Club Amigo Guardalavaca

5 readers found this review helpful

My boyfriend and I returned Feb 13th 2007 from a 2 week stay in the Villas section of the hotel. This is the most modern section and is by far the best. If you are a UK traveler it is worth noting that everyone who booked with Thomas Cook in the UK was booked into a Villa with decent sized, well maintained rooms with either a balcony or a terrace.
Airtours clients were generally housed in the far less appealing main hotel and paid similar amounts of money for their stay. You can book a villa room with Airtours however if you book early enough as we have done just this when booking fro next Feb. This review is based on our own experience and accommodation, as we never entered anything other than a villa.
The most important thing to note if you are thinking of traveling to Cuba is that you are entering a Communist country where the people have very little incentive and very little money. The service levels will never be as good or as efficient as you will experience at home, in Europe or in other Caribbean destinations. This is more than made up for by the charm, character and friendliness of the Cuban people.
The 3 original sections of the complex do look a bit tired but there are improvements taking place all around the hotel. The lobby area was being painted during our stay and new outdoor cooking facilities were being built at both the main pool snack bar and the bungalows snack bar. I doubt that these are isolated repairs and I'm sure improvements will be ongoing.
We spent most of our time in the first week by the Villas pool in the morning (which was the most quiet) and the beach in the afternoon. The beach is shared with the Cuban public which adds to its appeal. We were never approached by locals offering anything for sale or for any other services!
The Cubans we did meet on the beach were great fun and very friendly. We were invited to the house of one particular guy who cooked a good meal of pork, beans and rice for us. We met his family and saw his village up close. It was his wife’s birthday and we were privileged to join in with her birthday celebrations. If you get the opportunity to do something similar then I would urge you to do so.
It is a great experience to see Cuban home life up close. Considering how poor him and his family were they never asked us for anything from us. We did give his wife some pesos for their hospitality and she was close to tears.
During our second week we usually visited the main pool area discovering the delights of the swim up bar, pool volleyball and water polo. Here the entertainments staff were brilliant, the cocktails were good and the sport was great fun, usually consisting of volleyball games between England verses The Rest Of The World!
The evening entertainment was ok if you like Cuban music, we tended to make our own entertainment. The places to be for socialising were the Guardavaca Stage area, the 24 hour bar and the secret (Shhhh!!) bar!
The food was ok, it’s never going to be Michelin 3 star food so don't expect it to be! The A la carte restaurants are hard to book for and look quite empty some of the time. This is no great loss. The 2 times we ate in them we were very disappointed. All 3 buffet restaurants were usually better or worse for different meals. By far the best buffet for dinner was at the Bungalows section and is called the 1720 restaurant.
The food was always hot with a good selection. There is a hotplate chef inside the main part with a second outside on a grill. We always ate there and were never unhappy with it. Breakfast was better at the 24 hour bar but they stop serving at 9.30 where as the others stop breakfast at 10.00. Consequently we missed breakfast at the 24 hour bar often and sometimes missed breakfast altogether! There is a time window of between 10.00 and 11.30 between breakfast and Lunch at 11.30/12.00 where it is difficult to find food anywhere which gives you an incentive to either make breakfast in time or stay a bit longer in bed!
What made our trip was the people we met whilst in the complex and some of the staff who were generally great. We met some fantastic people from the UK and Canada, hopefully some friends for life. There was always a large group of us usually at least 6 but normally a lot more just enjoying ourselves and having a great time, sometimes we were very loud but never (I hope!) offensive. The banter amongst us English with the brilliant Canadian people we met was excellent and has made the trip the best we have ever made!
Our Amigo Hall of fame is as follows
Staff...
Enrique, Barman (Everywhere!)
Luis, Barman (Secret bar, don't tell anyone!)
Raciel, Bermis, Raul (24 hour barmen)
Abel, Barman (Swim up bar)
John Barnes (ex Liverpool and England Midfeilder now playing Bongo's in Cuba!)
Friends...
Team England!
Andy and Lindsey
Bart and Andy
Graham (Curray!!)
Pirate Pete
Chas and Dave
Ashley(!) Ann-Marie and little Gracie
Stick
Stef
Mark
Team Canadiana!
Bill (Doc/Dumpy!) and Carole.
Justin (Leaf boy!) Jaqueline and Bailley
Bill and Ted
Thank you all for an unforgettable time!!

2 readers found this review helpful

This 3* hotel is not one that I would recommend. It is very isolated with poor facilities.
If you enjoy sitting by the pool and getting drunk in flimsy plastic cups, this is the one for you.
The food is absolutely appalling but you won't ever go hungry, you'll always find something to pick at. It's all stodge, so take some laxatives! Even the a la carte restaurants are hopeless.
Quite a few roofs leaked during the very wet time we spent there during Xmas, some ground floor rooms flooded.
The beds are hard but the maids are lovely. There wasn't any control of mosquito’s i.e. spraying of rooms and weekly fumigation, no net over the bathroom window and most people I spoke to were eaten alive with over 100 bites on average.
The itching drove us bonkers! The £8 steroid cream sold by the pharmacy doesn't actually do anything worthwhile to ease the bites. Some people had allergic reactions and needed hospital treatment.
We all took repellents like Deet, mosquito plug-ins, kept our windows closed etc. but they still got us! There was a stagnant pond across the road from the hotel, where there were frogs croaking, a haven for mosquito breeding.
The entertainment consisted of the house band playing for an hour in the restaurant as we ate our food, then a further hour at the bungalow section and they were really good but had a very limited repertoire and then there was a cringe worthy show after like games or ballet.
It then closed down by 11.30pm. In the main building, there was a classical pianist playing early evening. There was a disco which my teenagers went to, which was the only thing around for them but they didn't like it. There was nothing for children at all.
The waitresses were adorable, friendly and helpful but the reception staff were surly and grim.
If you think you can get out of the complex, you can't, unless you go by taxi to Holguin, an hour's taxi drive away, or a very expensive tour. Don't even think about hiring a very pricy car, the roads are suicidally bad, with potholes that are like driving off a cliff and wide enough to bury 2 families side by side.
You can go on the little train engine up to the mountains outside the hotel for 10CUCs or get on a rickety bike and pedal along the coast. There are mopeds to hire for 24CUCs too.
My advice is, pick a better hotel, because the food is exquisite and facilities are so much better and your very precious holiday will be more enjoyable. Everyone I spoke to in other hotels didn't have any problems with mosquito’s either!

2 readers found this review helpful

The beach was beautiful, golden sands, lots of sunbeds, free use of kayaks and pedalo boats. Good for snorkeling. The swimming pools were very good also.
However, the main hotel was really shabby and in need of total refurbishment. Our rooms were in the main hotel and didn't have a balcony, the shower was broken and the air-conditioning was a bit temperamental.
However, the place was spotless and the cleaners did a superb job. The bungalows and villas were ok, though.
The daytime entertainment was non-existent and the night time entertainment was hard to find. The highlight of the night was a pianist playing the same repertoire night after night, between 8-9pm!
The food was ok for the first two days - and I am willing to try anything! But it was exactly the same day after day.
The so-called a la carte restaurants were a joke - they provided exactly the same cuisine as the main dining hall, the same cold vegetables (cooked at some stage), rice, fish and chicken.
The waiters and waitresses would not acknowledge you unless you tipped them at every meal. The bar staff (with the exception of the "swim-up pool" staff ) were the same. The drinks were served in plastic cups even though glasses were available. Staff just couldn't be bothered.
I would thoroughly recommend the resort and Cuba- but stay away from the Club Amigo Atlantica!

1 reader found this review helpful

This holiday was the best holiday I have ever been on. People who have written reviews often complain about things such as the food, the hotel needing updating or the transport, but what they have to remember is that they are in Cuba!!!! Part of the Cuban experience is the old style cars and buildings.
The food in the restaurants was always well presented and covered and I never once saw a cockroach! There were so many different fruits to choose from that I couldn’t even name them all. Omelettes at breakfast were absolutely amazing and almost impossible to recreate but very very tasty. There is always a vast array of things to choose form and something for everyone’s taste. People say it was the same old stuff everyday but the chefs made it different after all the Cubans have to make the best out of what they have naturally in their country they do not have the luxuries we do.
The hotel and staff were very good. The maids always tided the room and picked things up from the floor they also made swans and octopus from the towels and left flowers around which was very nice.
The swimming pools are nice especially the one with the bar. Abel and Louis are the best barmen and Carlos is guaranteed to make you smile. The pool is cleaned daily although they do not have many chemicals to clean it fully it is still very good.
The entertainment is good in the evening the shows are fun and often involve audience participation. There is also a disco in the bungalow area where you can see some of the entertainers dancing a very sexy salsa!! There are also parties on the beach where the Cubans are they don’t mind you coming to join in although you do have to pay for drinks.
Day time entertainment is also good with some excellent prizes. There are son many things to choose including, Spanish lessons, volleyball, aqua aerobics, salsa dancing, mini golf tournament and archery to name a few.
The beech is wonderful and picturesque with the white sand and blue sea. It is very clean and there is plenty of shade if you need it. There are lots of water activities to get involved with such as pedaloes and kayaks.
The excursions are very good although if they were advertised more before I had gone I would have taken more money to be able to do more. I did however go swimming with dolphins which were an absolutely amazing experience!
There is always plenty to do such as trying all the available restaurants, taking the train up the mountain to the village(although I wouldn’t recommend buying the cheap cigars as I think they are made from banana leafs!!!), and the horse and cart rides around Cuba where you really get a feel for the life that they have. There is also a market where you can buy souvenirs that local people have made.
The one bad thing I have to say was on the first night our room had quite a lot of flying ants in it. The next day we told our tour rep and were moved to another room which was very nice with sea and pool view. After that the only bugs I saw were flies.
After all a holiday is what you make it you shouldn’t expect more than what you paid for this is still a three star hotel but it is a very good one, which I would recommend to any one. There are not many young people there so if you like it a bit quieter then this is an ideal place for you. It is a very child friendly hotel though there is child care and activities.
It is also nice to take some things that we consider very basic and give them to the Cubans is it is hard and expensive for them to get certain items such as pens, pencils, paper, tampons, shampoo, shower gel, deodorants etc they will love you for it and be very grateful.

1 reader found this review helpful

Oh my god, where do I start? This resort has got to be the worse Thomas Cook holiday I've ever been on. The food in the buffet is cold and I had a cockroach come out of the cereal box, the food is never covered and you often find flies sitting on the food.
Also a lot of people including myself had there children’s shoes pinched. I was also offered some clothes off a stall in return for my sons clothes, apparently they can't get children’s clothes.
The grounds are lovely but it's so boring there.

1 reader found this review helpful

Where do I start we are both 62 years old we went for 3 weeks. the complex was very nice, but the whole place wants updating, in the main lobby you just sink to the bottom of the seating, can't fault the staff they always had a smile on there faces and made you very welcome
Food. It was more or less cold no cornflakes in the morning the only thing you got hot was the eggs. The bacon was cold but we learned that you could put it on the hot plate where the eggs were cooked, the best place to eat was at Brisas hotel you can get vouchers to go once a week there, but if you complained enough you can get them every night to go there as many people did. We found the best place to eat at the hotel was the 24hour bar you could get chips and pizza freshly made.
The accommodation.
when it rained our room number 5101 got flooded out, ours was at the villas so dont stay in that one also if you wanted a fridge you had to ask for one, the rep never told anyone, we only found out 2 days before we left. our sheets were only changed 3 times in three weeks and the towels were very small and not changed on a regular basis
One tip put a towel at the bottom of your door at night to stop the mozzies and cockroaches getting in and leave your air-conditioning on all the time even when you are out as the bugs don’t like the cold. There is no shade around the villas pool. if you walked in the grass as many did you would end up with cat flea bites the number of cats were at least 60, one child got a ring worm from them, rats were seen in the 24 hour bar running along the rafters in the roof and also in the grounds, cockroaches were in there plenty
Cuba is a lovely place don’t be afraid to go out at night the Cubans are very poor so take a lot of small gifts with you. Pens, shampoos shower gels nail varnish. (Etc) try and go on the trips they are well worth the money. No problem at the airport. We won’t be going back to this hotel. We would rate it as a 2.

1 reader found this review helpful

We have just come back from a 2week stay at the Club Amigo Atlantico. We traveled as a party of 2 adults and 3kidsaged 11, 10and 6.
Our flight was ok but we were unaware of a stop over at Verada airport for 1.5hrs before flying onto Holguin airport which our travel agent didn't mention. We stayed in the older part of the hotel and we stayed in standard rooms which were very clean but very basic. The hotels location for the beach was excellent we were right on the beach that looks like it does in the brochure, gorgeous!
The food was well cooked and there was plenty of it but only being a 3star hotel there wasn't much variety. The kids were able to go and get themselves unlimited drinks and snacks but not unlimited ice cream unless you ate in the restaurant. The 24 hr snack bar is ok if you enjoy burgers, chips, sausages and pizza which was fine for the kids as they didn't enjoy the restaurant food. A visit to the A la Carte Esparda restaurant is worth a visit. We enjoyed our stay with very friendly staff especially "Abel" at the pool bar who makes a fantastic Banana Mama!
We would return as a couple as its a lovely relaxing resort and we weren't hassled in anyway not even on the beach! The children enjoyed themselves but were bored at night as there was nothing for them to do so make sure you take something to entertain them of an evening.
We had a fantastic time, we would return again but would stay in the new bungalows or villas as we were told they were more plusher. 3stars was exactly what you get ,which came as a bit of a shock at first as we usually stay in 4star+ rooms but given that we only slept in the room and the fantastic location, scenery, cleanliness and friendly people we would recommend you give it a go. Make sure you take money for tipping and remember you can't change your money UNTIL YOU GET THERE and you need 25cuban pesos to get out of the country! Excuse the spelling I'm still jet lagged.