Hotel Playa Costa Verde

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This was our 4th visit to PCV we had two great weeks with friends (may 2011),booking in could not be made easier sat in the cigar lounge with some wine and nibbles while Nancy our Thomas Cook rep took care paper work she is one of the best you will find anywhere nothing is to much trouble to her, then you are taken to your room by golf buggy the rooms are nice and large and kept good clean by a great staff like the rest of the staff of this hotel they all look after you so well and they make you a friend from day one,great food, great pool, great beach,great place,we will back April 2012.

1 reader found this review helpful

My husband and I stayed at Playa Costa Verde for our honeymoon on an all inclusive VIP basis in June. From the moment we arrived we were greeted by very friendly staff and handed damp flannels to cool ourselves off with as well as a complimentary cocktail and glass of bubbly in the cigar bar. Whilst here we were given our VIP bands, ours were pink but there are also other colours such as orange and white so I believe it must vary depending on your booking. When we were ready another very friendly member of staff loaded our bags onto a golf buggy type car and took us to our accommodation.
Our room was very light and colourful with a large bed. The towels were placed on the bed to look like swans with some flowers. There was a complimentary bottle of champagne in the fridge as well as soft drinks and plenty of water – water and soft drinks were replaced daily. Our bath had been filled with water with petals and candles floating in it. Very beautiful and romantic effect throughout!! Each day our maid made a new arrangement with the towels such as hearts etc.
The pool was never crowded as the resort as its own beautiful beach, I would highly recommend using the free snorkels as there are fish everywhere!! To get to the beach you will need to walk across the bridge over the nature reserve, no its not picturesque but it’s a nature reserve, it grows naturally so you can’t expect it to look like a maintained pond.
The staff at the beach bar are very friendly and the drinks very nice (Bahama Mama cocktail especially) there are plenty of sunbeds available on the beach, a member of the beach staff will gladly get one for you, though they seem to expect a tip for this.
The food in all the restaurants is delicious with a large selection, the staff are very attentive and always ensured our wine glasses did not go empty. After a couple of days they remembered us and knew what wine we liked and had it ready for us before we even asked. The main restaurant has both smoking and non smoking areas which pleased my smoker husband a great deal.
I would highly recommend the other restaurants on site however you need to book these with guest services as soon as you arrive as they fill up very quickly. We did not try the vegetarian one so I can’t comment but take a small fan with you into the Japanese one as it gets very hot around the hotplate/tables.
There is a bus that pulls up outside the hotel a couple of times throughout the day that will take you to a local market which is very nice and a model of an Indian village. If you book the swimming with dolphins excursion the Indian village will be included, we didn’t realise this and though we enjoyed the village once was enough. The dolphins on the other hand were amazing!!
The entertainment each night was very good, especially the water ballet, though the programme does repeat itself each week.
There are plenty of activities throughout the day displayed on a board in the reception. The gym is small but adequate for a morning workout should you want one.
The nightclub was very small and didn’t really play the music that you would expect, it was more very old pop music than anything else but the staff in there can make amazing cocktails and also children were not permitted passed a certain time.
As we were VIPs we also received an invite to a VIP drinks event in the nightclub, a 3 course meal by the pool with other VIPs and also a private dinner for just the 2 of us on the beach which made us feel like royalty!
We tipped the staff during our fisrt few days and then agian near the end of our stay, they will certainly remember you if you do and be on hand to help you with anything. Please remeber that the general Cuban people are very poor and the governement like to keep it that way.
I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone on their honeymoon or just a holiday in general.

1 reader found this review helpful

This is our 4th time here in playa Costa Verde.We had an amazing time as we always do.My family and I will definetly go back.The food is amazing! The shows can surprise you! Amazing and excellent dancers(Alejandro,Miguel,Yamile,ect.)The staff was super friendly.During the day there will always be entertainment by the amazing animators.It was a privilage to spend our vacation with Yoander,Richard,Mailin,Julio Cesar,David,ect.We enjoyed being able to have dinner with Yoander(Scooby)in the VIP dinner and being able to judge the MTV show!When we visit CostaVerde, we are treated like family and my family and I concider the amazing staff like one of us.We always keep CostaVerde and its people in our hearts.We go twice a year now,and soon we will be able to see our amazing friends.My family and I will DEFINATLY be returning to PlayaCostaVerde.

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This was our third visit to the Playa Costa Verde FEB2011,the welcome you get from all the staff is wonderful and they always remember you from the times before,the food was very good from the buffet to the a la carte and i would recommend the cuban restaurant,i would like to thank ULRI our Thomas Cook rep for looking after us so well,when the holiday comes to an end it is so sad to say goodbye to the people of CUBA.

11 readers found this review helpful

Flights from manchester and back with no delays.On arrival we were checked in and given Champagne reception. The rooms are spacious and clean with big bathrooms, we were in room 5425 and had an upstairs room with large wrap around balcony overlooking the gardens and beer corner.
The staff at this hotel make your holiday, they are friendly and fun and not just after tips.There are 4 al a carte restaraunts which you can book once each week, I must say the lobster in the Cuban was so rubbery I could have used it to re-sole my flip flops, after a word with Nancy our TC rep we were treated to a wonderful lobster meal in the vegetarian restaraunt as a treat.The japanese is great fun and yummy food cooked fresh in front of you. The main restaraunt is fine and has a few stations cooking prawns/steak/chicken etc fresh and as you wanted it.We always found something nice to eat in there and the puddings are just delicious, one of the chefs wheels in a special pudding every night, to a great fanfare and dancers, ( the drumming of the pudding we nicknamed it ).
The bars are never full and always quick service ( in July anyways) we tried all the cocktails and can recommend them specially the Playa Costa Verde special.
The pool is wonderful, large and lovely warm water, the swim up bar is very handy as well, yes there are a few tiles missing from the floor of the pool,( so what), its clean and always has a lifeguard on duty. You can swim at night if you so desire as well.
We did a couple of trips, one to paradise island on a catamaran, we had a wonderful day and the Island is just stunning, and we did the speedboat driving, my husband LOVED that trip and went a second time with his friend, that time they had to use jet skis as the boats were all full, he enjoyed that more than driving the speedboat. Both trips good value for money.
Our Thomas Cook reps Nancy and Nicky are brilliant and will go all out to make sure your holiday is perfect. They kindly arranged a special meal and a birthday cake for my husband, the staff all stood round and sang to him as well.
Once a fortnight the staff do a special meal and entertainment on the beach for British guests which was a nice touch and the fillet steak was scrummy.
All around the resort the gardens are well kept and maincured by very hard working staff, they so appreciate a peso tip and we gave one of them a bag of sweets for his little lad, he was really pleased .One of them sits near the pool every day and spit roasts a pig over a coal pit for 6 hours for our benefit, we also gave him a couple of beers every day.
All around the resort are land crabs and lizards so careful where you walk at night, we loved them and fed the lizards on the beach bananas most days.
The beach is stunning, there is a shelf of coral as you get in the water so take beach shoes with you, but because of the coral the sea life is abundant and snorkelling is just heaven, take a banana and feed the fish as well.
Yes the hotel has faults, not enough to spoil your holiday, take it as you find it as we did, switch to Cuban time and enjoy every minute at the PCV. We highly recommend this destination and loved our time there.
Chill out with a few Buccanero beers and a cocktail or three. I would go back there in a heartbeat. We Love Cuba and its people it is paradise. :)
HWJan.C

21 readers found this review helpful

The Playa Costa Verde is a lovely hotel/resort. Plenty of choice on the buffet and also choice of japanese, cuban and italian restaurants if you fancy a change - however, you are limited to using each of these just once for each week of your stay and you have to book in advance. My advice would be to book these on the second day of your stay.
The hotel pool is gorgeous, we usually stayed around the pool in the day but you can take the short walk to stunning beach where the hotel has it's own beach bar. Snorkling equipement, clean pool towel everyday as well as pedalos, canoeing and windsurfing are all included for free. There is a good gym by the pool area and jacuzzis situated around the hotel for you to use. Our room was much larger than usual hotel rooms although I would say I felt the room was a three star standard but it had a nice balcony, very large bed and free coffee pot and tv to use. It was cleaned everyday and lovely towel arrangements were left every day for us. Entertainment was provided everynight this felt a bit like you had been transported to America in the 1980's - lots of dance shows etc but entertaining none the less. The entertainment team were great, so friendly and would try and get you invovled in activities like volley ball and learning salsa.
I would definately go back to this hotel I thouroughly enjoyed my time there! Tips to people who have booked to stay here would be to take plenty of mosquito spray and a mosquito plug for your room as the only downside was that I did get bitten a few times. It would be wise to take light long sleeve tops and trousers for the evening. Also take money for tips. They don't ask you for money ever as they are not allowed but you need to remember that the cuban people have very low wages for all the hard work they do and they appreciate it when you tip them. When you get chatting to some of the staff they give you a great insight to what communist life is actually like. Many people working on the resort were very highly educated and had jobs as teacher etc but work in the hotel because they can actually make more money through tips!
Another tip would be to go see the dolphines but don't book through your travel agent because if you go to the reception they will give you info about much cheaper deals.
Also the weather was fab we did have some rain but these were short showers that would clear up really quickly and was usually a nice break from the heat!

1 reader found this review helpful

Just returned from one week at this hotel and enjoyed ourselves very much. The room was clean and comfortable. The food was very good with enough a la carte restaurants to keep it interesting. The best meal was at the Japanese restaurant, but the Cuban and Vegetarian were also very good. We were disappointed with the Italian restaurant as the fish was overcooked and the service mediocre.
Although there is not a lot to do outside of the hotel without having to travel quite a bit, it is a relaxing atmosphere and has a very interesting coastline for those who like to take long walks.
Make sure to bring good bug repellant as there is lush vegetation around the area which can breed some biting pests, but for the most part, it is quite comfortable.
We found the staff very friendly and always working hard to improve the place.

25 readers found this review helpful

just got back two days ago and this is probably the best hotel i have ever stayed at, you have a 24 hour bar were you can get drinks all night long if needed to, the rooms are kept clean andmost of the staff are friendly. however, the food wasn't as good as itcould be, but it was edible and cant complain there, the a la carte restraunts were basic except the japanese one which was fantastic. the apartments were wierd in a good way, because it was like you had your own little villa in a complex but it's actually a hotel. the only thing that you have to check before you go if you are going with children, is to check to see if children are off around that time because to be quite frank with you, there was hardly any children there. hope i helped.
p.s the beach is like a 5 minute walk and you can get these pedal boats down there which are quite fun depending on how far out you go and also you get provided with towels when you get there, so to save weight in your suit case, leave your beach towels at home.

9 readers found this review helpful

After reading many positive reviews,we opted for the Playa Costa Verde hotel...but we forgot about the hurricane in late 2008 which severely affected the facilities as well as the service at a place that could use a Major Facelift if they wish to get repeat business from us and many fellow travellers who checked in during the week of April 17-24,2009.
This was our 5th trip to Cuba but also the FIRST that was so below expectations,compared to locations in Cayo Coco and Cayo Santa Maria,were the rooms,food,service etc... were far superior,all other things being equal.
Our first room (near the beach) smelled bad,looked CHEAP,and was infested with bed fleas
which woke us in the middle of our second night.After calling the front desk and asking to be relocated,a chamber maid showed up with of all things...a can of bug repellant that she sprayed generously on the sheets,pillows etc...thinking that the problem would disappear like magic,and expected us TO GO BACK TO BED as if nothing had happened.
It took some arm twisting and insistance before they finally agreed to move us to another room (near the main entrance) which although bug free also gave an unpleasant smell and had a faulty A/C.And,in the name of VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE,no one from either management or PR bothered to apologize or do a follow up just to make sure that things wer to our full satisfaction!
As far as the rest goes,the buffet was very limited and lousy compared to other cuban locations,the beach is average and has only about a half dozen shaded spots,the rest having been damaged by the hurricane.
Service on the whole was POOR,SUBSTANDARD and the staff at the buffet,bars,beach,and even gift shops seemed more interested in getting tips as opposed to catering to our needs.
The one positive aspect was the Japanese and Italian restaurants that provided the ONLY 5 star food and service.
In conclusion,we believe this hotel greatly lacks SUPERVISION and mostly QUALITY CONTROL
and would prefer to avoid it in the future.For those who decide to go anyway,beware,use caution and good luck.

2 readers found this review helpful

We arrived to chaos nobody new where any one was staying . The room was dirty it leaked when it rained> The cleaner didnt clean the room properly we had dead flies on the shelf all week so was the same on the floor. The bed made us itch we were bitten more in the bed than when we were at the pool. The pool was blue & clean for the first 5 days then it got greener & greener Disgusting. The food at the buffet was a health hazzard birds sat on your cups glasses plates & bird droppings everywhere. Food was almost not edible when we complained they just looked at us & said whats wrong with it'? Only a half whit would have not known that the food quality was ZERO. The so called al'acart was ajoke the chinese was the best out of a bad lot. The italian was terrible food was ajoke. The staff genuinley thought it was great. But they have never tasted qaulity, so they are not to blame.Please save your money dont bother if you like slumming it then go but if you like abit of luxury dont go there. i lost nearly a stone in weight in 14 days so it was not all bad. Also the drink is waterd down The coke tastes like sugar