day, its the same meal every day, rice, chicken, beef or pork, and soup, but its hot, so its nice. They also have an ice cream parlour, behind the noisy pool, lots of selection. The towel place is kind of tricky to find, it's behind the ping pong table just before you get to the quiet pool if you're coming from the beach. The entertainment could be better, they are pretty young entertainers, a lot of jumping around, I wish there was more story to their show, one show we though was un-classy, this woman from the audience was tossed in the air and her underwear was exposed and gyrated sexually on the floor by one of the dancer, we though it was poor taste, as the woman left the stage, she look like she was crying. What if the woman has a back problem? We saw a few people left a couple of the night show, I think they should put a better quality show. The beach, one of the best beach we've seen so far in Cuba, aside from Cayo Coco. We walked for miles, the water is so nice and refreshing, we would crash with the waves, like little kids. It was so much fun. We only had one rain one night, other than that it was great. The service, was great from all the staff, we tip every where we go. Our cleaning lady at the end of the week wrote me a note thanking me for the daily gift I left on the pillow and the 2 dollars I left behind each day. I kept that letter, that was nice. I would go back, but the only thing that's holding me back is the travel time from the airport to the resort. Otherwise the resort is beautiful, the people are great, the food you can always go to different areas of the resort and you can find something you like, you'll never go hungry.

Great Resort!

Love the atmosphere, especially the Beach!!! Staff are very friendly and the rooms are clean. Food is ok but the beach more than makes up for it! If you don't like the beach there are several pools to choose from. Something for everyone. Can't wait to go back! We