Overrated resort

I should have gone with very low expectations. Food was low quality and minimal variety. Room did not have hot water or all the toiletries. Room was cold with no heat. Internet was unreliable. Ants and spiders were crawling everywhere.??

Very good hotel, outstanding personnel!

Chose the resort primarily for the sport activities, proximity to the beach and swimming pools. Exceeded my own and my family's expectations. While there is a nice basketball court, were no basketball hoops - we donated our basketball to the personnel. Played tennis and table tennis instead. Take your own sports gear if you enjoy sports. The beach was amazing, kept clean during our stay. Swimming pools steps from the ocean, showers and towel service available. Any issues or extra requests with y [... read more]our room, they will go beyond and above to fix it or make it good for you. Had modest expectations for food reading all the reviews - yet the food was decent with plenty of choices - exceeded my expectations.

Beautiful and peaceful resort!

We had an amazing experience at the royal service at the Paradisus hotel. The room is a bit dated however the whirlpool tub outdoor Bali shower and the enormous king bed totally blew me away! The bed totally comfortable and the pillows as well We did experience a few hiccups however as the rain flooded part of our bathroom as well as our sitting area couple of times. Our maids were absolutely wonderful!! Taking care of every detail and making beautiful designs on our bed adorn with fresh flower [... read more]s daily! Our room was well kept the extra attention was extraordinary!!! Our restaurant was the best place to eat in the whole resort! we soon realized it was the best option available and so we decided to eat there and only there for the rest of our stay . The staff, Viviana Gabriella Laura and many others gave us exceptional service every time ! Always a smile laughing and engaging with the guests so much so they soon felt like family !! Our butlers Oswaldo and Alex always making sure our every desire was met to the best of their ability!!! Alex even brought some supplies from his home to try and stop the rain from entering our bathroom and attempted to repair it himself!! We were offered a room change however we realized other guests were experiencing similar issues and since we only had 2 days left we decided to keep our room which had a phenomenal view of the ocean !!! Our pool area was very tranquil at the royal service and always had plenty of deck chairs Bali beds and fresh towels ! Our pool bartender Jorge also exceptional and made the best cocktails we ever had !!! You never had to move your deck bed on your own, there was the pool man who always offered to move your chair bed and table and would offer to open or move the umbrella to shade you if you so desired!! Total luxury and always smiling friendly staff who went way beyond to make sure your every need was met!!! Finally we booked a private tour to Havana with Roberto which absolutely was the cherry on top of the cake !!! He was extremely knowledgeable and provided us with a wealth of information !!! He was so gracious and made sure we were happy the whole tour!! He gave us ample time to take pictures ask questions and stop to shop for souvenirs along the way ! He brought us to a beautiful outdoor restaurant with music dancing and amazing menu!! Wow what an experience all this and we were driven around in his gorgeous 57 Chevy!!! We would definitely visit Cuba again and now we will only go to the Paradisus in Varadero as our Cuban family eagerly awaits our return!!! We also miss them all so very much !!!

Paradisus Varadero

lot of drastic changes in the wrong direction. that made us very upset and angry, the management ruining this beautiful place, which is very sad, very basic food items are not available, and the selection is very poor, this resort was our favorite, but not anymore. no more Cuba for us!

Amazing resort

Honestly the staff was amazing cant say anything bad no matter what went wrong the staff took care of it we usually go twice a year first time to this resort and to cuba and have to say doesnt get better staff then that

My last trip to Cuba.

We visited this hotel August 12-19, 2025. We have been given the reserve section of the hotel. The next morning we asked to move to the Junior suite side of the resort because the reserve side is a good walk away from the main lobby, pools, the beach and the main buffet. Junior rooms were much better decorated and located. We loved our room. Although the unit 2828 the AC is not working properly. Here is what we thought about the entire resort. 1) GROUNDS: Palm trees, tropical plants and beauti [... read more]ful colors of the ocean. Looks like paradise. My score for landscape is 10. 2) BEACH: The sand is never cleaned and full of garbage. Still nice but was dirty. Many beach chairs and many tiki umbrellas. Never needed to fight to get one because the hotel was at 20% capacity. My score is 8. 3) OCEAN: No sargasum here. The ocean is clean and swimmable. However the entry to the ocean is with sharp stones. Look for areas that are cleared. Many fish circles around you and rocky areas can be nice for snorkeling. Ocean score is 9. 4) FOOD: Breakfast is good. However lunch and dinner is a repeat every single day. You will find yourself only eating pasta. Many other choices which no one touches. Fruits are tasteless or dry at the main buffet. The meat is dry and not much choice. The food is not only bad, it makes you upset after a few days seeing the same food served day after day even though no one clearly eats them. This is one of the reasons I finally decided not to go to CUBA again for a long time. My score for the food is 4. 5) DRINKS: They were struggling finding ice from other hotels. Many times we could not get what we wanted because of not having any ice. Without the ice they are not drinkable at that high temperatures. They make the fruit cocktails like pinacollada from powder. Tropical island with no fruits. Drinks were ok. Nothing fancy. My score for drinks is 7. 6) SAFETY: Many serious grounds safety issues. In main lobby areas the decorative pools were emptied and when you walk you can not tell if there is a pool you can fall in. No markings and same color as the floor. A child or an elderly person or even any person after few drinks can fall in these traps everywhere. Many trip hazards everywhere without marking. Around the entire lobby and pool area the tiles are super slippery when wet. Obviously a clear wrong choice of tile. Many open holes where you can fall in dark on the grass area. Your child can easily fall in a hole in the dark. The darkness is an other thing. Some areas are pitch black dark. The lawn lights are not working and if you don’t have a flashlight you walk completely blind for a while. Many light fixtures are removed and the open wires are on the ground waiting for you to step on. Maybe they have no power on them at the moment but who knows maybe they have power. If you are older or have a young child these are serious problems, I am not exaggerating. Unbelievably unsafe grounds. SAFETY score is 3. I am sure someone gets hurt everyday there. 7) STAFF: Generally all Cuban people are lovely. Staff were always working hard and almost everyone is friendly and respectful. My score for staff is 7.5. 8) POOLS: At 25% capacity you are barely finding a chair under a shade to sit. I can not imagine if there were more people. In winter months you will have to wake up at 5 am to secure a good spot for sure. Pools were great. Yes we knew you don’t go to Cuba for its food. However after a few days when everything becomes a routine the lack of choice for the food is very upsetting. I can never understand why they can’t solve that problem but they can’t. We tried many resorts and they are all the same. That is why we will stop going to Cuba.

Thinks work ish

Great beach and sea, nice and clean resort , great entertainment. No water sometimes, ( 3 days) no TP in public washrooms, food selection is modest. Beer in the fridge ony twice ( the reason: they dont have any) .

Wonderful family getaway at Paradisus Varadero!

My husband, daughter and I enjoyed our week at the beautiful Paradisus Varadero! It was breezy all week so no bugs and not too hot. Was perfect. The beach is beautiful, grounds are beautiful and the majority of staff were hard working and lovely. The resort is well kept by the hard working, pleasant staff. Only complaint would be the main/public bathrooms were not always well stocked with tp or soap so I’d recommend having something just in case. As long as you’re not a fussy eater, The  [... read more]food was plentiful and very good. Between us we ate well, had lots of vegetables, beans, steak, chicken, pasta, ham, pork, crab, mussels, sweets for dessert. Eggs for breakfast, toast, hash browns. Our favourite place to eat had all these options, it was the main buffet. The waiting staff, cooks were all friendly, attentive and hard working. I was surprised at all that was available from Parmesan cheese, peanut butter, Nutella, jam, salt & pepper, ketchup. Any extras like this we were told we should bring, we did not use. Left with other goodies for staff before checking out. Accommodations were very nice. No complaints other than, no water in our group of buildings for a few hours one day. Thankfully it was nothing that affected us negatively. we just stayed at the pool and beach. They resolved it quickly. It ended up happening twice more on two other days at different times, a bit of a nuisance but we made due and issue was resolved quickly. Entertainment was great! My first time traveling to Caribbean and booking through trip central. It was a great experience, straight forward and informative. Flights were great, Air transat staff and service was excellent. Would love to return again some day!?✌???

Loin d’un 5 étoiles mais superbe plage

Voici notre honnête avis sur le Paradisus Varadero. Nous connaissons bien Cuba — il s’agit de notre troisième voyage en deux ans — et malheureusement, cet hôtel nous a plutôt déçus. Les points positifs : La plage est tout simplement magnifique. C’est le vrai point fort de notre séjour. Il y avait amplement de chaises longues et de palapas, donc aucune nécessité de se lever tôt pour réserver sa place. Un vrai plus! Mais pour le reste… - Pas d’eau chaude pour se doucher pendant plusieurs j [... read more]ours. - Aucune bouteille d’eau dans la chambre, même après plusieurs demandes. Le frigo est resté vide. - Nos amis ont reçu deux bières à leur arrivée, mais après le ménage, il n’en restait qu’une. - Au snack bar, l’unique option disponible pendant longtemps était un sandwich jambon-fromage… car le grill manquait de gaz pour la cuisson de d’autre chose. - Le buffet principal était fermé jusqu’au 4 avril. L’unique buffet accessible pour tout le resort était très petit et avec très peu de choix. Côté chambre : Nous n’avions pas d’air climatisé, et on nous a dit qu’aucune chambre n’en avait, ce qui est difficile à croire vu le faible taux d’occupation. Heureusement, grâce à l’aide remarquable d’Idelys, nous avons été relogés dans la section « Réserve » où les chambres étaient climatisées, avec eau chaude et bien mieux équipées. L’ouverture du grand buffet à la mi-séjour a permis un peu plus de variété alimentaire (nous avons vu du poulet et du bœuf pour la première fois!). Cela dit, la nourriture reste très limitée et souvent froide, même en tenant compte des défis d’approvisionnement à Cuba. Départ : Notre vol étant en soirée, nous avions demandé une chambre de courtoisie pour nous rafraîchir. Malheureusement, il n’y avait aucune eau qui coulait – ni pour la douche, ni au robinet – même après une heure d’attente. Nous avons dû partir à l’aéroport sans pouvoir nous laver. Conclusion : Malgré la beauté naturelle du site, cet hôtel ne correspond pas du tout aux standards d’un 5 étoiles. Certaines équipes sur place font de leur mieux (merci encore à Idelys!), mais le manque de services de base nuit énormément à l’expérience. Nous ne reviendrons malheureusement pas.

Three stars resort with beautiful grounds

The resort had beautiful grounds The trip in Cuba have lots of issues example no water, no hot water , running out of water while taking a shower but our outing with air Canada was awesome going to Matanza to the caves . Other outings was going to Varadero doing horse and buggy and taking a old convertible back to our resort The staff at the resort was ok sometimes they would forget things. We won’t be going to Cuba for a while until things get better The travel agent from trip central was [... read more] awesome (Tammy Beamish ) I would recommend her.

As expected for cuba

If you travel you must know that having high expectations in Cuba is dreaming in colour. This resort is OK. Never had power outages but they did have many occasions of no hot water. Sometimes for an hour here and there but for some people it was no hot water for the entire week. The resort grounds are well kept but literally thousands of small broken things never getting fixed like door knobs, locks, light switches, flush handles, rain gutters hanging off buildings, trip hazards, green slime on  [... read more]pool walls..... little things so easily fixed but not. Food was plentiful and good enough quality, again considering where you are. Do not expect to receive what their website says. You get 2 beers in the fridge at the start of the week then that's it. No welcome drink or actually anything that was included in your upgrade package. Same breakfast and lunch venue as everyone else even if you upgraded. Only 1 buffet and 3 of 7 restaurants were open. Occupancy is way down with only 300 guests in the entire resort. Most bungalows were empty and most of the resort in not lighted at night so bring a flashlight. To be fair when comparing to Mexico or Dominican this is still good value for the cheaper cost. You need to understand the crisis this country is experiencing and be OK with what they can offer. Do not go here if you need to be pampered or are a complainer.

Great Resort

Firstly, Big thanks to Steve fromTrip Central. Paradisus Varadero was great, We upgraded to the reserve junior suite. Room was large, clean and exactly as pictured. Air conditioning was COLD! Resort was spotless and very well maintained, excellent staff from the beach to the maid service and concierge. The staff WANT you to have an excellent experience and it shows. A variety of dining options, fresh fish, seafood, fries, omelets, bacon etc. Plenty of condiments and beverages.  [... read more] We had no issues during our stay and were pleasantly surprised at the food quality and service. The beach is outstanding. and the entertainment is lively.

Disappointed

Write up of Resort --over promised and under delivered. Arrived at 11.30am. Did not get room until 5:30pm. Paid for The Reserve Junior Suite Ground Floor King Bed. Requested same building as rest of family. Got 2nd floor, different building, no phone to be able to contact family or call for a tram. On the 3rd day of arrival we were finally able to move into the building with the family and able to unpack properly. Originally was told we would get a ground floor then told would have to pay [... read more] $220 US then told it was not possible. Lots if inconvenience as I had mobility issues. Food at the main buffet was ok. Pasta line was always a long wait as there was one person serving one person at a time which took 5-8 minutes. No activities for kids over 6. Was told that this resort caters for folks wanting a quieter vacation. Should have been mentioned on the website.

Run down

As usual the beach was the only good thing about this resort -- the grounds are run down and it is very large so expect lots of walking. The description of the resort is not what you will experience - most restaurants and buffets are closed; there are no water sports or options for same. We paid extra for the "Reserve" area and it was not worth it - no extra amenities as listed. Our room was a very basic two double (not queen) beds and a pull out couch which was on the floor. We had no hot w [... read more]ater - not even warm for the first 4 days out of 7. Toilet paper is in short supply so bring your own. Nightly entertainment was usually just few dancers. It was a very quiet resort with basic services. I was expecting bad food but the food is absolutely horrendous with limited options and the same food for every meal. The only "snacks" available every day is french fries and a bun with cheese on it.

Great Resort and Staff

The resort was good and the staff was great. They did what they could for us. The resort is showing wear and tear, but overall was very nice. The beach was the best in Varadero. However when booking, do not book this resort through Sunwing. Complete nightmare

Fantastic Vacation!

We had a wonderful vacation at Paradisus Varadero. The resort was lovely! I highly tec the spa!! Food was great, entertainment fun and staff outstanding! You can not beat the beach at this resort!! We would definitely return!

Great Choice for a Relaxing Beach Vacation

We enjoyed our recent stay at Paradisus Varadero. The grounds are beautiful. The beach area at this hotel has a special feel with lots of palm trees directly on the beach. The water is shallow for a long way out, so great for families with young kids. You won't be disappointed with the entertainment options at Paradisus. Activities are plentiful for the young at heart, with Yoga, Stretching, Beach Volleyball, Soccer, Tennis, Kayaking, and lots more. Or simply walk for miles along Varadero beach. [... read more] You also have a Gym and Spa at your disposal in the Royal Service Section. There are also medical services on site in the Royal service area. Food and drinks could use some improvement in the standard section. You may need to upgrade to Royal Service or The Reserve for more selection and higher quality. My main concern was the Ara buffet which had no windows and hence birds could fly in and scavenge for food. Please see my Youtube video for a full tour and review. https://youtu.be/XPrDMBGwcyc?si=kSV-9BAhFJJJoUYS

Paradisus Varadero

very nice well-kept grounds and beach same tasteless food every day, some basic items were not available the special diner for Canadians were excellent we had to fill out twice the required entry/custom papers for Cuba and nobody were asking for them this was very upsetting.

Paradisus Varadeto

Best settled resort with the view of the ocean from the inside of the resort. 5 star Beach! Cleaned every day! Water and sand spectacular Food- no one will starve. No one will gain or lose weight Actually for a vegan is the best place. Lots of options .

Loved it

Staff were friendly, hotel clean, food ok never went hungry. Some hiccups but beach made up for everything. Yours sales lady super awesome and really helpful making our trip so special!! Cuba is struggling due to US restrictions!! Support CUBA