Seasoned cuban traveller. Over 100 times in cuba since 1979. This is a luxurious cuban 5 star resort and along with the Azul side a huge place.I found the price verses quality ratio excellent.Well worth a visit!!! No major negative issues. Beautiful rooms,grounds,pools and a fantastic world class beach.Well maintained grounds with lots of landscaped scenery,flowers and lush foliage. About 90 minutes from the airport but transportation was fast,professional and seamless.Remember this is Cuba and PLEASE do not compare to other prime caribbean destinations. There is a U.S. embargo and food production is not up to international standards found in other five star resort buffets and a la cartes. That being said we found the food variety and quality excellent for cuba and would return to this resort.
Room Number:
3834
Room Block:
31
Arrival: Seamless,rapid clearance at Santa Clara airport. great transportation bus and good guide enroute. The 90 minute drive allows you to see the ‘true’ cuba countryside including several small towns. Once at the resort you are greeted warmly with musicians and great glass of champagne. Our experience at the lobby was great check in and service. No delays.Room keys given quickly. Tip:
Mostly you do not need to wait for a bellhop to deliver your luggage since most buildings are up to 6-8 minute walk away.
Rooms:
Really nice modern new cuban junior suites with plenty of storage,a separate sink and vanity area,large deep soaking tub with plenty of hot water. Everything for us worked great. water hot and pressure good. Room very clean.excellent maid service. Pop,beer and water restocked daily but usually not before 5PM.Great 27" television with more channels via satellite then I have ever seen in cuba. Approximately 45 channels with several movie channels,disney channel and more. Excellent electronic air conditioning either moderately or super cool.Once a day we did average a brief early evening power outage but no more than 5 minutes long.beds firm but for use provided good sleep quality.
Restaurants and Bars: Lots of restuarants and variety. 2 big buffets with lots of salads,excellent cheese trays,delicious pizza,turkey,chicken. Plenty of indivdual prepared foods and some great fresh made to order food stations for fried stirfry rice,chicken steak ( order medium rare) fish,calamari shrimps and even lobster once a week. I cannot say enough about the good quality dessert section with lots of tasty treats and flambe of pineapples,bananas or pears with lots of toppings.Some great a la carte restuarants. especially Italian,mediterreanen,caribean and gourmet with lobster.Also two beach restuarants/buffets,excellent hamburger,chicken panini press on the beach.
great pizza oven also on azul beach side.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Two beautiful lagoon pools on both sides. A centre baby/kid’s lagoon pool with a great kid’s club.Firsyt time I have seen playstation3 and X-box consules in a baby club in cuba.Magnificent grounds and foliage.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel: Must try snorkelling in 600 Foot patch of grass 100 feet off beach a far end of azul side of beach. Water shallow and 5 varieties of fish up to 25,000 fish in amazing concentration. Be careful of the 2 to 6 foot monster barracudas circling these fish. Up to 100 on certain afternoons.
Catamaran and snorkel tour with interactive dolphinarium visit great.
Other Comments:
A winner for cuba !!!