Muthu Colonial Hotel: Cayo Coco's best-kept secret

Best Resort in Cayo Coco and is also its best-kept secret. Built in the exquisite Colonial style, it was the first Resort on the Jardins Del Rey Islands to open this beautiful natural preserve as the tourist destination in 1993 by Fidel Castro himself. Much love and attention given to every detail, every wrought iron bench and lantern is a hand-made piece of art that you would not find in modern hotels. With its terracotta roofs, cobble stone streets, piazzas, canal-resembling pools and bridges, [... read more] Colonial has a feel of a quaint Spanish town from back in time and we hope one day it will be fully restored to its former glory. Colonial spreads over the nicest and longest stretch of the powder-like white sand and shallow beach in Cayo Coco. This beach is shared with only one other resort. Colonial has many beautiful pools, including a salt water pool and a rather large shallow pool for the little kids. Colonial has a leisurely feel, spacious and abundant, and you never have to reserve a lounge chair on the beach or by the pool, or wait in line at the buffet. Cuban People are very beautiful, warm and welcoming! World class shows every night with the house band and dancers, professional lighting and sounds. If you have a chance, see the Michael Jackson Show! Mini disco for kids at 8:30 pm. Great Entertainment Team is always coming up with interesting games and the best Salsa lessons I’ve ever had. Beach Party with bonfire. There is beach volleyball as well as volleyball net in the pool, tennis, ping pong, soccer, basketball. In my ninth time in Cuba, this Resort had the best food: fresh tropical fruits, vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, salads, selection of meats grilled in front of you – chicken, beef, pork, also teriyaki style and, of course, plenty of fish! Our compliments to the Pastry Chef for the fine selection of desserts and ice cream. Try the best fries in the world at the 24-hours snack bar and right next to it, made to order hot churros! à la carte Restaurants and many bars open: Lobby Bar, Beach Bar, 2 Pool Bars, Snack Bar and even Piano Bar. As a bonus, Colonial is the nearest Resort to the Airport – only 15 min away, so you don’t have to spend over an hour on the bus going to and from the airport, and also when picked up and dropped off from the excursions. We really recommend the catamaran Sun Cruise for the coral reef snorkeling, then a shallow sand bar in the ocean and the delphinarium. There is a shopping mall 15 min walk or $5 taxi ride. Playa Pillar is 1.5 hrs. away by Tour bus (departs from Playa Pilar at 1:45, 2:45 and 5 pm). Nice lobster shack there. Come to the Colonial for the authenticity and beautiful colonial architecture, wonderful Cuban People, who take so much pride in their country and want to share it with the World, long walks on the beach, birdwatching - pelicans, seagulls, flamingoes, storks, among many other species, peace and quiet, and safety, as Cuba is the safest country by far compared to its neighbours. It’s not surprise that there are many repeat customers, with some people we’ve met coming back to Colonial for their 7th year. We too would love to come back! Please note, all the People working at the Resorts live in the nearest towns 120 Km away. Every day they take a rough 2-hour bus ride each way to come to the Resort (people serving you dinner would be home at 2 am). They all work 6 days a week. That’s why I try to tip them every chance I get. You can tip in Canadian Dollars (loonies and twonies too) as well as USD and EURO. Most of the People working at the Resort we talked to have small children and would appreciates gifts for kids – colour pencils, clothes, toys, etc. PS I would disregard older low rated reviews since Colonial had recently changed owners and undergone renovations. That's why if you are also reading the reviews on the Trip Advisor, look for MGM Muthu Colonial Cayo Coco.

Melia Costa Rey: Big Disappointment!!

First off, the people/staff were amazing and hats off to them for making the best with what they are given!!! The resort itself is in dire need of repairs and upkeep. There was no water at times, and very little hot water. NO ice for drinks etc. There were very limited food choices. Very disappointed with the resort, the beach was the only saving grace, it was beautiful, white sands, warm waters and endless walking. The resort could be something very special or was at one point but definit [... read more]ely not anymore!!!! Not worth the money spent!!!

Melia Costa Rey: Amazing resort with the kindest staff

The hotel was wonderful and we were greeted each day with smiles. The grounds were always clean and the staff attended to our needs if there was an issue. Wifi worked well in the lobby area and sometimes even further out of the wifi zone. There were always chairs available at the pool and beach area. The a la carts were good and the French was our favorite ( La Perla). I would go back and would recommend this resort to others. Thank you Pullman Cayo Coco for making our vacation memorable and fun [... read more].

Hotel Camino del Mar: Worst resort food ever

We have been several times in Cuba and we always had good food. This resort eqs the worst food ever. No taste, no choices and we are not picky eaters. They did not had oil and vinegar for salad, bread was every third day. Cheese or salami every second or third day. Even the BBQ meat they were making was bad. Their excuse was recession and supply issues, but all surrounding resorts had food. Staff was friendly and helpful, resort is old but clean. Our room had no hot water for showers and even we [... read more] complained to the manager it was not fixed while we were there. Beach was nice but to much sea grass in the water. I would also mention that we are very disappointed from Tripcentral also, as we were booking with an agent and no one mention this to us. I have also send an email to the CEO, week ago and no response. Very disappointing and disrespectful towards customers. I don't recommend this resort to anyone and I will not be using Tripcentral in the future.

Starfish Cayo Guillermo: Spectacular beach!!

We were very impressed with the shallow clean beach and the lack of people on it! You could walk for miles and never got harassed by vendors. The resort itself is recovering from being closed do to covid and at times missing food items. We loved the morning omelettes and cappuccino at the lobby bar. Friendly staff and drinks were great! The room we had overlooked the quiet pool and didn’t have a safe to store our passports so carried them with us everywhere. The air conditioner worked great an [... read more]d the beds were clean! We met very nice people and really enjoyed getting away from the Canadian cold for a week making memories!

Melia Cayo Coco: We loved the resort

We were happy with all aspects of our stay- clean room, friendly staff. some line ups in Cuba to get in and out but overall they did a good job with so many people going through. Some repairs due to hurricane but no worries for us. Grounds were clean- beautiful greenery.

Gran Muthu Imperial: Sorry, not going again!

I knew about the food; was hoping hygiene would be good. It was terrible; the buffet was full of flies. Visited nearby resorts, they were both better. Their beaches and restaurants were cleaner, unlike HGMI

Memories Flamenco Beach Resort: Awful

The resort has the best beach but everything else was awful. The food was beyond disgusting. Cockroaches crawling all over the buffet and bread baskets. They ran out of glasses and plates every day. They didn’t have any bottled water - not even a store to buy some. It was like we were in a concentration camp with unlimited access to the beach. It’s a shame because it is actually a nice small resort with an amazing beach.Side note don’t bring an electronic cigarette with you to Cuba because [... read more] they are prohibited. They will confiscate it at the airport. You can reclaim it on your way out but it will cost you $5. It would’ve been nice to know, tripcentral/sunwing

Grand Muthu Cayo Guillermo: Grand Muthu Cayo Guillermo

Here are my honest thoughts about the Resort. Well built , beautiful scenery & decor. The staff are all extremely friendly and very helpful. Ways the staff can and need to improve on is when cleaning the bathrooms restocking the bathroom tissue! Nowhere on the hotel grounds can you find toilet paper except for in your personal booked rooms. This was an issue on a daily basis during our week stay. I hope they improve on this or if there's a particular reason why inform the tourists .... as per th [... read more]e food in all their prepared buffets you will find something to eat . Carry personal seasonings / ketchup & wipes. There are so many bars and poor upkeep on ensuring frozen/slushy drinks are made up to par. Maybe updates drink machines would help? Overall if there was confirmed changes on the resort I would go back if not deff no I'll choose a deff resort

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: 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..

Tryp Cayo Coco: Nice place, rooms need updatingI th

Pools and beach were amazing! There were a lot of cabanas and lounge chairs everywhere you went. You didn't have to save chairs at 6 am with your flip flops. We got fresh pool/beach towels a couple times which was nice after they get sandy. There was great entertainment each night, you can always get a drink and something to eat 24 hours a day. The food is about what you'd expect, not the place for picky eaters, but you could always get bread and "eggs your way' at breakfast. Bring ketchup and  [... read more]peanut butter if you like them. There is no bacon or sausage for breakfast if that's your kind of thing. But there were some questionable meat/fish dishes and what you'd call chili. A few days there were potatoes like hashbrowns, one day there was french toast with syrup, and they usually had crepes made fresh. Cappuccino at the lobby bar was the place to get your caffeine fix although the "coffee with milk" in the buffet area was really good too. Lunch at the beach bar was pretty good, either a cheese sandwich, a hot dog on white bread or a proper meal of either Beef, Fish or Chicken with rice/beans, yucca and stewed cabbage. Be prepared for the response "uh, maybe tomorrow" with a smile and a shrug, if you ask if they have something or when the such-and-such will be open. Nobody seems to know or they have no way of knowing if they'll get hamburgers tomorrow for example. The resort was only at about 40% capacity so we were fortunate enough to be able to book 5 a la carte dinners at the restaurants. All of which were very good, although kind of similar. At least the kids could get pizza or pasta at 3 of them. A couple of days they made Churros by the pool and fries a few other times. Those were nice treats! The resort cats were adorable and hungry, we fed them all kinds of things, their favorite were the fish sandwiches from the snack bar at night. They even ate the cucumber! Do not take a ground floor room--Roaches.... we had to switch rooms the first night because of them. No questions asked, they did it right away. Rooms are very dated, the mattresses are from the 70's probably-- gross. The sheets and towels are clean and the A/C was ice cold in the room. We lost water in the night a few times because of the rain storms, but I think the whole island was out. You get what you pay for, do not expect a 5 star resort and you'll be fine. We took a classic car to the market and back for $15, and had fresh mojitos and lemonade while we were there from one of the stands-- so good! You can also walk, it's about 10 minutes or take the bus for $5 per person. Overall, we enjoyed it and the kids did too. They had lots of events for the kids to participate in, even though there were only a handful of other kids. Really good entertainment staff! We used the resort kayaks free of charge and there were also a bunch of paddle boats and a few small catamarans available too. We brought a ring toss game for the beach and pool floaties. I just wish they had more porters to help you with your luggage instead of dragging it all over the resort looking for your building, they could deliver you in a golf cart or something. We asked for one on check out day and he arrived a few minutes early with a giant golf cart, it was perfect, but we saw lots of people schleping their luggage all over the place all week. I think you just have to ask and tip.

Melia Costa Rey: Great Vacation at Pullman

Staff were excellent. Food was surprisingly good. Grounds well taken care off. Room was clean. We were in Cuba last year and we saw a very significant improvement in all areas this year. Last year there was a lack in variety of food although entertainment last year was much better.

Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort: Absolutely dismal resort; the worst family vacation we've ever been on!

This hotel was falsely advertised, and is well below the 4.5 star rating it was marketed as, and that we paid for. We've travelled to Cuba many times, but this last experience was beyond the pale! PLEASE do not book your vacation at this 'resort'. Food was inedible, lack of evening entertainment, virtually non existent towel service, rocky beach, lack of drinks choices... I cannot for the life of me understand how tripcentral advisors could possibly recommend resorts such as this. My family  [... read more]will no longer travel to Cuba. We just cannot take the risk that we will once again experience such a horrow show of a vacation. We were scammed.

Hotel Playa Paraiso: Good bang for your buck!

First of it has a well maintained grounds, the gardeners work hard to keep it pretty and appreciate any little token...My sister and I gave them gardening gloves stuffed with gum and money. We were in room 2103 and it was close to the pool , snack bar, lobby and buffet. The buffet always had food....only thing missing was a Pasta station of which , lets be honest , a lot of us thats our go to . Lack of bread and no butter, the put out what i would call mayo, the fruit was pretty good. for the m [... read more]ost part there was always something to could eat..No wine in the restaurants which i always like a glass with my meal.Snack Bar, had hot dogs, mind you no condiments, so i suggest bring mustard and ketchup. Drinks were run of the mill, only fancy ones at the lobby bar, but that had long line ups. Our room was cleaned every day, not always did you get fresh towels and we always got a large bottle water every day and toilet paper. I would suggest bringing a few of your own as there rolls are pretty small. The beach is just beautiful, the sand fleas can be a bother i would suggest spraying before you go down to bask in the sun.The A La`Cartes where pretty good, the Portuguesse was my fav.. And if you need any help with anything, reach out to Rachel Alvarez Suarez, she is the best, I have mobilty issues and she was a great help!!! Go Enjoy and have a wonderful time!!!

Iberostar Selection Esmeralda: 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

Melia Costa Rey: Great service, beach, and overall food.

Although Hotel needed some Renos (as many Cuban resorts do), the rooms were very clean. Beaches were beautiful and maintained, great snacks and a la carte food (which says a lot because I am a huge critic for food). Buffet was alright, but we got slightly bored of it after a while. Beach BBQ was delicious!! Overall we had a lovely vacation for the price.

Iberostar Origin Playa Pilar: Not a good place

It seems that they have great issues securing basic supplies for cleaning and maintenance. The food at the buffet is full of flies, the cucarachas are running on the floor and the walls by the trays with the food. There is no awareness about dietary or ethnic restrictions. Unless you are at the buffet when it opens you don’t find some of the basic options or you can’t eat it anymore due to the bugs. The towels or bedsheets are not being changed the whole week. The hotel has no beach or ac [... read more]cess to the beach. It has a strip of sand behind a deck. The pools were decent but they had no products to clean the edge of the pool so that was yellowish. No pool service, no drinks other than rum. Everything is old and not maintained. More than this it is obvious that they have limited training or awareness of safety practices. They use glass even by the pool and a few times when things broke they picked what was visible and pushed with their foot the small pieces to the drain or side area.

Starfish Cayo Guillermo: Good food

The resort was typical of most in Cuba.Outdated,old,in need of repair......all the usual things,hard beds,no hot water..broken run down things.BUT...THE FOOD WAS BEST IVE HAD IN CUBA IN APPROX.20 VISITS

Iberostar Origin Playa Pilar: Don't recommend

Although the resort itself was fine, the food and drinks were not. No milk for cereal, no butter, usually no milk for coffee, no roasts, etc. Not many drinks available so usually drank beer even though normally it would be mojitos or pina coladas. An abundance of house flies as well. Staff were great though.

Melia Costa Rey: Pullman

Beautiful beach, friendly staff, clean rooms. Plenty of food. Best that can be provided given Cuba's circumstances. Don't tip with Canadian coins. Cubans can't use them. If you can tip with American money.