Address - Cayo Santa María, Caibarién, Villa Clara, Cuba
Location - Beach, Key
Distance to airport - 116 km
Reviews posted on this page - 3 review(s)
Description: The Barceló Cayo Santa María Hotel is surrounded by beautiful white-sand beaches, bathed by Cuba’s clear, turquoise waters. Offering a complete all-inclusive package and 624 comfortable junior suites for couples or families, this 5-star hotel is the ideal place for your holiday.
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Very nice resort. Perfect for couples and young families. Not enough action for most teens or people in their 20's.
Be aware that it is now low season and only the Beach side is operational.
LOTS and LOTS of walking if your room is in Building 7!!! Flip side is that you are very close to the beach boardwalk over the dunes. There are carts that you can wait for to get around, but be prepared to wait for them.
Arrival
From Santa Clara airport, it is an hour and a half drive to the resort. You go through two little towns and it is a chance to see how real life is for the Cuban people. If you think of this drive as an additional "bonus" excursion, you will enjoy it. Buses are air conditioned and almost new.
Check in was a breeze - luggage arrived at our room in minutes. Room was exactly what we asked for, with a partial ocean view from the balcony. Be sure to keep track of your blue beach towels!! You will be charged if they are not returned and at check out, they can refuse to give you the check out card for your tour operator that allows you to get on the bus to the airport.
Rooms
Rooms are clean and adequate. Many problems with patio door not closing/locking and we had the shower curtain problem too. They have added rings to try to lower it down, but the pole was installed much too high, so you have water going everywhere. Toilets broke one night, was fixed quickly next day. We had some small spiders visit inside the room at night - nothing horrendous, but they were there every night. Had to ask for an iron - our housekeeper (Dayli) brought us one the next day. She did towel art every day and the room was kept very clean.
Restaurants and Bars
Food was very good at the buffets. There is a pizza station, pasta station, two grills where they will cook your breakfast omelet or eggs and your steak/chicken/fish as to your liking.
We did the seafood and italian à la carte restaurants. Appetizers were the same at both, food was tasty and wine very good. They had musical entertainment, which gave a nice ambiance to the restaurant.
Loved the lobby bar! We played cards there every evening, enjoying a drink or fancy coffee and listening to the live music. They had one piano player / drummer duet who were very, very good. We tipped well and got very good service.
The Swim Up pool bar and Beach bar were both nice, but waiters aren't too attentive, even when you tipped well. Long line ups at both spots. Must be horrible during high season.
Beach/Pools/Grounds
Beach is gorgeous. Turquoise water and white flour sand. Hard to describe how nice in words - it really is paradise.
Depending on wind, it will be either bobbing waves or bigger waves that break on the beach. Lots of palapas - arrive early to guarantee a spot, as they go quick.
Pool is beautiful - but they need to provide more shade!!
Grounds are well kept. Gardeners are out early morning, working hard to tend to the flowers and trees.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
There are pool-side activities (follow the leader dance, bingo) but the female animator was a little on the loud and annoying side.
There is nightly entertainment at the resort Theater. Theme varied each night. Female animator was the hostess - could she be even louder at night??? Yep.
We did the catamaran excursion. HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ONE!! We went snorkling, interacted with dolphins, spent a couple of hours at a private beach, had a lovely lobster lunch (chicken for those who don't like lobster) with an open bar. There are nets where you can lay down and get some sun. A lot of fun and the highlight of our trip.
Other Comments
The pest control truck was a little nerve wracking. It would pass by nightly, leaving a huge trail of blue smoke. Smelled like turpentine. We nicknamed the truck "Agent Orange" and would cover our faces when we heard the plane-like noise it made. Know it is a necessary evil, as the mosquitos would have been fierce without pest control.
As we were leaving the resort at the end of our stay, we saw the pest control truck on the main road that leads to the hotel. It was like a flame thrower - flame was shooting out at least ten feet behind the truck. Not sure if it was a malfunction or if it was cleaning out the spray gun. It sure was scary to see, though.
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i bit disappointed
Barcelo Cayo Santa Maria
User Rating:
Heather >
1 contribution(s) Canada
Apr, 2010 | Leisure | With friend
4 people found this review helpful
Your Arrival
we had a late arrival , didn't get in till 2:00am April 12/2010, the one and half hour bus ride was long and the resort was not special enough to do that again.
Rooms
overall good. the shower was interesting, we had alot of water on the floor from the run off from the shower stall and it went out of the bathroom and under the door, until we figured out to put a facecloth at the back of the tub , so it could direct the water. The water pressure was great. The tip i read before going to this resort helped alot at 2:00am about putting your key card in the slot next to the light switch to receive power in the room. We had a good maid, she left us new things most days, kleenex one day, face cloths the next and a bath mat another day and we always had lots of towels.
Restaurants and Bars
i tried the italian and seafood alacarte restaurants, to tell you the truth i would rather go to the buffet, more selection and i can see what kind of food i'm going to eat. I must say that the red and white house wines were quit drinkable, i've been to other resorts and they were undrinkable. You could find lots of selection at the buffets (morning, noon and night) and i really enjoyed being able to have a selection of ice creams for lunch and supper (vanilla, strawberry and chocolate.) The coffee was not great, i did see some people with their own and thought what a great idea also saw people with their own peanut butter another great idea and i would like to see at least one adult selection of cereal among the sugar ladden selections. Our Lobby and bar were quit active at night , they had great entertainment for us, their mixed drinks were very sweet and never did find a special one that i really liked, though we did like the cuban coffee they make at the bar.
Beach/Pools/Grounds
The beach is beautiful , i'm sure you could walk forever, unfortunately i only saw it first thing in the morning. The wind came up and each day it was stronger, so the red flags were out and no one allowed in the water and if you got out of the sun the wind was actually cold, i don't know about you but i cannot stay out in the sun all day, even with my SPF 60 on and not get fried either from the sun or the wind. So we spent most of our days at the pool. Now the pools are beautiful but that is not why i go, i go to relax on the beach, people were saying that the wind we had is quit common there, another reason i will not be returning.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
most beach activities were cancelled due to the high winds I didn't do any of the excurstions.
Other Comments
- found the air transat representative borderline rude.
-they closed the colonial section buffet halfway through the week and that put quit a strain on the beaches side buffet, I've never before had to wait in a line outside a buffet until a table was available.
-we also lost power on the sunday we were leaving April 18th from 11:00am till about 5:45pm. interesting, ok the toilets would not flush and alot of flies started showing up.
-found that the general bathrooms were mostly out of toilet paper i had taken a roll of my own, and not surprising that people are pigs in washrooms.
-there was a blue cloud of smoke early every morning and we soon discovered that it was pest control, yikes closed the balcony doors when we heard the very loud noise that accompined that. (sounded like a low flying plane)
-the exchange for convereted pasoes at the resort was at times long and they would just close down and tell you no more today or go to the other side of the resort.
-found it odd that their was a request to and from the resort when we were on the bus, at the end of our destination we were asked to give a donation to the bus driver, this one was a new one on me.
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Cayo Santa Maria Barcello is one of the best resorts we have visited.
Barcelo Cayo Santa Maria
User Rating:
D >
1 contribution(s) Canada
Feb, 2010 | Leisure | Family
2 people found this review helpful
We visited the Barcello Santa Maria from Jan. 18. through Feb. 1 2010.14 days of amazing weather.
Your Arrival
Flight sucked!2 attempts @ landing in a storm before diverting to Cayo Coco where we sat in the plane for over an hour besore returning to Santa Clara airport. Bus trip to resort about 1 1/2 hrs. Arrive at the resort @ 2:00 a.m.
Check in well organized,however the 10 min the bell hop told us to get the luggage to our room was at least 30 min.
Rooms
Clean, large, well equipped, comfortable.Everything in working order.For 2 adults it was more than adequate.
Restaurants and Bars
Buffets, never a problem finding something to eat. Food was as good as we have had in Cuba.Really enjoyed the a la cartes, Spanish,good food, lots of it.Italian also good, portions smaller than Spanish, seafood was OK.Most of the guests loved the seafood, we had the salmon and it was so-so. Bars were well stocked. mixed drinks were great,but consistency varied with the bartender.Service was usually quite fast.
Beach/Pools/Grounds
Beach, outstanding. Grounds,well maintained and gorgoeus. Pools also first class.Beach was the choice of most guests and you had to get their early to get a decent spot.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
We were there for 2 weeks of sun and relaxation. We did not look for any activities, so while there were things to do we did not participate. The best part of this no one bugged us.
Other Comments
The bus trip was a drag.If we don't return that would be the only reason.The Barcello will be on our short list for 2011. Staff was excellent. Anything we asked for was tended to quickly.The only place we had a problem was at the hairdressers in Pueblo. It is very poorly equipped.
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