We visited Playa Pesquero June 21-28, 2011 for the first time. We had been to Guardalavaca before, but not to this area near Holguin. We picked the resort from among several that Sunwing had on sale based largely on the fact that it was a 5 star and it is HOT in June. After our tour of 6 Cuban destinations last June, we wanted to be sure we could count on air conditioning in our room at night 😉 and since we knew the snorkeling to be good in the area, we assumed the diving would be good as well. We were wrong on both counts. This was our 15th trip to Cuba together since 2001, and my 18th since 1988. We have stayed in private homes, boutique city hotels, resorts from 2 to 5 stars and our expectations are reasonable. When we read negative reviews about Cuba we sometimes want to tell people who expect Florida to just stay home, so it saddens me to have to write one. Don’t get me wrong; Playa Pesquero has a lot to offer, but enjoying it all just isn’t as easy as it could be.
Room Number:
1407
Room Block:
14
Arrival: The Good: The food here was pretty much the best we have encountered at all-inclusive resorts anywhere in Cuba. We were lucky enough to be able to book a different a la carte restaurant every night, including the Bistro, where for $10 CUC you can have a steak cooked properly, a rarity in Cuba to be sure! We also enjoyed the beach lobster extravaganza, where for $18 CUC you can sit under the mangrove trees strung with fairy lights and eat lobster trimmed with shrimp and bacon; talk about gilding the lily. We also enjoyed the food at the Italian, Romantico, Seafood and Caribbean restaurants. Beware though, when you reserve these places the concierge only warns you that men must wear long pants to the Italian and Romantico restaurants, but we were hassled at the Caribbean because my partner had on long shorts. The only disappointment with the restaurants was that except for the Romantico, there is absolutely NO air-conditioning anywhere you are likely to eat at this resort, and during a heat wave it is not pleasant to linger over the postprandial cappuccino with sweat dripping down your back. The food was marvelous though, and the wine was actually pretty decent. The buffet for breakfast was also good and you could get fish and calamari at the beach/seafood restaurant for lunch. The pizzas at the beach snack bar were not the usual crappy offering; you could pick your own ingredients and they used tomato paste, not watery ketchup. No cappuccino could be found outside the lobby during the day however, and no Mojitos outside of the Mojito bar, which was only open from 10am to 5pm. Which takes us to …
Rooms:
The Bad: There was nowhere to sit in the evenings to enjoy music (which there wasn’t much of) or each other’s company that wasn’t completely sweltering. Including our room. We have dive computers that pretty accurately measure temperature, and our room averaged 2 degrees Celsius cooler than outside of it. Which meant that it was usually around 25-28 C in the room, although once it got to 32 C inside. We called maintenance every day for the first 3 days and they kept telling us that it was working. The fan did work, but it only moved the warm air around. Thankfully, the heat wave broke a little after 3 days and we were able to rest a bit at night, but during the day the only retreat from the heat was in the water.
Restaurants and Bars:
The Ugly: Getting to the water was a challenge though. We were in building 14, which is at the edge of the property in the corner closest to both the beach and the Playa Costa Verde resort. You couldn’t get directly to the beach from there however because of the wire fence running along the property. This place is simply huge; the workers all proudly told us it is the largest in Cuba and can accommodate more than 2,000 guests. There are little carts that are meant to drive around picking you up and dropping you off and you can call the front desk for them. Unfortunately, if you have heavy bags of snorkeling gear, you can’t even contemplate the 20 minute walk to the beach carrying your burden in the heat (the humidity most days was over 40 C), so you actually need to rely on them to get you to the beach. The wait for a cart was usually 20 minutes or so, but often at mid-day it was closer to an hour. Several times after waiting 45 minutes for a cart, we just walked and I have the heat rash on my legs to show for it. Once in the evening we waited over an hour for a cart though and were late for our dinner reservation as a result. You couldn’t book the carts in advance and even bribery was not reliable as a way to ensure they would show up. One driver also continually harassed me for my scuba diving knife every time he saw us. I have arthritis, and my partner and I were in a minor car accident 10 days before our trip. Neither one of us could manage long walks and in the dark, at night, the paths were confusing and there was no way you could find some of the a la carte restaurants without benefit of the carts, so we were pretty much dependent on them and this was a real pain. We found out later that a couple of them broke one day, but the real frustration was that the staff wouldn’t tell you the truth about how long your wait would be, so you couldn’t plan your time and activities.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
On the subject of activities, we hauled our full kits of scuba gear to this resort in anticipation of diving 4 or 5 days. There is no dive centre for this resort, so you need to transfer by bus in the morning to the Blau hotel, at the other end of the beach. We have been diving at 8 other Cuban destinations since 2005 and I have logged nearly 100 dives in Cuba. Hands down, the worst diving experience I have ever had in Cuba was last week at the Blue World Diving centre in the Blau Costa Verde resort. Firstly, it was a bit of a cattle boat; we had between 15 – 21 divers on the boat any given trip, and there often weren’t enough places for everyone to sit on the boat. The dive staff were indifferent to the point of not bothering to learn our names or telling us theirs. The briefings were sometimes non-existent and there was no effort expended to find out if divers had any special needs. I have arthritis in my knee and fusing in my spine, and although I am fine once in the water, they didn’t listen to me when I asked for help getting my tank to the boat and the procedure is much more awkward than anywhere else I have been diving. You are meant to ready your gear and don it, including your steel tank, at the shop, walk about half a city block over a rickety wooden boardwalk to a slippery ladder that you descend into the water, then wade some distance to the boat and ascend another ladder to board the boat, with all the weight strapped to your back. The first day, my partner attempted this and he wrenched his back so badly he couldn’t dive at all for the rest of the trip and was in agony for days. I insisted someone get me to the slippery ladder, and then asked the Sunwing rep the next day to call and make sure they understood that I couldn’t dive without this help. They agreed to take my tank, but then put me at the far end of the boat and put my gear together for me at the other end so that I didn’t discover that they had short filled my tank one day (1,700 psi) until I was about to enter the water. I still had to pay for the dive. They also fed the fish smaller fish, bread, crackers and bananas (a poor practice ecologically), congratulated an asshat diver who took a small barrel sponge from the reef to use as an enhancement for his manhood by shaking his hand at the display, and discouraged me from collecting discarded beer cans and other debris while diving and returning it to the boat. Despite the fact that I tipped generously and brought gifts, they continued to be resentful that I needed any help with the lifting and treated me with condescension by refusing to buddy me with anybody and putting me in the beginner diver group. If you are young and fit, you may be fine with this outfit, but I will never dive with them again.
Other Comments:
Conclusion: There were other minor irritations, like the fact that there was a coffee maker in the room, but only a packet of coffee on the first day and no information anywhere about how to get more if you wanted it. Staff at the front desk were not always helpful providing information about the resort and the Sunwing rep just didn’t bother to tell us about the 4pm Wednesday pig roasts, or much of anything unless we directly asked. There were other good things too. The pool was lovely despite the Reggaeton and bad American pop music they blasted all day, and the massage guy, George, was pretty good – giving more of a therapeutic massage than just a straight relaxation based treatment. The snorkelling at the north/west end of the beach was great as well, the reef was in good condition overall, and we never had a problem getting a lounge chair or a bit of shade under a palapa on the beach. Overall, our trip wasn’t terrible, but we won’t go back. We would prefer a smaller, more manageable place where you can get to know the staff.