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Sol Club Cayo Santa Maria 09/05/2003
Reviewers Rating:  Great
We travelled to Cayo Santa Maria August 2-16, 2003 with our three children aged 9, 11 and 14. Our main goal was to relax and have fun as a family.
We flew out of Dorval on Jetsgo and landed at Santa Clara. While the whole arrival/customs procedure was pretty smooth, the wait for luggage was interminable and we were treated to a rain storm in the process. This of course resulted in most suitcases getting drenched, not an uncommon occurence upon arrival in Cuba. After 6 trips on this beautiful island, I have learned to always line the inside of our suitcases with plastic and as usual pack all lotions, shampoos and the like in large ziploc bags. This paid off as the suitcases were soaked but the contents dry, and one sunscreen bottle has leaked, so would have cause a huge mess had it not been in a plastic bag. Long commute to the hotel, but well worth it as you get to see several villages and beautiful scenery along the way. The trip takes about an hour and a half including 48 kms on the pedraplen, the pride and joy (rightfully so)of locals who can finally share their beautiful part of Cuba with the rest of the world. The highway in the sea took 10 years to build and is intended to link the Cayo Santa Maria area to the mainland and thus promote tourism. Several more hotels are planned for this area.
Bonus: check in to the hotel actually occurs on the bus. Just before boarding the bus you are issued an envelope containing your room key and all relevant material, which means that upon arrival at the hotel, you can go directly to your room or enjoy the hotel's facilities, rather than wait in line in the heat. Someone was thinking ahead on that one. Also, a welcome party awaits guests upon arrival at the hotel. This translates into live music, courtesy of the house band, dancing and wait staff passing around trays of drinks and sandwiches. Nice touch, what a great way to start a holiday after the flight, luggage wars and bus trip to get there.
The resort is visually very pleasing. The lobby is vast and includes a fountain. Lots a seats and couches to sit around the lobby make for a really nice spot to enjoy a capuccino in the morning after breakfast. As well, the lobby is often used to hold the evening entertainement when the shows are rained out.
CSM is also entirely wheelchair accessible, or stroller accessible as we saw many families with small children or babies. Some of the bungalows are equipped with access ramps, and one can easily go right across the resort in a wheelchair.
The Bars
There are several bars scattered around the resort. The lobby bar is a lovely little patio where we enjoyed a capuccino after breakfast or cold drinks during the day. Of all the bars, we found this one to be the most rushed service and least courteous...myabe it's the location. By and large we found the bartenders across the resort to be very standoffish and disintered in their work, even when we tipped them. Only a few select individuals that shall remain unnamed were really appreciative of the tip and made an effort to serve us well. We found that this resort would benefit from having a swim-up bar. There is a pool bar, but one has to come out of the pool and cross a bridge to access it which is no big deal but a swim-up bar would contribute to a more friendly and relaxed atmosphere. CSM also includes a piano bar, a lovely oasis of calm and darkness, very romantic indeed with a white baby grand piano. Two pianists take turns playing in the evening and they are brilliant. It is well worth taking the time to sit down and listen to them. Incidentally, the piano bar was about the only place where we could get a Mojito at CSM.
The restaurants
The buffet is your standard large expanse of food served at different stations. We were very impressed with the quality and freshness of the food. The pasta bar was by far the most popular feature of the buffet and the line ups were always incredibly long. They really should fine tune the serving procedure there as it is always well attended. There is a choice of several pastas and sauces to choose from and you choose the ingredients you wish to add to your dish. Very appealing and delicious, but too time consuming for a crowd. In the morning the pasta bar is used a crepe station and similarly, it is so popular that they really need to double up on that facility. There is actually a second range that they occasionally would press into service.
Other than that, the pluses of the buffet include a fruit flamb頳tation for dessert, ice cream bar (great for the kids), tons of fresh fruit but in a rather limited selection. I loved it all, but you can only eat so much mango, pineapple, watermelon and grapefruit. Also, the freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning was to die for...until the second week when they were using green oranges and the juice was very akin to lemon juice.
At peak periods, it was very difficult to get a table. The staff was really run off their feet and never stopped clearing tables and had no time to set them in between customers. Many of them were exhausted but still managed to smile if we happened to make eye contact.
The beach grill is open at lunch and serves your usual hot dogs and hamburgers, but as well fish and chicken on the barbecue. Both the fish and the chicken are delicious, but be prepared to perform surgery as the fish is served whole. The bar at the beach grill is where they served the best Mulatas...try one!!!!!
Los Flamencos also serves lunch and their specialty is custom-made pizza. My kids loved it, but as a parent of three children, I was more than happy to pass on the pizza and opt for the grilled chicken at the beach grill...
Two ࠬa carte restaurants serve dinner. The Italian restaurant, La Fontanella, has a very pleasant atmosphere ang the food is okay. We did not come across anything that knocked us over, but the food was pretty good and the Fontanella offered a nice break from the endless line-ups of the buffet. The mother/cook in me really enjoyed eating any meal I didn't have to prepare and it was nice to be served for a change.
The other ࠬa carte is the creole restaurant, Los Cocos. The most memorable dish there was a shrimp and fish bisque as an apetizer. I just about fell off my chair, it was absolutely delicious and so different from other bisques and chowders. The greatest asset of that restaurant is its location and atmosphere. Open air, it is very romantic and the wait staff appeared happy to be there and to serve us. That was a nice treat. A spectacular rain storm broke out while we were dining, so that brought that meal to a rapid close. We would have probably enjoyed it more as adults only...we were concerned that our children would be disruptive to other guests who were all couples. Because of that we found it difficult to relax but it is a lovely and romantic little spot.
The Beach
What can I say? In six trip to Cuba so far, this was the most beautiful beach we had even seen. The beach stretches in both directions as far as the eye can see. One day we walked east past the nautical centre. We walked for at least an hour and never saw one person. Once in a while my husband would dart up the hill to see what was above the beach and he spotted quite a few survey stakes indicating that this area is going to be developed to a great extent over the next few years. Some days the waves were stronger than others and it made for fun swimming. Several small coral reefs allow good snorkelling righ off the beach. The nautical centre offers catamarans, sea kayaks, several pedalboats and snorkelling gear. The staff from the nautical centre can also take you out snorkelling for 2 hours at the cost of $5.00 a person. This is well worth doing, I highly recommend it. We saw incredible fish and marine life, one of the highlights of the trip.
The Rooms
The rooms are very nice and tastefully decorated. Our rooms had two 3/4 beds pushed together to make a pseudo king size bed, and they had installed cots in our second room for the kids (as a family of five, we have to rent two rooms). The bathroom was bright and airy, very clean, but the water pressure was not very strong. All rooms are equipped with a safety deposit box (key is included in your envelope upon boarding the bus)and a small fridge. The fridge is not restocked every day, but a tip to the maid may go a long way...our maid left us bottles of water one day, a bottle of wine another day. She was very creative with the towel design...swans, flower pot, waves on the ocean, trees, clown faces, you name it. We had a lot of fun exchaning little notes with her almost every day, she too was one of the highlights of our stay. I should mention that we did encounter flying ants in one of our rooms. In fact one night, they were so bad that I would not sleep there or let our children sleep there. They were attracted to the bright light in the light fixture right outside the room and because the kids were constantly opening and closing the door, the ants had plenty of opportunity to come in and make themselves at home. We found that rolling a towel and placing it at the foot of the door helped to keep them at bay.
The Entertainment
The animacion team is very busy and dedicated. There is always something going on and there is no shortage of activities. The main activity centre by the pool includes ping-pong tables, a pool table and 2 fusbol tables. In addition, there is bowling and shuffleboard available and the usual array of crazy games in the afternoon. They also offer all kinds of sport related activities that I cannot comment on since we didn't take part in them, but the tennis courts were being used everyday for soccer matches between the animacion team and guests. Of course, there are Spanish lessons and dance lessons. The evening shows are very impressive. Of all the resorts we stayed at in the past, CSM offers shows of the highest calibre. The house band is very good and everything from the costumes to the choreographies, sound, lighting and everything in between makes for very professional shows. Not the cross-dressing follies or idiotic contests we have suffered through in other places. They also presented a new latin show for the first time while we were there and it was very impressive.
All in all a very nice resort worthy of its 4-star rating. We experienced some measure of difficulty with some guests and by and large, we found that while it is a beautiful location, this resort lacks atmosphere. Everything seems to die down between the end of afternoon activities and evening shows. Also, the departure procedure is quite chaotic and needs to be addressed as well. The welcome party upon arrival is repeated as a farewell party minus the drinks and sandwiches, a nice way to say goodbye. But the party atmosphere, the loud music, the heat and the frayed nerves of departing passengers create an unnecessary crush to get to the buses and causes friction between passengers. When I stood behind my son (9) to prevent him from getting knoekd over by the large suitcase of a passenger bent on butting in line, this person yelled at me and hurled out a very offensive insult that shocked my children...for what? We were all going to the same place and while I ignored her, it made for a very unpleasant situation. Ironically, I had just the day before promised a mother and daughter in her party to send them pictures I took for them when they didn't have a camera...The Santa Clara airport is too small to accommodate large crowds. It is certainly not fit to deal with the number of visitors that are bound to go through it once all those hotels are built. Also, the selection of goods and souvenirs to buy (including rhum) at the airport is very limited, so it is best to shop at the hotel store. All in all we had a great vacation and we would recommend this hotel.
Marie
Marie
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