Whilst not expecting luxury at any hotels in Cuba, and having been warned that La Belen was "basic" I did not arrive expecting much at all. However I was not prepared for what actually greeted us on arrival. Some of the rooms were not too bad but ours was one that is seldom used – very small, very tatty. The mattress was not clean (crumbs and goodness knows what in the seams) and only covered by one sheet so you were virtually sleeping on the mattress. The paintwork was painted brown and as with many cuban rooms there were no windows but there were shutters that could be opened. However for some reason the inside of the shutters was covered in perspex so it was impossible to get any ventilation. Also the air conditioning was so noisy that it was impossible to sleep with it on. The biggest problem thus turned out the be the smell coming fromt eh shower drain in our room which was so unpleasant as to make me want to vomit all the time. There is no hot water provided at the hotel. However we did at least have a working toilet. Others in our party spent two nights with no running water, so were unable to wash (cold shower did not work) and had to flush the toilet with buckets of water taken from the swimming pool – which itself did not look too clean – very murkey! The service was terrible – asking for a bottle of wine produced a bottle of dubonnet!, This was replaced by a bottle of wine but the hotel did not have any corkscrews – no sure how you were expected to open it really! The food is served in an open sided barn which was very cold at night and the lighting meant that you could not see what you were eating which may have been a blessing bearing in mind how bad the rest of the experience was.
All in all I would say that if you are visiting this area for the bird watching (which was very good) you would be better finding a hotel somewhere else, getting up early and driving into the area for the day. It was so awful i would have been prepared to have stayed even 3 hours drive away if i could have avoided staying here. Never again!!
Room Number:
10
Room Block:
N/A
Arrival:
by bus – looks ok as you come up the drive….
Rooms:
See comments in the review. Oh yes – everyone in our party also saw at least one large cockroach in their room!
Restaurants and Bars:
horrible – see review. Food cold and unappatising but fortunately too dark to see it – believe me this was a blessing!
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
pool very murky and full of leaves. grounds not well maintained. The only good thing was that the stables wehre they breed horses are well maintained and the horses look fit and well fed
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
bird watching good but the guide was not too helpful
Other Comments:
Avoid this like the plague!!
Was this review helpful? Yes Thank you for giving us your opinion.