Latest Reviews for Guardalavaca

Playa Pesquero is a nice hotel- accom is fine and spacious, the staff are as warm and friendly as you can find anywhere, the bar facilities are fine and the beach /pools are just the ticket. One major flaw, however.
For a 5* hotel the food was absolutely appalling. I had spent the previous 6 months in Iraq and can honestly say that I was better fed over there.

Whilst the ";raw materials"; were of good quality the Cuban chefs need a kick in the posterior. The food at the buffet was often cold and whilst there was always plenty on offer it was the blandest selection of tasteless food I have ever come across. The a la carte restaurants were better - particularly thr Romantico and the Seafood but we ended up walking out of the Asian in disgust. I can only assume that the shef in the Asian learnt his trade from a book - a book about motorcycle maintenance or something coz what I had bore no resemblance to Chines, Japanese or Malaysian food. (It did vaguely resemble a Lancashire Hotpot)
Unfortunately this one aspect made an otherwise good holiday into an average one, which is a shame as the hotel and staff were lovely.

The hotel and complex were exactly as described to us by the travel agent. We stayed in a villa style room on the second floor with a really big balcony. The resort has an excellent swimming pool with a swim up bar and and loads of sun beds etc. During the day there was lots of entertainment in the form of activities such as sports etc. A great range of watersports were available on the beach. The beach is exactly as pictured. White sand, crystal clear waters. The all inclusive programme was excellent and was 24hours a day. We had a mini bar in the room which was re-stocked everyday. A great selection of restaurants and bars to choose from including the main buffet which did all the specialities you could imagine, an italian - beautiful and a Japanese restaurant which was a super experience.

At night the entertainment was ecellent. The shows were quite professional and included - Grease, Dirty Dancing and Cuban music.

There is lots to see and do outwith the hotel. There is a market near by, a nice town and of course, you can swim with dolphins.

We had a great time and would definately go back. Two weeks in the summer cost us abut £499 per person. It was well worth it!

hi just got back from cuba. 7 days in club amigo, then 3 days in havana. i think some of the reviews are quite harsh, at the end of the day, you get what you pay for.

The beaches here are second to none, absolutely stunning, a mixture of fine sands, trees and palm trees, plus not over crowded. Also an added bonus is that the locals come here too to chill out.

The Atlantic hotel was basic, we had no balcony or sea view, like most of the rooms here!, which of course is disappointing. Many people looked peeved, and the ground floor rooms seem to have an ant problem!But i have to say our room was very clean, and the maid was very good, and cleaned our room everyday.All of the grounds needed a lick of paint, but the plants and trees seem to hide a great deal. there are 3 pools, one very noisy, but the beach is the best bet.

The food was good, i think alot of people did not realise that you could go to any of the restaurants in the amigo grounds. The hotel restaurant did a good breakfast, but that was it! Just make sure you visit the other r'rants, for example i had bbq snapper fish, and it was lovely. The only fault about the food, was that it repeated itself most days.

There is nothing outside the hotel grounds to do, no bars,restaurants etc, and only about 4 shops. You are not allowed to get a bus or taxi to anyother place, so you can only go to santiago for example if you book an excursion with your rep! strange i know, but true, so be aware!

My advice is to either spend a little extra, and go to Hotel Brisas next door, or better still go to resort close to Havana ie Varadero. Havana won't let you down, it is an amazing city!!

We have just returned from a short break at the Hotel Playa Pesquero and can quite honestly say we were disappointed with our choice of destination.
Having read glowing reviews about this hotel we thought we would have no problems with our choice. How wrong can you be!

When checking in after a long flight we had to shout above the noise of the lobby bar. Not a good first impression.
The Playa Pesquero is reputedly the largest hotel in Cuba. It is,in fact, the size of a small village spread over extensive gardens. Little golf carts patrol the grounds picking up guests and ferry them to the various restaurants.
We tried most of the a la carte restaurants during our stay but the food quality in all of them was poor and service slow. The Romantico (which was supposed to be the best) had, in fact, the worst service and staff attitude.
A tip: The Romantico and the adjoining Gondola restaurant share the same toilets. Try to avoid using them if you can as the evenings we were there, they were in a disgusting state and smelt vile. Other guests commented on them as well.

In fact, nearly all the toilets in the public areas were the same with the exception of the Beer Garden which were always spotless.

Playa Pesquero is described in the brochures as 'a quiet resort'. This is an understatement as it is not a resort at all. You are miles from anywhere and there is nothing to do outside the hotel if you don't book any trips.
The upside of this hotel are the gardens themselves which are well kept by a large team of gardeners. We also found in general that the staff were lovely and friendly and always ready for a laugh and a chat.
Following the advice of other reviews, we gave some of them little presents of toiletries, clothing and aspirin etc. and coloured pencils and books for the kids. Everything was very much appreciated no matter how small the gesture.

To sum up - Hotel Playa Pesquero does not warrant its 5 star rating especially if you've done a few long hauls before and stayed in other 5 star hotels. They need to address the negatives (like the toilets and improve the food quality) then perhaps they will warrant a better rating.
As it is at the moment, we would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

This is the second time we have been to this hotel, the first time in March 2006, and after experiencing the best holiday we had ever had we decided even before leaving the resort that we would return.
This time we went as a party of 11, with my brother and his fiancee having booked to get married there.
The flight with First Choice was very good, the screens in the back of the seats with a choice of films and games helped alleviate the boredom on the 10 hour flight, as did the larger size seats with more legroom than I'd experienced before. We landed in torrential rain, which continued for a number of hours.

We filled in a registration card on the tranfer coach (transfer was an hour)which helped speed up check in, and we were served a glass of rum punch on arrival.

Unfortunately there was quite a wait for a buggy to take us to our room as 3 coaches had arrived at the hotel at the same time and it was a bit of a free for all to get a buggy. As we'd been there before, we decided to walk to our rooms, and a porter had taken our cases away to deliver them direct to our rooms.

The room was very spacious, large wardrobe, comfortable sofa, chair and a table.
The sink is separate to the bathroom, which was useful. Powerful shower, and a bidet.
Towels changed daily, and sheets changed every day unless you put the card on the bed. Huge bed, although the only down side was it was two matresses put together this year.
Nice patio with a view of a wooded area with lots of birds to watch and listen to. It was also quite private, not being overlooked by other accomodation.
The fridge is stocked daily with a 1500ml bottle of water, 2 mini cans of lager and 2 mini colas. We would put a peso in the fridge with a note asking for more water as one bottle a day between two wasn't always enough. We often gave the lagers or cola to the hard working gardeners, who were so friendly. They would often pick a flower and give it to you (and you didn't get a sense of them doing it for reward, as in some other Caribbean islands). TV good, with enough English speaking channels. Hairdryer was adequate enough to dry my medium length hair satisfactorily.

The accomodation blocks are only two storey, so no waiting for lifts or long hikes up stairs. The room is cleaned every day, with hearts or swans made out of your fresh towels most days. The aircon is very welcome and efficient.
The whole place is laid out very well, there are lots of trees and flowers everywhere,and although this is a very big hotel, we never felt crowded. There are buggies that you can hitch a ride on (being electric, they are very quiet) and they operate all day and into the night, which can be handy if it's raining or you've had a few too many Pina Colada's!

The weather this time was changeable, it would be sunny in the morning, then cloud over in the afternoon, or vice versa. We had about 3 days of constant cloud and rain, though it's still very warm even when it rains, and really, there is enough to do if the weather is bad (spanish and cookery lessons, tennis, table tennis, pool, or lounge in the hot tubs) We still came back with good sun-tans. We were told by a Cuban that they had had several years of drought, but it had been raining for 6 months and they were very glad of it, naturally, so we may just have been unlucky.
There were a lot more mosquito's around this year, which I think was due to the wetter weather. We did get bitten a lot, but had taken no repellant as the year before had experienced no problems.

The pool is just wonderful, it's absolutely massive, and there never seems to be many people in it. It's not cold, and it goes from very shallow to chest height. There are always plenty of sun beds, and plenty of shade if needed.
As well as 2 bars - one swim up, and one at the other end of the pool, there is a man with a mobile bar, so you don't even have to walk anywhere.
The beach is beautiful, white sand and turquoise water that is even warmer than the pool. When you get to the beach the sunbed man will take your sun bed to the spot you've chosen.
There is a bar and a restaurant (menu style as opposed to buffet) on the beach also, as well as all the usual watersports - snorkelling, pedalos, catamaran etc (all incl).
The beach was the venue for my brother's wedding, and this was held a week after we arrived. We all had a superb day. The wedding was at 4pm, and the weather was fab. The bride got her hair and nails done (all incl), the groom had a massage (incl). The groom and best man were taken by horse and carriage to the beach, and then it returned for the bride. There was a 5 piece band that played soft Cuban music, as they scattered rose petals before the bride. Lots of people watched the whole thing from a discreet distance, and everythinhg felt very special. The champagne flowed from the moment the ceremony ended to well into the night.
We were taken back to the lobby for more champagne and photos, and then down to the seafood restaurant for the most amazing meal, with yet more champagne.
The staff at all times were attentive, yet discreet, and made you feel special, and were courteous beyond words. This applied to just about the whole hoiday, not just the wedding. My brother and his new wife were extremely happy with everything, and said this was their best holiday ever.

The food in this hotel is excellent, with just about every taste catered for. We ate in most of the a la cartes, but I would recommend booking within your first day or two as they are very popular. The service and food is impeccable in both the buffet and a la cartes. We ate at the Grill every lunchtime as this had such an excellent choice, and was close to the pool. We were there one lunchtime while it was my sister's birthday and we mentioned this to one of the waitresses while my sister was away from the table. The waitress came over a little while later with other staff and a bottle of champagne and sang happy birthday to her. It was impromptu and typical of the attentive service of this hotel.

All of our party went on trips - we went on ";speed boat adventure";, which was great apart from the weather, which was cloudy that day and the sea was choppy, so we couldn't visit the beach that was part of the itinerary. Our guide was entertaining and helpful.
Other members of the party went on the Holguin trip. This involved a trip to a cigar factory and a ride on a steam train and some free time in Holguin itself, which is a city. It was a real eye opener apparently in terms of the poverty Cuban's experience, but an enjoyable trip by their account.
Several also went on the ";swim with dolphin's"; trip, and all enjoyed that.

In the evening we usually relaxed after our meal in the lobby bar, which is a huge area in the main part of the hotel where most people go to drink and meet friends, or watch the entertainment. I'm ashamed to say I didn't watch any of the shows, so I can't really say what they were like, but they did seem quite popular, and I'm sure a nice change from just sitting and drinking, which is really all there is to do in the evening.
A few members of our party went to the disco once or twice. We did have good fun in there and they played some good dance music (Madonna, Beyonce, as well as the usual cheesy stuff), and some latin pop.
There is also a fabulous coffee bar in the lobby, where they serve all kinds of coffee - espresso, latte, cappucino etc. We made regular trips to this, particularly in the late afternoon, where they also served biscuits and cake, and around 5pm every day served slices of cooked ham, with olives and champagne (we were never hungry, but could never resist this).
I could go on and on about this hotel, but suffice to say we are about to book to go back next January - our 3rd time there, so I think that is all there is to say.

Disabled? you may want to give Playa Costa Verde a try.

We are not disabled but unfortunatly Lynne dislocated her ankle and broke her leg on the dolphin catamaran trip, on day 5 of a two wek holiday. As a result the hotel hired us a whelchair and moved us into a ground floor room with disable facilities. Prior to this trip we had never had to consider disabled facilities and we do not consider ourselves experts but this is our review.

All of the rooms are spacious so this room was the same overall size as the others. It had two very large single beds, terrace and bathroom. It is that area that surprised us the most. All 3 wall mirrors were angled so could be clearly seen by the wheelchair user. The sink was large and by lifting a metal bar the sink angled and lowered to a suitable height,the taps were fitted with a retractable nozzle. The shower room was a wet room, no shower tray, rails all round, removable shower seat, seperate shower head near to the toilet which was slightly higher than the ones in the normal rooms. No steps or door frames to get over. The only criticisms would be the hair dryer is situated too high for the wheelchair user to reach, but once removed from its housing is on a long enough lead to be fine. The safe is also not accessible as it is too high and situated in the wardrobe.

As for the complex, there is nowhere you cannot get, we even went to the beach, and the staff could not have been more friendly or helpful. We used a taxi transfer to the airport which cost 40 pesos which is about £23
Now to our other comments, the rooms were spacious, and well kept, the maids worked really hard and did wonders with the towels. I was a bit concerned about the food given the other comments on this site. However we were pleasantly surprised, I do not trust buffet food, but here there was always plenty of freshly cooked food, omelettes or eggs for breakfast, fish, meat, pasta, and pizza at lunch and dinner and then there were the freshly prepared pancakes, they were lovely. We enjoyed all of the ala carte restaurants, the italian may not be like any other you have been to but it is still a very pleasant experience, but not as entertaining as the Japanese, you must do this even if you don't like sushi.

The entertainmaent gets a bit repetative and the bingo etc around the pool is annoying, but you can always escape to the beach. The grounds were immaculate. We did tip but not all the time, and to be honest I don't think it made any difference to the service we received, which overall in a full hotel was good.
Would we go back? to Cuba definately, but not to Paya Costa Verde, only because we do not go back to the same place twice.
Lastly, I would like to thank the rep DANAE who was superb and all our fellow holiday makers who helped us to really enjoy our holiday despite the accident. We received such kindness and offers of help that it restores your faith in mankind.
Thank you and God bless
Lynne and Michael

There is nothing about this Hotel that is not excellent

The food, the staff, the trips, we had one of the best holidays here, if you get the chance you must go on the Havana trip, it was just great.

Probably the best holiday we've ever had for relaxation.First choice flights are superb with plenty of leg room ,minimum fuss(from Manchester , we arrived 7:00 and were in the departure lounge for 07:15!!),decent food and good in flight entertainment via the seat consoles(films ,tv ,radio and games).

Hotel Paradisus Rio de Oro is first class.Well trained and friendly staff ,excellent and varied food in all the restaurants,real drinks(not the local rubbish you get at some all inclusive hotels)clean and always something happening - musicians just ";appear"; and start singing and playing.There is no pressure to give tips although the 1 peso coins are much appreciated and accepted when offered.We changed £20.00 notes periodically at the hotel into the 1 peso coins.1 peso was about 60p while we were there.

Didn't bother with the pool and only went on one trip to Holguin city which was good value.We also did the horse and cart ride to Guadalavarca market one morning(15 pesos -dropped off and picked up an hour later)There were plenty of trips on offer including Havana ,jeep rides ,dolphin swimming and free horse riding and pushbikes.People who got involve with the various activities like salsa dancing and yoga really enjoyed it.
There's lots of space and beds on the beach but if you want to be under a shade it's necessary to ";resrerve"; (usual procedure -up early and go down to the beach with a towel and book and stick it on a chair).Plenty of free water based activitys including diving and catamaran rides.

The only problem is the mosquitoes.Most of the apartments are in wooded areas so mosquitoe repellent is a must.Having said that , the bites aren't malarial or overly painful and some people seem to get bitten more than others(me -hardly at all - my wife -lots).
Whether things will alter in Cuba when Fidel Castro eventually dies remains to be seen but for the time being it's close to perfect whether you're professional layabouts(like us ) or prefer more activity)

We went to Cuba for the first time and loved it. The people are so friendly.
Our hotel was wonderful. The food was excellent and lots of choice. The al a carte resturants well good especially the Romantica.

The staff in the hotel were great and very friendly. The service is excellent. The alcohol drinks are so good even the local wine and champayne is good. If you leave a note in your fridge with a peso or 2 they will leave you some.
Rooms are spacious and very clean. Change you towels daily and the sand flys hitch a lift on them and bite during the night (god they are so itchy). Take pleny repellent although the hotel grounds are sprayed at 6pm daily there are still some mosquitos.

The dolphin trip is excellent. You can pay 10 peso and get a ride on them well worth the money.

We would definately go back to Cuba and definately to this hotel could not fault it even though we did have a few days of rain

We had a really good flight with First Choice upgrading to their premium class. On arrival at the Hotel we were greeted with drinks but unfortunately there were not enough and we missed out. Our room was spacious but in serious need of refurbishment being worn and chipped especially the bathroom.

The staff were excellent and the food in all restaurants fantastic as was the pool and the beach. Unfortunately the spa was not completed so no sauna, steam room etc.

Trips - We went on the swimming with the Dolphins which was great but remember to take some cash with you because once you get there it is extra to be pulled round by the finns of the dolphins and to be carried round on their noses.

We also went on the speed boat trip which was fantastic. The boats were fibreglass and old but went really fast and you got a really long trip up the river and out to sea.

We went on the trip to Santiago de Cuba which was a three hour coach drive over pitted tracks (main roads!) sometimes only doing 5 miles an hour. Try not to use the toilets at the ";comfort stop";. An old lady hands out a sheet of loo paper at a charge, the toilets have no seats, no doors and no flush and the sinks have no taps!! We visited a castle and had lots of hassle from the guides for money. The town was disappointing and the poverty was very obvious but if you don't go to these towns you don't realise just how poor these people are.

Back to the hotel. One night my husband turned over in bed a gently nudged the bedside table and three legs fell off it. The clay lamp fell off the table and broke. We reported this to the housekeeping department and were told that it was fine that the table had broken but ";we had to pay for the lamp";. We explained that the lamp only broke because the table was faulty but ";everything in Cuba has to be accounted for"; so as the table could be stuck back together for probably the umpteenth time we would have to pay for the lamp and if we did not the maid (who was not in bed with us in the middle of the night) would be charged and she only earned $25 a month. We paid up.

My husband also got locked in the gents down by the pool restaurant (climbing out over the wall into the next cubicle) and the cubicle remained locked for the rest of our stay so how often they were cleaned is questionable. Certainly the public toilets around the whole of the hotel left a considerable amount to be desired.

One of the problems with a country like Cuba is that the holiday is VERY MUCH hotel based except for the trips out. It is not a suitable place for car hire or going out alone. There are no bars, clubs, disco's etc. so it is very much hotel based. The entertainment was very good but the same dancers each night so a bit repetitive.

This is a beautiful resort - the pool is lovely and clean and could not be better. The beach is out of this world. Unfortunately as with all of Cuba once a place is built it is not adequately maintained (if at all) and therefore this Hotel is in serious need of upgrading and decorating in order to maintain its status as a 5* resort.

Would we go back - No - but we like to visit a different country each year - but we do know other people that have been more than once.