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Hoteteur Palma Real 11/03/2003
Reviewers Rating:  Great
October 2003
We flew out of Toronto at 2 pm on 26 October on Air Transat, getting into Varadero at sunset. The whole first day was wasted in travelling. The rest of the week was incredible. The Hoteteur Palma Real is situated on the edge of the old town of Varadero, Calle 64 (street number). We had been to Varadero once before, two years ago, staying at the Superclubs Puntarena...at the opposite end of the 25 mile Varadero hotel strip. The Palma Real location was much more to my liking. It wasn't beachfront but just a short one block walk to the hotel's beach area. There was a lovely beachbar for us to use with comfortable loungers and palappas and the walk was hardly 3 minutes from the hotel lobby down a quaint beach road which was between two other resorts (Arenas Blanca and a Club Caribe hotel).
I enjoyed being able to take a stroll into the old town after the heat of the day after supper. There were lots of horses and buggies and taxis nearby to negotiate a price....($5.00 for horse and buggy). Being low season still, it wasn't busy. Scooters could be rented for $7.00 an hour or $15 for the entire day. There were lots of people from England, Scotland, & Germany as well as Canadians staying at the Palma Real. I had emailed the hotel after I booked requesting a room on the 3rd or 4th floor with a view of the ocean. I also mentioned that this was our 30th wedding anniversary. On arrival at our room, we not only got our request but a 40 oz bottle of Havana Club rum and a heart-shaped chocolate cake was waiting in the room as well. The vacation was fantastic from the start.
The resort used to be two hotels...the Siboney and the Attabey. They are now combined. The Siboney is quieter at the back of the property with 4 floors (with elevator) and the Attabey buildings situated around the pools and only two storeys high. The disco is off the property right next door. Not included in price but only $5.00 for entrance and all drinks.
Our housekeeper, Vicky, left us notes written in English every day thanking us for the bottles of handcream, candy, etc and $1.00 that we left on the pillow each morning. She went on holidays herself before our week was ended so I left her some clothes, a 4-piece cutlery set (odds and sods from my kitchen drawer), my beach shoes I had intended leaving anyway and a few clothes. I kept some gifts for others I knew I would meet.
The buffet had a good variety of food at each meal. I didn't like the red or the white wine but the freshly squeezed orange juice was awesome. We waited too long to book the Chinese a la carte. The pizzaria was a nice change for lunch on occasion. They had a variety of pizzas and pastas and warm bread. There is also a grill for lunch and you could get a la carte breakfast. The beachbar served chicken, chips, hamburgers and hot dogs until 5 pm. The swim up bar was very nice with great service, the couple of hours we stopped by. We spent all of our days on the beach. It was glorious...totally calm for 3 days, then a red flag day where we could only watch the waves crashing on the shore. The last two days were yellow flagged.....good for body surfing and wave jumping. You can walk for miles in either direction along the beach. No loud music blaring in your ear either at the Palma Real beach. There was an animation team offering darts, bocci ball and spanish lessons.
The entertainment in the evening started at 9:45. They varied from audience participation to very professional song and dance shows. The lobbybar was popular after the show. The drinks were excellent. There is an internet cafe.....$8 for 3 hours was the only time you could buy. There is also an internet cafe in Old Varadero on Calle 13.
Varadero has a double decker bus now that tours the entire 25 mile Varadero area. It is $2.00 for the whole day and you can hop on and off whenever and wherever you want. We saw all the hotels from the 5 stars to unrated.
There was a man that walked the beach everyday. He was a deaf mute (Cuban). He had a card with country names and he wanted to know what country people were from. I dare say he was in his 40s/50s...no teeth. In the best sign language he could muster, he asked people if he could have some clothes when they flew away. He had acquired a backpack at some point to carry his gifts. He didn't approach us because we were further back on the beach but I watched him for a couple of days. I collected a couple of my husband's shirts, a pair of shorts, a new toothbrush, a bottle of aspirin, a jar of Vicks and a spoon that got missed from the cutlery I left for Vicky. When I saw him on the beach and passed him the plastic bag, he gave me a hug. He managed to tell me in sign language that he had a wife and two children....he really liked the spoon and the shirts that had a design in them were more appealing than the solid coloured ones. The button-down, short-sleeved, striped shirt he hugged. It made me feel like I'd given him a million dollars. I smiled, waved goodbye and walked back down the beach towards our palappa. He followed me, tapped me on the shoulder and presented me with a polished seashell to which he had glued a small loop of wire to hang the shell on a chain. It was beautiful to me and I was so surprized to be given anything in return. He even dug into his backpack and tried to give me two cuban pesos in change for which I thanked him but convined him to use for his own family. Our interaction attracted another Canadian woman to come over and he gave her a polished shell too. I explained what had just transpired and I'm sure before the week was out, othe people from our tour found something for him as well.
The last day of our holiday (last Saturday), we were sitting near the back of the beach along the tree line to the Arenas Blancas resort. A gardener from that hotel asked us if we would like a coconut. Never having tried one before, I said sure. He spoke excellent English. He is a university graduate.......a surveryor by trade but makes more money in tourism gardening at $8.00 US per month than what he could earn as a surveyor. We talked for nearly 2 hours until it was getting dark. He cut open the coconut for the meat as the three of us chatted away about the economy, lifestyle. It was an amazing conversation. He lives 200 km away; works at the hotel 26 days before getting 4 days off to return home to visit his family.
The saddest part of my week was finding a street dog (puppy) who was almost hairless from fleas, so skinny from intestinal worms and parasites. He would stand in the boiling heat of the day on the main street and quietly watch people pass him by, his eyes so dull. He had the potential to be a wonderful pet with just some tender loving care to rid him of fleas and parasites but he was shunned because of his poor state of health. He was standing on the sidewalk when we got off the double-decker bus. My heart broke. My husband poured him a drink of water into a plastic glass and he devoured it. I bought him a hamburger at a nearby restaurant for a $1.00 and fed him the meat...he took it so very gently. He had a full tummy for that night but sadly the worms would eat up most of the nutrition. I walked him a block closer to the beach, away from the traffic and where the cooling breeze broke the oppressive heat of the sun on cement. He was hesitant to go on the sand but followed me to the side street of the Quatro Palmas hotel where I thought he would have a better opportunity to get handouts. I doubted his life would go on for many more weeks. I felt so helpless and so sad for this poor creature who was so very trusting, looking up at me with cloudy, pain-filled eyes. We looked for him the next day but he had disappeared to who knows where. I prayed some local would help him. I asked the gardener about a humane society and he said the government is supposed to put them out of their misery but the system doesn't work very well. Maybe he would search out this little creature.......I can only hope the little guy will fall on better times. I think he was weaned far too early from his mother and never had the chance to develop some immunity; left on his own to scavenge the garbage. Other, older dogs and cats were smarter and positioned themselves near hotels and got fat from handouts. They were healthier by far.
I would return to the Palma Real in a heartbeat. It is a solid 3.5 star. European travel agenices sell it as a 4 star. It is clean, comfortable, beautifully-kept grounds and great service. Everyone is smiling and very helpful.
The only thing that bothered me was smokers using the beach as their ash tray. The staff did not remove the butts by raking during our week there so they tended to accumulate. It would have helped if the hotel would provide ash trays attached to the palappas as I've seen in other resorts. People could take on the responsibility themselves but choose not to keep the beach clean for themselves or other guests. That's the shame of it. Overall, good value for your vacation dollars spent at the Hoteteur Palma Real.
Marlene MacKenzie
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