Beaches Varadero
August 2002

I have waited a couple of months to write this trip report, because I wanted to be objective, and not dwell on the negatives, although I’m finding that I’m still writing about the negatives, but if I leave them out then I won’t be telling the whole story. There were a lot of good days, and I met a lot of wonderful people in Cuba, especially the guys on the Snuba Cuba trip. To be fair to Beaches, they were full to capacity, and most of the staff was trying really hard. I won’t be returning to Cuba for a very long time, if ever, but I know that a lot of people return every year, and thoroughly enjoy themselves. This report is only my opinion, and it is what happened on my trip. Cuba is a beautiful country, with wonderful people, and great beaches. Beaches Varadero is one of the better resorts in Cuba from what I’ve been told, and I would recommend it.

This was our first trip to Cuba, and we really didn’t know what to expect. We were surprised to find out that it is far more modern than we expected.

This trip was really a last minute decision to get away somewhere and just shut down for a week. We wanted to go diving, and had heard that the diving is great in Cuba. John is certified, I’m not but I planned on taking the resort course and getting in a few dives that way. We decided on Beaches Varadero because diving was included, much more sense to pay upfront in Canadian dollars than pay in US when we got there. We had been to Beaches Negril last year, and loved every minute of it so we were fairly confident that we would enjoy Beaches Varadero.

We flew out of Toronto via Skyservice. The flight was uneventful, and we landed in Cuba at 7:30 pm. The line up for passport control wasn’t too bad, and I timed it at about 1 minute per person to get through the door. Only one person at a time at the window, John had to wait behind the line while I got processed, and then I had to go through the door and wait for him there. It wasn’t bad, about a minute later he came through. No problems getting our bags, a porter wheeled them out to the bus for us, we tipped him $2 and he was happy. We stood outside the bus and had a cigarette while we waited for the other people to come out. Unfortunately we had a long wait, 6 people had lost their luggage and we ended up leaving them at the airport to sort out the paper work. The bus pulled out of the airport at 10:20 pm almost 3 hours after landing and we were on our way to Beaches. Drinks on the bus were $2 US, the bus was air conditioned and spacious. After a few stops at other hotels to drop people off, we pulled up at Beaches around 11 pm, and check in was a disaster. No welcome drink, no express check in for concierge guests, and the lobby had no air conditioning and it was very humid. We had to chase the receptionist around the front lobby just to get checked in. Poor girl she was surrounded by about 20 people all tired, frustrated, and thirsty and more than willing to go to their rooms if only she would give out the keys. Finally about an hour later we had our key card and she informed us we were in a very nice room on the fifth floor but the elevators weren’t working (they only worked 3 times all week). She explained that the concierge had gone home but we would meet her tomorrow. We made our way to our room, it was nice and the bed was very comfortable. Great pillows too. We had a fridge with soft drinks, water and 4 cans of beer. We also had a bar with a full bottle of rum, vodka, scotch, and gin. There was a coffee maker in the room, a must have for me. The room was stuffy, and there was a musty smell when we got there, but it disappeared once we turned the air conditioner on, and I never noticed it again all week. We were on vacation, we were in Cuba and tomorrow we would be on the beach, nothing else mattered. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that in order for the electricity to work in the room, you have to put your key card in the slot. It’s their way of conserving energy. The balcony was small but we had a great view of the property and the ocean. Our room was in the middle of the main building on the fifth floor. There was a small plastic table, and two plastic chairs, which fell apart when we sat on them (we’re not really that heavy). The next morning I got up around 6 am, made the coffee and went out to check out the view. It was lovely, I couldn’t see the sunrise but the sky was an incredible red color. The property is well laid out. From our view we could see the salt-water lagoon directly in front of us, with the statues and the shark and turtles. I could actually watch the fish jumping out of the water from our room. There is lots of vegetation, which hides a lot of the buildings so all you see is lush trees and plants. The sunsets from our balcony are phenomenal; John must have taken about 20 pictures just of sunsets.

We had to meet with the Signature rep at nine and the concierge meeting at 10. I stopped at the front desk on our way to report the chairs being broken and asked that they be replaced. They said they would take care of it. The concierge meeting was basically to tell us a little about the services they offer. There is a separate lounge for concierge guests to use, which has a computer with Internet access. This is also the place to go for continental breakfast or just to hang out in during the day. The concierge made our dinner reservations for us that morning. Next stop was the dive shop to sign up for the resort course for me and book some dives for John. The dive shop is down on the beach, but in order to get there you have to walk down an isolated pathway through the trees. The beach is about a 2-minute walk from the main building. This was Monday, and the dive course was fully booked until Wed, which meant that I would only get a couple of dives in at best. I signed up for it and John booked a dive for Wed morning. We went back to the hotel and booked our excursions for the week. Tuesday we booked the Snuba tour in The Bay of Pigs, and Sat we booked the catamaran to go swim with the dolphins and do some snorkeling. Our week was planned and now we could relax for the rest of the day. We headed over to the buffet for lunch, it is the usual buffet food, not great but edible, you won’t go hungry. It is cafeteria style, where you just grab a plate, and find a table. Service wasn’t great but there were a couple of good waiters who made the effort. I noticed the dive shop guys in having lunch and the staff tending to congregate around them, socializing with them instead of taking care of the guests. Another thing we noticed was that it appeared that the families of the staff were eating at the buffet, including children. This is supposed to be an adult’s only resort, but management looked the other way when the children came in to eat. After lunch we checked out the beach. It is incredible, white sand, and turquoise water for as far as your eye could see. It’s the best beach I’ve seen so far. Everybody raves about Negril, but in my opinion this is much nicer. The water was almost hot; it was like stepping into a bath. The water was fairly calm, there were little waves washing up on shore but not body surfing type waves, it was shallow quite far out, and so clear that I could see my toes. The green flag was up all week. There were lots of beach chairs and shady things. We found a pile of white plastic lounger chairs behind one of the dunes, and dragged a couple of them into the water. We lay there for about 20 minutes in the shallow water getting sand blasted and totally relaxing. It was better than a spa treatment. Our skin was so shiny after that, and we felt really refreshed and relaxed. Time to check out the beach bar, which was quite far away from the beach. The bar tender was nice and very funny. There was no waiter service on the beach. The water sports guys were set up right on the beach, but nobody seemed to be using anything except some kids whom I assumed to be family members of the water sports guys. We saw a lot of these kids during the week, they didn’t cause any trouble but Beaches Varadero is supposed to be an adult’s only resort. The pool was as warm as the ocean, lots of chairs and a waiter comes round and offers to get you a drink. Lots of topless women around the pool and beach, I felt over dressed in my full bathing suit. Most of the guests seem to be honeymooners, mid to late twenties. There were lots of weddings going on too. I spoke with a few wedding couples and they were supposed to be getting married at the new Sandals but since it wasn’t yet open they were bumped to Beaches, and most were quite happy with the arrangements. Later that night when we went back to our room, I found that they had not replaced the broken chairs so I called again. I got a call back from the concierge, and she really reamed me out because I made my request through the front desk and not through her. She was very angry, and I tried to explain to her that I had gone to the front desk because we hadn’t yet met her. She was not a happy camper, and told me in no uncertain terms that I was not to talk to anybody at the front desk again. She did however get the chairs replaced. The next day we got up early and went on our Snuba excursion. I highly recommend this; you can check it out at www.snubacuba.com. You get picked up in a beautiful air-conditioned bus, and driven to Bay of Pigs. Along the way you get a guided tour of Cuba, the guys with Snuba Cuba are very knowledgeable, and entertaining. The Bay of Pigs is lovely and the snuba was great. We had lunch there and then more snorkeling, and then back to the hotel. When we arrived back to the room we found a card under the door telling us about the returning guests dinner that night at 7 pm. It was now 7:30 and we had missed it. I was not happy. I felt that the concierge could have mentioned it to us the day before when we had our meeting or at the very least when she was screaming at me about the chairs. The next day was Wed, and it was time for the resort course, John went on his dive and I headed to the pool. I was really excited about doing this. The dive instructor showed up, and said that I wasn’t on his list. I insisted that I had signed up on Monday, and then he asked me and another man how old we were. I asked him why and he said that there was an age limit and, that we were too old. We were both early 40’s, and in great shape. I got the distinct feeling that he didn’t want us there. I have no idea why. He let us do the swim test, but made us do 8 laps of the pool instead of the 6 that everybody else did. Only a handful of the young ones were able to do the 6 laps, but both of us oldies did the 8. We were in the course. I completed the course, and went down to the dive shop to sign up for the open water dive the next day only to find out that there was no room on the boat. It would be Friday before I could get a dive unless I wanted to pay $35.00 US. If I paid the money he could find room on the boat for me. I refused, but everybody else in the class paid the money. I mentioned to the concierge that I was asked for money to go diving, I wasn’t trying to get anybody into trouble, I just wanted it known that I wasn’t happy about it. The reason we booked Beaches was because the diving was supposed to be included in the price. I won’t go into a lot of details, but the concierge didn’t believe me, although she said she would check it out. She got back to me later that day, and told me that I was lying, and that I had to go and speak with the manager of the dive shop. I had to go alone without my husband and I had to go that night. I won’t go into all the details of what happened after this, but it got fairly nasty and scary for me. I was only half way through my vacation, and I just wanted to get out of there and go home. John and I talked it over that night, and decided that we shouldn’t let this ruin our vacation; we would stay and just make the most of the rest of the week. We did enjoy the rest of the week, and especially on Saturday when we went on the catamaran cruise, and I got to swim with the dolphins. The dolphins are amazing, and it helped me to put all the bad stuff behind me, and end my vacation on a happier note.

Next trip will be to Jamaica.

Pictures are Here