Memories Flamenco Beach Resort: Great stay

Memories flamenco cayo coco .the resort is on the best beach in cayo coco great for hanging out at your beach or a walk to either point. The hotel is in need of some love but over all the rooms were ok the AC worked well and had plenty of hot water. As for food there were plenty of options and you could always find something. The staff were all friendly and had to work with what they had. Overall we had a good visit.

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.

Gran Muthu Imperial: Terrible resort

This resort was not worth going to. There were more than 6 rooms robbed during the week we stayed, including our own. Head staff do not believe you when reporting. Food was not good and in short supply. There was no butter, no oil or fries during our stay. Excursion we went on was not what was expected. Rooms were dirty. Most Bars closed at 5pm on an 18+ resort. Unprofessional and unpleasant stay!

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 !

Memories Flamenco Beach Resort: Beach is amazing! Overall a good vacation.

This was our first time to Cuba and to an all inclusive. We talked to friends and read many reviews before leaving for our trip. We were told that 5 star in Cuba is more like 3 star other places. With this in mind here are our thoughts on this resort and location. Beach: Amazing! Water is so clear and the sand is so fine and easy to walk on. The sand never seemed to get too hot even at the hottest time of day. We walked bare foot all the time. There are lots of lounges chairs and shade huts. [... read more] We never had an issue getting chairs and we usually headed down to beach around 11 am. The beach is also very clean. Very little in the way of any garbage. There are garbage cans on the beach and most people are good at using them. There is also 2 beach bars and a grill station if you didn’t want to leave the beach to get a bite to eat. Pool: Lots of loungers and again shade huts. We did have more trouble finding available loungers though as people put their towels on them to save them early in the morning. Pool was clean and well kept. We liked the patterned concrete around the pool as it was non slip and safe for kids. The Grounds: Lovely gardens throughout the property. Palm trees and flowering shrubs. All were well cared for by the friendly gardeners. Food: We found the buffet was ok. There was always lots to eat and a variety of foods. Lots of meat options from fish, pork, chicken and some beef. Not a lot of variety in vegetables. I have read others say they can run out of things but the times we ate there was always enough of what we wanted. The a la carte restaurants were just ok. The Mediterranean one had the best atmosphere. Staff: All the staff we interacted with were friendly and helpful. Room: When we arrived it was around 11 pm. They took us and our luggage to our building by golf cart which was very nice as it was dark. However, the room was terrible. There was an awful smell and there were a lot of things missing from the room. The next morning we went to the front desk and asked for a new room. By 5pm that day we had a new room which was 10 times better. We now had a pool view and all the things that were missing from the first room. We were quite happy with our new room and the location was much better. Close to the pool and main building. Things to know: They don’t supply Kleenex or wash clothes in the rooms so bring your own. Also toilet paper seemed to be in short supply as we were only given half a roll a day. The public bathrooms in the lobby are not great. Women’s were missing toilet seats, doors that don’t lock or close properly and my husband said the men’s always smelled. Overall for the price we found this resort to be quite nice. We would likely go back there again if we return to Cuba now that we know what to expect.

Gran Muthu Imperial: Bad experience

My charger got stolen. Many people lost their cell phones also. Although security knew about it. Failed to take action.. no beaches available. Nnñnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Gran Muthu Imperial: We were robbed, stay away

We were robbed. Money from our safe was taken plus an electric razor. Then we find out this happened to several other people on the resort. A bunch of us were robbed. STAY AWAY. We spent the last two days of our vacation dealing with client services and the Cuban police. The food at the buffet was always cold. The 24 hour bar had no French fries, yet the sister resort next door had French fries.

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

Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort: New resort still growing

Let me start with the people, amazing, friendly, helpful and always greeted us with a smile. We upgraded once we arrived to the Club Privilege, and were moved to a junior suite in building 8. The room was great but the service was even better (thanks Rosie, Carlos and Laura). As part of the upgrade we received unlimited access to the ala-carte restaurants, Brazilian (skip it), asiatic ( just ok), Italian ( not bad) and Tex-Mex ( best of the bunch). We also had access to a club only restaurant, [... read more] that had a menu but would make whatever you wanted if they had the ingredients. The buffet was challenging but typical for Cuba (“we don’t go to Cuba for the food”). We are not much for partying, so we spent much of our two weeks sitting by the club pool reading, we were often the only ones at that pool. Rosie and Carlos would bring us drinks and lunch by the pool. We were there for the last two weeks of February and the weather was great, there was, however, a persistent wind that made to weather feel a couple of degrees colder especially when you got out of the pool. The beach is nice and when the tide is out you can walk in the surf for kilometres. This is a new resort that was not yet operating at full capacity, pros: able to stay away from others easily, cons: not all features of the resort were open. There is also a number of additional resorts being built in the same area, meaning, in a few years this should be a happening area and will probably end up out of our price range. We suffered some food shortages, cheese for a couple of days, butter for a day, certain fruits like pineapple seemed to be in short supply, but the creative staff did what they could with what was available. Bottom line: great resort but you have to understand that resorts in Cuba are always challenged to your favourite food and drink available all the time, but the staff will do everything they can to make sure you have a great vacation.

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.

Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort: Nice resort

As far as the hotel is concerned, it was beautiful. The rooms are beautiful. The facilities were also nice. The beach was great, the wait staff very warm and accommodating. As far as the food is concerned it was terrible. There was a tremendous lack of items. Many times, no meats except for pork. Rarely did we have chicken or beef, or even turkey. The buffet was lacking in cheese, butter and a few times eggs. Basic Western foods were almost nonexistent, like pancakes, waffles If you are a veget [... read more]arian, there is unlimited salads. Nothing was marked so often times we didn't know what we were eating. When an item ran out, there wasn't enough. Considering that we were at a coastal resort there was never any shrimp, and the fish was very poor quality. The hotel advertised 9 restaurants but only 5 were operating and frankly speaking nothing outstanding. No on-sight convenience store. You have to take a 30-minute bus ride to any kind of shopping. Personally, to pay 5-star prices and get 2-star quality is not what I expected. This hotel has a long way to go before they reach 5-star level.

Grand Aston Cayo Paredon Beach Resort: Beautiful hotel

We found the hotel, the rooms, the grounds just gorgeous and beautifully kept. The only issue was the break down of the elevators. The beach gorgeous the staff outstanding BUT I think the entire Cuba is suffering with a food shortage !! Repetitive day in and day out little assortment! The 24 hour restaurant never had anything you wanted! The hotel needs better wifi and definitely a few stores.

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.

Hotel Mojito: Exactly what we were looking for

Nice little resort, perfect for relaxing vacation, not so much a party place. There is just a right amount of everything. Great people, great service, decent accommodation, beautiful beach, clean pools, decent selection of beverages….. If you are looking for a big place with a lot of people partying 24/7, than this is not your place. If you are looking for a place to have a nice and relaxing vacation with fantastic service by the fantastic people, a place where you will feel like at home  [... read more]away from home, than this is the right place for you. We found our place and we will be coming back to Mojito, hopefully for many more years to come.

Melia Jardines del Rey: Good resort

The beach and the pool were beautiful and well maintained at this resort! Most staff were friendly however some were not attentive at all and would forget to brung your drink order unfortunately. Food was not great but this is expected in Cuba. Alcohol was mostly stocked, would run out of specific at some bars. Lobby bar was often overcrowded in the evenings and would take 30+ minutes to get served. The entertainment and night life was good for the first couple of days however we found it got ve [... read more]ry repetitive with the same playlists and dancing from the staff. Rooms were clean and no issues with anything, jist had to ask for extra towels and water bottles. We enjoyed our stay and would recommend!

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

Gran Muthu Imperial: Nice size resort!

The size of the resort was not too big and not too small. We stayed in building 7 which was more or less in the middle of everything. Our room was clean and bright! We had an ocean view room and enjoyed the view from the balcony. There is only one main buffet and 3 a la carte restaurants. The restaurants were listed as Cuban, Mexican & Chinese but when we got there this was not the case. Cuba is struggling and they based the menu on what was available. We did eat at all 3 restaurants and the foo [... read more]d was better than the buffet but it also depends on what you order. We liked the Mediterranean menu best. In the buffet, there was no butter all week. There was no beef for the first half of the week and then no chicken for the second half. There was no peanut butter or syrup, salad dressings or oil & vinegar to make your own. The food was okay but I didn't expect much. I lost 2 pounds and usually, I would gain a few pounds. The ice cream was the best part and we had that as dessert for lunch & dinner. I found the food was mislabeled a lot and the same utensils were used for multiple items. There was always pork. If you are picky or have allergies I would not recommend Cuba. I was fine as I eat pretty much everything and have no allergies. The pools were nice and a bit cool but once you were in it was fine. The whole resort wasn't being used, there were buildings that were empty. I heard some buildings had issues with the plumbing and guests had to be moved, we did not have any issues all week. Our shower did take a bit of time to drain but we turned the water off in between shampooing our hair, etc. I did not find it that busy but if the whole resort was full it would have been harder to get chairs, etc. I felt like the hotel was rationing items such as water bottles and toilet paper. The toilet paper in the rooms was fine but in the washrooms in the lobby, etc, it was more like paper towels and it would run out. Everywhere we went I made sure to bring kleenex, wipes and hand sanitizer. There were no hand or face cloths but I understand that is common in Cuba. I brought my own Norwex facecloths and my own beach towel. The beach was nice but part of it was rocky and you had to walk further down to get sand. We took the bus to Playa Pilar and the beach was beautiful there! All sand and beautiful blue waters. The bus was $5.00 and that includes your way back but pay attention to the times. You can also take a cab and I believe the price was the same. The chairs were $5.00 as well. We used Canadian cash for the whole week, it was nice to have Canadian dollars accepted at par. I brought some USD but I didn't end up using it.

Melia Costa Rey: Wonderful Resort!!

This hotel was beautiful! The location was stunning; there was always a spot on the beach and everything was always spotless. The staff were amazing and so kind always, they truly made the stay so enjoyable for me. The food was great at the a la cart restaurants but not fantastic at the buffet - you had to go right when the doors opened if you wanted a selection. Overall the stay was wonderful and I would certainly recommend it.