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Breezes Jibacoa 03/02/2004
Reviewers Rating:  Excellent
My wife and I and another couple stayed at Breezes Jibacoa January 27, 2004 for one week. They are in their mid forties and I'm in my very early fifties. This was our second time to Cuba and our first time to Breezes Jibacoa. We picked this resort for its snorkelling, ocean view room option, and because it is only an hour from Havana. The resort was 100% occupied the week we were there with probably 99% Canadians.
The resort itself is beautiful. It has a large hill behind it which really adds to the "feeling" of the property. Late in the week we took a walking tour up the hill, through a farm and through a typical homes. Any time, you can just walk out of Beezes Jibacoa and walk along a road which carries on along near the beach for miles. Or just walk along the beach itself if you prefer.
Our room was ocean view ground level and only a few yards from the beach itself. This is exactly what we were looking for. The rooms were clean, ,well appointed, nice bathroom, iron, safe, satellite TV, CD player, but suprising to us, no fridge. The housekeeping was first rate.
There is a great beach bar for drinks and afternoon lunch. The beach area is expansive, with lots of loungers, shade trees if you want, nice sand. There was a red flag out on a couple of days. They do this when there is a strong wind off the ocean, for safety reasons. On windy days, it's nice to walk along the beach with the waves and all. You can walk along the beach for a long way, past an Italian resort and past a few Cuban resorts. After a wind, the beaches are all raked nice and clean again.
On green flag days, the water is warm, clear, and the snorkelling is very good. Just head out straight from the beach bar and you'll find a reef with corals 30 feet high, beautiful, very interesting to explore and full of different types of fish, big and small. We even saw a big crab on the bottom.
The resort pool is beautiful and huge. It's sheltered from the wind (on red flag days) and has many loungers. Many people made use of the pool area, but the pool itself is reportedly cool. There is a pool bar.
We did a few of the excursions, all of them excellent. First we took a kind of train on wheels (only $7 USD each) on a several hour tour along the coastal road, over to the old town of Hersey, saw the stone buildings there, visited a beautiful park near Hersey, went to Santa Cruz de Norte which is an industrial town where among other things they make Havana Club rum, and then stopped for a free rum at a roadside canteena on the way back. It was relaxing, very informative because of the fantactic tour guide, and we got to see alot of the agricultural country side. Highly recommended.
Next we went on the scooter tour with Adrien et al. This was an excellent excursion. The scooters are right out the front of the resort and are well maintained. Some of the roads were excellent but others were not. It felt like you had to be on your toes but for me who had never driven a motorbike/scooter it was a great feeling of accomplishment. We went to a farm, toured it, went to a very nice Cuban resort by a small lake where we rode horses, used the paddle boats, had a super lunch, and learned to play dominos, Cuban style. On our way back, we toured a poor village, Santa Clara, I think. This tour is also highly recommended.
One of the big reason we chose Breezes Jibacoa was for its close poximity to Havana. I had read extensively before we went and I was really looking forward to our visit to the Cuban capital city of 3 million people. My traval companions talked me into our taking a tour, I was planning on taking a private taxi into the city. The tour was great! It rained in the morning, but our tour got rearranged to keep us out of it most of the time. We visited the fortress (Castillo del Morro) across the habour from Havana and got to see the big city before us. It was beautiful. We stopped first at the Havana Club museum (ok) and then a cigar shop (could have skipped). Then we went walking in old Havana and it was as impressive as I thought it might be. We walked through and between all the major squares and saw fantactic old buildings, some of them perfectly maintained and some which were shabby, but they were all magnificent. Of note is the Capitol building, Plaza de la Catedral, and the Malecon. We had lunch at the El Patio in Plaza de la Catedral (excellent), shopped in the market (huge and packed with people). We then went over to the (newer) Vedado area and went to the ice cream park (Coppelia)and got a day room at the Habana Libre (former Hilton, beautiful hotel) and had dinner (good).
After dinner we went on to the Tropicana Show. We got antipasto, a bottle of rum and cigars before the show began. And what a show! The stages are on several levels and under some huge trees. The lights the atmosphere was electrifying. At times, there were more than a hundred dancers and singers are on the various stages all at one time. Then we had a quiet ride back to Breezes Jibacoa. Again, highly recommeded.
Food: The buffet was excellent. The food was varied, interesting and high quality. The deserts were the same, interesting, varied and delicious. The salads and fruit were perfect. The service was great. We sat out on the terrence for most meals. One of the first nights we got a few mosqito bites. Next time, we will go get our repellent and put it on right away. Those critters can really itch for the next few days and we're from Winnipeg! There were no mosquitos the rest of the week.
We went to the Italian Restaurant and the service was superb. The food and the Cuban red wine were excellent.
We went to all the evening shows except when we were away from the resort at the Tropicana show, and we enjoyed them all. They had a couple of good bands that came through the resort for only one or two nights. We even bought their CDs! We only looked in a couple of times, but the disco seemed pretty lame. The piano bar above the lobby was a super place to meet new people and the specialty coffees there were expertly made and delicious. Also on the second floor, there is an internet lounge. You buy time and the system lets you know how much time you have left.
There is a well stocked boutique to buy clothing, rum and cigars and local artisans and artists set up tables each day for you to buy your souvenirs.
So, Breezes Jibacoa comes highly recommended by this group. Wpgdon
Wpgdon
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