Pros and Cons of Making Cuba Your Next Vacation Spot
DESTINATION: Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba
HOTEL: Hotel Valentin Perla Blanca (all inclusive)
DATE TRAVELLED: End of January
John and I have just returned back from a trip to Cayo Santa Maria, in Cuba. We stayed in the all inclusive, Hotel Valentin Perla Blanca, and the weather was beyond beautiful. We both heard many great reviews from this resort, and the price was unbeatable. But, with the amount of negative experiences we had on this trip I thought it would help explaining the pros and cons to help see if Cuba is worth your next place to visit (or ever again).
PROS:
Weather: The weather was absolutely incredible. Especially considering it was a snow/ice storm in Canada the week we were gone, we appreciated soaking up the sun that much more.
Beach: The beach was beautiful at our resort. It was disappointing the first day we tried to go to because the tide was so high there practically was no beach. The second day we went, we went at an earlier time, and had no problem with the tide.
Pools: There were two pools at our resort, and they were both big and clean. One has a volleyball net and they both have pool bars, so no problem here.
The night entertainment was good. We didn’t enjoy every night, but it was pretty great to watch.
The price:It costed a total of $920 each to go on an all inclusive vacation here. Anything all inclusive for under $1,000 is amazing. So when we saw this price, we booked it right away.
CONS:
Food:This is a pretty popular opinion, but the food in Cuba is horrible. This was my fourth time travelling to Cuba, but this time the food set an all time record of low. The thing about having shitty food at a resort, is that every time you eat you are constantly disappointed (which is at least three times a day). Before our trip we told each other we’d stick with the basics, pizza, pasta, and burgers. But when we got there, the resort said they didn’t make any pizza, the pasta was constantly cold with beyond watery sauce, and for 5 days out of our trip the resort ran out of bread. This solution for this 5 star resort was telling their guests if they really wanted a buns with their meals (even just on a hot dog or hamburger) , or just bread in general that they can take the bus down town and go buy some at the bakery.
Employees: This was the first time ever I experienced travelling somewhere where we received incredibly poor service. It was probably a 50/50 split of the employees who loved their job and gave great customer service, to the others who were beyond rude and miserable. It was unfortunate that we dealt with more negative staff than the good ones.
Service:The service we received was all around the clock slow. This hotel was understaffed, which resulted in 30+ minutes at the buffet trying to get dinner, or 10-15 minutes ordering a drink. When we would be the only ones at the bar, we would wait around 5 minutes, someone would then take our order, give us half of it, start randomly sweeping, or doing some kind of unrelated task, and then proceed to pour the two waters we ordered 10 minutes ago. As you can see, it was very confusing the order and way they did things. We would tip after every drink / food we would order and most of the time they wouldn’t even smile or say thank you.
Cleanliness:The cleanliness was pretty horrible, especially in most of the washrooms. This would consist of no soap, and no toilet paper. Again, just gross and annoying.
PARASITES?! : So after a week of being in Cuba, only drinking water from bottles, and hardly eating any of the food, and finally being back in Canada for a week, I found out from the doctors that I picked up two parasites in Cuba. This is absolutely the last thing you want to hear when you return home and are trying to return to your back to daily routines. There are a lot of horrible symptoms with this which, long story short is not worth the trip to Cuba. Before I found out that I picked this up, we agreed that we would never go back to Cuba just because of how much the other negatives impacted our trip. But if you weren’t sold on hearing the first few negatives, I hope you really think about this one, and if it is worth it to you.
If you are still considering a trip to Cuba, here is some of my advice:
Don’t
Create and buy your own emergency sick bag of things before you go, because when you get there you won’t be able to find anything you’re looking for.
Example of what we packed in ours: Bug spray, After bite, Bandaids, Polysporin, Cold medicine (we brought DayQuil and NyQuil), Benadryl, Pepto-Bismol and Imodium.Bring your own refillable water bottle. This way you’re not impatiently waiting for the staff to bring around the big bottles of water every day, and can just get it filled up at the bar (hopefully with no parasites in it lol).
Bring LOTS of snacks! Chips, candy, chocolate, jerky, whatever you can! You won’t be sorry.
If you like ketchup bring a bottle. Ketchup is not common in Cuba. Either they have no ketchup at all, or will make something up to try to compare it to. Just be safe, and bring your own. Also, if you don’t finish the bottle make sure you give it to some other travellers because I’m pretty sure that would be the most appreciated random act of kindness!
Bring a bottle of Bath and Body Works hand soap. Its super random, but will make you feel that much cleaner whenever leaving your room.
Bring a pillow and blanket. There is usually only one sheet in the hotel rooms, and a duvet type of thing that probably gets washed once a blue moon. Having your own pillow and blanket will make it a lot cozier and much better.
