Playa Pesquero Resort

1 reader found this review helpful

From day 1 we had a great stay our son was married out in Cuba and it went like a dream people could not do enough for us, we had a party of 15 and had a brill time. Take lots of goodies for the locals if you go out on any tours, would recommend the drive your own speed boats well worth it.
When you read some of the comments left on the web sites about the food being not up to much, we found it all very good with lots of choice only thing we found was some of the veg was cold, but if this is all we can find wrong then hey what the heck.
All the staff very friendly and our first choice courier Jackie was fantastic always found time to talk nothing was any trouble for her (top marks). The local band played at the wedding and also in the dining rooms on the evening.
All I can say is go out with an open mind and you will enjoy it, we did and would return.

1 reader found this review helpful

Perfect, perfect, perfect!
The best holiday ever. The Cuban people are wonderful, warm and generous.
The complex was beautiful, clean and roomy.
The sea was incredible, the fish were amazing......you have to try snorkeling with a banana (to feed the fish of course), they will swarm around you, enabling you to have close up views of Nemo and his mates.
The rooms were lovely, clean sheets and towels every day if wanted, cd player, restocked mini bar, damn good shower....every thing had been thought of even down to a golf umbrella incase of downpours.
The food was fresh, plentiful and pretty damn good, maybe a few spices might have added a little zing but what the hell it was tasty......especially the freshly cooked to order shrimps with garlic and wine...mmmmmmmm (tip a few pesos as they all have to be peeled). Where else can you eat lobster all inclusive and drink champagne...it was heaven and I plan to go back ASAP.

Recently holidayed at the playa pesquero resort and it was excellent.
We spent a week lazing on the gorgeous white sand beach and eating wonderful food. The weather was scorching despite it now being their rainy season. You can take out snorkels (which we did every day), Pedalos and go for a sail on mini catamarans as often as you like, all of which were great.
If you only decide to go on one trip make it the island delight trip. You sail out to an uninhabited island, snorkel at an amazing coral reef, have a Cuban buffet lunch on the island and then go on a jeep safari seeing springboks, antelopes, crocodiles etc and finally swim and sunbathe on a secluded beach. It was the only trip we did and it was an amazing day.
The resort is huge so it does take a few days to find your way around but there are plenty of friendly staff who will pick you up on a golf buggy and drive you wherever you want.
The average Cuban earns 20 pesos a month (about £15) so tipping is the done thing about 1-3 pesos depending on the situation. As the Cuban peso is not traded internationally you cannot convert your money until you are in the country. There is an exchange at Holguin airport and at the resort itself.
One tip I would give is when you arrive at Holguin look for your luggage which may have already been taken off and put at the top end of the carousel. We spent ages, tired waiting in the heat for our luggage which was already there. 2nd tip (maybe a little obvious) the mosquitoes are pretty determined so make sure you go out covered in a good quality repellent.

Just back from the most amazing 2 weeks at the Playa Pequero hotel. We traveled as a group of 9 for my wedding at this hotel and it was wonderful. The hotel is only just 3 years old and was opened by Fidel Castro himself.
The hotel itself is very large, our apartment was a 10 minute stroll from the reception area, pool and nearest buffet restaurants but there are buggy rides available for the more lazy. The food was very good with plenty of choice in both the buffet restaurants and the a la cartes. Of the A La Carte restaurants my favourite was the Romantica, followed closely by the Seafood.
The pool is amazing, it is a huge lagoon style pool separated half way by a beautiful waterfall and bridge there is also a normal rectangular pool where you can swim lengths - also the water polo and other games are held in here. The pool bar is excellent as are the cocktails they make.
The beach is just a stunning as the pictures in the brochures with part of it gently sloping into crystal clear waters (perfect for little ones) and the other side has rocky outcrops covered in coral and sea urchins and is great for snorkeling. We tried most of the water sports on offer (kayaks, hobbie cats and pedalos) the Hobbie Cats were fantastic as we went out on quite a breezy day so had a very exhilarating ride.
Some of the trips are a must. The dolphin swim is excellent but go independently - DON'T book through the rep at the welcome meeting it is soooooo much cheaper to take a taxi and gain entrance yourself. Also a taxi to Guardalavca is a must - there is a small market (arts and crafts) I bought some lovely oil on canvas pictures and some lovely wood carvings too. The leather goods are also excellent value, don't forget to barter though.
Although the Cubans are living in total poverty, they are the friendliest of people. Everyone we encountered bent over backwards to help us and I took plenty of gifts for them to show our appreciation. Make-up, plasters. asprin, gripe water, tampons, children’s clothes and shoes, pens, pencils, paper and activity books went down well.
A truly wonderful country to visit - I could go on for hours...

I could not fault this holiday in any way. The hotel staff could not do enough for you and that includes Caroline our first choice rep. They had their own doctor on sight so when i needed medical help one night I had immediate attention.
The hotel and it's facilities, especially the amazing swimming pool were second to none. I’m saving up to go back again this year. Thoroughly recommend this hotel in this most beautiful country.

A massive hotel with great facilities and pool space. The restaurants were clean and well staffed and the food very good.
If you like sea-food you would love it here. The Cuban staff are extremely friendly and helpful.
Overall this is a great place to spend a couple of weeks lazing by the pool or on the private beach and I would most certainly return in the future.

My husband and I went to the Playa Pesquero for our second time in December and had a great time. The grounds were even more lavish than last year, the food was more than plentiful and just a bit spicier than last year. We were asked by the staff if the food we ate needed any more spices, cooked longer etc. They all seemed to be more than eager to help.
We only went to the beach once, but we loved the pool and spent the earlier part of our day there. Siesta after lunch and then off to the pool bar to close it off at 6p.m. Dinners were fantastic and we had a great vacation.
We saw a few of the shows at night, had a few drinks in the Lobby Bar, the Karaoke Bar and also one night in the reservation room. Nice and quiet in there and no one was smoking. I do have a hard time with people smoking all around me, but I did my best and moved when need be.
We are both planning on going back to the Playa Pesquero again in February 2006 and we will bring more gifts to our friends we have met there and also to the waitresses and gardeners.

1 reader found this review helpful

Having read some of the reviews on this site, prior to going on holiday, I felt compelled to add my own review now I'm back.
When we first booked this hotel (June 2005) we thoroughly checked all the review sites & there seemed that no-one had a bad word to say about the resort.
Once we had booked it, several really negative reviews suddenly appeared & I honestly thought I'd made a BIG mistake - how wrong that was!
Having been to St Lucia, Sharm El Sheik & Dominican Republic for our previous 3 holidays, I can honestly say that this beats them all, hands down! This was the same cost as Sharm (which was only half-board & half the journey) & Dom Rep & half the cost of St Lucia!
Yes, I acknowledge that it is not a British "5 Star" - but in comparison to the other resorts we had been to (which were 4* plus) this is by far the best! We paid approx £800 each, for 2 weeks in a fantastic, large, clean room, ate unlimited food (24hrs a day, if you wanted!) including 4 x “4 course A La Carte" meals per week, drank unlimited "branded" drinks, could take part in any number of activities & water sports, all for approximately £50 each per day, not including the flight! I'd like to see people manage to do this in the UK!
We set off from Manchester with Thomas Cook, in "Premier" - totally worth the extra. Last year we flew Thomas Cook to Dom Rep & only got the extra-legroom seats, at a cost of around £60 each & this is much, much better - 30kg of luggage allowance each, separate check-in, priority boarding, extra legroom seats in a separate section at the front of the plane with dedicated crew, FREE drinks all flight (We were given two drinks each, every time the trolley came round & it never seemed to stop! From Smirnoff Ice to Bucks Fizz - we must have got through about £40 each, at aircraft prices) a goody bag (toiletries, including a face spritz & lip balm to counteract the dryness of the air) free headphones, a choice of main course at mealtimes & finally, priority hold baggage, meaning our cases were the first off the carousel!
All-in-all, a perfect journey, though I must add here that the info for Premier states "pre-allocated" seats or something similar - I checked what that meant when I booked & all it referred to was that you were in the Premier Cabin - I wanted to reserve seats together, so I paid an extra £20 & reserved the seat numbers in advance (there is a plan of the plane on the website, the Premier Cabin has 7 rows, with a seat layout of 2-3-2, we wanted to get a window seat & loved the idea of it just being 2 seats, so the £20 was well worth paying) Some people did not realise this & so there were some unhappy people at check-in (either because the could not get a window seat or were on different rows, behind each other).
The flight itself was very comfortable, with a good choice of recent films (Mr & Mrs Smith, Valiant, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, etc) The only downside is the stop off at Varadero airport. We were told by both the Captain & the crew that we would leave the aircraft for only 30-40mins maximum, but it was actually 2hrs 40mins - something they must have been aware of, because as soon as we got into the airport (roughly 3pm) I checked the departure board & saw the flight wasn't due to depart until almost 6pm, so I had my doubts - but thought they might let us back onboard earlier. Most people complained about this when we got back on the plane - we had all sat around in the departure gate area when we could have shopped or sat in the bar, but the announcements were in broken English, so most people stayed put, for fear of missing the flight call. The flight between Varadero & Holguin takes about an hour & they are unable to open the bar to serve any food or alcohol, so all we got was a cup of orange squash!
Landing at Holguin was not the nightmare I had envisaged. We were first off the plane, the immigration desks had no queues & the baggage was first off the carousel. That said, we then had to wait on the coach for others to arrive, but it was air-conditioned. The drive to the resort took about an hour, but it was dark so not much to see. We dropped off at only one other hotel, which was next door to ours. When we got to the Playa Pesquero, registration was quick & efficient & we were given our room cards, towel tickets & an info guide/map of the hotel. There was a slight wait for the train/golf carts to transport you to the room, but after being sat down on planes & coaches, it was a welcome relief to be stood up for a short while!
When we got to the room, we actually thought we'd been upgraded! Thats how nice it was (last yr, in the Dom Rep, we had paid for an upgrade, only to be put in a damp, smelly room with dirty white walls, basic dirty furniture with a basic bathroom - the only difference with the upgrade was slightly more floor space - we tried to get moved & viewed several rooms, all of which were the same as where we were, so we stayed put)This room was clean, big & bright - lovely yellow walls with a mural at one end of the room, a HUGE bed - wider than it was long - lovely drapes over the bed, two lovely wicker high-backed chairs with big, plump cushions, a table, a dresser with a large tv on it, a mini-bar, a coffee maker, free digital safe, an iron/ironing board & even a golf umbrella, for those sudden tropical showers. They even had the finishing touches of shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, shoe shine, sewing kit, nail files & a bookmark! We had told them it was our wedding anniversary before we arrived, so there was even a bottle of champagne & two glasses waiting in the room (another reason why we thought it might have been an upgrade) After speaking to others, it obviously wasn't upgraded, as the superior rooms had a separate "lounge" area. I have seen other reviews saying that the rooms were dirty, damp or smelly - I can say, hand on heart, we could not find anything to fault in our room, it was perfect! As for the towels, some people have said previously they were rough - on the first day we got there, they were fairly thin (but by no means rough!) but from the second day, we had large, white, fluffy towels, better than my own ones at home, left in a multitude of swans, hearts etc! Whether the tip we left for the maid (toothbrushes, toiletries, hair accessories, soft toys, etc) had anything to do with it or whether it was just a co-incidence, I can't say! The bathroom was equally as nice & spacious as the room itself. There was always hot water & the shower was so powerful (again, last yr, the "warm" water ran out before 6pm each day & the shower was so weak, it wouldn't wash the suds out of my hair).
The first night we arrived, it was about 10pm when we landed in the room (2am UK time & we had been up since 4am the day before) so we quickly unpacked & went for a pizza in the 24hr trattoria - lovely, crispy & freshly cooked! We collapsed back in bed & left the exploring till the next day.
Only when we got up did we appreciate the size & beauty of the complex. The rooms were situated in small 2-storey blocks, with pathways & gardens in between. The main restaurants, pool, shops etc were in the middle of the resort, running between the large, open, main reception at one end & the beach at the other. The whole resort was lovely & clean. Gardeners were always around, clearing up & trimming the grass & plants. There were 24-hr repair crews (though we never needed to use them) Golf buggies circled the complex regularly, so you could hail one to take you anywhere you wanted, but it was no problem to walk - we only tended to use the buggies in the evening, when we were too full to walk!! The staff were always polite & friendly. Considering how much we have compared to them, I’m surprised they don’t seem resentful! We found we got the same service, whether we tipped or not & never had to wait for more than a few minutes to get served. I’m not sure how full the complex was (there are 940 rooms) but there were lots of people there who had been due to go to Cancun & had been moved due to the hurricanes & also, I was told there were 200 Canadians there who had been moved from another hotel whose air conditioning had broken. There were a mix of nationalities, quite a few Europeans & Canadians, but everyone seemed to keep themselves to themselves. We would have quite liked a few more younger English couples, as it seemed there were either families or older couples, but that’s probably to do with the time of year.
The pool was huge, with islands dotted in it & a swim-up pool bar at one end. This was where most of the noise was & where the daytime entertainment took place. There were regular classes for water aerobics, dance classes & the usual volleyball etc, though there was none of the "pressure" to join in, just an announcement before each session started (I have been to other places where the would shake you awake just to ask you to join in stuff). At the opposite end of the pool was a bar with a patio area outside. They also pushed a wooden bar round this side of the pool so they could serve you drinks at your sun lounger! We had taken the insulated cups which we had seen people using on previously holidays & can recommend this! Keeps your drinks cold & the insects out! The loungers around the pool were comfortable (the blue nylon type, which you could alter to several angles). Other reviews have said they needed cushions on the loungers but this is not the case. The loungers on the beach, though, were hard white plastic, so I agree that they did get a bit uncomfortable after a while, but I did see some people with rubber mats, which I think they could "hire" from the beach hut. I didn't spend much time on the beach, so a beach towel on the lounger was ok for me.
The beach was wonderful, lovely white sand & blue seas. There was a slight shelf as you got into the water, which could make getting out slightly difficult, but once you were in it was fine. Lots of people used snorkels & went out a very short distance to a reef, where I heard them say there were numerous colourful fish. On the beach, there were pedaloes, canoes, hobiecats, windsurf boards & a speedboat. I saw the speedboat being used in two ways, to "rescue" novice windsurfers who could not get back on their boards but also I saw groups of people who looked like they were going sightseeing - whether this was a private agreement, I don't know, as there is no mention of motorised water sports anywhere. There were always 3 lifeguards on duty & also there were police driving up & down the beach. All beaches in Cuba have to be public beaches, so there may be locals on them, especially at weekends, but we are told there is no crime & you can leave your belongings safely (though we did take our money & room keys with us, just in case). I overheard someone saying that 4 digital cameras had gone missing one day, but not sure where that was from (beach, hotel, or on a trip) But could anyone leave ANYTHING in the UK without it being taken? I doubt it!
There were always sunbeds available (pool or beach) & although no moveable umbrellas, there were fixed "palm" umbrellas at both locations, & along with the numerous palm trees, there was always shade to be found. The beach attendants would bring the beds to wherever you wanted them, clean them down & set them up for you. The beach was a little too warm for me, but the view & the sea was lovely. The beach restaurant served drinks & snacks during the day & was the Seafood Restaurant at night. Lovely fresh lobster & shrimp!
The other restaurants were:
Asiatico - a mixture of Japanese & Chinese (sushi, spring rolls, curry, sweet & sour etc). We visited here twice & both times we had quite a wait to be served (but we were kept topped-up with drinks & bread rolls!) Not a complaint, just an observation! Apparently, when speaking to others, the earlier diners were ok, but we usually ate at around 8pm.
Grill - my view of this will be tainted, as I got soaked by a sudden downpour on walking to the restaurant & spent the meal dripping wet! It had a reasonable choice & the service was fast, but it was very much "nouvelle cuisine" in portions! Beautifully presented, though!
La Gondola - one of two Italian restaurants (the other being the 24-hr Trattoria). Fantastic food & service - probably my favourite place to eat, though I do like Italian anyway. Lovely choice, boiling hot, adequate portions, etc, etc. The restaurant has a full-size gondola (in which people sat to have photos taken) & some "private" tables which were on stilts in the water, accessed by small walkways. There was a violinist there one night, too.
Romantica - This is the only air-conditioned restaurant, the rest are open-sided (though with plastic curtains that could be lowered if it rained or was windy) Romantic, dimmed lighting & a very relaxed atmosphere. We dined here twice & had lovely meals both times. The first time there was a pianist playing here, too.
Trattoria - as previously mentioned, this is the 24hr Italian - everything from pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, salads, lasagne, spag. bol., etc. I believe it also has a breakfast menu, if you miss out at the buffet. A good selection of food & drink & many people made use of it when they got the munchies at 2am, I believe!
Beer Garden - this was also open 24hrs & serves more "snacks" (I'd describe them more like tapas) small plates of things like meatballs, shrimps in bacon, Russian salad, chicken strips etc - it is best to order a few between you & share, as they come "as is" (no salad, chips, etc)
Buffet Restaurants - they were next to each other. We used the bigger one at breakfast, but the smaller one for evenings (the smaller one was also open for lunch). A wide selection of hot & cold dishes. For breakfast, it was the usual choice of cereals, cooked stuff, pastries, fruit, pancakes, omelettes, toast, etc, etc. Always plenty to choose from & things like eggs & omelettes cooked to order. There was even a smoothie bar for fresh fruit smoothies. At lunch & in the evening, there were "hotplates" where they would freshly cook a selection of meat & seafood (shrimp, red snapper, hake, steak, pork, chicken etc) just to your liking, a pasta bar, again which cooked your selection of meat/vegetables (ham, tuna, onion, pepper, mushroom, etc, etc if required) & added them to the pasta & sauce of your choice. I just had spaghetti in tomato sauce sprinkled with cheese & it was lovely! There was always paella & usually both a "roast" meat & a fish that the chef carved for you. There were numerous other hot & cold meat dishes, cold cuts, salads, soups, vegetables, etc. etc. The deserts were numerous, both hot & cold, & there was ice cream too!
That leads me onto the next venue - the Ice Cream Parlour! Open from 10am - 10.30pm & what a choice - coconut, mango, papaya, chocolate, orange - you name it! About 20 varieties & loads of sauces to top it off with! There were also dishes of fruit cocktail in the fridge, so we used to have a "sundae" mid-afternoon!
I cannot understand the people who complain about the food! It was always hot & plentiful. You could go back for more as many times as you wanted. Even in the A La Carte, we saw people ordering two starters each! You can book the A La Carte restaurants four times a week, so at most you will eat in the Buffet 3 times a week. You just have to go to the Conference Suite, to make the bookings & they were quite happy for you to go once & make bookings for the whole fortnight. If the time or date wasn’t available, they suggested swapping dates to fit you in. Also, if it was a birthday or anniversary, they could pre-order champagne, cakes, etc. Nothing was too much trouble. In Sharm, it was buffet-style & two nights I ended up on bread & cheese! Here I was spoilt for choice! And in the entire two weeks, neither of us had the slightest sign of an upset stomach! A first for me, in 20 years of foreign travel! Even in Europe, it usually affects me.
At the reception area, next to the 24-hr lobby bar, there was also a speciality coffee bar - did an extensive range of liqueur coffee & was open till at least 11pm - a lovely way to round off your evening meal.
The lobby bar was the main meeting place in the evening, next to the theatre where the entertainment took place. I must admit that we didn't watch any of the shows, but listened to them whilst relaxing in the lobby area. There was supposed to be a cocktail list at the bar, containing almost 100 cocktails, but whenever we asked to see it, there wasn't one to hand. We tried several cocktails just by listening to what others were having, but most were too strong for me! I settled for a "Chi-Chi", which was like a Malibu & pineapple! We asked for a Mojito several times, but were informed that the hotel didn't supply any mint! We did get them occasionally, but it was the staff that brought the mint in from home, grown in their own gardens! A lovely touch, for people who earn very little & are actually living on rations!
There is also a karaoke bar/nightclub next to the theatre, which is air-conditioned, but in the couple of times we went in, didn't see any karaoke taking place & the music was very "varied"!! Not many people seem to venture in & those that did didn't seem to make it as far as the dance floor, though we usually went to bed around midnight, so it might have picked up later on!
There was a "Vegetarian" restaurant, which we didn't try. During the day it served chicken & chips (Roast chicken, fried chicken or chicken goujons).
I think that almost sums up all the eating/drinking venues. Other than those, there is a Doctors Surgery & Chemist, a gym with saunas & Jacuzzis, an outside Jacuzzi at the side of the pool, sports courts, a children’s club (with its own small paddling pool, swings/climbing frames etc & all the toys to play on were plastic & made by "Little Tykes" so no worries as to the standards!!) & a Hairdressers (which is sometimes closed when they do weddings). In the hairdressers, I had a 45-minute manicure & polish & was charged the grand sum of £3!! I tipped her more for doing it!
There are 3 shops on site, a small souvenir shop (not much in it, some wood carvings, some pottery, t-shirts etc), a shop that sells toiletries & some beachwear & a shop selling rum, soft drinks, sweets, biscuits etc. With all the food & drinks available, it is hard to see why anyone would need to buy anything! You can even get 24hr room service - there is a menu in your room & it costs a flat fee of 5CU (roughly £3), which is charged to your room & paid at reception.
The nearest town is Guardalavaca - we were told be the Rep that it has 5 shops, one of which is the supermarket, & a small market for souvenirs. As we don't like to "haggle" & everything we needed was on-site, we didn't bother going. To get there, there is a small "road-train" which takes approximately 45mins & stops at other hotels on the way. We heard that it can be unreliable & stops frequently. The other option is a taxi, which takes about 10mins. As we didn't take any trips, I can't comment on those either.
One thing to note is phone calls - the calls are expensive (roughly £3-4 per MINUTE to UK & they are only charged in full minutes, therefore a call lasting 2mins 5secs would be charged as 3mins) We were advised by the Rep to pay for each call at Reception as it was made, to avoid any nasty surprises at the end, but we just used our mobiles to text home instead. Mobile calls are as expensive as landlines & not all mobiles work in Cuba (any with an American connection have no service in Cuba, which includes Virgin & Vodafone, we were told!)We use O2, so we were ok. Two weeks of texts home (including finding out X-Factor results!) only came to £8. You only pay to make the texts, not to receive them, whereby with calls, they even charge you to receive incoming calls when abroad!!
Now to a different subject – insects! There were some flies (not many & very few actually tried to land on you) some mosquitoes, moths of varying sizes & cockroaches! Again, this is the Caribbean, so what else would you expect. We used “insect repellent” sun lotion & after sun, used Avon SSS Woodland Fresh Spray & a St Lucian-bought spray around wrists & ankles in the evening. I had at most 20 bites & he only got about 4! I usually get eaten alive & so 20 wasn’t that many for me! (In St Lucia, I was covered from head to toe & had to go to the nurse every morning for anti-histamine cream & anti-septic cream to be applied!) The moths ranged in wingspan up to about 8 inches – but were no problem. The only thing I didn’t like were the cockroaches – they were about the size of my hubbys thumb! Now, we only saw them in the evening, scuttling about the floor & as the venues were all open-sided, there isn’t much they can do to keep them out (its not like they were emerging from the kitchens or anything!) We also got back to our rooms on two occasions & found one in there, late at night. We used to put the bathmat against the room door whilst we slept, just in case any more wanted to join the party! I don’t particularly like insects, but there wasn’t anything gross like spiders! Round the pool, there was also the odd ant or small green lizard, but again, if you left them alone, they left you alone, so don’t let it put you off!
The weather was hot & humid, with a nice breeze at times. I can’t stand extreme heat, so it was ok for me (into the 30’s) but some complained about the breeze(??!!). We had a couple of cloudy days (slight, broken cloud) & two afternoons when it rained, but the majority of the time it was hot & sunny, unlike Dom Rep – same time last year we had 10 days of solid rain! Now that would be something to complain about! Towards the beginning of the 2nd week, the humidity dropped slightly & made the evenings heaven, but it cranked up again before we came home. It’s the type of heat that, after you have showered & washed/dried your hair, you walk out of your lovely air-conditioned room & find yourself sweating & your hair wilting in seconds! But I’d rather have that than the rain & snow of the UK!!
Now, about coming home (boo-hoo!) One complaint was the wait for a golf cart to take your luggage to reception. We waited about 10mins - with the size of the complex & the fact there are 940 rooms, I feel that’s totally acceptable. The luggage is taken to a luggage room & can be left there all day. You have to be out of your room by noon, but there is a courtesy room & towels provided, or you can pay to keep your room on, but we didn’t see the need. Some people also used the showers & changing rooms in the gym. The journey back to the airport again was around an hour, but there was much more to see (which was sometimes a bad thing, with the state & size of the roads!! Hair-raising!!) Again, there was priority check-in & no queues for immigration & don't forget to keep 25CU each to one side for departure tax! We had a look round the duty free shop (perfume, rum, cigars & a few other bits & pieces) where we bought all our souvenirs, then the flight was called – an hour early!! Those who had paid for the VIP lounge had wasted their money! We were at the airport about an hour in total!! We had a bit of a panic, as you have to change your money back to sterling in Cuba, as it is a “closed currency”. We found the only exchange kiosk airside & it seemed to be balancing up the till (unsuccessfully!) so we stood & waited a while. Eventually, when we were served, the computed crashed & had to be re-booted – this happened about 10 times before it finally worked! We had spent so little money while we were there, we had quite a lot of money tied up in Cuban pesos, so were reluctant to leave without getting it changed back!!
Once we were on the plane, everything went ok. Another (different) goodie bag, with sleep masks & socks etc, & different films. Less in-flight services on the way back, as most people tried to sleep, but a nice evening meal & a continental breakfast before we landed. Again, priority hold baggage meant we were practically first away from the carousel!!
Just to sum up, a wonderful country, wonderful scenery, wonderful hotel & wonderful people! We’ve both agreed we’d definitely go back again, without a doubt.

What a fantastic place!!!!! Cannot fault anything on this holiday is was amazing. The rooms are large and air conditioned with a maid coming around everyday to make over your room and to fill the drinks fridge. All the restraints are fantastic and are placed all over the complex so you do feel like you are eating somewhere new every night, and if you don’t want to walk to them there are golf buggies to take you.
The staff are really friendly and cannot do enough for you. Your all inclusive drinks at the bar are well known branded drinks not just locally produced ones.
Would recommend this holiday to everyone.

Cuba was a great holiday. The resort and staff were first class with a good selection of food, drink and entertainment for all the ages.
Lots to do both day and night as well as organised trips .
Would return again to resort as soon as possible.
The only negative point was the flights from Gatwick by Exelair, which were totally unacceptable with delays both way and a plan unsuitable for the length of flight.
Would not use Exelair again on long flights.