Hotel: If this had been my first trip I would have been very impressed by the hotel. I have been to two others, and now I find myself comparing. We have been to the Brisas del Caribe in Varadero and Hodelpa Caribe in the DR. The Melia is in third place. There is a circular garden just past the front desk with a pond and tropical birdcage. The garden is open to the sky with trailing philodendrons that hang from the top floor. There are three or four elevators two are overlooking the garden with a glass window. One of the other elevators beside the lobby/piano bar was not working a couple of times. One night for entertainment we sat by the Piano Bar and just watched people get in the elevator and press buttons. When the door opened they would have a bewildered look on their face. We would tell people that the elevator was not working and they would still get in, maybe they didn’t understand our language. One woman asked us if there was a hidden camera. Go to the intro with your tour rep, he/she will be able to answer most questions you have about the resort, Varadero and Cuba. The resort has an art gallery and shops. You can use the facilities of the Sol Palmeras and Melia Las America but will be charged for drinks and food. We took a walk in and around the Sol Palmeras, we liked the layout better there than at the Melia Varadero.
Room: The room was beautiful and spotless. Two double beds pushed together made one huge bed. There was a mural of two people over the bed. Faux paint finishes on all the walls. The bar fridge had bottled water. You could ask to have it stocked for a $5. delivery charge, we never bothered with that. We had a view that overlooked the ocean over the top of palm trees, it was nice. I only bothered to look out the window when I did my morning weather check. The bathroom was beautiful. Another mural painting of an angel. The way the mirrors were hung (there were three wall mirrors) you would see multiple images of yourself and you could see the back of your head when styling your hair. There was also a magnifying makeup mirror attached to a swing arm. I’d love to have one of those at home. There was a hairdryer in the bathroom. We left the maid little gifts everyday, and she would leave us towel sculptures. Water was replenished daily.
Bars – Three outside bars: beach bar, pool bar and one on the side of the Trinidad Restaurant. Lobby Bar and bars in the buffet, café and a la carte restaurants. The piano bar got a bit busy in the evening. The pool bar got busy around 4:30 when people started to come up from the beach. I found the drinks in the piano bar better than at the pool. The pool bar served warm pina coladas, yuck. They made nice strawberry daiquiris though. Ladies, if you want rum in your pina coladas tell the bartender or they might just leave it out. The beach bar at the first of the week was giving out bottled water, mid week they started to pour it into cups. This was a pain, you had to keep going for water, and at least with the bottle you could have a drink and cap the bottle for later. We also noticed that the plastic glasses at the pool bar got smaller later in the week, maybe they just ran out of the other size. The bartenders will also fill your own insulated mug if you bring one. There was a man set up at the entrance to the beach stairs making coconut drinks. He would chop the top of a coconut, pour in some rum and add a straw. In one of the other resorts that we stayed at two years ago the bar had sample drinks made up. You could point to the drink that looked interesting to you and try it. They did not have anything like that at the Melia. We had asked for a few different types of drinks, they either did not have the ingredients or didn’t know how to make them. The piano bar seemed to be the best for different drinks. My husband thought service at the piano bar was a bit on the slow side. I think it was because they had one bartender a lot of the time and he had to do other things as well as serve the guests. You were better off to sit in the chairs and let the servers bring your drinks.
Food – There are 8 different places to eat. We had no problem with the food. At the buffet you could always find something to eat. There were always cheeses, breads, and different tropical fruit. They had an antipasto bar. Different types of meats chicken and fish were always in abundance. Friday seemed to have a seafood theme; we found lobster, shrimp and other delicacies of the sea. All kinds of different vegetables and rice dishes. There was a salad bar, you pointed out what you wanted and they tossed it together for you. I would have preferred to prepared my own, there was always a line at this station. At some meals there was a pasta bar and other meals, a stir-fry station. Desserts were tasty and we loved the ice cream. Breakfast – fried eggs, boiled eggs, sliced cold meats, bacon, sausage, potatoes, omelet station, breads, cheeses, fruit, fresh juices, yogurt, cold cereals, granola and things I can’t remember.
Service at the buffet was good. If you didn’t have something you needed, ketchup, water, etc. the wait staff would get it for you. We just got up and got the ketchup ourselves if the staff was busy. The Café was the 24 hour snack bar and the menu changed to Italian for supper. You could get calzones, pizza, French Fries, burgers, sandwiches, etc. We ate at the Chinese and Fuentaventura (may be spelled wrong), you needed reservations for these. The Fuentaventura was very nice, a little formal. The Chinese was inside the buffet as was the seafood restaurant. Some of the menus had items that you had to pay for; they were indicated on the menu. If you were not sure, you only had to ask. The Trinidad Restaurant was in a thatched roof building just over from the pools. The menu was pretty good, fish, steak, chicken, etc. Most meals came with salad, rice or potato and some kind of vegetable. You could also get French fries here. This restaurant had no doors and a few birds flew through. Musicians played and when they took a break, they would try to sell their CD’s, if you were not interested, all you had to do was say no thanks. The beach grill was in the same place as the beach bar. Another thatched roof building that had no walls. Birds liked this place. If you don’t like flies hovering around your food, you better not look or go someplace else to eat. We did eat here a couple of times; the food was good and well cooked. You could get burgers, chicken, chicken wings, hot dogs, French fries. We had no problem with service at any of the restaurants. Just over from the pool, they served a fresh cook paella around 1 p.m. every day except Sunday. They served Sangria, salad and rolls. They would put the frying pan right on the table and you just took what you wanted. Each table got their own pan of paella. We tried this once. One day they had a pig roast. We missed out on that. There may have been other events that we missed out on also. Check the event boards everyday.
Beach/Pools/Grounds – I was looking forward to beautiful flowers and gardens. Everything was green except a few flowers at the front entrance. We took a walk next door to the Sol Palmeras, we found the flowers, they’re grounds were beautiful. The area around the pools was very nice. Plenty of loungers and lots of space. We would find a vacant chair and drag it to the spot we wanted to sit. We prefer filtered shade and we always managed to find just the right spot. Three pools, one had a volleyball net strung across. The second pool had an island in the middle and the third was a tot wading pool. One pool spilled into the next. They were on different levels. The pool area was nice. The pool bar was nestled in between the pool with the net and the one with the island. There were stools in the two pools but you needed someone between you and the actual bar to serve you, the bartenders were on the other side of the bar. The deepest spot in the pool was about 4ft. They didn’t have a hot tub, but they did have a whirlpool set in the middle of one of the swimming pools. While at the pool, they did not announce what was taking place at the beach or vise versa.
To get to the beach you had to walk down a couple of sets of stone steps and walk past some coral. The beach has rock cliffs on both sides. At one end of the beach is the golf course. The beach is directly in front of Plaza Las Americas. It is a public beach, the locals usually sat between the trees on the grass. If was not a long stretch of beach like some resorts have in Varadero. You could go snorkeling right off the beach. One day we took a paddleboat out and snorkeled from it, we had it for a half-hour, it took five minutes to get to the fish. We wanted to do this again, we got rolls from the buffet and were all set but the beach boys would not let us take the boats out because the wind was up. We tried two days in a row; I ended up tossing my rolls into the ocean. Beside the beach bar was a massage table where, I was told, you could get a great massage for $10. The beach was a little hike from the main resort and we are still not sure if there was a bathroom at the grill or not. If there was, it was stuck in behind and none of wanted to go there to find out. If you had emergency while at the beach, you had a long walk to get to the bathroom.
Side Trips: We only did one tour. We booked a tour to Havana through Go Travel Direct $63.00pp. We left at 8:30 a.m. and returned at 6:30 p.m. We traveled by air conditioned motor coach with an English speaking guide. Lunch was included, as was entry into all the places we visited. I totally recommend this tour. Some people hire cabs or locals to take them to Havana and pay half what we did, but I feel we got the better deal. Some cab drives speak very little English. Havana is steeped with history and architectural beauty, I doubt a local from Varadero could give the guided tour we got. We also got to shop at the market. I wish we had had more time, we had 1/2 an hour to shop. There were some really good buys. I’ll warn you now, people wait for the tour busses and practically swam the tourists. There were guys drawing sketches, musicians and people just plain begging. This overwhelmed a few of the tourists. We were even approached by a couple of ladies working in one of the museums to give them money, candy or soap. Just tell them you don’t have anything if you don’t. As we were getting ready to leave old Havana, one of the young ladies on the tour made the mistake of opening her bag outside the bus to get something out to give to some of the young boys that were waiting around the busses. They swarmed her and started grabbing stuff out of her bag. I would suggest that if you bring items to give away, pass it to the tour guide and let her dish it out, she could speak the language.
Night show: The evening show was in an enclosed room that was, in my opinion, too small, too loud and stuffy. I don’t think it was air conditioned. There were doors to the outside, but they were never opened. I did not enjoy this place. There was an outdoor stage that would have been a better choice as far as air quality goes.
The Karoke Bar was a little dank smelling. Might be because it was dark and closed up most of time. The couple of times we went there it was just a bunch of kids fooling around. The times they were open did not correspond with the times posted.
Summary: As I said above, if this had been my first trip I would have been amazed. I had this feeling that there was something that I did not like about this place but could not put my finger on it. In retrospect, I think it was the fact that I was expecting beautiful flowers and gardens and was a little disappointed that there was none. The beach being a distance from the main building is another minus, we all agreed about this. That being said this is still a very nice resort and I would recommend it. If I return to Cuba I would like to another area, maybe Holguin or Cayo Coco. I would be happy to answer specific questions. Email me at bmnichol@hotmail.com