Iberostar Laguna Azul

Knowing of Cuba's economic problems, I was impressed that bringing my own toilet paper was all-for-not. Some of the facilities were unavailable, including one of the pools, but who cares? The Beach is gorgeous, the Staff are all friendly, and the rum flows. [Details]

I would never recommend it [Details]

Nice hotel. House-keeping was over booked. [Details]

We had a great experience for the most part at the resort. There was a lack of meat at the buffet but the food that was there actually had a lot of flavor, which is different for Cuba. There was the typical things for Cuba, like our air conditioning worked in our room but it was either on or off because Thermostat was wired incorrectly. The shower curtain rail was ready to fall off, taps were lose and the sliding door to the balcony would not lock closed. Pools were nice but the big pool with the swim up pool bar was under renovation which was disappointing but it needs to be done sometime or people would complain it is in bad condition. The people were great everywhere but the lobby bar. The lobby bar makes you feel like you are intruding when you walk up to the bar. They ignore you are there, and when they do finally take your order, there is no smile, no acknowledgment of what you ordered, they just turn and go make your drink, very slowly I might add. There are normally a minimum of three people behind the counter at any given time, but only one person is serving anyone. The beach is terrible. It is very small, for the size of resort, and you are literally lined up about a foot between each lounger. The beach appears like it was a dump for concrete at one time. There is broken concrete everywhere. There is no one from the resort cleaning it up so the vacationers were picking it up and piling it. More would get exposed each day so the piles were getting quite big by the end of our stay. Numerous people got cuts and scrapes from these sharp pieces of broken crete, including me.
The room had no walk in shower and a very large tub mounted very high so there would be no way or very dangerous for an elderly person to get in and out of the tub/shower. [Details]

None of the elevators worked. Place is falling apart.
I wouldn't recommend anyone going to Cuba at this time because of food shortage. The people are great it's the hotel. It's far below standard. [Details]

The hotel was ok but i had problems with my door and it took 4 tries to get it right. The food was awful, there was no selection some days no eggs no dressing for salads had to eat salad raw like a rabbit. There was no meat what so ever in the 7 days i was there, only fish i did not see any chicken or pork. the only fruit i saw were watermelon, papaya and something that looked like pinapple. [Details]

IBEROSTAR LAGUNA AZUL THE WORST RESORT EVER!!!! My kids want it to go back home the first day. Receptionists so rude no Maneger on duty I wanna right a whole story what happened with us but I know it's a waste of my time no body going to do anything about it so I give them a 0 star. [Details]

The food was horrible and that is putting it politely. We have been to Cuba many times and have never had a problem with the food until this resort. 3/4 had stomache issues for 8/10 days there(even after taking everything we were suppose to to avoid this). We had to cancel our excursions and we did nothing for 10 days because we had to be close to a toilet. For a resort with over 1000 people at it there was next to no entertainment by the pool or at the beach there was nothing to do. There was cockroaches that ran across our food plates in the Japanese restaurant. All pools were missing so many tiles and were very dirty. The beach was beautiful until you got in the water and it was full of rocks(one lady had a huge cut on her ankle from the rocks) we have never experienced this in Varadero before. One evening we walked Into our room and it smelled of electric fire and the lights just randomly went out we went to lobby they called a maintenance guy and he never showed up.. how very unsafe. Our bedsheets or towels were never changed the whole entire time we were there she just kept taking towels from us and never replaced them. There was big grown men pushing my small 12 yr old child around in the buffet to get in front of her. The nightly entertainment was like a mini porn show each night with the dancers grinding on eachother smacking eachothers butts,you could see through the costumes and see nipples and boobs,one dancers boob completely feel out of her top one night,everytime they bent over or started shaking their butt at the audience (which was constantly) you could see EVERYTHING. very not kid appropriate. Every time they mixed a pina colada I had to walk away because the mix smelled rotten like puke. Inless the 1 good waiter was working in the buffet the service was horrible couldn't even get water or a coffee. I could keep going but I think you get the point. Was a disappointing vacation. We will never return to this resort and it will be many years before we even think about returning to Cuba. [Details]

The worst experience I had. I put one star because it is not possible to put 0.
The facilities were bad. Everything was broken (shower, doors, chairs, etc.). The food was terrible. Not much choise. No eggs for breakfast. Bread was burned. Not much to eat at the hotel.
We found cockroaches in the room. The rooms wasn't very clean. The ceiling fan had a lot of dust (a lot of time without cleaning).
The swim spas never worked. The ice cream place were closed.
The bars didn't have much choise. No mojito, no pina colada, no orange juice, sometimes no beer, even one day there wasn't ice for the drinks.
The beach facilities were bad. Not enough chairs, and many broken.
I don't recomend this hotel. [Details]

Our stay at the hotel was welcoming, relaxing and enjoyable
We will certainly come back again, thank you to everyone who help make our vacation a beautiful experience [Details]

The layout and design of the resort is wonderful and it is directly on the white sands of Varadero Beach. Three large pool areas provide plenty of places to relax in the sun (although very few shaded areas or umbrellas are available). We had the "family room", which turned out to be two connected rooms, so we had plenty of space and a beautiful view over the pool and to the sea from our balcony. The disappointments began the very first night when we (arriving late) had to get food at the 24 hour snack bar. A menu listed numerous options, but the reality was only burgers and fries were available. The burger was literally just a burger - no ketchup, mustard, onion, tomato - a piece of meat and a bun. However, the real horrors began the next day in the buffet restaurant. Although clearly designed to be air-conditioned (windows do not open, A/C vents in the ceiling, and NO fans), the A/C was not working the entire 11 days. It was really HOT in the restaurant and since they kept all the doors open to try and get some airflow - it was full of flies and birds! Food sits out in the 30C to 40C room for several hours. Yes, we all got sick to some extent - in my case it took me a week after the trip to recover. Not only that, the food options were lousy! Breakfast - only fried eggs were good (pancakes looked and tasted bad, omelettes tasted bad, scrambled eggs tasted bad - perhaps not made from real eggs?). Bacon, when available, was always undercooked. The only sausage was wieners. NO toast, bagels, muffins, etc. They had hard bread that you had to slice - but the toaster was broken. Pastries were freshly made but none really tasted good (hard and sweet). NO orange juice - they had a few other juices but all tasted bad. The only fruit on offer was papaya and unripe pineapple and watermelon (NO mango, bananas, oranges, apples, etc.). Cereal was one kind and it was chewy and flavourless with warm milk that had been sitting in the hot room for hours. Lunch and dinner were even worse - NO chicken, NO pork, NO beef except liver (!), and they usually had fish and the inevitable wiener variations and sometimes mussels. NO salad except cucumber, beets, and carrots. At lunch and dinner it is safe to say that you will find nothing delicious - if you are lucky, you can find something to get by on. However, the dining experience is awful because it is so HOT, flies all around you, bird buzzing past your head, and mostly lackluster service. The resort has four a la carte restaurants, which are much better - the best is the Japanese, which actually tasted good! As mentioned above, snack bars are not good, usually offering one item at a time. Their pizzas were probably the worst I've every had - chewy dough, tasteless sauce, and a few pieces of cheese. The rum is great, of course, but it is hard to find something good to mix it with because they have their own cola and "juices", none of which taste that good. For some inexplicable reason, they could never make a mojito. Service was occasionally fast and friendly, but many staff members were slow and unmotivated. For example, one of our beds had no bedding on it the first night, but calls and even visits to the front desk could not resolve this. In our entire stay, we never saw any kind of manager - nobody ever seemed to be responsible for anything. Maintenance was lacking - almost all elevators were not working the entire time - some did not even have buttons, so clearly had been broken for years! At night, you noticed that almost all the lights were burnt out, some areas were completely dark. Can't a 4-star resort get some light bulbs? Ice cream parlour was mostly closed. Spa (hot tub) had no water in it and looked like it had been broken for months. Entertainment was mostly good but very brief - evening show sometimes as short as 40 minutes! Nothing before or after. Also, if you stay more than one week, you should know that they just repeat the same schedule - so you will see the exact same shows again on your 2nd week! The hotel is in a lovely beachside location but there is nothing in walking distance (except neighbouring resorts), so there is NO possibility of strolling somewhere for some different food. You are a 30 minute drive from the town. Overall, we felt we paid FAR too much for this resort and would NOT recommend it to anyone due to the abysmal and unhealthy food. [Details]

First night when we arrived,they gave us a room wasn't clean hair from previous ppl around the room broken glass on the floor.bed sheets had blood and stain.

They changed our room next day but elevator for 3rd floor broke after 3rd day and my mother senior had knee operation was in so much trouble using long walk and stairs.
We had a big argument last night with hotel staff because every night we had to wait about 1 hour until someone open a path from another building for us to go to go to our room because elevator was not working in our building.
Buffet always smelled bad as there is no AC and lots of mosquitoes flying on the tables and in your plates (disgusting).
Roaches always in the buffets as well as in the rooms.we always saw roaches on the table in the buffet.
We found spider in the pizza.
The majority of staff in the restaurants are lazy laid back slow and not willing to help.
The quality of the food in the buffet is treble,maybe6 or 7 hot food.
Snack bar is 24/7 but they only server pork burger or sausage but most stupid sandwich only bun and burger with no lettuce of any I repeat any veggies.
Through the entire 7 days of our stay (sep 4-11 we saw no tomatoes onions or lemon.they said it's not the season for it in Cuba!
How stupid this hotel is?shame on this management who have the name of 5 star hotel and fool ppl to buy iberostar and promote 3 star quality. [Details]

Gone many times to Varadero. However first time at Iberostar Laguna Azul.
Iberostar is a good chain but I was left wanting more from this specific hotel. It is more on the old side but it is a beautiful resort. Very Spanish looking with it's architecture. You really feel like you are down south. The food was bland and repetitive, but expected for Cuba. Service could have been a little better. At times missing toilet paper, no towels, slow service, etc. Had to call the front desk a few times. A la carte restaurants were not very well airconditioned and the buffet was outdoors for the week that I was there due to renovations. If you like walking around the grounds at night, I suggest you get bug spray because there were a lot of mosquitos. No matter what it's Cuba and the beaches are beautiful and the people are very friendly. [Details]

Very poor service! Would not recommend or return! [Details]

The hotel itself needs a facelift. Much is in need of a good cleaning or repair. The grounds and pool are lovely. Lots of activities. I understand Cuba is a poor country and that supplies are hard to come by especially post COVID-19 pandemic but I would say that toilet paper, hand soap and clean towels are a necessity. I consistently heard Cuba is an inexpensive place to vacation and not to expect much from the food and I am glad I knew that going in. First vacation in my life where I actually lost weight due to lack of decent food at the resort. I did have a great time with friends but honestly would rather pay more and get the things I have come to expect. [Details]

The setting is absolutely gorgeous - beach has white sand and clear warm water. Palapas on the beach provide needed shade. Resort grounds are beautiful, though needing some maintenance (pool tiles missing or loose for example). Rooms are very basic and service was really hit and miss. I would say this is more like a 3 star resort. We paid extra for the Relax room and I'm not sure it was worth it. Public restrooms often did not have soap or toilet paper after about noon. Wifi is hit and miss and you get 8 hours at a time then have to go to the front desk to reset it. [Details]

Amazing! We had a good time and it will be in our plans for next year. [Details]

It was the first time for me visiting Cuba. I knew that I had to decrease my expectations on many aspects like food, the stars of the hotel,..
I was truly surprised in the good way with this hotel. I have spent an awesome week with my little one. Rhe hotel was nice, the rooms were indeed in lack of renovation but very confortable and clean. The buffet was various but repetitive. The staff was extremely nice and polite. The beach was like a paradise. My son had fun at the kids club. There were everyday a different show at the theater. During the day , they were having different activities at the beach and the pool.
December 31st there were a lot of different kind of food at the buffet. They brought a live band playing music at night. There were a special show. Dj was on fire , putting all kind of music all night long.
We had a lot of fun and I highly recommend this hotel. I'll come back for sure!!! [Details]

I went to Iberostar Laguna Azul in December 2022. It was a great experience. The hotel is very clean, organized and easy to access all the main places (lobby, bars, restaurants, buffet etc). The food was very good, there was a lot of variety (seafood, veggies & fruits). The staff everywhere was nice and helpful. I wanted to changes my room as well as have a late check-out and the changes were done quickly and easily. The entertainment was absolutely great. Every night, there was a different show (dance show, international, circus to name a few) followed by a party in the club on the resort. The entertainment staff (Yoe, Yandy and Yalbert particularly) were super nice, friendly and made everyone's trip more fun. They are great a what they do and everyone was very happy we got to meet them and spend time with them. Overall, I highly recommend the hotel. It was a very good experience and I would definitely go back. [Details]

We purchased a 7-day all-inclusive to the Iberostar Laguna Azul. We traveled as a family with our 7-year-old son.

Our vacation company delayed our departure, so we lost 2 days at the beginning. We were also delayed 8 hours when leaving. This was all due to “operational challenges” with the airline as a result of bad weather prior to the busy holiday season. This review has less to do with that negative experience, but it needs to be mentioned.

I've traveled to Cuba before so I knew what to expect. Those who have never been should know that going there can be different than going to places elsewhere. Generally, it's the food that has the worst reputation, but the state of the economy, supply-demand, can make for challenges when staying at resorts there if they aren't well-managed places.

We've been to many different all-inclusives - all of them either 4 or 5 star, including another Iberostar in Mexico. The Iberostar Laguna Azul resort advertises itself as a 4-star. It is not 4-star. It is a 3-star resort at best; probably not worthy of the name Iberostar.

PROS:

The Beach. There are a lot of chairs, which are in good shape. There are a lot of umbrellas to setup a home base as you spend the day enjoying your literal paradise. Beautiful almost perfect white sand, turquoise colored almost crystal-clear water, and soft waves all day every day. The resort is fortunate to be located on such a beautiful beach. It's as good as it gets. You can walk in either location and enjoy the water, sun, and the energy of the people as you go past other resorts along the way. It's clean and feels safe. The locals are friendly and don't hassle you too much – they offer cigarettes, souvenirs (shells, starfish, handmade clothing, hats etc., and hair-braiding. There's a bar on the beach and fun activities happening there daily. You can go back at night and if you're lucky you can enjoy it under the moonlight as well. It is perfect.

The Room. The AC works well. Keeps the room cool and dry, almost too cool at night. The safe works – you can easily program a code each time you open and close. It does the job well.

The Pool. It's a nice setup if the pool is your thing. There's a walk-up bar if you want to go hangout with all the people drinking all day who never leave the pool, but just know what that usually means. There's loud music and action happening on that side and if not your thing, there are quieter spots around the sides where you can play in the pool with your family.

WiFi & Internet. We expected that there would only be WiFi in the main lobby area, but there was WiFi throughout the resort, from the rooms, to the snack bar, to the pools, and to parts of the beach. Although actually staying connected was a challenge, the coverage was great.

The Ala Carte Restaurants. Since we arrived two days late, we missed the opportunity to book our ala cartes in time. We were only able to get a reservation at the Cuban restaurant at the “relaxed area” (ie: adult side) snack bar for one evening. It was a three-course dinner, and it was nice. A step up from the buffet food and the service was nice.

New Years' Eve. The buffet was nicely set up and there were a lot of offerings that were exceptions to what was normally offered at the buffet. Cloth napkins the only night there. There was sushi, and fresh lobster. Lots to choose from.

The Lobby. There was always positive energy, people, and action in the lobby, and live entertainment which was nice. Especially on New Year's Eve. It was a lively place.

CONS:

The Resort. It's tired and unkept. It needs fresh paint everywhere – it needs a renovation. The décor is dated. There are tripping hazards everywhere. Watch your step! The hand railings are not well kept and are broken or have loose screws in places. Watch your kids if they like to hang on the hand rails. The boardwalk to the beach is falling apart – be careful you don't step on a nail if walking barefoot. Smoking everywhere. There are no non-smoking areas. Indoors or outdoors. You smell cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoke everywhere you go and you can't escape from it. Ashtrays everywhere.

The Room. Dirty. Musty smelling. Mold in the bathrooms. Dirty paint on the walls. Dirty furniture. Old drab heavy beddings that smell dirty. Dirty looking and worn toilet – seat stained yellow. Sink takes forever to drain. Leaky faucets. No water pressure in the shower. The safe is mounted on an angle for some reason, and the closet door gets in the way. The front door lock wouldn't latch properly – couldn't get it to close until someone showed us a trick to get it to unlatch. The same went for the bathroom door. The fridge was empty the whole time – nothing was ever stocked for us, including any plastic bottled water or beer. Filtered water is provided for the rooms in glass bottles (and only if you ask for it), and you can buy the glass bottles for $25 USD each if you really want to buy a dirty glass bottle used by hundreds of people. The bottles are obviously never cleaned, they are just refilled by the maids when they do the rooms, so you may want to reconsider if you choose to drink right from the bottle. You may be sharing the bottles with everyone else in the hotel. Yuck! You can tip the housekeepers by leaving 500 pesos right next to a row of empty glass bottles but that's no guarantee you'll get any water. They'll just make your beds, swap out your bath towels, and make you some fancy useless swans on your bed out of the old blankets that smell dirty and musty that you haven't used all week. You can air them out on the balcony and that won't make any difference.

The Buffet. The food. Omg – most of it is inedible. Everything has a slight initial fishy taste or the essence of dirty water when you take a bite, even the fruit, which is probably the worst selection that I've ever seen at a resort. The papaya tastes awful. The pineapple is like eating a tree. The watermelon is tasteless. There was no mango. The guava is so hard you have to cut into it with a knife (if you can find one). Your juice selection includes Tang (or something like it) in place of orange juice. The rest is blended from the available fruit but it has no taste. Some food items are better than others, so you quickly identify what you go back to every time you're there, but there's nothing really good about any of it. It's all the same old recycled food that gets doctored up differently the next night and served again-and-again the whole week that you're there. The breakfast buffet was typically better than the dinner. There's a cook making omelets but he's not very friendly and his available ingredients are almost always out of cheese. Otherwise, you can choose from green pepper, what looks like ham but is really just pork, back bacon, and diced hot dog wieners. You learn quickly to grab some cheese slices yourself from the cheese platter and bring it with you before standing in line with it and give to the chef. There might be scrambled eggs or poached eggs – be careful of egg shells. You'll notice right away that there are only a few key places where you can get plates so you're looking all over the buffet just to find one so that you can start getting food, and they're hidden behind line ups. The line-ups to get anything take forever, and are also right in front of many of the popular buffet items so you have people digging around you to fill their plates while you wait in line. The utensils for the food are often mismatched with what you need them for – for e.g., tongs for things where it would be much better to have a spoon or a fork. There were almost never signs for anything so you have no idea what it is that you're eating until you take some and try it and it's a guessing game what it actually is. Vegetarians and vegans beware – everything will be cross-contaminated. There won't be any avoiding that. When there are actually signs, it's written with white marker on glass above and most of the time it's misspelled or obviously wrong. For e.g., it might say eggplant when it's obviously peas. The whole dining room is infested with birds and stray cats. Birds wait for empty tables and they flock to get food left on plates. You can never leave your plates of food unattended on tables even for a minute. There is literally bird poop on the sills right next to the tables – I don't see how it doesn't get onto the plates and glasses. So, you may want to avoid those tables. There are small cockroaches climbing the walls waiting for their opportunity to also visit your unattended plates. Stray cats wander around at your feet spreading their fleas and looking for food droppings. It is impossible to get the attention of the service staff – and if/when you do, and you don't act a certain way when talking to them, they are unfriendly and visibly not interested in serving you. There's no way to be neutral or casual with them – the only way you can get anything from them is to either flash 100 pesos in their face or be super familiar and friendly with them like you're their buddy and you've known them forever. There's no professionalism or neutral customer service whatsoever. You might ask for something like a cup of coffee and it takes them forever, they make multiple trips at a snail's pace - first to get you the cup, then to get you the coffee, and then to get you the milk. Tipping seems to serve no purpose or have no affect whatsoever. Except for on New Year's Eve, there were never napkins on the tables – none to be found anywhere in the entire buffet. If you manage to get the attention of one of the staff to request one, you might be lucky enough to receive some toilet paper – and just enough to do part of the job but never enough for your entire sitting so get used to wiping your hands on your clothes and using the dirty place mat to wipe your mouth. The whole buffet scene screams mismanagement and that there just has to be a better way. There was never any consistency with anything there, ever.

The Lobby. The staff at the reception aren't interested in you and its nothing but line-ups, even for quick questions. On check-in we had a guy who was speaking to us in such a quiet voice that we couldn't hear him and we gave up on asking him to speak up so that we could hear him. It became a smile, a nod, and a guessing game. We arrived two days late and likely because of this, our original room was given to someone else. We paid extra for an ocean view room. We got a pool view room but when we went back to ask if it was an ocean view room, we were told that it was. It was overlooking the main pool and I guess you could see the ocean if you looked hard enough to the side, but it wasn't what we were expecting. No one seemed interested in making us happy. You have to make a deposit by credit card to get towels - $15 per towel and then you get a ticket that can be exchanged for towels, which you can exchange for the ticket at the end of your stay to get your deposit back. I waited in one line for 10min to ask about getting the towel ticket, only to be told that I needed to wait in a different line, waited 10min in that line to be told that I needed to talk to someone else around the corner by the currency exchange desk, then waited 10min there to talk to someone and when I asked them about the towels, they laughed at me and told me to talk to the front desk. I went back and waited another 10min to talk to the same person who told me to talk to the currency exchange, and the whole time I'm trying to get her attention that I've already waited in line. At least an acknowledgement of “oh I'm so sorry did I misunderstand you” would have been enough, but instead it was the same blank empty uninterested eyes, and when I showed the slightest hint of frustration for having waited half an hour to get something that should've taken minutes, that seems to have been the only way to get anyone's attention but I quickly calmed down knowing that getting visibly frustrated would have only worked against me. I guess you have to go in with 100 pesos flashing it right off the start pretending like they're your long-lost buddy. Then you'll get the reaction you expect.

The Snack Bar. Yay it's “open” 24 hours every day. This is what that really means: You can stand in line for a half-hour just to place your order to the one person who runs the snack bar, and nothing is ever available. For e.g., you can order a hamburger but maybe there won't be any buns or ketchup or mustard. You can order fries but they may take another 20min because the fries are still frozen. Or you order fries and they've been sitting in a metal bin next to the frier all day, cold, and they just get dunked in again to heat them up. You can ask for a plate of fries for your family of three and you get half a plate when there are clearly more fries available in the bin for you but they're saving them for the next person in line. You can slip 400 pesos into the glass at the counter, and you would think it would make a difference but it doesn't. Tipping does nothing. You don't get any favors. You don't get extra fries unless you keep asking. They simply don't have anything to serve you. If you ask for a chicken sandwich, you might get grilled chicken on a hamburger bun one day, and you'll get chicken salad on toasted sliced bread the next. The ketchup is watered down and tasteless. The hot dogs are wieners one day, and revamped breakfast sausages the next. There's a salt bowl where everyone in the resort including the snack bar staff uses their fingers to pick up salt for the fries. There are birds everywhere – dirty tables, dirty everything.

The Pool. The sun beds are dirty and could use some renovating. There are plates of food and dirty glasses left everywhere and no one is around to clean any of it up. Everyone just leaves them everywhere – no consideration for other guests at the hotel or guests with families. The central pool seems to be a gathering place where all kinds of strange activities were happening. A couple of alpha-bulls with their harem of groupies – not a very family-oriented scene. Who knows what's actually going on there? A lot of drinking and open drunkenness. Not a lot of shaded areas near the central pool. There are stray dogs wandering the entire resort and you'll find them drinking out of the pools next to your kids.

WiFi & Internet. Although there was coverage throughout the hotel, the WiFi was unreliable and difficult to stay connected to. Each guest is provided with a long userid that is a string of letters and numbers like an email address and then a long 8-digit number as the password. It's an open WiFi network with a captive portal authentication page that pops up every time you try and connect. Your devices will remember the WiFi network but will not remember authentication after a very short time and you will have to forget and reconnect to the network repeatedly to get reconnected. Each account can only be used on one device at a time, and has a time limit. The time limits run out for each account even when you're not using the WiFi. You can try to forget the network, or put the device in airplane mode, but the timer still counts down. It'll show 24 hours when you use it for 5min to check for texts and connect with family and friends back home and then the next time you connect it will have burned away 2 hours of your WiFi time. Be prepared to wait in line at the front desk to ask for more WiFi time and they will give you a hard time about it. Bring some pesos to flash in front of them and make sure to act like they're your long-lost buddy.

The Ala Carte Restaurants. It's a struggle getting a reservation for the ala carte restaurants. There's only one place where you can reserve them and there are ALWAYS line-ups. It would have been nice if we could have used up the ala carte restaurants that were included with our trip, but at no point on check-in or otherwise were we ever told how many were included with our package, and when we saw the lines we thought, okay let's go enjoy our day and come back when there's no line, but there were always lines. That was basically the theme of the whole place – you can get everything you want for free, all-inclusive with your stay, as long as you're okay with standing in line all day. Another thing we learned is that everything is done on paper. Everything. Paper tickets for everything. Unorganized. Inefficient.

The Bars. The service was absolutely terrible at the lobby bar. You can stand at the bar for a half-hour staring at the bar tenders waiting to get their attention to order a drink and they simply just don't see you. Ever. No eye-contact. The bars all seemed to run out of everything all the time. There was nothing but rum and beer. You want a pina colada? Sorry we're out – just lemonade or fruit punch with rum. Here's a half a cup of rum with watered down tang. The pina coladas were served in tiny plastic cups and were great, if you managed to actually get one. Plus, you're waiting in line for a long time, ALL the time. There is no selection for anything. Nothing but rum, beer, house wine, and everything is watered down served in small plastic cups.

In summary, I can comfortably say that apart from the beach, which was almost second to none, our stay at the Iberostar Laguna Azul was the worst all-inclusive experience that I/we have ever had. I've been to another Iberostar in Mexico that was stellar by comparison. This didn't seem like an Iberostar at all. The Laguna Azul was dirty and needs work, the food was terrible, the service was non-existent, the bars had little to offer, and we were just barely comfortable during our stay to avoid complaining non-stop. But all that would have meant would have been standing in lines anyway as there's no one there or interested in helping you. There's nothing left of anything, food or drinks, and they clearly save money on giving you what you paid for by making you wait in line and hoping that you give up. Our vacation rep seemed to only be interested in upselling the excursions for a commission, and was of no help to us at all; the hotel was completely oblivious to the services arranged for us. For e.g., there was a major disconnect between the hotel and our vacation company in that they had no idea if a bus was coming to pick us up as there was a delay in our departure flight and we were told that a bus would come get us 4 hours before our flight was scheduled to leave but was late by an hour-and-a half. We paid $70 CAD to hire a cab to take us to the airport instead of waiting for fear that no one was ever coming and we would miss our flight. The hotel had nothing to tell us, and we ended up doing seemingly very shady “business” with one of the front-men to arrange a taxi ride and in the end, we felt ripped off. To me that's simply taking advantage of people who come to Cuba from a foreign place, who may be afraid and do not know what to expect. It's an easy way to make unfair deals because most of us will do it. Would we go to Varadero again? Absolutely. It's a beautiful location and the beach was spectacular - wonderful. The Cuban culture is interesting and inspiring. Would we go to Iberostar Laguna Azul again? Never. I recommend trying some place else. Or if anyone from the hotel or Iberostar is reading, please take these considerations to heart as a way to improve your services to your guests. There's room for constructive criticism here. It is not justifiable for either you or our vacation company to charge as much as you do for an all-inclusive experience to people and then not provide them with what they believe that they are paying for. This includes everything from guest services, to basic accommodations, quality of food, and providing security while at the hotel.

I hope this helps someone considering going to the Iberostar Laguna Azul. I gave it 2 out of 5. One extra point just for the beach. [Details]

We took almost a whole day to check in. We arrived at the hotel before 11am in the morning and told me that the room was not ready until 5pm in the afternoon. The front desk staff of the hotel are very unfriendly and almost cold-blooded(maybe the tip wasn't enough for her: Nayezis). There are obviously vacant rooms ready, but they refuse to give them to us. We are a couple with 2 young children and we were allocated rooms in 2 different buildings far apart. After two hours of requests with no answer, I had to pay extra to get two rooms relatively close together. Finally we got into our room after 6pm. Wasted the first sunny day.
Thankfully, the day before we left, the hotel management spoke to us about our complaint and offered 2 bottles of rum as consolation compensation. Better than nothing. [Details]

we had a wonderful time at this resort. We were there with our 3 grandchildren 15, 12 and 9. The rooms were a little dated but were cleaned every day, fresh towels and water. Small easy to maneuver around. All amenities were close walking distance. Over all the food was good. A little bland and repetitive but we found something we liked every day. Was a little disappointed there were no small bottles of soda left for the kids, but we used the large ones.. Cannot say enough good about the staff, helpful and friendly. Always smiling. Dania, Victor and our housekeeper were super stars. [Details]

The hotel was very lovely and staff friendly. The things that weren't awesome were mostly out of staff control and I'm sure are supply chain related. Thinks like no real napkins at the dining locations. There was a lack of coconut rum and it seemed less variety of cocktails than I've seen previously but everyone was trying very hard with what they had. The he'd amd pillow were the most comfortable I've ever had in Cuba and I really enjoyed the relax upgrade. [Details]

This is not the first time we stayed at this hotel / resort and that is why we came back. Overall, we had a really good experience at this resort. However, we did notice that some maintenance work is needed, especially in the rooms. The great and friendly staff made up for many of the shortcomings. [Details]

We had a wonderful, relaxing vacation at Iberostar Laguna Azul. The beach was beautiful, the food was good and the staff was very friendly. Fermin was very helpful and made sure we had everything we needed. He also regularly checked in to make sure we were having a good trip. In the evenings we were entertained by the shows and relaxed in the cigar bar. Pavel made delicious drinks, highly recommend a banana mama, and he was great to talk to. If you want a place to go with beautiful views, beach, lovely staff, this is the place to go! [Details]

everything was in short supply or did not exist at all. something is wrong with the price I paid for the trip,you say I paid $1079.00 when I was charged $2158.00,what happened there. [Details]

The resort was absolutely beautiful. Every inch of the resort was clean and well maintained. The staff were amazing. Very friendly and caring. Always a smile on their faces.
The one thing that I would change is that there should have been more music playing on the resort. It was fairly quite. There was little to no music at the pool or in the lounge area or on the beach. Music would make the resort a lot more livelier.
The Ala Carte restaurants were very good, especially the Japanese restaurant. [Details]

All in all, we had a great week away. Two Mothers with our daughters. We stayed in the Relax section and I would highly recommend this for the extra money. You have your own sit down/served breakfast and lunch. Freshly made omelets in the morning and great steak or grilled chicken for lunch with a salad and season veggies. Helps to not have to eat at the main buffet as often. We also had the use of a quieter pool and a later checkout at 2 pm rather than noon. We were only able to get 2 dinner reservations which was a real disappointment as we wanted to try them all especially the Cuban. I think Relax section should be guaranteed 4 and we barely could get 2. Snack bar was a great option later in evening - great frys and pizza made fresh. Shout out to Sexy Alex and Candy Boy - great guys who work very hard to be sure everyone is having a great time. [Details]

not satisfactory in the least. Showers were unaccetable,water flow was extremely low. No tissues, no toilet paper, had to fight to get towels, room not kept clean mold on the bathroom walls. Patio door did not open. no room service, no wifi not clean at all. I had to sanitize my own room. I would never recommend or stay at one of your resorts ever again. Pool bar did not have beer, they ran out of pizza and fries for the kids. I can just go on and on as I found nothing at all good with this hotel. Oh yes one thing, they made amazing espresso coffee. [Details]

First off let me say that this resort is fairly small with a great layout. It is a beautiful resort with amazing staff.
It would appear that when we got to the resort, we got the impression that it had opened recently so not all the services was available and the food was not the best. As the days progressed the food had significantly improved. We even had lobster and shrimp in the main buffet one night.
The beach is amazing.
The hospitality is really good as well.
There is a lot of covid protocols in place at this resort such as wearing a mask when going to the bars aside from when in the pools swimup bar.
We had our alcartes at the romantic restaurant as well as the italian one. Both were pretty good. The wine that they serve as their house wine is pretty good as well. We only had the white wine.
We went to the shows at night twice and it was great, though it was really loud. It seemed like they wanted to make sure that the resort next door knew what was going on.
I am not quite sure what the capacity at this resort was at, but at night there was some wings of the hotel that was not lit up so it was quite fun to walk around the property in the dark.
The upkeep at the resort was lacking, im guessing due to covid, but as Monday roled around, the grounds persons was out and doing their thing, and some painting was going on.
As a family of 5 we needed joining rooms, these rooms were equally sized and had a great view of the resort grounds. Any issues we had with the rooms (TV didnt work in one room, Ceiling fan not working, shower head holster broken) were dealt with in a timely manner. The room maids were very efficient and prompt they kept our waters and toiletries stocked and overall our rooms were clean. [Details]