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Melia Varadero 10/22/02
Reviewers Rating:  Good
This was our first visit to Cuba, we travelled from the UK and stayed for 2 weeks at the beginning of October. We are a married couple both aged 30 with two children aged 2 & 4. We stayed at the hotel on an All Inclusive package, booked only a couple of weeks before start of holiday. We flew with Air Jamaica, quite pleased with airline, nice friendly service, good food for plane, but they did manage to loose our child's pushchair which proved to be a real pain in the neck on our holiday. Transfer to the hotel from Havana airport is long, but check in at the hotel was efficient and we were very soon in our room, settling down for what was the rest of the night. The hotel is star shaped, has 5 floors with lifts all around the hotel, you are never far from the facilities no matter what room you are in, the hotel is beautiful, with the middle of the hotel looking like a tropical rain forest with ponds, fish, turtles, birds in cages, water fountains etc, the roof is open to the sky and is quite strange when it rains in the middle of the hotel! The hotel is always presented very well, fresh flowers all over the place, clean, tidy, sculptures, painting etc etc. The room was a standard room but was very spacious, everything we could need, paint was peeling off the walls a little, but it was clean, and one of the best rooms we have had in a carribbean hotel. We had plenty of room for our travel cot, they had a television, small fridge (for the mini-bar) air conditioning, telephone, safe, wardrobes with hangers, hairdryer and a coffee maker, although you didn't get coffee, this was an extra even on all inclusive, and I thought it was pricey at $1 per portion, also for anyone booked on an all inclusive basis who have been told the mini-bar is included, it will cost $5 each time you want it filled, as a service charge??!!, and for that you will get 2 bottles water, 2 cans beer, and a few assorted cans of soft drinks. The bathroom was large for a hotel room, and all the equipment worked very well, and it had a good shower, and lots of toiletries topped up everyday. Maid service was great, she was very friendly. The hotel is very large and has alot of faciities, but we were not given alot of information, or shown around, and had to just find everything for ourselves or ask, I only found the gym by chance on the last day, as it was on the same floor as the courtesy room we used after checking out. The english langauage at the hotel is quite limited, we did have alot of language difficulties, we had trouble ordering drinks, and quite often gave up, also when reporting things at reception, ie when our toilet didnt seem to want to flush, it took a few minutes and a few different staff between thing to work out what we were saying, and as for trying to find something from lost property, well forget it, we lost a childs hat, toy plane and a watch, but no-one at reception knew what we meant when we asked if they had a lost property, they looked at each other and shrugged : ) So learn your favourite drinks names in spanish!! Breakfast is taken in the Habana buffet restaurant, this turns into a bit of a nightmare, as it seems at 9am the whole hotel is trying to have their breakfast in one restaurant, if you take your breakfast at this time, you will struggle to find a table that is clean, it will be a miracle if you manage to get a cup of coffee, and clean cups & cutlery will be hard to find, we started to get up earlier after a few days and when the resturant was quieter then things were alot better there. As we lost the pushchair through the airline, we could not attend the evening entertainment as our youngest wanted to go to sleep by 9pm every night, so unfortunately we cannot comment alot on this, but it looked as if they provided quality entertainment, lots of shoes,ballett, dancers, and just for something more relaxing a drink in the piano bar was very nice, they also had a karaoke bar, but never got to go there either. Music and singing was also provided at mealtimes, this was very nice with your meal, and it was usually members of staff from around the hotel singing or playing the flute or guitar, and they were very good and took requests. Service from bars and resturants is slow, and from the waiters in the resturants, it seemed to be very tip orientated, or as I noticed on a few occasions with the younger male waiters, if you were a pretty young female, then you usually got great service. We felt quite unwelcome on alot of occasions, but there are some really nice staff, just make sure when you spot them, sit in the same place next time to get served by the same waiter. The Trinidad resturant was lovley, all the staff here seemed really nice and friendly, the food was fantastic,and the atmosphere was alot happier, the 'puntarenas' band played every night here, and they were great!! Food was great throughout the restaurants, never had any reason to complain about the quality or choice available, none of us ever went hungry on this trip. Vegetarians may have struggled though, as ingrediants were not always clear,and for instance in the italian restaurant, when I ordered a pasta in a cheese & mushroom sauce, it contained ham, I dont mind ham so it was still lovley, but may have been a problem for a vegetarian, and at the buffet, there are sometimes no way of knowing what is in a dish. We never tried the 'fuerteventura' restaurant as its opening time of 10pm was too late for our children, but you are only allowed 1 reservation per week there. The Pools were great, areas for children, waterfalls, jacuzzi, bar in the middle, plenty of showers & sunbeds, never once had a problem getting a sunbed, and we were never out before 10am. Towels for the pool and beach are provided by the hotel, from the animacion hut, you will need cards from reception when you arrive to swap for towels. The beach is quite rocky at the hotel end, but venture further down towards duponts mansion, and it is fine, there are also plenty of sunbeds and parasols on the beach, the beach is always clean & tidy, and we didnt get harrassed whatsoever during the time we were there, there is a beach grill and bar on the beach for the hotel residents. The animation team provide entertainment all day, we couldnt join in, again because of the kids, but we noticed water aerobics in the pool, beach & pool volleyball, salsa dancing lessons, spanish lessons, fishing trips, snorkelling, sailing, nature walks, darts, table tennis and the list goes on & on... Right next to the hotel is a shopping centre, not very large, but enough to pick up your postcards and souvenirs, get some money changed at the bank (remember to take your passport for visa cash advances) and there is a fantastic little supermarket,where you can buy food, drink, nappies, formula milk, shampoos, toiletries, fomula milk, baby food and more, extremely handy for those travelling with infants, considering I had one suitcase full of nappies, which I could have bought for near enough the same cost at the supermaket. There is also a pharmacy in the centre, that looks well stocked. From outside the shopping centre you can easily jump into one of those great little yellow taxis, we loved them and took 2 trips upto the flea markets in Varadero, where we got so many bargains, do not buy your souvenirs until you have looked round these markets, it is so much cheaper and friendlier, the people were not pushy, and when I went to buy my son a little set of wooden drums, the guy at the stall engraved my sons name onto them at no extra cost and they were only $3 anyhow, English also seemed to be understood better here. Back to the hotel - overall the hotel is beautiful, fantastic facilities,what does let it down is the service in the resturants and some of the bars, it would have been nice to see a few more friendly faces, and to made to feel welcome. Some of the staff would chat to us and tell us about their own children, and do their best with the language diffulties, and that was really nice, but there were alot of staff here, that just looked so grumpy, never smiled, and wouldnt go out of their way to serve you, not offering drinks with your dinner, and being quite awkward over small requests like straws for the childrens drinks etc etc. There were some other staff here that were really nice, the guys who were cleaning the pool one morning, cut fruit down from one of the trees and went & got a straw for my son to drink the contents out of it, I thought that was really nice, and the security guys always chatted to us, when we went down onto the beach or wandered around in the adjoining hotels which were part of the same group. For people wanting internet access, there are two computers in the hotel, which for $5 you can have internet access for half an hour, be warned though, that the connection always seems very slow, there is also an internet cafe in the shopping centre, but I never got there to try it. In the hotel there are also a few shops, selling souvenirs etc, there is a hairdressers & beauty salon. Laundry can be done by room service, but we thought it was very expensive, we sent a few items to be washed & ironed, less than a small bag of clothes, and the bill was over $27, I cant remember all the individual prices, but can remember that my 2 year old sons little trousers cost $2.25 to be done!! Any questions please email me.
Caroline
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