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Bahia Principe Varadero 08/30/2004
Reviewers Rating:  Fair
One word to describe this resort....horrible.
This was my fourth visit to Varadero, Cuba. My family and I decided to try a different resort this time around and as we had seen the Bahia from the outside and read some good reviews on it, we thought we would give it a go.
Bad mistake. In the past we stayed at the Iberostar Bella Costa and Beaches...two great resorts!
The Bahia Principe should be called the Roach Motel, for every single room in the bungalows were roach infested, along with the lower floor in the main hotel. We booked as a family, five hotel rooms. As a family, we changed rooms atleast 7 times. Now I know some will say that because it is a tropical island, there will always be roaches but I am talking about a total infestation. At night, it was not uncommon to walk into the bathroom and kill a few roaches in there. My nephew one night captured the mother of all roaches in a Pringles chip can and we took it the next day to our Sunwing representative, Manuel, who in turn, told us to give it to the customer service person. She refused to take it but we left it on her desk. No one was willing to help us. In hindsight, I wish I had requested to change resorts because my vacation was totally ruined and it was the same for the other ten people travelling with me.
The service was atrocious. For those of you who booked bungalows, be prepared to wait atleast an hour before the one cart takes you to your room. And that is after the 1-2 hr wait to check into the hotel. The staff claim they work sometimes 22 hours a day, with little break. Most of the staff do not know simple English when asking for water, toilet paper etc. Some people got extremely sick on the trip but my family was lucky because we were careful to stay away from the dairy and some of the seafood.
In the morning, you had to wait atleast 30 minutes for a cup of coffee. Most of us had to serve ourselves coffee and water. In fact, a bunch of us folks nicknamed it the self serve resort.
I met with the General Manager of the resort after one frustrating day of no air conditioning in the room and no hot water in the bathroom. His response was very off hand and it made me realize that if he was like that, then no wonder his staff was disgruntled and ill prepared for the resort guests.
The lighting around the resort is so bad that I know atleast four people fell down the stairs during my week there. In fact, half of the lights don't work on the pathways around the resort. And there are a lot of pathways. If you still want to go there and do not like walking, your best bet is to get into the main hotel.
The beach is not combed at all. In fact, on our first two days there, the beach was quite dirty, including the water. The better part of the resort beach was taken over by fishermen, and you cannot find any umbrellas or lounge chairs on that side. The middle part of the beach, between the two rocky sections is the best part. The water cleared up just before the hurricane Charley hit. That day, we were told to grab some food and go back to our rooms and stay there. No one was allowed outside after 8pm. The announcements were made in Spanish and German. Whatever happened to the Canadian crowd who do not speak either of these languages? Seems they do not cater for the English speaking folks at this resort.
The resort is huge and some of it is still under renovation. Perhaps that explains why there is such disregard for the upkeep of the resort. But from what I saw, the resort is huge and under staffed. There is not enough staff to keep it clean and provide appropriate service for what is rated a 4 or 5 star resort.
The food in the main buffet remains the same everyday. There is absolutely no change to it. We tried the Seafood, which was okay. The Italian restaurant was nice but the rat that we saw running around prevented us from finishing our meal. The kids were terrified.
In my opinion this resort should be rated a 2 star. For sure in Canada, it would probably have been closed for the infestation of roaches and rats.
I regret my stay at the Bahia Principe and it really turned me off going back to Cuba for a while.
On the other hand, the Beaches and Bella Costa Resorts are absolutely beautiful. They both have great parts of the beach, plus the service is amazing. The staff are multi-lingual. The food was great and the rooms are clean! Go there, do not waste your money on Bahia Principe, it's simply not worth it.
That is my two cents.
Singh
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