Playa Caleta — Hotel in Cárdenas

Let me start by saying anyone who travels to Cuba should be aware of the type of vacation they're expecting. Having said that, my best friend & I took her 3 year old to get away from Canada, and we wanted to withdraw and recharge. We were very aware of the food and amenity shortages, but that didn't stop us. What makes Cuba is the people.

FOOD If you want a Michelin-5 star vacay, don't expect that of a 2nd world country battling many, many shortages. I will say, the best food was in the a la cartes. Casablanca has the best beef(vieja ropa likely) with rice & veg. The pizza in the Italian restaurant is delish!! Shoutout to Lazaro! The daily buffet never really changed. They're so creative. They used crumble from the daily pastries that dried for candied ice cream topper. If you notice there is no cheese in the buffet, chances are the Italian restaurant won't be able to open for dinner.

ENTERTAINMENT The entertainers are AMAZING! Small scale theater with fabulous dancers. The rock band was amazing and engaging!

My rough experiences were not with locals but with some ignorant, demanding, and cheap Russians(Cuba seems to be flooded with Russian travelers, btw) whom I witnessed treating the staff in such demeaning ways. If anyone had to serve such patrons for bare pay, you wouldn't be happy either.

CONS (not really, but for some, maybe) Lack of towels(which is understood). However, the weather in Cuba would not allow for anything to dry. After 1 week, you will def need a new towel or bring your own as a backup.

Bars close at 11. There really is no food after the buffet closes. The bars close at 11. It all makes sense because they can't keep serving liquor with no food available. Again, if you expect an all-night party resort, this is not for you.

PRO TIP! BRING SNACKS if you plan to drink your purchased bottles!!

Coordination seems a bit lacking. For example, 1 bar has a mix but no rum, the other bar beer and liquor, but no mix. Seems like an easy fix, but you might be running to different bars depending on availability.

PROS We had ROC PLUS - Reserved beach cabana Complimentary bottle of rum No reservations were needed for the restaurants Otherwise It's the only resort to have a free shuttle downtown! 2 massive pools THE BEACH!!!!!!!!!! You can walk for miles. THE CUBAN people!!!!!!!! They do what they can with what they have. They're creative and really warm!

Some notable people who REALLY make your stay welcoming, comfortable and are just amazing are YESIEL the lifeguard, OMARA and JUNIE in housekeeping, ANITA la camarera en el buffet, ANNA, MERCEDES, DAVID, LAZARO el camarero en el restaurante Italiano. MUCHAS GRACIAS por todo su servicio. They are assets to this resort, and it would not be the same...

Went here for a week long vacation from Vancouver a few days ago. Overall had I had a great experience but there are pros and cons. Some pros would be; -Nice location, beach is nice and water is fairly warm, pools are nice, free bus to and from town is cool. -the room was really nice, beds were fairly comfy, nice and clean, had a nice balcony with the view of the ocean. They leave a big bottle of water in your room every day. Housekeeping everyday as well, a few times they forgot to give us shampoo but we just asked the housekeeper for some and got it.the The TV was very staticy so kinda hard to watch. -The food was like 7/10 but that’s what all Cuban food is like. They have rice, different meats either from the bbq or in the buffet section. They have pasta, but it’s just normal spaghetti with tomato sauce and there is a good selection of cheese but no cheese to sprinkle on so I just added some of the creamy cheese into the pasta and it was pretty tasty. The desserts weren’t to my taste except for the ice cream and occasional chocolate cake. Lots of bread. There is also a salad bar and fresh fruits. -they have shows at 9:30 and they’re usually pretty cool, they had a water dance in the pool one night it was super cool. -The club there is fine, it’s better when more people are dancing though obv, they play the music very loud sometimes and song selection isn’t the best for me as they play lots of Russian songs because the resort is about half Canadians and half Russians. The bars often run out of pina colada mix especially at night but I usually get sprite and vodka so it’s fine.

I would suggest taking a taxi to the “Havana club “ In town. It costs $10 to get in but you get two free drinks, it was so awesome and I had so much fun.

Here are some things that could be improved; -They rarely put toilet paper or soap in the bathrooms,(Bit that’s also the same in public bathrooms, you have to pay the maid sitting outside the door and she gives you toilet paper) -WiFi costs $1 an hour and is super slow which kinda sucked -there are a few activities to do and when we wanted to do a dance lesson we couldn’t find the “party room” so we asked a few workers and they all didn’t know, including the reception so we never found it.

Here are some of my suggestions of having a good time there; Go on an excursion, we went on a “Jeep safari “ excursion for about $100, it was all day long, we went snorkeling, went to a farm and got really tasty food, went on speed boats, went to a cave, and drove jeeps around town. It was super fun. The “grocery stores” there have a very small selection and it’s mostly yogurt, crackers and cookies, and juice which is 50% sugar. But overall it was nice, was so nice to just relax on the beach and swim...

Stayed here for 5 nights in August. All inclusive in beach view room on 7th floor. Good value for 5 nights however need to make following comments which I rarely do.The good:Beach is lovely.View from room is amazing.Housemaid serving our room, (713) was lovely. Pool areas are good but rather noisy most of the time with loud music playing perhaps too loud through the day which made us exit to the beach for some peace. Some may prefer this.The two restaurants (not the buffet) were ok but you have to book in advance. And they have limited menu options.Free shuttle bus to downtown Varadero Mon-Sat.There is entertainment for kids and adults most days but as no kids we preferred to stay at beach.The not so good.Location – nothing else around within easy walking distance. Taxis don’t want to drive there as only access road gets flooded with seawater and they won’t drive through it so you’d be stuck unless you check the tides! I Buffet. We stayed 5 nights but I swear the same salads and meats are constantly recycled. I also believe this is what had me stuck on toilet for 3 days with food poisoning. The guests here seem to be rather greedy and would capture as much freshly cooked meat so that others had to queue for up to 30 minutes. Not sure where other guests were from but rather inconsiderate. They need to limit servings to each to make it fair for all.Staff – the only nice people were housemaid, some of the bar staff and concierge. The rest behave as if you’re a complete nuisance and everything was too hard with bad attitudes from many. They were very unhelpful and one receptionist was particularly nasty when trying to exchange money. The pool bar staff seem to hate their job, in fact many in the building carried this same attitude. Internet – this is complete joke. I was trying to work from room which is impossible on 7th floor. You have to sit in steaming hot reception area and reconnect several times, often not working which created all sorts of stress when I had deadlines. Some reception staff just plainly not interested in helping – I heard the word NO! a lot.Toilets to level 2 bar area need a good fire. ** & piss overflowing. They put sign at door stating wet floor. It was like this for 5 days whilst there. Also no toilet paper in pool toilets although we did carry our own in preparation.Room fridge didn’t work and when reported, nothing was done to fix it.Towels in the room not necessarily the cleanest or best.A/C in room works but just. It’s cooler than outside but not as you’d expect.Building is very outdated and worn down. The pictures on trip.com made it look so much better. But that seems the case in many hotels.Biggest thing for us was the poor attitude...