Hotel Playa Punta Hicacos — Hotel in Cárdenas

The status of the Hotel Playa Punta Hicacos is not what is advertised on social media and in marketing campaigns.||The hotel is currently under reconstruction and will remain so for some time. I can confirm this, as I stayed with my family from August 12th to 19th.||The hotel's occupancy was very low. Aside from our family and four or five others, the other guests were Cubans. The hotel ran a campaign appealing to Cubans during the month of August, and thank goodness for that, otherwise it would be a ghost resort. Even so, we really enjoyed it, because we went to Cuba with an open mind and prepared for everything.||The hotel has a 24-hour lobby bar, an improvised bar on the beach, and a pool bar, which close very early. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet-style, and there is a 24-hour poolside restaurant serving pizzas, toasted sandwiches, and some drinks. The thematic restaurants are closed. The ice cream shop is open until 4:45 PM and offers two or three varieties of ice cream. The staff deserves a 20/20. They are spectacular. In fact, most of the resort staff (except for a few in the restaurant) are truly heartwarming. They are good people and excellent professionals.||Part of the resort is closed. The Lighthouse (Faro) is closed, as is the entire eastern part of the resort. The week we stayed, a secluded area considered "Premium," exclusively for adults, was opened.||The gym is closed, and the convenience store has very few products on display.||The entertainment team (warm people) did everything they could to motivate guests to participate in the activities, but with so few customers, miracles were impossible. Evening shows were held in the bar in the reception lobby. The concert hall was closed, and there was no nightclub.||Some rooms were recently renovated, while others are still being renovated. Daily room cleaning was exemplary, and the housekeeping staff was very professional. There was never a shortage of water in the minibar, shampoo, shower gel, or toilet paper, contrary to some comments on social media.||Positive aspects:|- Peaceful. With so few guests, we had moments of having the beach to ourselves.|- Charming staff, except for a few restaurant staff.|- Varadero has a lot of daytime and nighttime entertainment, and Havana has a lot of history. We were fortunate to have a tour guide recommended to us who showed us the good and bad of Varadero and Havana. We had the opportunity to experience the reality of Cuban life, not the one promoted by the Cuban media, but the real thing.||Negative aspects:|- Misleading advertising about the hotel on social media and marketing campaigns. The hotel is far from being what it promises.|- We paid more than we would have at the Renosance Blu, Selectum Family, or the Iberostar Origin, simply because we believed the hotel's advertising. |- Construction was underway, with many areas of the hotel closed off.|- Open sewage in one area of the hotel.|- The restaurant food was very repetitive and limited, although we never went hungry.|- Themed restaurants and the gym were closed and empty, and the nightlife was very limited.||Hotel Playa Punta Hicacos has tremendous potential to become a unique resort. It all depends on whether the hotel management is capable of...

i would not rate this resort a five stars..but a 3 unfortunately maybe even a 2 it has potential to make this a five stars...but is not! our stay was mid july this year for ten days ...and we were very disappointed..overall...The STAFF everyone especially at the lobby front desk and most of all the BAR area....were the best...always with a smile, friendly, so this made our stay very pleasant. Our room was nice,,,okay ..but would need improvement....forgot to bring us towels or water bottles...we had to ask for ...at one time the water bottle when opened smelled...and it was from the tap!! Also the buffet area where we had breakfast, lunch and dinner...the food very very disappointed and NO AIR CONDITION....yup NO AIR CONDITION....it was unbearable!!!! One night were having supper with friends....and we asked for white wine...my husband when drinking the wine...what is this? it was from a wine bottle,...it was WATER...the lady came to excuse her herself one thousand times....the wine was always hot....not cool...always the same food...the cheeses...warm....coldcuts...warm.. What the HECK!! The snack bar the food ..lets not get into that..awful! The pool not clean.......Sadly there was an incident someone fell/slipped on the floor ..the night before i believe it had rained and water on the floor ...when in the morning while walking to the buffet ..we saw blood...and on our return the blood was still on the floor...no one No One came to clean it up ..my stomached turned... The medical center went in once to ask for a band aid...they told us to go to the pharmacy which was on the other side of our hotel at the Marina Varadero to buy!...I have to say thought that the shows at night were FANTASTIC...all the dancers...bravo ...great job!!!!!! The entertainment was great! thank you! THE WORST WAS THE MOSQUITOS....i was stung..bitten....in the lobby , buffet , where we had to seat during the shows...OMG..they were everywhere.....IT WAS HORRENDOUS. the resort was not sprayed.or what!!!!!!..stayed at another resort another time .....we can say we will never go back and will not...

I recently stayed at this resort and it was the worse experience I have ever had at a resort. I don't have anything nice to say about this hotel, other than I give it a 10 for its location, other than that, I wish I cold give it a negative score. On our arrival date, the room was not ready so we decided to get something to eat in the mean time. When we came back from lunch, they said the room was ready, but there were no sheets or towels in the room but someone will come and bring us some fresh ones. After going back and forth with front desk for 3-4 hours, we finally had some sheets in our room, except that they were folded nicely on the corner of the bed. I didn't know I had to make my own bed in a hotel. We stayed there for 10 days, and the sheets were changed just a couple times, and that was after I complained at front desk. I guess they think it's ok for you to sleep on the same sheets for a week. As far as towels go, they say to put them in the bathtub if they need to be changed, so I did. I came back to see the same dirty towels folded on the corner of the tub, they weren't changed either. They have a beach towel exchange room, but after going there every single day for 7 days and them telling us they didn't have clean beach towels, I just gave up. This was the most stressful vacation I have ever had. I love Cuba and would love to go back, but will not stay at this resort unless it was free. Definitely not worth the money. There were days that I just put up the "do not disturb" sign on the door when I left because I honestly didn't see the point of the room being cleaned when they use the same sheets and just fold your dirty towels for...