TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

This hotel provides a fun environment with plenty of entertainment throughout the day and evening! The buffet always has plenty of food options! The beach is stunning - especially at sunset! The rooms are clean and well maintained. The cleaning staff do a great job each day! …and the list goes on! I can’t wait to go back!

The entertainment crew: Karmen, Yamilka, Christian, Cristian, Yuti, Ramses, and Nutella (Choco); are the kindest people you will ever meet. They are always around for a good laugh and dancing or volleyball. They are very accommodating and enjoy spending time with all guests. We continue to return to the resort to visit them as they truly are the best! You will truly enjoy your stay with them as your entertainment crew and friends. We plan on returning for many many years to come to visit them and all the staff. The reception staff Jany and Melissa are very kind and will accommodate all your needs with a welcoming smile. This resort truly has the best staff on board. If you look on coming to Cuba look no further than here. You will enjoy your stay with the best company there is to have.

The place is very cozy and quiet, structurally it is very beautiful, it is like a town made up of bungalows among palm trees ?? and gardens. I loved everything here, it's my second time and everything was great like the first time. The love and cordiality of the workers towards their work and the client is everything and undoubtedly makes the difference. An example is the magnificent young commercial director Irmarys, very attentive to provide all necessary information at any time, always available to the guests. I saw everywhere in the resort helping everyone. The director Gloria is very nice and helpful. I returned to live the Meliá Peninsula Varadero experience once again this time with my entire family and we are all so happy. The beautiful pool, the beautiful gardens, the taste of Cuba ????. They have been once again another magnificent vacation thanks to Meliá Peninsula Varadero. ??

Our family stayed at Melia Peninsula Varadero in the last week of August. We were a party of seven people including one child. This is a family resort in Cuba and we overall had a good time, but have a few comments about improvements that could be made. In short, we will come back to Cuba. But will try another resort. First of all, if you are planning to stay at this resort, choose bungalow 28 which is right across from the beach bar and entrance to the beach. It is literally a minute walk away. The beach is gorgeous, crystal, clear, calm and perfect for families visiting. This is what Cuba is known for. If you prefer to stay near by a pool, it's about a minute walk away from bungalow 28. We recommend staying in bungalow 25. Bungalow 25 is right next to the pool and makes it easy to get pool chairs, which are plenty, however, we stayed somewhat off-season so we don't know what the resort looks like when it's packed. The pool was great, with a walkway across. It also had a swim up pool bar as well as a snack bar across the walkway, with some seating. We were told that we had to eat at the seating area instead of the pool chairs, but we noticed sometimes people would be eating at the pool chairs anyway. I'll divide up the review into three parts, the beach, the pools, and the interior amenities such as the rooms, lobby, bars, entertainment etc. -- Beach: As mentioned it's gorgeous! It was definitely the highlight of our stay. However, there is no Wi-Fi on the beach. You do need to go more towards the bungalows to get signal. The towel exchange is nowhere near the beach, which makes it a bit difficult but we timed our exchanges to coincide when we were heading back from the buffet after breakfast. The beach bar does not have Beach service, so you will have to walk back from the beach around a building that's under construction, in order to get your drinks. There is no food service at the bar, but an extra couple minute walk takes you to the snack bar. We just packed snacks for the beach or brought them from the snack bar in napkins since they do not have takeout boxes. We also figured that getting up once in a while to go for a walk and grab drinks wasn't necessarily a bad thing but was an excuse to get some exercise in - perspective is everything! Dariel at the beach bar is a wonderful bartender, very humorous. Always smiling, poured the best drinks and lots of fun to hang out with. The crew working the catamarans are great at what they do. Jose was careful to ensure we all got on and off safely and that we were all sitting properly while sailing. He was very informative and great to talk to! -- Pools: There are 2 major pools only - the kiddie pool way past the lobby and furthest from the beach and the snack bar pool which is closest to the beach. The kiddie pool needs some updating. It didn't look as clean as the snack bar pool. They have no bar nearby, you'd have to go get drinks at the lobby. Otherwise there is a walkway and stairs up to a water slide which our kiddo loved. There is a waterfall feature on one side and a small toddler slide (looks like a crocodile). The crocodile slide is wearing away, and the poor kids can't slide down since it's not slippery enough, even with tossing water on it. One good thing though: the kiddie pool is perfect for littles ages 4+ to wade in. There's an even shallower part for babies which is a plus. Only one important downside, there are no life vests anywhere for the littles! Definitely bring your own!! There are lounge chairs all over as well. The snack bar pool as mentioned before is great overall. They play music in the afternoon and have some water polo or dance competitions they do throughout the day. The pool bar is pretty standard. The snack bar offers limited options for drinks (usually just beer, wine or rum with lemonade) and has only 1 or 2 choices for food, usually a combination of fries/plantain chips and/or sandwiches, burgers or hotdogs, but never all at the same time. It's Cuba! Take it with a grain of salt :) They give what they have. Avelito, Barby, and Arely did their best to serve us with what was available and always looked happy to see us. -- Amenities: Rooms - I'd say this was the least liked part of our stay. The rooms are showing lots of age/damage. Cracked tiles in places, dirt build up in corners and the bed sheets were questionable. For spending the majority of time outside of the room, it was okay but could be better. We did have cockroaches in each of our rooms one day but this was after a heavy rain storm and we were ground floor ... Definitely get a room a level up, this was our mistake. Heads up though, there are no lifts in any of the bungalows, only stairs. Those with bad backs and heavy luggage, prepare accordingly! In addition, we found none of the phones worked in any of our rooms, so although we had no issues, we could see how that could be concerning for people. We noticed inconsistencies between the rooms our parties stayed in. For instance, some rooms had cards that said we could request cleaned sheets and towels but others did not. Some rooms came with beer in the mini fridge, others didn't even get a water bottle. All 3 room guests tipped generously or left gifts for the housekeeping staff so service felt inconsistent as well. However, we did luck out at times: In one of our rooms, the staff went above and beyond to clean everything and even left hibiscus flowers on almost every surface, in the curtain folds, in our designed towels... So lovely! We also had another staff member go out of their way to provide things we needed one day like extra beer, water and toilet paper (although we brought our own just in case). Lobby: The lobby does not have AC, but is spacious and airy. Lots of seating throughout. The front desk staff are friendly and helpful as much as they can be with the limited resources they have. The facilities team helped us out at one point too, they were pretty efficient, so we appreciated their support during one of the rain days. The lobby connects to another open seating area that has a bar at the end. This bar features a full coffee bar as well... You will find the best coffee made here! Get an Americano or cappuccino BEFORE you go for the buffet breakfast as it's much better than the coffee served in the buffet area. You can even ask them to add a rum liquor shot to your special drink and it tastes divine! Outside the lobby on the terrace is additional seating. It's right next to a water feature. We did see groundskeepers in the water feature cleaning it, but it's very green with algae so it may be off-putting to look at. Otherwise the Edison bulbs strung up over the stone path and the cafe chairs everywhere make it cozy. Shuttle service is very infrequent as they only have 1 or 2 shuttles that run on battery and they save them for newcomers arriving with heavy luggage. You'll have to request a shuttle each time at the front desk as they do not run on a scheduled service time. We walked mostly as a result, although the rooms aren't super far from the lobby (about a 5 minute walk). When we were getting ready to leave for our flight back home, we sent one of our group to go request the shuttle be sent to our room as, once again, there is no phone service in the rooms. We lucked out and had sun so no one got rained on, but can imagine that could be frustrating if the weather wasn't cooperating. Restaurants: The main buffet restaurant has a pretty good selection of food everyday. The only thing is that AC is not very strong so it gets stuffy inside. There are also long lineups for the chef-made food, so you'll be waiting a while during peak times. They do have flies and birds flying inside due to the high ceilings and open air feel everywhere. So yes, you will find flies on food that's sitting out on the buffet and birds will dive bomb for a morsel also. We tended to grab food that was always cooked in front of us or covered, very rarely anything that was out just for this fact. But understand that this is the environment here and people in Cuba are suffering through an energy crisis and food/resource crisis. So we are balancing the good and the bad. The baked chicken, rice, black beans combo was always just right. We never went hungry, there was always something to eat. They try their best, so do appreciate the efforts put into things when you go. Try the pumpkin - it's good for strengthening stomachs! Yanisey, Lesly, Eliannys, and Jorge were always very attentive, helpful, and provided great service when we dined at the main buffet. A la carte: We dined in 3 a la carte restaurants: the Cuban restaurant, Italian and international restaurants. Cuban was obviously the best. Do not expect wonders from the other restaurants (Italian was just simply pasta with a light touch of sauce, if that). However the Cuban food felt really rich and the soup was excellent. I will say that one of us was celebrating a birthday and the Italian restaurant staff went out of their way to make it special. They dimmed the lights and sang happy birthday and brought out a lit candle on a little ice cream bowl. It was very sweet and an unexpected surprise! Some final thoughts: The Cuban people are lovely people. Try to learn a bit of Spanish and you'll see them light up right away. They love to see you smile and joke with them, and they always stopped to say hello or talk with our kiddo, very family-oriented. Take the good with the bad. It won't be like service in Mexico or anywhere else. But you pay substantially less for the experience, so it's up to you to adjust your expectations. None of us got sick, the food was fine (except once we had expired butter - just inspect what you're eating) and the water was always bottled or filtered. Make good choices about what you eat (always cooked in front of you or in a covered pan, or my favorite, mix some vinaigrette with cucumber to make up for the salad we stayed away from) and you'll be just fine. This resort has primarily Spanish speaking or other international travelers. You'll rarely find any English speakers here. Please do exercise good judgment and respect for others' cultures. Mosquitos are everywhere... Definitely do not shirk on the bug spray!! We had 3 bottles and sadly ran out towards the end of our stay. Also get After Bite as you will inevitably be stung. Dress little ones in long sleeved clothing as it can be uncomfortable for them. Please be warned that you do NEED to have a blue checkmark on your tourist card when you apply to enter Cuba. Make sure when you are given the PDF of your card via email, that you verify the blue checkmark. We completed all of the prior information for each member of our group, and found out while we were there (with no wifi connectivity) that one of us couldn't enter through customs Cuba unless that blue checkmark was there, which resulted in a long delay to get through the checkpoint. Our family member thankfully had a roam-like-home plan but was stuck hotspotting for a ton of other tourists who also did not get the blue checkmark. It was a super frustrating experience and nobody at the border would help the throng of people - they all just waited for us to figure it out. Please be warned and check ahead of time. We love Cuba, we will be back, and are glad we stayed here as our first time. But we will be trying another resort in Varadero for our next stay. 3/5

During my vacation in Cuba ???? I stayed for two weeks at the Meliá Península Varadero Hotel and without a doubt it was the best of my vacation. In this hotel the love and good treatment of the staff is wonderful . I arrived on August 2 with my companion and we were very well received. It is a tropical paradise ??? the beach is beautiful ??. The food, although there may be a better variety, is very good to taste, especially the roasted meats and sweets . The drinks were well prepared, I recommend trying the Cuban mojito from the chiringuito bar on the beach. The gardens are spectacular, pure living nature. Dancing and enjoyment with the team of entertainers is always guaranteed ??. The pools are very spacious and very well maintained, especially the pool for seniors. We had the pleasure of meeting and sharing with the directors Gloria, Ismaris, Mirta, Carlos and the friendly Chef Victor at an event on the beach and enjoying a different sunset to the melody of a violin ?? in the background, without a doubt these details mark the difference. Thank you Meliá Peninsula Varadero I hope to return as soon as possible ??