A wonderful holiday spot

We stayed at Barcelo Arenas Blancas and had a great time! Beautiful beach and pools, large buffets and variety of restaurants, friendly staff and a laid back atmosphere. The location is excellent, just steps away from Varadero town. I would go back to this resort. One area for improvement is the quality of the nighttime entertainment and maybe cut down on the loud DJ music by the pool in the afternoon. The small live music's acts and lunch by the beach and in early evening in the lobby were grea [... read more]t though!

All we needed

Lots of bars food and right in town great day trip to havana the beach and ocean were beautiful horse and carriage rides and vintage cabs beatles bar a must at least once Sunwing representative s were a great help

Never go to Barcelo Arenas Blancas again!

Our room was filthy with mold and rot around the bathroom doors, tub, sink, floor. tiles etc. The maid service was not great, but the service at the bar, buffet, and alacarte was very good. Overall the food was average.Beach was okay but the lounge chairs were pretty worn out. The pool was not cleaned the whole week and many of the tiles were floating in the water.We had paid for a "Superior" room but it had been given to someone else and they gave us a room in the oldest wing of the hotel where [... read more] buses and taxis rumbled by day and night.

Great resirt

Room was clean, grounds well kept and meals were very good. Nice shaded area by beach. Excellent client service provided by Onay for suggesting restaurants and very professional in all information he provided us.

Disapointed

It was our third time to this hotel. It was getting better previously but this time not at all. First; quality of food decreased. There was a snack bar by the pool which was really appreciated in the past but they close it. We changed our beach towel once in 7 days. Beach long chair are so old that their falling apart and really uncomfortable. I must say that the room was again very comfortable and tidy.

Great Resort

It suited all of our need. Food was good s the service staff were excellent! Beautiful pool too. Rooms were clean and comfy. Also a short walk to the fun night life. The beach is super clean and the sand is white.

A Great Time

Beach was amazing. Weather was great. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The resort is very big, as you're able to use both Arenas Blancas and Solymar facilities. The food was only ok, but that's the norm for Cuba.

Perfect vacation

It was great staff is nice, rooms are cleaned everyday and you have access to the other other Sol y Mar , which makes it even better. Nothing to complain about. Beach is amazing. This lobby is a but boring but sincr you have access to theother other right next to it it doesn't matter because the other lobby is huge and beautiful and there's lots of entertainment at night

Great resort!

Really enjoyed the resort, great location, very good service, great food, clean rooms. Was pleasantly surprised with what I had heard from Cuba. Would go again anytime with friends and family. Thank you for a great week!

Beautiful family vacation

The hotel is in a bit of need of repair but was still beautiful. We spent a fantastic week enjoying this beautiful resort. The beach was the best we have ever been to, the food was good, the staff were beyond friendly and helpful, the sunwing folks were very nice and were always available and the cleaning ladies were great always making sure we had water for the baby. Great location to walk to downtown varadero and the only complaint that I have is there was not enough entertainment but if you w [... read more]ant to go for rest and relaxation with great staff this is it! We would definitely go back again

Excellent Resorts for Families

People are friendly, and the service is good. Our building is not that noisy compared with others. Many senior people stayed there. Although the building is a bit outdated, the rooms are clean. If you miss anything in the room, tell the reception and they will bring them up pretty quickly.

So disappointed

I've been to Cuba a few times and this was our second time at Arenas Blancas. We went 2 years ago and loved this resort so we decided to return. I couldn't be more disappointed in our trip this time. I'm not sure if there was a change in management but the moral of the staff was down. The service was just terrible regardless of the amount we tipped. One side note about the housekeeping staff, they would have full blown screaming conversations in the hallway at 7:30 a.m. Is that really necessary? [... read more] Guests are sleeping and management should really address this. The food in Cuba is always subpar and barely edible. I'm fully aware. However this time around it was so awful that it reminded me of slop we used to feed our pigs when we lived on a farm. They would recycle the food from one meal to the next. The hamburgers from last nights snack bar were cut up and mixed in with runny scrambled eggs for breakfast. Hot dogs cut up and put into rice. Buffet and restaurants were dirty. I shudder just thinking about it. This is just an overview of our experience but it was so bad I think this has deterred me from visiting Cuba again unfortunately.

Location Location Location

The Hotel was clean very close to the town strip, shops, flea markets, 3 minutes from the famous Calle 62 bar dance club. Staff friendly but they all lack the english language, very little speak and understand it. Was on the 2nd floor just killed one large cockroach 2 -3 days after arrival .Nightly entertainment very good superb talent of the young dance company that plays there.

Nice good location resort

yery practical to get around resort for restaurant, bars, beach and varadero. no complaints about the food and room ,clean resort. What I did not like,lot of employees don't speak English/French ,we've been going there for many years

Very nice resort

We visit Arenas Blancas in January. It is beautiful resort with a lots to do for everyone. Beach is clean and beautiful. The setting of the resort is close to the downtown of Varadero. Nightly entertainment spectacular. Food good with a good variety. Rooms and building clean.

Great Vacation

The Hotel is very clean..The beds comfortable and beddingchanged every day. The weather wasn't very good we had wind rain and cold for 4 days of our week stay. This didn't stop us from having lots of fun. The food is not what we are used to however you adapt. You can always find something to eat..yu won't starve.... The bus to town is always fun as well as the horse and buggy rides. We had 12 people in our group and i didn't hear complaints from anyone. The one thing that we had a concern with w [... read more]as the bar didn't have any diet pop for drinks..my husband is diabetic...We bought some at the local store for 2 peso... WhenI brought our concern to the Sunwing Rep we had diet pop at the bar the next day

Terrible resort

Grounds were shabby (broken tiles etc), hotel was leaking water all over floors, food was cold and mediocre, hotel was full of cigarette smoke everywhere, party central (drunken, loud boors), front desk staff unhelpful.

Beautiful resort!

The hotel was well kept, friendly staff, beautiful location, overall great experience! The food was not very good, we had food poisoning for a day however the rest of the vacation was relaxing and everything was taken care of for us.

Not what we expected

This was my third trip to Cuba and this resort has always had a great reputation. I don't expect much when I travel to Cuba, as I understand it's about having a good time and enjoying yourself, regardless of the acclamations. But this was too much. On the flight there, the flight attendant handling our section was so rude and unapproachable that everyone was afraid to ask for anything. When we got to the resort, they asked if it was our honeymoon. It was our anniversary so they said that's nice, [... read more] but we don't do anything for anniversaries. When we got to the room, it smelled musty and was not clean. The bedding and towels had stains on them, the bathroom was filthy and the safe was broken. There was a very loud noise that was shaking the room from a machine outside that continued for hours. I finally asked front desk to be moved and they stated the machine would only run like that from 3 to 10 pm so we would have to deal with it or pay $10-20 CUC per person per night to move. The property is not maintained and is in need of work. I've stayed at lower star resorts that have be taken care of better than this one. The staff are unhappy and rude to guests. The bartenders would refuse to make drinks if they didn't feel like making them. They would laugh at you and roll their eyes if they didn't like your order. I saw them yell at guests on several occasions for things like sitting on chairs in the lobby when they were damp. One threw a chair and cursed in Spanish. At 11 pm, they would shut down the bar and turn of the lights in the lobby, even if there were guests sitting there with drinks. They were not engaging expected tips even thought they were rude. The restaurant staff wasn't any better. On several occasions, servers would ignore tables, stand and talk with each other and neglect their sections, and basically be frustrated by doing their work. We waited 20 minutes for water and when my husband walked up to ask for a server, he came over very angry and took my order. When he returned, he slammed my drink on the table and walked away. I also witnessed staff cutting in front of guests at the buffet and taking huge portions of food for themselves. We only had 2 decent servers the entire week. The maid were horrible at this resort. Several people we met had items stolen. We left money and gifts everyday and they would do the bare minimum. One day, we waited until 4 pm to have our room serviced. I wasn't feeling well and wanted to shower and lay down and need fresh linen. We went to front desk and requested service to which we were given dirty looks. After another hour, we checked our room and the maid had left the clean linen folded on the bed (without making it) and folded our soiled towels and threw them on the ground and bidet. When I went to the maid, she told me she wasn't giving me new towels today. They didn't have new beach towels the entire week. The would have posted times for certain areas to be open and you'd be lucky if a staff member was there to open it. The one positive was the food wasn't terrible. Of all the other resorts I've stayed in Cuba, it had better food. Overall I was disappointed with this property. Rudeness, cleanliness and unwillingness to increase guest morale made this trip a frustrating one.

Location, location, location... and more

It was my 6th time at this particular hotel. And I can see another visit coming... First of all the location is just perfect - so close to some of the main Varadero attractions: Calle62, Josone Park, Beatles Bar... also some good restaurants /Barbacoa, The Fondue, etc/. Also you have the use of two hotels: Arenas Blancas and Barceló Solymar, so here you go - double the entertainment, dining choices, double the fun. Arenas Blancas is the quieter of those two, Solymar being the party place with s [... read more]omewhat younger crowd. The beach is magnificent with plenty of shade and loungers available. Same with pools. Arenas pool is more interesting and bigger, I would say. People are very friendly and if treated with friendliness and respect they reciprocate in kind. Hotel rooms are... well, Cuban hotel rooms, so don't expect luxury and everything functioning properly. But I suggest you forget fixing that balcony door that doesn't close all the way - saves you time and aggravation at the front desk. Well, you might be lucky, but... you might be not... Based on my previous experience with trying to fix things - the less you try to make your room "proper" /or "perfect"/ the better. Don't sweat the small stuff and just enjoy what Cuba and Arenas Blancas has to offer. And there is plenty of that... My opinion might be subjective but this is really how I feel about my stay at Arenas Blancas. And every time I am very satisfied with my vacation there. I know what to expect and I don't push for unnecessary repairs or towel change every day. This makes for a great vacation every time... Wish you the same great experience with Arenas Blancas!