Unfortunately on the last day our camera was lost, I'll explain that one later, so this won't be an overly photographic post! I'm also torn on recommending or not recommending this resort so rather than saying go no go, I'll relay the facts and you decide :)
Right off the bat we paid an extra 40$ each so we'd get an ocean view room. We thought that'd be awesome and we read some reviews online that said your options were essentially ocean view or delivery road view with load trucks coming and going all day. So this was our view:
Looking straight out the patio door
Looking off the right side of our patio was the pool and swim up bar which was kindof cool because from 10 AM to 5 PM there was music being played that we could clearly hear in our room. This might be a negative if you wanted to grab a quiet siesta in the afternoon.
We started our vacation by being told on the second day to head to the disco where our HolaSun rep would give us the run down on the place. The first day was a beautiful sunny day but we were pooped since we'd been up since 2 AM and basically missed the sun the first day.
Day 2 we head to the disco. It's overcast and generally a crappy day. Soon as we walk in the disco it hit me. An odor that struck me as a bit swampy and barny at the same time. My boyfriend didn't say anything so at first I thought it was just me... I looked at him and scrunched my nose and said "do you smell that?" He just responded with "yeah, I hope we don't have to be here long." Another day we did some investigation, they had a bit better ventilation going so it wasn't as bad but we found a bunch of standing water and mud in what looked like fountains that had one day worked but no longer did.
It's odd, someone was always doing work on something in that place, replacing tiles, upgrading the gazebos, but some places that seemed to need to love the most looked like they'd been broken for ages.
Our guide wasn't overly helpful, he told us there were excursions and an info binder in his office and told us that if we gave him our printed copy of the e-Ticket we could go to the beach part on Wednesday. We did not print said e-Ticket so we were shit out of luck. We later found out there was salsa lessons and spanish classes and three nightly shows: a comedy show of sorts, a kids show, and a dancing show in the disco. I found the front desk and resort staff more helpful for finding this info out.
We caught the dancing show our last two nights, it was pretty cool, beautiful costumes, super fit dancers, good entertainment I'd say:
On top of the first few days being overcast we found ourselves extremely tired and napping every afternoon. After a couple days I realized I was waking up a lot at night... the bed was not very comfy, a lot like sleeping on a pull out couch:
The pillow top mattress has yet to reach Cuba ladies and gentlemen, the bed and pillows were also pretty musty smelling because the A/C wasn't all that powerful and the doors/windows didn't seal so the dampness inevitably crept in
The food and drink service was amazing! We ate something that hit us wrong (take Dukarol before you head to Cuba for sure! It's costly and you need to take it two weeks before you go but if your doctor prescribes it I think you can claim it through your benefits), I think it may have been some of the cherico we ate >< But otherwise it was good! There's 24/7 food and drink service at the snack bar, we had some pretty yummy omelettes on toast there as well as some amazing french fries! Everyone was eating fries like they were going out of style there!
On top of the buffets that normally had 3 or 4 options for food prepared in front of you they had 3 a la carte restaurants. We tried all 3, there was Cuban food (delicious but a lot!), Italian and international. I think the Italian was our favourite of the three but all were good! Service was a little slower than we'd expect back home, but we were on vacation, what's the rush?
On top of the buffets that normally had 3 or 4 options for food prepared in front of you they had 3 a la carte restaurants. We tried all 3, there was Cuban food (delicious but a lot!), Italian and international. I think the Italian was our favourite of the three but all were good! Service was a little slower than we'd expect back home, but we were on vacation, what's the rush?
Drinks were interesting, I ordered a strawberry daiquiri at three different bars and got three different things, one was a real strawberry daiquiri, one was something else delicious and one was just way too heavy on the alcohol I ended up tossing it. The swim up bartender seemed to make us the best drinks, plus later in the week he had a popcorn machine and gave us cups of popcorn :)
For drinks my boyfriend picked us up 20 oz bubbas, insulated cups, which was awesome for lying on the beach and not having to go back to the bar 15 times for mini drinks.
OMG churros! They had a stand near the snack bar and every day this lady made fresh churros, there was always always a line up for those! She was also quite the card, she had many "boyfriends" that came to buy churros from her and one night she let her hair down and was bustin' a move up on the dance floor :) In the mornings at this stand this guy also made fresh squeezed OJ which was also popular, if we weren't early enough he'd be out of oranges!
The boyfriend fake smiling for the camera, lol! Unfortunately no pics of the churros, but she made them in heart shapes and flowers and just rings like a doughnut then drizzled all different flavoured syrups on them!
We didn't do much in the way of excursions because of the not sleeping well all we wanted to do was lie on the beach/at the pool. It was also pretty cold, like in the morning we'd be alright to sit on the beach in our suits but it got windy and cold so we'd head to the pool. Most evenings by dinner I'd be in jeans and a light jacket.
One day we went to Pilar beach but it was soooooo windy and cold we didn't stay long. Had it been a nicer day we would have loved it. It's 5 CUCs to take this double decker, open top bus that does the milk run at all the resorts, then goes to Cayo Guillermo and drops you off at Playa Pilar. Once there you have a few options, for 10 CUC you can lay on these suspended beds at the beach and that gets you three drinks. You can pay 2 CUC each and just chill on the lounge chairs or you can hang out in the restaurant. If it were warm enough to swim it would have been lovely, the water was shallow for many metres into the water, the sand was smooth and very white! There was what looked like a pretty steep drop off eventually though so be careful if you go!
Here's a picture from lonely planet:
At the opposite end of the route there was supposedly a market but the cold gave us a chill so we opted to head back to the hotel.
We tried going on the snorkeling excursion, it was advertised as 25 CUC/person and that got you a couple hours snorkeling, BBQ and drinks and a trip out on the glass bottomed boat. Apparently the boat didn't come on Fridays and the guide was having issues getting in that day so we waited around from 9 AM to 12:30 PM before we actually set out. They only charged us 20 CUC each because there was no boat, booze or BBQ. No biggie since it's all inclusive but a bit steep for just snorkeling.
He took us out on a small catamaran with two other Argentinian ladies to the middle of the ocean and tied up to a buoy. There were a couple other boats there and he seemed to do some kind of negotiation then he asked if my boyfriend and I knew how to swim. We geared up and he told us to jump in where the water was dark. Being the polite one I said to my boyfriend "after you!" hahaha and I jumped in where I could see the bottom. The guide gave my boyfriend a water bottle full of bread and a swarm of fish just followed him around the whole time! It was pretty beautiful from my perspective :D Then he went to pull out our waterproof camera from his pocket and it was gone.... with our pictures....
We swam around a bit but we were super cold and got out after a bit and headed back. We then went back to our room and used up the hot water tank trying to warm up and then had a lovely siesta!
There wasn't too much eventful that happened, I had interesting bathroom experiences... at the airport there was a lady with a bucket she poured in the bowl to 'flush' it after every use, another bathroom I went into I encountered a couple.... ladies of the night. There was no TP or locks and the seat... well I had to implement the squat position and hover. Stall walls are also short there, like chest height for me. But marble everywhere in every bathroom, that part was beautiful.
The colonial also gets you to sign out a towel at the beginning of your trip and it you don't return the towels and hand in your voucher they charge you 15 CUC per towel you took out. It kinda sucked because we left at 8:45 Saturday but the towel hut didn't open till like noon so we had to drop them off the afternoon before we left.
Another helpful tip, we used Park Sleep Fly so we drove to Toronto, stayed a hotel overnight and they let us leave our vehicle there for the week for free. Just a heads up though, parking was offsite for us which meant Friday night we checked in, dropped off the car then took a shuttle back to the hotel, just takes some extra time. Also, the e-mailed me a code for 20% off for my friends, use: FBFRIENDS115 There's no disclaimer in the e-mail for how long it's good for so good luck!
Sorry there aren't many photos but next time we vacation there will be much more because we won't lose our camera! Up next for me is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia so keep your eye out, I'll definitely be taking photos :)
What's your favourite vacation spot so far? Where do you want to try next?
