Varadero Dolphinarium — Attraction in Cárdenas

We flew with Air Canada but they dont offer excursions with Dolphins, so we Booked through Nexus Tours in our lobby to see a show and swim with the dolphins. It was $75 USD per person if we took the bus on our own, which was our only choice as the tour only offers pick up and drop off one day a week and we missed it. With direct transfers it would have been $90 USD. The hop on/hop off bus is $5 per person (USD or CAD cash) and it drops you off across the street. The Dolphin show itself is kind of short and its hard to see due to people standing at the fence instead of sitting in the bleachers during the show. The dolphins do some tricks and interact with the trainer which is really fun to watch. The dolphins look healthy and happy, despite the areas they live in not being big enough in my opinion. When it came time to swim with them, we were brought to a different section, told to change into our bathing suits and got a life jacket. My husband and I were with a group of two other women. There is NO opportunity for you to take pictures of your interaction on your own cameras unless you are with someone who is not also swimming. Anyone with you who is not swimming with them will be waiting on the dock and can take some photos/videos. However, the swimming is really just creating photo opportunities for the photographers. You get a kiss from the dolphins, touch their stomachs, they pull you around in a circle, you do a little jump and then do another circle and its essentially over. We did throughly enjoy the interaction and being in the water with them was really cool, but I do wish the importance was put on the experience of the customers and less on the photos. When you're finished, you rinse off and are told to go get your photos. You cannot buy individual photos, you need to buy the whole package. It was $50 USD or $65 CAD. They had no connection for credit cards and we were essentially told too bad. We pushed because we didn't bring cash (our mistake) and after about an hour someone came with a machine. We were charged $65 as Canadians...but our card was charged in USD so we paid $90 for the package instead. They should have charged us $50. So yep, we got scammed and didn't notice until we got back to our resort. Nexus tours was not helpful in correcting this. We got about 20 photos in total for two people and an 8 minute video including the experience of everyone else in the group. Overall, it was a good experience and I didn't feel bad for the dolphins and their conditions as an animal lover. Nothing felt cruel about their envirnment or treatment which I was nervous about. Mostly disappointed in the...

We tried to go while in Varadero. We arrived and was informed that their credit card machine was not working due to internet issues. Having been to varadero a few times we are aware this can be a problem. We were told we had to pay cash, however it was more expensive than what we had with us. We asked where the nearest cash machine was, that is when we were informed that as we are tourists we can get Cuban money out but they will not accept it as payment, apparently tourists cannot pay with CUC. We were told we could only enter if we paid in either US dollars or euros. I know other people who have paid in CUC, so this was a scam to get different currency. We were very disappointed. Clearly there is no way to get US $ or Euros in Cuba, so we were unable to go in. Take cash with you if you want to swim with the dolphins. I would however not recommend this place as the cost also kept changing……. It was a shame as everywhere else we have been in Cuba we have always had an excellent time and met...

Visited Thursday 13th Feb 2025. It was quite quiet, no problem at kiosk to pay for entry, prices on wall, paid in dollars and change given in dollars. Went to cafe, staff really friendly and good service with reasonable prices. Thoroughly enjoyed dolphin show which lasted about 20min. You could video and photo no charge during show, and we were asked if we wanted to take photo with dolphin up close and personal at end of the show, which was only 5 dollars. All staff were helpful, in fact when we went to toilet they saw us walking in and asked if we wanted paper. A nice way to spend a couple of hours. Saw some bad reviews before our trip, but can honestly say our experience was absolutely fine. Have to comment on someones complaint about the water being green or murky...it is a natural lagoon, not a man made pool, so it is the colour it is supposed to be. I think some people like to complain for the...