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Melia Varadero 03/01/2003
Reviewers Rating:  Excellent
My boyfriend and I spent a week at the Melia Varadero in February 2003. We had an amazing time.
The hotel is really nice. We got a standard room with a partial ocean view (we had requested ocean view, but were told none were available. We could see a bit of the ocean, but the view was obstructe by the hotel and palm trees). The room was clean and the bathroom was nice but it was rather basic. The main floor of the hotel is circular, with a fountain and vines in the center. We found the main floor well laid out and spacious, with many different areas such as restaurants, a piano bar, shops and entertainment rooms.
The grounds of the hotel are really nice. There are two large pools and a pool bar. The pools are very beautiful, though the water is a little cold and they arenít very deep (one meter at the deepest areas). There are plenty of lounge chairs around the pool area, although there are rarely more than a few available. The beach is also beautiful. It is located right to the side of the hotel. The sand was really nice and soft. There are also plenty of lounge chairs on the beach and we never had trouble getting a couple. The water is very clear and on most days very safe to swim out quite far.
There are a variety of watersports offered as part of the all inclusive package. Twice we used snorkelling equipment. We were absolutely amazed by the abundance of fish but you have to go out a little far to see them. A sailboat and a guide will take you out to where the fish are for 15$ US. However, the first day my boyfriend and I just swam out ourselves to where the boats were. It was only about a 10 min swim to reach that area. The second time we used one of the paddle boats to go out with a couple friends and one person stayed in the boat while the others snorkelled (much less tiring to use the paddle boat then swimming all the way out there ourselves). Frankly, I donít understand why so many people were paying 15$ to have a guide take you out on a sailboat. We were snorkelling right along side the people who paid the 15$ and we saw all the same fish as them. On other days we also went kayaking and sail boating (a guide goes with you on the sailboat for free).
One thing that we were disappointed about was the food. Aside from a very few items, we generally didnít like the buffet at all. We stayed away from it as much as possible. Luckily, the Melia Varadero has a total of 8 restaurtants including the Havana buffet, an Italian restaurant, the Guantanamera Caf鬠a beach bbq (lunch only), the Cuban Trinidad, the Fuerteventura, a seafood restaurant and a Chinese restaurant. The seafood and Chinese restaurants and actually located inside the buffet restaurant area, however you need reservations for them and you can only go once per week. The Fuerteventura is definitely the fanciest restaurant and it requires reservations as well (once a week only). The Cuban Trinidad does not require reservations and you can go as often as you like. The Italian restaurant and the Guantanamera Caf頡re actually located in the same restaurant, but the Italian menu is only offered for lunch and supper whereas the caf钳 snack menu is offered 24 hours. Be warned that the 3 restaurants requiring reservations (Fuerteventura, seafood and Chinese) fill up very quickly. We made reservations the day after we arrived, and already there were very few places left. We never did get to go to the Chinese food restaurant because there was nothing available for the entire week. The seafood restaurtant and the Fuerteventura were okay but disappointing as far as a la carte restaurants. Our favourite places to eat were the Cuban Trinidad, the beach bbq and the pizza at the Italian restaurant/Guantanamera Caf鮠 Be warned that the service at most restaurants is often slow (exceptions were the Cuban Trinidad and Fuerteventura). We often waited 10 mins just to see a menu. However once your order is taken the food always arrives quickly. At the buffet it is often difficult to find a clean table, and then we also had to wait to find a server to get us cutlery.
Other than our disappointment over the quality of service and the food itself at the restaurants, we were very pleased with the hotel. Our only other problems with the hotel itself were rather minor. We had ants in our room but when we notified the front desk they sent a maid up right away to spray (they were only along one corner of the room) and we never had any more after that. We also had a cockroach in our room once and while it was rather disturbing, we understand it is quite normal in such a tropical country.
My boyfriend and I discovered that very little spending money is needed on an all-inclusive trip. The first day we were tipping at every meal and for drinks as well, but we quickly noticed that there were not many people doing so. Obviously some people tipped more than others, but I would say that generally people tipped at the restaurants only when they received good service. As for at the bar, less than half the people would tip for a round of drinks. Since the service at the restaurants often was not very good we only tipped 1 or 2$ per day for meals and about 1$ for every 2 rounds of drinks. Other than tips, we spent 5-10$ each on souvenirs at the market in Varadero. We took a look around at the Las Americas shopping center next door to the hotel but found it rather uninteresting (however itís a good place to pick up a few bottles of rum before heading home. Cheaper than at the duty-free shop at the airport.)
There are different day tours available offered by local travel agencies (the tours are the same regardless of which hotel you are staying at). We hadnít planned on doing any of them (prices range from approx 40-100$ US) until we heard about the Catamaran tour. For 70$ it included a day on the boat, swimming with dolphins, snorkelling, a lobster lunch and a visit to an island. We thought it was well worth the money. The swim with the dolphins was set up with 4-10 people in the water at a time while the trainer told the dolphins to come around and give everyone a kiss and swim in front of us while we touched them. We were in the water with the dolphins for 5-10 mins. For 10$ a photographer will take a picture of you getting kissed by the dolphin (we got the picture, as did our friends, and both of us couples were disappointed because the photographer only took one shot and it didnít turn out that great). The snorkelling in the middle of the ocean was fun because the corals were nicer than back at the hotel. However there werenít quite as many fish because they were not being fed (we wished we had saved some of our bread from our morning snack to feed them). The island we went to was beautiful. We were there about 2 hours and thatís where we ate lunch. We were very much looking forward to the lobster but it wasnít what we expected (covered in this red sauce, rather than just served plain with butter) and we were very disappointed with the lunch. The boat ride back to Varadero was wonderful. All in all, the day was amazing and I we were definitely glad we had spent the extra money for it.
Something that might be important to know before leaving is that it isnít possible to make collect calls or calls with a Canadian calling card from Cuba. Your only options are therefore to either call from the hotel (2,50$ a minute) or to purchase a local phone card and call from a payphone outside the hotel (1$ a minute). We chose instead to just use the internet at the hotel. There are 2 computers with dial-up available all day. It cost 3$ for 15 mins, 5$ for half an hour, 7$ for an hour or 15$ for 5 hours.
While we were told that credit cards are not accepted in Cuba, this wasnít entirely true. We were able to pay for our day tour by credit card. Also, at the Las Americas center we found a bank that had an ATM which allowed cash advances on Canadian credit cards (not American ones). As for cash, at the hotel we found it very easy to get change at the front desk, so donít worry if you only have larger domination bills.
The weather varied while we were in Varadero. For 3 days it was cloudy and a bit too cold for the pool or beach. The other 5 days it was sunny and very hot. It only rained once, at night, while we were there.
All in all we had a fabulous trip. Our only serious disappointments were the 3 days of bad weather and the food (which we hear is a problem at most resorts). I would definitely recommend the Melia Varadero. The hotel was really nice and the pools and beach were amazing. Even though service was sometimes slow, the staff were generally very friendly. I really found that the hotel did what it could to make our stay enjoyable.
Stephanie
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