Meliá Varadero Hotel
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This as our 4th stay at the Melia Varadero. This was our first stay post Covid, with our previous visit being in January 2020. We have always stayed on 'The Level' and think this upgrade is well worth it. This trip we booked our room directly with the hotel and had no issues checking in or paying for our room upon arrival. We were in room 5407. Going into this trip we knew we had to keep our expectations in check as you hear about lots of shortages in Varadero. Melia Varadero did not have any major shortages that we were aware of. One day we heard that they had no sparkling water, otherwise it seemed business as usual. There were all types of alcohol, mix, water, meats, eggs, cheese, fruits, sides, toilet paper, towels, hand soap, etc. There was even mint every day! After spending some time reflecting on this trip, I will say this was the best trip we had to the Melia Varadero. Staff is a big one! It was nice to see old faces and meet a lot of new workers who really made this trip a great experience. As another review mentioned, I also believe this was the best food we have had at this resort. I have always said it was good, but some items this trip were great where we wanted to go back the next day to have it again. Numerous items at the Cuban Day BBQ were well done and cooked to perfection (the white fish and the chicken). The salmon in the International, the beef in the Tex Mex, the pumpkin cream soup in the Level lunch a'la carte ... to name a few. We had many items that we felt were cooked amazingly well and had really good flavors. We only ate in the buffet 3 times but felt it was similar pre Covid for options available. We had the privilege of going to a cocktail challenge they host for the bartenders each year. It's a competition for them, but they really should have this as a 'show' for all guests. So many new and delicious cocktails to try. Toni and Caesar's Havana Special, Roberto's Mojito (or his new beer-mito), Louisito's gin and tonic and Dialena's watermelon daquiri! All the drinks were delicious. Some new things noted around the resort from previous trips: They have added an upper-level area above the pool bar. I will be honest and say that I don't understand the purpose as no one was seen using it. It is nice, but it kind of ruins that tropical pool feel. They also added a nice walk-way down to the beach which includes a beach bar and grill. This was very well done and a great addition! The Level also now has an a'la carte for breakfast (in the same location as the a'la carte for lunch) and we felt this was a great addition also. The resort is well maintained and very clean. The rooms are starting to show some age, but they have started to renovate the 4th floor and a wing of the 3rd floor. The only real thing that surprised me is that the pool wasn't painted during Covid and it kind of showed, but it was always clean! The other thing we noticed is that the beach was more washed out in the area that is closest to the resort. To avoid the rocks, you will have to walk a bit further out onto the beach. If you go far enough you will find a flat, gorgeous white sand beach and little to no rocks upon entry into the ocean. Shout out to all staff; everyone was so friendly! Lousito in the Level Lounge and all the level staff (including Orlaida who checked us in). Roberto and Dialena in the lobby bar making amazing cocktails. Luis serving everyone! Toni, Caesar, Osmani and his partner at the pool bar. We also had the privilege to meet Oscar in Guest Experiences who invited us to join them in the planting of a palm tree to celebrate their 32nd anniversary. There are so many staff here that go above and beyond - everyone truly deserves a shout out!
LASaddictLASaddict
00
My husband and I spent two weeks in this beautiful hotel from March 14 to 28. This was our third time there, and we were not disappointed to come again. It became our home away from home. This time, we stayed at the Level and enjoyed the extra services like going for lunch to a Tex-Mex restaurant and other a-la-card restaurants for our diners. We also enjoyed the main buffet restaurant, where there was a good selection of food, and each day there was a particular topic, like sushi day, salad day, etc. The beach improved significantly compared to last year. It was very wide and sandy, and there were many new sunbeds and umbrellas. The beach attendants put umbrellas where you needed them. There was no need to wake up early and reserve a lounger, as many were always available. The views of the ocean from every corner of this resort are truly magnificent. That blue-eyed colour is out of this world. As Level guests, we had the pleasure of enjoying the bar on our floor. The cappuccinos that Eva and Luisito prepared for us were simply the best. Their warm smiles and friendly conversations made our mornings even more delightful. At some point, we even decided to forgo breakfast elsewhere and enjoyed it in our bar, savouring the delicious food and the pleasant company. On our last day, Luisito made me a frappuccino that was so good that I had to come back the following year only for that. The food choices in this resort were abundant. We never felt that we were missing something. During our stay, there were no eggs, but we did not miss them at all, as there were always many other choices available. I would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to everyone who works there and makes this hotel special. A special thank you goes to the Level Team: Orlaida, Carlos, Yanet, Indania, Leachet and Damaris. The service they provide is always of high quality. Thank you to the Level bar team: Eva, Luisito, Abraham, Eglis, Yainery and Mini. We enjoyed our cappuccinos, drinks and continental breakfast! Thank you to the food and beverages manager, Xavier! Gracias Señor! Deberían retenerte el mayor tiempo posible. ¡Eres maravilloso! Thank you to a servant from the main restaurant, Rigoberto and his partner, Iris, Julia from the main reception, and, of course, the community managers, Lianne and Yeni! You are special! Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen! We will be back! PS: As our return flight was delayed at the last minute, Sunwing sent us to Melia Las Americas for the night and the next day so we could compare these two resorts. MLA was good, but the Melia Varadero is better. I will not trade it. MVA, see you soon.
Lidia LoukineLidia Loukine
10
Melia Varadero PUT MY CHILD IN DANGER ! Employee Ailin (in charge of looking after the kids) let my 4 year old daughter leave the kid's club ALONE, without being picked up by any parent. My daughter walked alone around the resort, among the swimming pools, along the path leading to the beach, down the very big steep stairs that lead to the beach, then she walked a long stretch of the beach (with red flagged sea), until she found me and my husband on the beach. When we saw our own child, who we thought was safe, looked after and supervised in the kid's club, we were shocked to death! So many bad or fatal things could have happened! To our reaction with shock, fury and disappointment, the customer's service employee Oscar offensively and shamelessly offered us a bottle of rum or a massage to compensate for the situation that endangered a child's life. He also manipulated us that nothing else can be done and that they don't call the police, since he knew we were leaving in 1 hour. Few days later, the general manager Marco Mazzucchelli answered to my complaint that nothing wrong was done from their side, based ONLY on the statement of the kid's club employee (without any camera proven evidence). Me and my husband reacted to his unprofessional and unserious approach to the situation, to which he promised to have the video footage checked. After that, I received an apology for the situation with an offer to refund us a value of one night. We accepted that, just so that the saga ends, though I strongly believe that this kind of incident deserves a full refund of the entire stay. Instead of providing us with positive memories, Melia Varadero gave us a trauma and a holiday we are trying to forget. The way Melia Varadero dealt with this incident and their 'eagerness' to compensate appropriately was tedious. The incident took place on 14.01.2024, and I received the refund on 14.03.2024. In the meantime we exchanged so many emails, most of which they simply ignored until I called them, or they lied a few times that my refund was arriving in 24 or 72 hours, which didn't happen for weeks. Besides disability to provide safety for the youngest, the list goes on: -their rooms are far from 5*. I checked 4 different rooms and they are all very old and run-down. Every piece of furniture is damaged, with fallen chips of wood on the floor that can harm you. -serving or entertaining staff is only nice to you so that you tip them. If you don't, they completely change their attitude. -food is abundant, but 90% of it repeats every meal, every day. The desserts are either awful or have no taste at all. -few times they run out of drinks in beach bars before closing time. The cocktails were the worst cocktails that I had during my stay in Cuba. The only positive thing I can say is that the outdoor areas and the beach were very nice and well maintained.
Dana JovanovskaDana Jovanovska
40
Hotel Melia Veradero Gehadiel - Our favourite bartender ever! ( I hope I’m not spelling his name wrong eheh😅 - he was working on the evening shift with Daniela on the 1st week of July ). His passion and input on whatever cocktail or drink he serves is really impressive and inspiring! At some point he did not have mint for a mojito, so he just created promptly a fancy cocktail that somehow has the same taste of a great mojito and he called it my husband’s name:”Filipe “! That was soo cool!🤩 This is that kind of employees who makes us desire to came back to that place! Gracias por tudo Gehadiel! Daniela - our favourite bartender girl Always with a beautiful smile on her face! Janette - we loved the way she leaved our rooms and the cute designs she did with our towels! Impeccable! Yumi - best customer service ever! We had a couple issues but she took care of everything very effectively and always with an honest smile as well. Andyleivis and Julie - great waitresses About the hotel, we loved the location, it has a cute star shape ( that besides beeing an enormous engineering feature, it also provides privacy for all the balconies and rooms) and all the outside areas and gardens were well kept and pretty! The food was not great but is not as bad as most of people say either! It is Cuba, so we need to understand they have hard time to access certain things, but then they have other wonderful things to compensate ! Their fresh mango was simply the best I have tried so far, so I wouldn’t mind to eat that on all my meals !😅 Also their mango cake and fresh natural squeezed juice were divine! The less good part about the meals was definitely the lack of good air conditioning on dining places… it was always extremely hot and we even feel bad for the employees who need to work under those circumstances… specially that ones on the grill… Jeez…they look like they were dehydrated and exhausted, it must be really hard to cook under those circumstances, so even if I consider myself a good cook I probably wouldn’t be able to do anything better than them! The beach and all that good vibe around the hotel makes us excited to go back asap! We can’t wait !🥰❤️🏝️ Love Cuba 🇨🇺 Family Santos: Catia & Filipe Samina & Rui
Catia AlmeidaCatia Almeida
00
we spend few weeks in veradero in three different hotels and the melia veradero was unfortunately the less pleasant experience for us. it was fairly expensive, undermantained and the services had very often deficits which I would wish to avoid while booking high-end stay: 1. we booked a room which was indicated as the one with seaview, at least so the promotion. while checkin we were told that the hotel is full and unfortunately the room will be ‘elsewhere’. the elsewhere was ugly yard with construction going on: it was loud, dusty, dirty and we couldn’t even open the balcony during a daytime. I understand construction happens but first I would wish to know it in advance and secondly be refunded for the inconveniences caused. also seems that mate don’t clean balcony at all - it was impossible to step out even. 2. while ordering extra water bottle (cause mate didn’t put the new one while cleaning), the reception needed almost an hour to send a mate to our room. I had to call two times till the request was taken accordingly. I found it very annoying. 3. the beach close to hotel is basically a rock (?), not suitable neither for swimming nor walking. in order to get to the sand beach, you need to walk further, away from hotel premises, to the public zone of shopping center. it’s not really convenient. 4. our room cards didn’t work properly and needed to be replaced daily. it was annoying and the stuff was quite unfriendly while replacing it. 5. WiFi signal was very unstable, I had to reconnect myself permanently and around the garden, bar and lobby area on the first floor it was not working properly during the days we were there. 6. gym opens at 9am in the morning which is very inconvenient timing considering their breakfast is only available till 10oclock. almost impossible to stick to morning exercise routine which I found very disappointing. all in all I rate our experience as low, cause I find the hotel definitely below average. there are other better options in veradero. I hope the hotel stuff takes the feedback seriously and will try to improve the services accordingly.
Arsa LongaArsa Longa
10
My daughter and I just stayed at Melia Varadero last week, and we were absolutely disappointed with the resort. I'm shocked by all the raving reviews about the hotel on Tripadvisor -- perhaps they're fake reviews from bots. Firstly, the resort is very old and outdated -- our room on the second floor looked like it hadn't been renovated since the 1970s. It was comparable to $30/night casas particulares I've stayed in Havana. The phone was yellow, the wardrobe doors had knobs that were falling off, the bed was hard as steel and pillows paper thin, I could hardly sleep. The photos you see in some of the reviews are perhaps from the Level rooms which have been renovated. Some of the staff were nice but honestly many were rude and unhappy. I've been to Cuba before this trip and have explored all over the country, meeting lots of locals along the way. Cubans are generally warm and friendly, and always more than eager to help. But at this resort, a lot of the staff looked grumpy and unhappy, a clear sign that they weren't paid enough. When we first arrived at the resort, they didn't bother acknowledging us even though we were standing at the reception. It took 20 minutes or so to check in and even then, our room wasn't ready (at 2pm). The nightly shows weren't great, and they were held in a room with no air-conditioning and the performances weren't professional at all. Drinks at the bars were actually pretty good, much better than at other all-inclusives we've stayed. Food was not the best -- especially at the buffet. The teppanyaki restaurant, Sakura, was not too bad, but you had to wake up at 8am to line up to reserve a spot.
Nellie HuangNellie Huang
20
Nearby Attractions Of Meliá Varadero Hotel
Meliá Las Américas
Varadero Golf Club
Playa Varadero
Playa Las Américas
Meliá Las Américas
4.5
(825)Click for details
Varadero Golf Club
4.6
(124)Click for details
Playa Varadero
4.7
(104)Click for details
Playa Las Américas
4.6
(12)Click for details
Nearby Restaurants Of Meliá Varadero Hotel
alte Bar in 2. Etage
Melia Varadero Tex Mex
CHEZ PLAZA RESTAURANTE
Melia Varadero Sakura
alte Bar in 2. Etage
3.8
(12)Click for details
Melia Varadero Tex Mex
4.0
(5)Click for details
CHEZ PLAZA RESTAURANTE
3.4
(5)Click for details
Melia Varadero Sakura
4.5
(1)Click for details
Learn more insights from Wanderboat AIBasic Info
Address
5QGR+8VJ, Carretera de Las Morlas, Varadero, Cuba
Map
Phone
+53 45 667013
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Website
melia.com
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Reviews
Overview
4.5
(2K reviews)
Ratings & Description
attractions: Meliá Las Américas, Varadero Golf Club, Playa Varadero, Playa Las Américas, restaurants: alte Bar in 2. Etage, Melia Varadero Tex Mex, CHEZ PLAZA RESTAURANTE, Melia Varadero Sakura
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