Paradisus Varadero *****

Anónimo, CA, 2007-06-20  
When I read the reviews about this hotel it makes me sad that other people did not have as fantastic a stay as we did. I think some of the reviews are a little unfair and forget the poverty in this country.

We went to the Paradisus Varadero on 22nd March to 6th April and we had a fantastic time. We went just the two of us and we stayed in the resort for 14 days straight as we were checking it out for our future wedding venue in May 2008.

Yes the rooms are a bit dated (all they need is a lick of paint and a softer mattress) - however they are spacious, airy and everything worked. If you had any problems you just called room service and they would come and sort everything out for you. There were no ants and our sheets and towels were cleaned every day unles we asked for this not to be the case. Our first room we had on the first floor was really really nice, but it had twin beds and we wanted a double king size bed so we moved. The other room on the ground floor was not as nice, however this was due to the colour scheme being not to my taste! The bathroom was fine with full shower, bath, toilet and b-day. More than enough storage space and changing room/sink area. If you want to spend your holiday in your room then maybe this is not the hotel for you! The upgraded rooms are even nicer and we have chosen the garden villa to stay at for our wedding night and last 3 days of our holiday next year.

The beach is the best beach I have ever seen and the beach and water are clean and clear. The beach is cleared every day by tractor to rid it of the rubbish left with cups and stuff from the beach hotels. Its fine white powdery sand too, which is lovely. You can walk for miles down the coastline looking at all the other hotels on the Varadero beach, I promise you the Paradisus beach is the best out of all of them. The Paradisus beach by far makes this the best resort in Varadero.

There were four a la carte restaurants - Steakhouse, Romantica, Spanish and Italian. All of these had great food and we enjoyed sampling the menus on offer. I can recommend the tenderloin in the steakhouse; the chateau briande in the Romantica; the lobster in the Spanish and the deserts in the Italian! All the food was good and you are spoiled for choice as its all included in the price of your holiday and the only extra charge is for a nicer bottle of wine than those already included! There was also a seafood restaurant in the Beach Grill - we avoided this as my fioncee did not like fish, but the menu was great for fish lovers!

The buffet is as you would expect in cuba - varied but not like at home. I do not agree that the food was cold as per the reviews. We had breakfast every day in the buffet as well as lunch on alternate days and dinner when we could not get into the a la carte restaurants. We found that there was always a really good choice, you could have fresh fish or meat cooked the way you liked it, fresh pizza, spagetti, fish and shellfish or the hot meal of the day. All the food we had was of good quality and the service was exceptional, our drinks were always topped up and plates cleared quickly. Our food was never cold or rubbish tasting and I would say it was better than expected considering I had been to cuba before.

For lunch you can eat at the beach grill which is excellent, we ate there most days. You can also eat at the spanish restaurant where they have live cuban music playing, however the menu is a little basic. The italian offers a great lunch menu of pizza or pasta (including takeaway pizza if you want to stay by the pool!) we ate there when staying out of the sun as they have an al fresco covered seating area, we just loved and we wanted a long lazy lunch. And there is also the buffet.

The entertainment team were there to ensure your stay was as lively or as quiet as you wanted. There are so many activities its hard to keep up. However, you do what you want to do and there is no pressure to do anything. The evening entertainment was very camp and we did not enjoy the shows, however, we really enjoyed the elegant lobby bar, which became our evenings entertainment before an early night.

The gym needs new equipment so is not of a standard expected at a 5 star - however, there is a beautiful beach to run down as well as many other exercises such as aerobics, water aerobics, step and plenty of beach and pool games. I am sure that the hotel wil update their equipment shortly.

Room service - 414! Make sure you use this during your stay. We only discovered it half way through our holiday when we saw a bell boy taking a bottle of wine to a room opposite us. They will bring you anything you want to drink or eat 24 hours a day, this included cava and pizza at 3am and a bottle of rum and an ice bucket in the early evening for balcony relaxationa s the sun went down!!

The pool is magnificent and even when the hotel was fully booked it did not feel crowded. Its very clean and the pool attendants are very quick to get your beds if you regularly tip them.

The massage, manicure and pedicure services are excellent value for money. They costed around 15 CUC which works out about £10.

One thing I will say is that TIPS in cuba go along way. These people are very poor and rely on the tips they receive. We had excellent service throughout the hotel and we only tipped about 10-15CUC's per day.

This is definitely a hotel for weddings or special occasions, we have booked our wedding here in May 2008. If you dont want a hotel that is dedicated to these kinds of holidays then I would suggest you stay elsewhere. There were 3-4 weddings a day when we were there, this means that the restaurants can be hard to book and bars can be busier than normal.

This is the best holiday I have ever had and the hotel was paradise. It certainly was a 4-5 star for us and we are going back!

Anónimo, CA, 2005-04-20
We are just coming from a two week vacation at the Paradisus Varadero and have been very disappointed by the Hotel.
At the outset, upon your arrival, everything seems perfect when you visit the site while waiting for your room: the entry and lobby of the Hotel, with their aquatic layout, the gardens, the unique pool, etc., until such time when you arrived at your room, when you begin your search for drawers, that are practically non-existent, and where renovations would be very welcome.
The second surprise is your adventure at the Buffet, where your patience is tested, while waiting for a table and for a waitress to serve you, even a cup of coffee. Then, you begin your search for something appetizing, in vain. It is up to you to go and see if I am right…. We do not even mention the service, absolutely mediocre….
The food is clearly better in the other restaurants on the site.
At EACH meal, a band will be pleased to play and sing your favourite songs, thereafter waiting for your tip and presenting their CD for sale, that you will try to hear at home, without success (ours contains 3-4 complete songs, that's all..).
After dinner, you feel to watch a good show…. in vain… they are all feeble performances….
So, if you wish to go on holidays for sun and a good relaxation at the pool, and, of course, if you are on low diet, we would greatly recommend the Paradisus Varadero.
If you are very selective and research quality and refinement, think twice before booking.
Denis and Julie, from Montreal

Anónimo, CA, 2005-04-17
We just returned from a fabulous week at Paradisus Varadero (Apr 4, 2005- Apr 11,2005)! On arriving we stopped at many of the hotels on the way to Paradisus and later when we took at trip to Havana and judging from appearances Paradisus is one of the most impressive and secluded resorts in Varadero.

ARRIVAL: We were very impressed when we arrived at Paradisus, the lobby is beautiful and upon arriving we were able to switch to a top floor room and were promptly escorted along with the other guests who had arrived in our transfer to our rooms. The resort is quite large and at first we thought we were far away from everything but once we became orientated it is quite manageable to navigate the resort.

ROOM: The room was just like the pictures we had seen on the hotel’s website and brochures. Although it appeared slightly rundown as there were chips in the tile and the painting looked a little sloppy. One of the lamps was also missing a lampshade, perhaps because we were given a different room than we were originally intended to have and thus this room wasn’t totally ready, who knows! The beds were typical hard all-inclusive Caribbean beds, with 1 pillow and 1 blanket. The next day I requested extra pillows and blankets and received them that day. The room also came with a coffeemaker and complimentary coffee that was not advertised (as we had been trying to determine prior to the trip).

SERVICE: The maid service was excellent as we received everything we asked for, such as extra water and the room was nicely cleaned each day. We left the maid various items and money throughout the week by leaving it on the table. One day I think I left a bra on the bed and later I couldn’t find it. I am not sure if the maid intentionally took it or if she just thought I had left it for her as nothing else was stolen including odd money we had lying about. I never made anything of it as she probably needed it more than me but I was slightly irritated as it was expensive. So be careful when you leave stuff lying around the room, I would suggest keeping your clothes all together to avoid any confusion. Service in the restaurant and bars was for the most part good and tips do go a long way. We got to know one of the servers in the buffet by sitting in her section and gave her stuff at the end of the week too. Throughout the week there was only a few bad experiences but we chalked them up to the attitude of that particular server or not enough staff on.

BEACH: The beach is beautiful, it is nice and wide and has plenty of huts and loungers with floating mats if you get there early enough. We walked down to the neighboring new Iberostar Varadero and their stretch of beach was much narrower and the huts were very close together and it looked cramped. At Paradisus, the beach doesn’t seem crowded at all and I noticed lots of tourists with wristbands walking along our stretch of beach! We had green and yellow flag days at the beach all week, which was nice to enjoy both calm and wavy water ( next time we'll try to bring boogieboards!). You can take out kayaks, waterbikes, snorkel equipment and catamarans for 30 mins when the water is calm. We brought snokel equipment with us but there was not much to see so we never used it. While there are lots of shells on the beach the actual water is pretty sandy and you don’t need water shoes. They rake the beach each day and clear up the seaweed, one day a huge load of seaweed washed in and was left for a few days as it was so large but it was only at one end so it didn’t bother anyone. This beach is much nicer than any of the Mexican beaches I’ve been too! As the resort has many European tourists, there were lots of topless women on the beach.

POOL: The pool is a decent size and has lots of chairs, and some umbrellas and cabanas. You have to get there early to get a cabana and its hard to find a floating mat if you get there too late but we always went to the pool in the afternoon and managed to find chairs and at least one floating mat.

RESTAURANTS: The buffet was decent and we always managed to find something to eat. The beach grille was good for lunch but quite busy, the restaurant by the pool was good for lunch as well. We had reservations at all 3 restaurants but skipped the Spanish restaurant because it was mainly seafood and we weren’t feeling like it that particular night. We did eat at the Italian restaurant Stella di Mare which was good. But the best restaurant was Romantico where you could get lobster and many flambé dishes. We tried room service one night but got no answer multiple times, yet we did see room service being delivered from the restaurants so we weren’t too sure what the deal was.

BARS: The beach bar was handy and we brought insulated cups and we’re glad we did! Many guests asked where we got them and I would recommend bring them as the cups are quite small. Gave mine away at the airport where the man at check in thought it was the greatest thing and took it despite the fact it was full of coffee. The service at the beach bar was excellent. The pool bar wasn’t too busy and you always got good service, and the swim up bar was hardly ever occupied. The lobby bar was busy, especially in the evenings but you were always able to get a drink with minimal wait. We thought the drinks were good and plenty strong enough, we noticed that they had lots of brand name alcohol available too.

ENTERTAINMENT: Although we didn’t take part in anything there were many activities to do at the beach and pool in the morning and afternoon. We managed to catch a few of the nightly shows, which were ok, low budget Broadway type shows at best. The dancing and singing was good it was just all a bit cheesy but typical of any resort.

DAYTRIPS: We went to Havana, a must see if you’ve never been to Cuba before.

WEATHER: Very hot! It rained a few nights, meaning tropical monsoon type rain but each room has an umbrella so it was okay.

OVERALL: We had a great trip, and we would recommend this resort.

Anónimo, GB, 2005-03-29
Just returned from a great holiday in Cuba. We spent 10 nights at the Paradisus after 4 nights in Havana. This is a lovely hotel. The grounds and gardens are beautiful and well looked after. I loved the pool and the swim up bar! The beach was also gorgeous the sea is so warm! The food in the a la carte restaurants was excellant alot better than I expected. The buffet was ok but I didn't think the choice was that good its ok if you like cold seafood!!! The service is really good in all the restaurants and bars especially if you tip!!
While in Varadero we went on one trip and that was the catamaran cruise! We booked this at the hotel not through our reps. This was one of the best days of our holiday! We stopped off to swim with the Dolphins in a sectioned off part of the sea. We only had 15 minutes with them but it was lovely and the pictures we bought were really good. The rest of the day was such a laugh the staff were really fun and made our day memorable!
Have a great time at this hotel wish I was going back!!!!

Anónimo, GB, 2005-03-28
We really could not have asked for much else!. Bearing in mind that this is Cuba, and the trade embargo's that exist, they cater for everyones tastes remarkably well. Whilst the food served in the buffet was not always as hot as we would have liked, it was never a problem to have the same thing cooked again for you freshly. The lunch time restaurants were particularly good, with giant crab claws, king praws,red snapper,chicken, pork, cooked in front of you on the barbecue. The a la carte restaurants were lovely, especially the Romantica, where you had a string quartet serenading you whilst you ate!. It is advisable to book these as early as you can-the desk opened at 9am.
The rooms were very spacious, clean, and nicely decorated, with a small fridge, which was restocked daily with, a couple of beers, fizzie drinks and water. You also get an iron&board, and an umbrella!
The hotel's location is superb, and is definitley on the best part of a lovely beach(a trip to Cayo Blanco Island by Cat is a must for beach lovers), or as an alternative, you have a huge pool in lovely surroundings.
We would definitley recomend this hotel, and we would definitley return!. For us, it ranked up there with Mexico, Barbados, The Caymans. All similar, but very different in their own rights!, but equally enjoyable.