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Where can I start, this holiday was a complete fiasco, and I would not recommend Cuba or Beaches varadero to anyone.
We arrived at the airport at 9pm and did not reach our hotel until 3am. Our airport rep from Beaches spoke hardly any English (had to get a 3rd person to interpret), and there was no transport for us. We ended up getting a cab which we had to pay 100 US dollars for, and was told to get a receipt and Beaches would refund us next day, we still have not managed to get a rebate so far, and apparently this had also happened to other guests.
This resort is by no means in our opinion a 4 /4+ star establishment, and I would rate it 3 star at most.
Although all inclusive we couldn't get bottled water at any of the bars, you are allocated just 1 bottle, which hopefully is left daily by your maid. Our room was just about ok, but the bathroom was shabby and the hand held shower didn't work properly, there was a large chunk out of the inside of the bath. At night giant ants wandered our room, and when it rained heavily, we came back in the dark to paddle across our 1st floor room in water, which had seeped in presumably under the window. The laundry always looked grubby, to the point that you tended to look twice to check whether your towels etc had been changed.
The food in the a la carte Cuban restuarant was often cold, the Italian not very authentic, and we didn't try the Seafood one, as other guests said they had experienced upset stomachs afterwards. The buffet restuarant was unexciting but we ate there mainly as it gave us a better chance of finding something we would eat.
I was not impressed by the standards of hygeine which I witnessed on our stay, and in fact if we thought we could have overcome the language barrier, we would have tried to negotiate an earlier return from Cuba. A day trip to Havana is a worthwhile excursion, and the beach at Beaches is featureless but nice and clean, and allowed us to forget where we were staying.
This was an extremely disappointing holiday, and looking at previous reports on this resort I find it hard to believe we are talking about the same place.
On our return our worst nightmare happened, our flight was cancelled and we had to spend another 24 hrs in Cuba, however Air Jamiaca whose planes are nice and roomy even in Economy, arranged for us to stay in the 5 star Melia, although the room and bathroom were a considerable improvement on Beaches, the food was still extremely bland and unexciting. I can say without any shadow of doubt we will never return to Cuba.
Thanks to Linda for this trip report ...
June 2002
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