Varadero

Hello May 8th Been to the Blau over 10 times through out the years. Made many, many friends and treated like family. you can tell though that there are shortages of certain things. But again...its Cuba but you will never go hungry the burgers and fries are good. Bring them some razors, meds,used shoes and you will have friends for life. I have been going to Cuba since 1992 and the Blau service is great. Orestas (wait staff) , Myra (Animation), and Ridell is the best Pina colada maker at the beach bar. Norberto makes the best mojitos right on the beach. Beach was clean, lots of shade umbrellas, Credit card is only accepted at the government stores in the resorts. The best way to exchange you money is through workers at the resort. 1 can dollar is only 20 pesos at the lobby. Ask a worker for best rate you can get 70 pesos for 1 Canadian dollar. this is a good opportunity for the locals to make some real money as there peso is useless. they use the Canadian dollar to buy things online which they can do now. I just used pesos for tips so dont go exchanging all your money. this is some good information. So for me the Blau service, beach,friendliness, room , pool was great Ala cart I have some lobster in my spaghetti seafood. Was surprised. You may be too...oh yes ..FREE wifi for 10 hours a day. Not much lag but resort was not completely full. All Blau staff wore there masks all the time.

This was my first time at Royalton Hicacos. My husband and me enjoyed every day in the resort. The food is fine, we are not demanding, the Caribbean restaurant is very good, we loved the restaurant by the beach for breakfast and lunch and of course at night because they have lobster in the menu. Rooms are fine, with a small living room, bedroom and a big bathroom. Thank you Albis and Jenifer at the lobby bar for the best piña colada ever. Thanks to my butler David for been so nice with us. If you are looking for the perfect beach trip just decide to spend your holidays at Royalton Hicacos. Highly recommend

TL;DR: would recommend, plan to return CONTEXT We recently returned from a one week vacation at Melia Internacional Varadero. As a family, we've been to Cuba more than half a dozen times, but have not been since before the start of the pandemic. THE HOTEL: This was our 1st visit to Melia Internacional. This is an older hotel that was purchased by Melia and renovated in the last couple of years. As a result there is a mix of new & old/established. The hotel is huge with over 900 rooms. 3 main pools as well as a kids pool with pirate theme and slide, great for young kids. There's also a small wading pool for infants as part of the playground near the Cubamigos kids' club. In addition there's another pool for the adults only (cannot speak to as we were not in level or adult). The rooms are great with awesome view regardless of which way you're facing. Unfortunately there is a mold problem in the bathrooms, especially those equipped with bathtubs. This is in part due to the fact that the hotels were closed for so long during the pandemic. A proper treatment of the mold should be undertaken and it is truly the only thing that needs improvement in my opinion. Did not get too check out spa this time. THE FOOD: The main buffet Merkado always had a decent variety of options and had the main stations: fish, meat/chicken, and pasta. We had exceptional service from two wait staff: Aidi and Alicia! And Yaime on the fish station was very attentive! We had three a la carte réservations but only went to two of them. HACIENDA (Mexican): the mini burrito appetizers and the nachos were AMAZING! I was content with the main and the service by the staff was great! CASA NOSTRA (Italian): in my opinion, this a la carte is a must go! The food and the service was amazing! The hostess who seated us was also very attentive and considerate (unfortunately don't remember her name, visited on May 31). The pizza, the pasta and the seafood were all incredible. Even the picky eaters enjoyed it. The tiramisu was delicious, even better than some I've had in Canada. We also went to a restaurant in town which was only a short walk but due to the rain we took a taxi. Overall, we did not go hungry and we did not get sick from any of the food. No complaints at all. THE ENTERTAINMENT: DAYTIME: The entertainment staff are always a pleasure and make the trip truly worthwhile. We participated in Aqua gym, trivia, dancing lesson, and have contests. All were lots of fun! Exceptional staff is definitely Yosbel! He has so much energy and really gets you excited about participating. Bebe also got my kid dancing which was great. David, Daniel, and Rosalba also were good entertainers! EVENINGS: We did not attend much of the evening entertainment but what we did attend we enjoyed. Whether it's a trio band at the Blue Sky Bar or an entire dance party in the Red Bar, or a solo singer. There was also amazing musicians serenading the entire resort from the Gaia bar by the pools (one time it was a clarinet player, another it was a flute player). Overall entertainment was great, caught a glimpse of the kids evening and daytime entertainment and it was also excellent and fun. CLUB HOUSE: towel exchange with Yoel; always a smile and pleasant service. POOL BAR: Amazing attentive staff with two absolute favourites are Claudia and Sergio. We also had good service from Heidi. Drinks were great and delicious. FRONT DESK: All the staff are always willing to help but Alicia often went above and beyond. Truly grateful to her! BELLHOP: Osdany went above and beyond and we also received great service on departure but I don't remember the name of the fellow (lanky/tall/glasses). ROOM CLEANING STAFF: We had amazing experience with Yalennys; making fun designs with the towels and leaving a thoughtful note. RESTAURANT BOOKING: Rosemarie helped us so much with booking our restaurant reservations absolutely fantastic customer service skills! PUBLIC RELATIONS: Kandy was pleasant via email and resourceful when we needed some assistance.

Beautiful hotel, great service and the weather was fantastic.

We travelled here from May 6-13, 2022. We booked double prestige and were up graded to a beautiful ocean view room on the 8th floor. We were celebrating our 45 wedding anniversary. Everything from check in to check out was absolutely amazing. The staff are ALWAYS smiling and do what ever they can to make your vacation enjoyable. This was our 10 trip to Cuba and this resort had the best food. The restaurant on the 11th floor with the beautiful view was like a dream. Thank you to all for making our vacation perfect. We will definitely be back

The staff was wonderful the areas were very clean as was the beach

Very nice resort and amazing beach.

no sheets on the bed first nigh out, ants/termites in bathroom and sink, could not leave anything on bathroom counter,

The Brisas is undergoing some much-needed and way overdue renovations. Whatever is still available at the Family south section is adequate but tired-looking. The Buffet-Restaurant is poorly organized and this is not just due to covid. The waitstaff and food servers, at the Buffet-Restaurant, need some basic training. The majority of the guests were from Russia and from what I gathered poor tippers. This is probably the reason the staff was so demoralized. It seems not enough staff spoke Russian to make it clear that their co-operation was required in terms of Covid protocol, selecting and collecting the food. For an inexpensive escape from the cold, it was ok. Bring US or CDN $ for tips. Don't exchange any money into Pesos unless you really need them. Bring some personnel hygiene items and give them as gifts

The hotel was lovely...well maintained and the staff was excellent. My only disappointment was check in. An older woman who did not speak English could not find our booking (after being delayed 30 hours) and simply walked away when we tried to communicate. The next day I went to get our WiFi password and again, she simply walked away. Someone else came to help us and she was great. Someone with such limited English should not work at front desk.