Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria — Hotel in Caibarién

Nearly a five star but not quite. First the staff are beyond five stars. Friendly, attentive and professional. The grounds are a work in progress as this is a new resort but still very nice. The food is a step above Cuban standards. At least in the à la carte places. The French restaurant has well presented, good tasting food. The portions are a bit small but you could ask for more than one entrée. The Italian restaurant has better portions of risotto or pasta but the protein portions were still a bit small. The flavours and the presentation were very good. The Seafood restaurant was nicely presented with good flavour. Captain Cook's Snack bar is 24 hour poolside with a breakfast menu for the early food and daytime menu. The buffet was OK. Breakfast had 2 egg stations and a crepe station with fresh fruits etc. There were a few items in steam tables. The bacon was great. Also there were cereals, juice, cold cuts and cheese, fresh fruit and smoothie bar. Coffee here was good perked Cuban coffee. There is an espresso bar close by for a "good" cup of coffee. Lunch and dinner here are fairly similar with a meat station with chicken, beef and pork to grill. A seafood station with what appeared to be previously frozen fillets cooked on a flat top. There is also a pasta bar. It should be noted that the bread here is fresh and quite good. There are cake and pastries. The bars are good the main lobby bar has the best selection, pool bar 2nd, snack bar 3rd beach bar 4th. The bartenders are great, ask for the name brand alcohol.The rooms are kind of amazing. The shower has a wand and a rain head with great pressure and always hot water. The toilets are a low flow inexpensive type so some multiple flushes are required. The mini bar is filled later in the day. A note and a peso will get you as much as you need. The beds are not soft. The air conditioning is amazing. The main lobby is open ans spacious with a breeze usually. Seating is abundant and pretty comfortable for those days you need a break from the sun or evenings. A small shop here has well priced alcohol, cigars, souvenirs and snacks. There is a bank for currency exchange which is about 5% more than the airport. Entertainment is good . Poolside contests and music. Live and recorded music in the lobby. Travelling bands in the evenings. And even a rock concert in the auditorium! Quiet areas would include a seating area off the main lobby and the beach if you walk away from the bar area. Notes. There are 2 beers available. Crystal is light and Bucanero . The public bathrooms are astonishing. Kept immaculately clean with fresh flowers decorating the wash basins. The rooms are kind of amazing. Not that you will want to do much other than sleep there. The shower has a wand and a rain head with great pressure and always hot water. The toilets are a low flow inexpensive type so some multiple flushes are required. The mini bar is consistently filled later in the day and a quick note to the attendant will get you as much as you need. The beds are fairly robust so pillow top memory foam folks are going to be unhappy. The air conditioning is amazing. These are 4 story walk up units with balconies. The main lobby is open on three sides and is very spacious with a nice breeze usually. Seating is abundant and comfortable for a break from the sun or evenings. There is a small shop here that has well priced alcohol and cigars, souvenirs and snacks. There is a bank for currency exchange which is about 5% more than the airport. Entertainment is everywhere. Poolside contests and music. Live music as well as recorded in the lobby. Travelling bands in the evenings. And even a rock concert in the auditorium! Quiet areas would include a seating area off the main lobby and the beach if you walk away from the bar area. There are 2 beers, Crystal is light and Bucanero is dark. The kept very clean with fresh flowers decorating the wash basins. Tipping room attendants is a good idea but adding useful items on top of your pillow is a great idea. first aid items, candy and...

This review is coming late, approximately 2 weeks after we returned from our vacation (Jun.12-Jun.19-2018). We (my wife and I) decided last minute to book a 1 week vacation at the Hotel Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria (Cuba) 4 days before the trip was supposed to occur.

The Hotel: With a few reviews from TripAdvisor, we were interested in a stay at the new Hotel (only just over 1 year old). We have been Cuba multiple times in the past, but this was our first time at the Hotel Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria. After 3 hours on The Air Canada plane, plus 1.5 hours on shuttle bus, we arrived at the Hotel. Reception was very welcoming and we had a quick and efficient check in (our room was 808 in building #8). They even surprised us with a bottle of Rum as a gift! The only downside was that our room was near the pool. This was nice but very noisy and we were worried that we would have trouble getting sleep. We came back to the front desk and asked them for another room. The staff was more than happy to comply with my request. Mr. GILBERTO (The front desk Manager) and the 2 staffs ( BARBARA and RANDOLF) had us in a new room within 5 min., so a HUGE thank you to them!

Room: The new room: # 333 was almost brand new. The balcony had a wonderful view, the bed and pillows were extraordinarily comfortable, the rain shower had high pressure and heated up very quickly, and the fridge was stocked with spring water, beer, soft drink. Overall the room decoration was also very aesthetically pleasing. The room also included a new safety box which put my wife and I at ease with our personal belongings (i.e. passport, money, etc.). The A/c was also amazing. especially when out side was exceptionally hot and humid.

Pool: Always nice temperature and clean. The other side, you have snack bar serve 24/24 (it is good for you, if you come late from the air port or leaving early in the morning when buffet is closing).

Food: Buffet was a wonderful experience. The doorman (who was a very attractive young man) greeted us with a smile before every meal. Our favorite section was the sea food grill and the smoothie section (all the fruits were super fresh). All of the other food was ok (I'm not a picky person), and the table service very good with Mr. AMAURY always working hard. The snack bar near the pool had amazing calamari and pizzas. The A la cart options had 3 choices; French, Sea Food, and Italian (all of them were very delicious). A special thanks to Mr. JOSUE and Mr. CHAPARRIO (the two Chefs) for making our meals so delicious!

Beach: Beach towels are given out on your first day at the hotel, each person getting their own. The beach itself had clear water (shallow and safe for kids) and a white sand beach. It was lined with a lot of sun loungers (which they call palapa) that you could lay under and enjoy the shade. My wife and I quite enjoyed taking long walks on the white sand. At the beach bar, you can get a drinks by yourself or you can get one from the staff who will take orders and will bring a drink to you.

Staff: The staff were exquisite. They were beyond friendly and worked very hard. If it wasn't for them, this trip would not have been as relaxing and amazing as it was.

Entertainment: Every afternoon you have live music (at piano bar) in the lobby (which was great). Shows every night: all the dancers, MCs, and DJs... work hard to give a great performance. Some days entertainment at the pool.

Other: You can use wifi in the lobby or in your room, and the speed was acceptable. Incidentally, at the lobby I was interviewed by one person (Mr. OSNEL, Quality control manager) about my feedback of the services of the hotel. This is a good points, if the hotel uses it as a basic for improvement.

During 7 days: room, services, beach, food... lived up to my expectation. Cubans are wonderful people and they always take good care of you. I wasn't disappoint by choosing Hotel Dhawa Cayo Santa Maria. I will be more than happy to refer this hotel to my friends. This hotel will be a good choice for your vacation.

Thanh & Thanh...

Hi folks,

Admin please let me know if this post goes against your guidelines for this group.

First let me say that the hotel, location, rooms, vegetation, beach and some Dhawa staff are great perks!

Also, I've been to Cuba over 10x so my comments are based on the comparison to other hotels and experiences we've (family of 4) have had visiting the island.

Cleanliness:

my jaw dropped when I saw personnel on the beach rinsing plastic Glasses and reusing them to serve customers at the bar. Due to an apparent shortage of plastic Glasses.

Same issue when utensils in the buffet area where quickly rinsed in a cyclinder and reused to give to other customers in need of utensils.

In regards to the rooms, both white duvets completely stained in urine and spots of blood where very visible. My son was terrified to sleep in his bed based on this experience.

Food:

Before you talk embargo, let me just say this is the worst food I ever had in my life. Repetitive is an understatement and locals ruled the buffet. ( Cutting in line, taking huge portions, and overall hording food as if there's been a famine for the last 5 years) no joke I swear it on my life.

The personnel Manning the food stations were also disgruntled by the fact. Many of the basic food items we were accustomed to have in Cuba were not available the whole stay. (Bread, french fries, salad, tomatoes, pasta, different types of fish or meat) We actually had to eat out of the resort a few times to satisfy ourselves.

Also, during our stay there were no straws to drink from, no paper napkins at times, no utensils or plates at times, to stir your coffee or drink you were lucky if you had a cut Sugarcane to stir with.

In regards to the many comments about the various embargos and the current situation with food shortages.

Others hotels (Oceans Vista del Mar) Cuban restaurants that we've visited (Plaza Estrella) were not affected by this so called "embargo" and had everything we desired and more....the question to ask is why? Why would this be? Jean Marc (Dhawa Manager) in 90% of his replies (trip advisor) to unhappy customers blames it on the embargos. Shouldn't an embargo be felt nation wide in all areas dealing with food? After speaking with may locals ( I speak Spanish) about this they tell me it's a distribution issue and hotels are not doing their jobs dealing with their distributors. What ever the reason why do others have and others don't?

Also, if the "Embargo" should have such an impact why would travel agencies, tour operators, airlines still charge full price to their customers with all this going on? Why wouldn't they advise people on their website stating their are embargos in place and the lack of amenities might be lacking? i.e bring your own utensils, cups...etc. Logically you know the reason why! But it's us the customer who pays for it.

There is so much more I can share, and this will not end here. We are 17 people who traveled with air Transat and we will be pursuing other options to be fully refunded for our trip and will not stop until we the customer are justly compensated.

In closing, it was remarkable to see past guests who have returned stating this hotel was nothing like when it first opened and has "gone to hell"

In regards to this Facebook group, it's nice to keep things positive and remove frightening comments, but the truth my friends its the reason why people join this page and some times the truth is not always plesent to here, but it can help someone really consider if this trip to Dhawa is worth it or not.

At the end we still had laughs and yes we enjoyed the sun and the beach, but Dhawa has lost 17 people that will never...