Club Amigo Atlantico Reviews

I have literally just returned from a 7 night stay at the Club Amigo Atlantico and between my letter of complaint to Thomas Cook I thought that I should warn others off going. Cuba is an amazing place and the beaches are fantastic, white sand and turquoise sea... lovely, but we were unfortunate with where we stayed. The food is the main issue, it is absolutely appalling, no fresh food at all, only overcooked meat with sweet corn or rice and that's it. I didn't see any fresh fish or have one meal I enjoyed. The puddings consisted of watermelon which was obviously the same batch brought out all week as it was getting drier and drier. My boyfriend and I both got stomach upsets too. Our last night in Cuba I was expecting something wonderful from the speciality Cuban A'la Carte restaurant as we are both quite adventurous with food, but the kebab 'chef's speciality' which I was served looked ok but was REALLY tough, I couldn't even cut the meat with a knife, we walked out half way through. I am very easily pleased, but this place is rubbish.

The water sports was another big thing I was looking forward to, but they consisted of 2 kayaks, 1 pedalo and 4 snorkels for all the hundreds of guests who were staying.

Our room was ok, but on the first night we found 8 cockroaches running around - it was the worst night I've ever had... thankfully we moved rooms, but I wouldn't use the guest toilet in reception as I'd found cockroaches in there too, and we found them flying and running around the bar areas.

Basically all in all, I recommend anyone looking at this hotel should go and look elsewhere, there were people on the plane who I met who stayed in a hotel down the road, a 4* and paid a very similar amount and their food and service sounded AMAZING, I'm very jealous. Don't stay at the Club Amigo Atlantico, pay a tiny bit more and stay elsewhere; the Club Amigo Atlantico will be a waste of your hard earned money!

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 went in Dec 2006, was very hot and that is the best thing I can say about it. In my opinion dont go to this Hotel. The food was not good, would not even give it to my dog.DO NOT GO

Just returned this week (13 Dec).
Hotel is definitely not 3 star and needs a face lift- although I believe the money is in place for this.
Worst problem was mosquitos. Almost everyone had bites despite repellant, and my wifes face was badly swollen. Could be due to the weather but wouldn't like to say for sure. Do not go without strong creams. Sun, when it appeared, is very strong and with only 3 days full sun have both got decent tans.
Beach is very nice with soft sand but smell of sewage close to hotel- this disappears only a short distance away. 4 pools are good size and plenty of free sunbeds with bars to eat and drink alongside them. Also beach has free watersports but staff expect a tip.

Hotel food was boring and lukewarm. No cereals for breakfast and lukewarm water for tea. Cuban coffee seems to be the order of the day. Eggs everyday for 2 weeks gets monotonous! No windows in main restaurant so consequently the wind and rain blew in. Had good meals in 2 fish restaurants off site, both served lobster and prawns, although sat with umbrella up inside one restaurant due to rain through roof.
Only did 1 trip out( to local village) which was good and cheap.
Rooms are dark but adequate with bathroom and wardrobe. Staff killed and removed a mouse one day .

THE ROOM
I would definitely not recommend this hotel. It is tired and in serious need of an overhaul. It rained for most of our stay over Xmas 2006 and our ceiling had a huge crack and leaked. Quite a few other people's leaked and they obviously hadn't been repaired for years, if ever! I doubt if they will ever be repaired until the roof actually caves in on you. My front wall was disintergrating and there was a green patchy paint over the original brown on our balcony There was one chair, the other one was broken and would probably never be replaced.

MOSQUITOS
Our major problem was with mosquitos. There's a stagnant pond across from the bungalows section which was a haven for mosquito breeding. We had over 100 bites each despite bringing every repellent known to man plus a plug in! BRING YOUR OWN BITE CREAM as the £8 steroid cream the pharmacy sold me did little to alleviate the miserable itching. The rooms were never sprayed or fumigated. The local houses all had mosquito nets.

THE FOOD
The food is just plain awful. The a la carte isn't much better either. There was a bucketful of salt added to everything too. In my opiniion, you can't say ";Oh it's Cuba"; and condone these unacceptably low standards. Every other hotel had decent food, why can't this one? It doesn't need fistfuls of money to improve, just decent catering, managed properly. You can get a voucher to eat in the Brisas next door but you must book well in advance. All drinks are served in flimsy little plastic cups.

LOCATION and THINGS TO DO
The location is lovely, like all the other hotels, right on the beach, just walk down about 20 steps. Don't go with a wheelchair. The 2 pools are clean and there is an abundance of sun beds. There is a diving centre at the end of the beach, they are lovely and take good care of you. They don't take any risks and I would definitely recommend them. You can have a pedalo, windsurf, kayak or snorkel, the snorkelling is great if you swim quite far out to the coral reefs. No motorised sports. You can have a bike to ride along the coast, which is good. You can rent a moped for 24CUCs. Don't even think about hiring a car. The road to Santiago de Cuba is virtually non-existent and so unbelievably dangerous.
A little ";Thomas the Tank Engine"; stops outside the hotel every day at 10.30am and takes you up the mountain and down to a little fishing village for 10CUCs. Well worth the ride. There's also a bus that stops outside that takes you to an historic site but was closed over Xmas, so we didn't see it but I heard it's well worth the journey.

ENTERTAINMENT
There is a classical pianist playing 8-9pm in the main building and the house band play to you as you're eating for an hour, then they play at the bungalow section for a further hour before the dreaded games, or even ballet! It finishes 11.30pm There is a disco, which my teenagers disliked. They found the 24hour snack bar better to meet up and talk and laugh. There is a salsa class in a room at the bungalow section which I never caught. Information seems to be on a need to know basis.
I took the Santiago de Cuba bus trip. It was the worst trip I've ever paid good money for. Avoid a tour guide called Chris! After taking 5 hours to reach our destination to a little restaurant, we had a frugal lunch before guided around the fortress next to it, we actually spent 2 hours in total looking around Santiago by ourselves. I'm sure it can be a lovely trip but you need a good guuide to show you around. We spent the most part just sort of wandering around. The trip home was a miraculous 3 hours - 2 hours less!

In conclusion: After a gruelling 10 hour flight and a lot of money, you need a perfect holiday. Choose a different hotel. Don't take your kids, there's nothing for them here.