Santiago de Cuba

I stayed here from March 10 to 17. I stayed in room 104 (give or take). I always leave the "do not disturb sign" on my door because I don't trust the maids based on my many trips to Cuba where they go shopping in my room and take things. On this trip, I went to Santiago De Cuba for a 2 day trip and when I got back the maid had been in my room (thereby ignoring the "do not disturb sign") and I discovered that my shampoo was missing. There was no point in complaining because it is not a significant item. However, when I got home I realized that a new golf shirt worth $75 that I brought down was missing. Of course this is what thieving maids rely on. You don't realize anything is missing until it is too late to complain because you are already home. It's too bad that we have to spend valuable time on our vacation to run inventory checks because the maids are stealing from us.

My wife and I, in our late 30's, visited this hotel recently. The hotel primarily caters to older guests and some guests are long-term residents there. There were only Canadians at the resort during our visit. Most of the Cubans working at the resort spoke at least some english. It was always possible to figure out a solution to any communication problem anyhow. As you will read in other reviews, this hotel is up on a hill overlooking the town of Chivrico. This means that if you want to go to the beach, you have to walk down (and later up) a lot of stairs. Similarly, if you want to go into town, you will have a walk down (and later up) the steep roadway that leads to the hotel. One interesting thing about this hotel is that it in in "real" Cuba. So if you want to actually see what Cuba is like for Cubans that live there, you can use this hotel as a launch point to explore the local area. We enjoyed doing this ourselves but it did make us feel a bit guilty and exploitative for travelling to this country for such a low cost and taking advantage of Cuban poverty. And the country is very poor indeed. However, despite the impoverishment of the people, we have consistently found them to be welcoming, friendly, extremely generous, genuine, and most of all - happy. This is a nice change from the stress, hustle and bustle of North American culture. As far as the resort goes, we'd rate it a 2.5 star. The rooms are very basic yet clean. The beds uncomfortable and old. The food on the resort was very good but also limited by the fact that this is Cuba and it is an isolated country without access to the things that we are accustomed to. A few travelers got diarrhea during the week, but we didn't hear a lot of that so it is likely that the food is handled sufficiently. The beach is beautiful and very nice to sit and read on. However it does not provide a nice place to swim as the reef in the area comes right up near to the shore. Some people went in the water there but we didn't. We ended up swimming at another beach nearby. The small pool at the resort is also nice to have a quick dip in and we found it clean every day. If you are ok with basic accommodations and being in "real" Cuba, give this place a try. We have also stayed at the sister hotel, Brisas Sierra Mar and preferred it to this hotel.

It was solid place to stay in Santigo - currently (Dec 2012) the hotel is still showing damage from hurricane Sandy - but it is being repaired.

GREAT STAFF, GREAT PEOPLE, BUT TERRIBLE RESTAURANT SERVICE: POOR CHOICES, FLIES ALL OVER THE FOOD, DISGUSTING BREKFASTS AND LACK OF HIGIENE IN THE RESTAURANTS, I DODN'T WANT TO IMAGINE HOW'S THE FOOD PREP. WE GOT SICK WITH SOME CROQUETTES!

At best this is a two star hotel in an inconvenient location just outside Santiago. General maintenance and housekeeping could be improved particularly in the pool where during my stay saw the water turn from clear to a mirky green. Food offerings were average. There are NO taxis available to travel into the city other than private cars. Public transport is non existent and walking is too far and dangerous. DO NOT STAY HERE !!!