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Hotels and Resorts
Baracoa
Do stay in luxury at Hotel Castillo at the
very cheap price of $30/double, off-season. It’s worth every penny and comes
with a formidable view over the bay and “el Yunce”, with pool and cable TV
(should you be interested in watching the American movie channels). (b)
Cayo Coco
We stayed at the Tryp Club Cayo Coco. Rooms
were nice and large, very, very clean. Everything worked fine. We found that
we were a bit too close to the main pool/entertainment area (quite a bit of
loud music and shows for the early sleepers) but nothing too bad. Great
pools, great sitting/lounging areas. They do not supply face cloths or facial
tissue and the soap is only replaced once your initial 2 tiny bars are used
up. There are about three miles of beach along the main hotel complex, with
rocky outcroppings and more beaches in either direction. Lots of food but
bland and not very creatively prepared or presented. Most of the buffets were
very repetitive. The three a la carte restaurants were much better and were
always packed, with two of the three requiring reservations 24 hours ahead of
time. Another problem was with consistency. A certain buffet restaurant could
be fairly good one day (good being hot food and relatively tasty) to being
downright awful the next (same items!). Another problem was that the food was
not identified (often did not know what that massed pile of food was). This
could be catastrophic for people with certain food allergies. Reserve beach
chairs/loungers very early (say, 6 am) otherwise, if the weather is good, you
will be laying on a beach towel. The hotel discourages this reserving
practice, but nobody listens so it's first come, first served. Leave a beach
towel tied to the chair and it's yours (try not to lose the hotel beach
towel, it's $15 US.). No problem with towel theft either. (e)
Guardalavaca
The Delta Las Brisas was good, but the food
was not. Hot dogs for breakfast sausages is not my idea! The food overall was
poorer than what we have had, though certainly eatable. The reef is far out,
a good half mile, but worth the swim. The rooms and staff were very good.
There are a lot more young people there. We had taken our teenagers for the
first time to this hotel, and they just loved it. The activities people had
things going all the time, and would take the younger people under their
wings and get them involved in pool, ping pong tournaments, etc. The night
entertainment was the pits. We did rent horses several times during out stay.
It was $4 an hour and you could take them wherever you wanted. There was no
guide. We also rented nearly-new mopeds for $11 an hour, though they didn't
provide helmets. (d)
We found a fabulous place to stay called El
Cayuelo. Located 500 meters
from the Las Brisas Hotel, it’s situated on a little stretch of white sand
beach. It’s actually an expensive
restaurant meant for the resort dwellers, but they rent out four
air-conditioned rooms upstairs which are very clean and share two bathrooms
with shower. They go for $25 for a
double in high or low season and this includes a decent breakfast. You can’t make reservations because they
don’t have a phone, but you just have to try your luck upon arrival. There are no legal casas in the town, but
if you’re lucky, there are a few people who will rent you a fabulous room
right on the beach. But police are
very suspicious of tourists who are not wearing a bracelet from one of the
big hotels.(n)
Havana
If you like staying in a hotel you should really go for Hotel Valencia. It’s ideally situated, albeit a bit
on the expensive side. But well worth the cost especially after a couple of
weeks on the road and stay in private homes. (b)
The Hotel Presidente cost $72 for a double.
The only thing good about this hotel is its lobby. The place was built in
1928 and the mildew dates from that era. The hot water was not, the bathroom
always had at least one cockroach, and the desk staff were always in a state
of confusion. We had a room with twin beds and wanted to move to a room with
a double bed. Every day we asked to switch rooms, and they always said that
they had to wait to see who checked out that afternoon. It was as if they
didn’t know who was planning to check out, and they certainly weren’t going
to take note of our wish and use their initiative to move our bags when a
room became available! Breakfast was tolerable ($5 per person extra). The
tenth floor bar is closed, as the top three floors are now (it was claimed)
being used by businesses. (a)
We ended up staying at the Capri because for just
a hundred bucks more our travel agent in TJ said it was a great place to
stay. The place sucked. It was an absolute nightmare and you should warn
everybody about this shithole. The staff were the biggest bunch of jerks.
They hated anyone who stayed there. The rooms were disgustingly dirty and
smelly. And the breakfast buffet (which was included in the package) was
pathetic. We had our choice of hard biscuits, carrots, waffles, orange water,
or coffee that tasted like it was brewed with dirt. Only one day there did
they offer scrambled eggs. And once those were gone, that was it - no mas.
(i)
For short trips with a moderate budget, many people I have spoken to like
the Hotel Riveria, a few blocks from the
center of Vedado. The Capri is a great
location, relatively moderate price for a Vedado hotel, although the rooms
are a bit run down, drains don't work, stuff like that.(j)
We stayed one night at the Hotel Riviera
because it was included in our airfare.
The hotel lobby is beautiful and servie is terrific. The lobby bar serves appetizers—everything
from pizza to hamburgers, and the prices aren’t bad. Our room was a suite on the 19th
floor; huge, with a terrific view of the hotel pool and the Malecon. A buffet breakfast was included in the
room price, with all foods you would expect at a brunch. We ended up staying a second night, which
cost an additional $60 for 2 people.
Two blocks away is a “mall,” which sellse everything from clothing to
cars, and has a terrific dollar grocery store complete with a bakery and a
meat counter. (l)
On our first trip we stayed at the Hotel Vedado,
were treated with rude indifference, and were accosted by the touts and
beggars every time we ventured out of the hotel The restaurant had horrible food (something they called a
hamburger looked like Spam and smelled like fish). My travel companion lost 10 pounds on that trip and I lost 5,
as we couldn’t find any food. The
airfare and hotel had been paid for as a package deal through Tiano Tours in
Tijuana. The last 2 nights, we were
told our rooms were not paid for. We
had to leave or pay for another night.
After being very firm, we weren’t harassed again until the next
night. The same thing happened to
other tourists we talked to. (l)
Holguin
The Atlantico is
always on the sell-off list and provides clean and convenient accommodation.
I have been to this hotel 9 times over the last 3 years and it seems that the
complex is being constantly brought up to date. Rooms along the pool have
been renovated and are to the standards of most Canadian “Budget” hotels. Hot
water has not been a problem over the past year and the rooms are tastefully
decorated. On the other hand, rooms in the Tower (4 floors) are decorated
circa 1970's and the shower resembles a stall in an old arena. I do believe
that these rooms are currently under rejuvenation. The food is typically
“Cuban Resort,” in other words inconsistent. There are a number of small
restaurants along the beach that offer a welcome change from the cafeteria. I
highly recommend this diversion. For those who crave a little Canadiana, a
“Pizza Nova” is right next door. They even have delivery service! Just like
home! Nightly entertainment is repetitive, although of excellent quality. The
beach is on your doorstep, a mere walk around the pool and down some steps.
The trees that cover the eastern portion provide welcome relief from the sun.
If you are thinking of playing Volleyball (recommended, keep in mind that
under the inch or so of sand lies a concrete slab, exercise extreme caution
when diving for the ball! Must be one of those great Russian ideas of
yesteryear! A dive shop is located at the far western end of the beach and
the instructors and guides are easy going, yet professional. The tourist area
is basic, but most staples (limited) and services (ditto) are within an easy
walk. (h)
Isla de la Joventud, Nueva Gerona
If you want a lot of bed-lice for night company, you should stay at Hotel Gaviota, just outside Nueva Gerona, a rip-off
at $ 30. Much better to stay in town. (b)
Las Tunas
While staying in the Las Tunas Hotel, our room
was entered while we were sleeping (with a key) and all our money and
documents stolen. It turns out that this is a common occurrence in this
hotel, with the security as well as the local police all cashing in.
Travelers beware! (k)
When you close and lock your door at the Las Tunas Hotel in Las Tunas, put
a chair up against the door and a glass on the chair. So when the security
opens your door at night to steal your wallet (it doesn't matter whether you
use the lock box or not - they have keys to everything) the glass smashing
will hopefully chase them away and wake you. Investigations later told of
this happening on a regular basis and the police aren’t much help as they get
their share as well. (o)
Maria La Gorda
There’s only one place to stay here: Hotel Maria La
Gorda, and it is wonderful. Quite small and personal, it really is a
scuba mecca. We stayed there three days and it cost us $30 per night for the
room, $10 for the permit to enter the peninsula, and $55 for all our meals.
(We didn’t pay for the first night’s dinner because my girlfriend got food
poisoning that kept her up all night. She thinks it was from mayonnaise in
one of the salads.) (a)
Pilon
At the Farallon del Caribe (20 min. from
Pilon, 1 1/2 hours from Manzanillo) the food (great fish, roasted chicken,
salads, hamburgers, etc.) was good, but not outstanding. The staff does
better making drinks than they did last time we were there. Returnees to the
resort get a special meal of all the wine you can drink, lobster, and filet
mignon, with cognac as an after-dinner drink. Some staff were downright sour
looking all the time. The white sand island that they take you is worthwhile,
the snorkeling is excellent, and the tours were good. The night entertainment
sucks, though there is a disco they'll take you to. The daily entertainment
is poor too, and is mostly just bingo. They do not organize volleyball, ping
pong, or pool tournaments like other hotels. The beach is black sand. The
crowd was older here. There is not much in the way of things to buy here, as
there is only one other small hotel nearby, so the craft people do not seem
to come. The price is a big draw, though. (d)
Pinar del Rio
Cabanas Aguas Claras charged us $24 for a
double. The place has a funky kind of beauty. The pool is great and so are
the trees and pond on the property. When were there almost half of the guests
were Cubans. This meant that loud music was playing most of the night. When
the music stopped, the night was filled with the sounds of local wildlife. Of
course, the dominant local wildlife are dogs and roosters! Another problem at
Aguas Claras was the mosquitoes. Most Cuban residences do not have windows or
screens, but wooden slats that open and close horizontally, sort of like very
wide venetian blinds. Unfortunately, in our room (no. 50), the slats did not
close completely, so we could barely sleep due to the continuous assault. If
you stay there, check this out before you take a room. Aguas Claras was the
only place I went to in Cuba that had hot water. This was done via a gadget
called a Laser attached to the shower-head which heated the water to almost
boiling. (a)
Playa Larga
We stayed at Villa Playa Larga because we
figured that it would be the easiest for arranging a bird-watching tour. This
proved to be the case. The hotel is now managed by the infamous Horizontes,
so we were expecting the worst. We paid $34 for a cabana with double bed,
kick-butt air-conditioning, and the usual lukewarm water, which is good value
compared to other official hotels. There were a couple of security guards
patrolling the place and we paid them $1 to guard the car. There was no
problem with beach boys on the property. (a)
Santiago de Cuba
We had a fabulous time at the Bucanaro, an
all-inclusive resort. We did not bring our own towels for the beach, but soon
realized that we had to buy one from the hotel shop. There were however
towels in the rooms. This resort was built 10 years ago and is major need of
repairs. Apparently there is a group of French business people doing a deal
that involves France that plan to come in and revamp the resort. It is such a
beautiful spot. A great seawall makes its way through the property. It does have
quite a small man made beach. Did not bother us. Otherwise, we found the
staff wonderful, the food was average, we dived and snorkelled, all
non-mortorized sports were included. They were in the process of building a
new disco. The rooms were kept very clean. (c)
We stayed at the Superclub Sierra Mar (about
45 min from Santiago) and it was excellent. The food was the best, the beach
is not long, and the staff was friendly. The night entertainment was okay.
They brought in dancers from Santiago, and magicians another night. There
were a lot of older people there, so there was not too much activity, even
during the day. The snorkeling was good, but with the black sand it did not
reflect the light well, so the colors were more dull looking. The reef was about
1/4-1/2 mile out. (d)
We stayed at the Sierra Mar when it was a
superclub and couldn’t ask for better. This was in1998, 99, & 2000. The
food was exceptional, from the beach restaurant which served fish, pizza, hot
dogs, hamburgers, fries, etc, to the main cafeteria which served pastas,8
different meats, and many more entrees for me to add. All meals except for
breakfast were served with red, white or rose wine which by the way were
excellent. This was an all inclusive resort with a dive shop, beach secluded
from other resorts, and great hospitality. I don’t know if things have
changed any since we were there, but hopefully if it has it’s for the better.
(p)
Veradero
We decided to spend $52 (including breakfast) for the
Hotel Dos Mares. The room was nice, with the traditional Soviet tank
model air-conditioner, and a shower curtain that stopped almost a foot above
ground-level (resulting in a flooded bathroom floor). Hot water was promised,
but, as usual, there was none. The reception desk sent a man up to the room
who held his hand under the tap for five minutes before mumbling:
“problem...tomorrow...” and rushing out the door. The receptionist turned
down my request for a partial refund as well. (a)
Our friends have stayed in the Tryp Siesta Club.
It is about 10 minutes from town, 30 minutes from the airport. There is an
oil refinery nearby and no matter what side you stay on, ocean or marina, you
do smell the refinery, not overpowering but always there. The beach isn't the
greatest right there. They have added sand to the beach and you can sink up
to your ankles walking along the beach. There is no snorkeling there, though
there is a tour to a cave. Our friends got sick after doing the cave
snorkeling and they wondered if the water was bad there. When they were
there, the wavs were too rough to swim in the ocean. The night entertainment
was outstanding. (d)
Our friends' daughter stayed at the Tuxpan in
January, 1998. This is a breakfast and dinner-only place, and you buy the
(expensive) booze yourself. At the disco in the evening, they would get
Cubans to buy a bottle of 5-year-old rum, 6 cans of coke and ice for $5
(compared to the $4.50 per rum and coke at the bar). They expected good
entertainment, but the animators that they had seen on an earlier trip were
gone, so it was only so-so. Aparently the animators travel from hotel to
hotel, so it's hit-and-miss. (d)
I stayed at Melia Las Americas, supposedly a
5-star hotel, I'd rate it 3 plus. The hotel offered a few tours (for
additional costs), so I went on a tour to Havana and a tour to Rio Canimar.
The Havana tour took us to visit Morrow Castle lookout, Revolution Square,
the cemetary, a walk through new and old Havana, and a stop at the cigar
store, lunch at a local restaurant, and of course the market area where they
sell tourist souvenirs, local crafts, etc. I really enjoyed this tour, it
cost US$51 and we travelled to and from Havana on a comfortable,
air-conditioned bus. My second tour to Rio Canimar was real Cuban style
($45). The bus was more like a school bus and our guide was a 23-year-old
Cuban. One of the many stops/activities of the day was snorkeling, which, for
some of the group turned out to be too adventurous. Next we went to Saturn's
cave, which was beautiful, the water in the cave clear and turquoise. At
lunch, we were treated to a real Cuban-style lunch that was better than most
of the hotel food I had eaten. (g)
My husband and I stayed at BEACHES (adults, all-inclusive) in December 99 and
loved it. The hotel was only about 10
months old at the time, accommodations were modern and clean, lots of hot
water, extremely modern facilities, 4 restaurants (food was fine, contrary to
a lot of the complaints we’ve heard, but not gourmet in most instances), and
beautiful pools and sandy, clean beaches with turquoise water. The staff couldn’t do enough for you. No problem with security, towels, bugs or
anything else. The only minor problem
was some locals who approached you from the grassy areas if you strolled too
far from your hotel. They wanted to
trade seashells for your t-shirts, or anything else you could offer, but they
were not aggressive or intimidating at all (because of hotel “police” who
were usually accessible). We
participated in a few daily excursions (boat rides, picnics, island hopping,
etc.) at very reasonable prices. (m)
My first visit to Cuba in 2000 I had stayed at
the Melia Varedero. This was a beautiful resort that at the time was listed a five
star (Cuban standard of course). The
rooms were an average hotel room however the staff and amenities were
great. Directly behind the hotel there
is no beach there is just a cliff of rock and lots of coral, however since
the resorts on either side are owned by the same company there was no problem
using these beaches and they were quite large, clean and beautiful. Of course being on the Atlantic Ocean side
of Cuba the waters were most of the time yellow flagged (use caution) and we had
an infestation of little jellyfish for one day. The greatest part of this resort is 1) incredible entertainment
every night! I stayed next door, in
2002, at the Melia Las Americas and went to the Melia Varedero each night for
entertainment. A must see! and 2) the versatility. As I said the three hotels Melia Varedero, Melia Las Americas
and the Sol Palmeras are right next to each other on the beach and staying in
one of them affords you the use of the others amenities for the most part.
(restaurants, tours, entertainment).
My suggestion to all the younger travelers is that the Las Americas
seemed to have more younger people staying there whereas the Melia Varedero
had an older population. (q)
Thanks to sources:
(a) john@bishop-co.com, 1/98
(b) jon.anders@oocities.com, 1/98
(c) dcalabrigo@hotmail.com, 3/98
(d) subartley@hotmail.com, 3/98
(e) belangerp@cnwl.igs.net, 3/98
(f) colarowl@chlsnr.nestrd.ch, 6/98
(g) toapril@hotmail.com, 8/98
(h) travelguy@sympatico.ca, 8/98
(i) supersanda@aol.com, 8/98
(j) JS
in LA, 3/99
(k) dyuhasz@northrock.bm, 8/99
(l) mcduke@inficad.com, 4/00
(m) mfeldman@sympatico.ca, 5/00
(n) skrasic9@home.com, 8/00
(o) dbmurray@globalserve.netm 8/99
(p) sstadpole@sympatico.ca 9/01
(q) aguilar.brody@ns.sympatico.ca
1/03
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