The bars are never full and always quick service ( in July anyways) we tried all the cocktails and can recommend them specially the Playa Costa Verde special.
The pool is wonderful, large and lovely warm water, the swim up bar is very handy as well, yes there are a few tiles missing from the floor of the pool,( so what), its clean and always has a lifeguard on duty. You can swim at night if you so desire as well.
We did a couple of trips, one to paradise island on a catamaran, we had a wonderful day and the Island is just stunning, and we did the speedboat driving, my husband LOVED that trip and went a second time with his friend, that time they had to use jet skis as the boats were all full, he enjoyed that more than driving the speedboat. Both trips good value for money.
Our Thomas Cook reps Nancy and Nicky are brilliant and will go all out to make sure your holiday is perfect. They kindly arranged a special meal and a birthday cake for my husband, the staff all stood round and sang to him as well.
Once a fortnight the staff do a special meal and entertainment on the beach for British guests which was a nice touch and the fillet steak was scrummy.
All around the resort the gardens are well kept and maincured by very hard working staff, they so appreciate a peso tip and we gave one of them a bag of sweets for his little lad, he was really pleased .One of them sits near the pool every day and spit roasts a pig over a coal pit for 6 hours for our benefit, we also gave him a couple of beers every day.
All around the resort are land crabs and lizards so careful where you walk at night, we loved them and fed the lizards on the beach bananas most days.
The beach is stunning, there is a shelf of coral as you get in the water so take beach shoes with you, but because of the coral the sea life is abundant and snorkelling is just heaven, take a banana and feed the fish as well.
Yes the hotel has faults, not enough to spoil your holiday, take it as you find it as we did, switch to Cuban time and enjoy every minute at the PCV. We highly recommend this destination and loved our time there.
Chill out with a few Buccanero beers and a cocktail or three. I would go back there in a heartbeat. We Love Cuba and its people it is paradise. :)
Jan
Arrival
Flights from manchester and back with no delays.On arrival we were checked in and given Champagne reception. The rooms are spacious and clean with big bathrooms, we were in room 5425 and had an upstairs room with large wrap around balcony overlooking the gardens and beer corner.
Restaurants and Bars
The staff at this hotel make your holiday, they are friendly and fun and not just after tips.There are 4 al a carte restaraunts which you can book once each week, I must say the lobster in the Cuban was so rubbery I could have used it to re-sole my flip flops, after a word with Nancy our TC rep we were treated to a wonderful lobster meal in the vegetarian restaraunt as a treat.The japanese is great fun and yummy food cooked fresh in front of you. The main restaraunt is fine and has a few stations cooking prawns/steak/chicken etc fresh and as you wanted it.We always found something nice to eat in there and the puddings are just delicious, one of the chefs wheels in a special pudding every night, to a great fanfare and dancers, ( the drumming of the pudding we nicknamed it ).
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Excellent trip - BEWARE CanJet
Gaviota Playa Costa Verde
User Rating:
steve >
1 contribution(s) Canada
Apr, 2010 | Leisure | Family
2 people found this review helpful
My son and I recently returned from Playa Costa Verde.
It was just as we had hoped, a nice relaxing vacation.
However, we do have a major complaint against CanJet Airlines
I packed (among other things) a Battery charger for a Sony digital Camera
AND a charger for my son's Nintendo DS game
Upon my arrival to Cuba, I noticed that both these items were missing from my luggage.
I would find this extremely difficult to believe they went missing on the Cuban end of my trip.
The Cubans do not have, and cannot get devices for which these chargers were meant to power.
Also, their voltage and shape of the plugs is different than our own.
As such, I believe a handler within the Ottawa airport siezed an opportunity to confiscate these items as their own.
Of course, their official stance is "we are not responsible . . ."
So that's the bad.
And I will not fly CanJet again . . . but I need to talk about the good as well
Your Arrival
Thankfully, there were no other flights ariving at the same time as us.
Holguin airport is quite small, and this can sometimes create a real bottle-neck at customs.
This is not something you can control, or your travel agent, or the airline.
It just happens at small airports.
Our arrival through customs, baggage claims, onto the resort bus went very smoothly.
Once we arrived at the resort, our check-in went quite quckly as well.
Unfortunately, due to the timing, our room was not ready yet.
They gave us our bracelet, so we could enjoy our "all-inclusive" experience.
They have a luggage room where we left our suitcases, got into our swim suits, and off to the beach.
When we returned from our day (approx 4:00) our room was ready.
They took us(and our luggage)to the room.
Rooms
Our room was large and clean, with two twin beds.
As we were on the first floor, we had a large terrace (upper floors had a balcony).
One of the bed-frames was broken, so I contacted the front desk.
We were told not to worry, it would be fixed before we retired for the night.
We washed up and went for dinner.
Upon our return, the bed was fixed . . . no problem
Restaurants and Bars
We mostly went to the buffet restaurant, because in the past, we found this to be the most convinient.
My son likes to try a bit of this, bit of that . . .plus we have a fairly rigid schedule at home, we didn't want to have fixed time to eat.
That being said, the buffet had very good food, with lots of variety.
There was a grill station, in which you could get chicken, beef, and/or pork.
We always had something from the grill . . . Mmmmmm!
On our second day, on our way to lunch, we saw them roasting a pig over the coals.
My son was little reluctant to try "wilbur", but once he did he said "I hope they will be roasting another pig tomorrow" . . .and they did . . .every day . . . Once again Mmmmmm!
We tried to taste everything in the restaurant, but there was too much variety.
Must tries:
- Something from the grill
- Pizza
- Fresh juice (my favourite - Canteloupe)
- Bananas Flambé
- Coconut Ice-cream
We went to the Japanese restaurant, one evening, and it was quite good.
Our preference is definately the buffet restaurant(s).
After 6 Cuba trips, 3 Mexico trips, 2 Dominican trips, 1 Jamaican trip . . .we know what kind of travelers we are
Beach/Pools/Grounds
Beach, what can I say ?
That's why we go to Cuba !! And this beach did not disappoint.
Nice shallow entry (for my son), good snorkelling right off the beach (bring some bananas from the restaurant).
My favorite beach is still "Cayo Santa Maria" but this is quite nice too.
The grounds are always being maintained by hard working staff.
I like to bring these guys a beer from the bar, or give them a peso, or a ball cap, or something small . . .to show them I appreciate their effort to make MY vacation as nice as possible.
The bartenders, maids, servers make decent tips . . .but these guys are working as hard or harder.
While a peso here or there is really nothing for us, it could be the equivalent of a days pay for them.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
We took the "swim with the dolphins" excursion, and it was really special.
I really struggled with the balance of trying to please my son, and trying to be environmentally responsible.
In the end, we took a "once in a lifetime" excursion, that will provide a lifetime of memories.
Other Comments
Remember you are on vacation.
Chill out, walk a little, smile at the people you meet, dance a little, make new friends, try new foods, swim in the ocean, try that blue drink, be respectful, get a massage, go to the gym, so sailing . . .have fun.
When I go to Cuba, I usually bring my gently used clothes, some toiletries, some small toys to give to the families.
Let me tell you, a little gesture like this goes a long way.
So when I say I go for the beach, I also go because the Cubans are genuinely warm, friendly, appreciative people, who go out of their way to ensure your time on the resort is as good as possible.
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Wonderfull staff makes us come back home
Gaviota Playa Costa Verde
User Rating:
eric >
1 contribution(s) Canada
Jan, 2010 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
2 people found this review helpful
This was 3rd trip to this resort with each trip making it harder to leave our friends behind.We have made so many lasting friends our kids now call themselves our second family. This last trip was a lesson for us .We arrived with all the excitment of another relaxing stay which ended when we discovered we arrived without our luggage. Both my wife's and my luggage did not make the trip.We did meet up with it 5 days later what a treat when we would go out I did not have to wait for my wife to get ready we would just leave as she did not have her goods to get ready with. I waited 38 years for her to be ready on time .I guess it's true if you wait long enough it will happen.On the lighter side the staff were super they brought shampoo,bug spray,sunblock and offered clothing and any thing we thought we could use. Let me tell you if I already haven't these people are the best.We take the time to talk to them and they in turn talk to us freely about their life and future.I could name people but it is best not to but when we arrive these people with very little always have something special for our visit we try to tell them not to but they seem to not understand english at that time. We have friends from animation, buffet, bar and gardener all who have given us gifts for the simple reason because we treat them as our equal. This resort has new management and have made some great improvements to the beach,lobby and services I could go on forever talking about these people but am now planning next trip Mar 2010 Bye for now
Your Arrival
Jan 2 2010 for one week stay every thing fine first to check in as we had no luggage to wait for
Rooms
Always cleaned,Great staff always helpful
Restaurants and Bars
Great meeting place take time to talk to your neibour we always meet people from other places.Food always good do not be critical it is buffet sitting in open air therefore it will not be oven hot , drinks great try something differnt you are on vacation
Beach/Pools/Grounds
Beach new improvements must see
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel
Activities good if you enjoy having fun. We always take trips off resort and visit the villiages
Other Comments
I could not remember if I told you what a great place with wonderful staff so I am now
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Really nice resort, loved the staff and the food.
Gaviota Playa Costa Verde
User Rating:
Mitchell-Ashley >
1 contribution(s) Canada
Oct, 2009 | Leisure | With Spouse/Partner
4 people found this review helpful
Arrival was easy,flight was miserable, Air Canada is terrible, service was brutal and staff were not helpful at all. Never flying with them again. In and out of customs really quick, Cuban guards at the airport were really nice, decent English. Bus ride was long but we bought a few beers before getting on for $2 Canadian the guy selling them said he "takes anything". Once at the hotel we got a welcome cocktail and were greeted with smiles all around. We got a little hotel buggy to our room, the driver was very courteous and helpful. Front desk staff were excellent. All in all rooms are nice, clean and water pressure in the shower is really good.
Rooms:
Beautiful rooms, ocean view was spectacular. The only issue's were there was a gap under our door and the water from the rain kept seeping into our room at night. The shower curtain was very thin and leaked everyday, we called front desk and they said it was regular. The toilet paper is terrible, word of the wise bring a role of your own with you, you will thank yourself you did. Other than that the rooms were fantastic. The bed was pretty comfortable. We had an issue with our safe and called front desk and within 2 minutes literally there was a handyman at our door and our safe was fixed. We tipped him and every time we saw him for the week he always made it a point to smile and wave at us. If you want to make someone's day tip a handyman or gardener they seem to go rather unnoticed.
Restaurants and Bars:
A la carte's were spectacular. We did the vegetarian, Cuban and Japanese. We skipped the Italian because we have both had bad luck with them in the past. The vegetarian was surprisingly really good. The spring rolls are spectacular, the turkey and orange sauce was good as well. The Cuban was really nice, they had it set up in the Italian restaurant or our night as the Cuban restaurant is beach front and it was raining. The lobster dinner was really good and the dessert was the best we have had on vacation. The Japanese restaurant was 5 star. We went 2 times and it was different both times. The chefs at the Japanese have their own specialty we had one chef that was all about the performance and our second chef was all about flavour. No complaints at all about the a la carte's. One thing we did have a little difficulty with was trying to find somewhere to eat once we arrived as we got there after the buffet had closed and Air Canada charges 9 dollars for a sandwich on their flight and you get NO FOOD with them. We had to ask around to find out where the 24 hour snack bar was and it is in the buffet on the non smoking side, it opens at 10PM I believe. They had hot dogs, hamburgers and little pizzas, good little snack food. The snack bar by the pool was good they had fried chicken, pizzas, hamburgers and hot dogs. The fried chicken was really good. You can ask for custom creations if you are craving something too. The buffet was really good, always mixing it up, different themes every night. There is a pasta bar with a really nice lady at nights who makes an awesome homemade pizza. We got her to make us pizzas and then brought them back to our room for a bedtime snack. She was very nice but I forget her name anyways she is awesome. The bars were good, best place to get Mojito's was the lobby bar that seemed to be their specialty. The cigar bar was amazing if you meet Aldo in there he is the best bartender in Holguin. Very nice and taught us a lot about the country and how it works. All in all food was really good and staff were awesome.
Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Beach was really nice, we heard it wasn't but were pleasantly surprised upon arrival. The pool was nice and the staff were always getting people up and in for some activities such as volleyball, it was a riot. The grounds were well maintained and the cups left by some European tourists were always picked up by groundskeepers.
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
We did the full day katamaran and snorkeling tour. It was worth every convertible peso.We did a swim with the dolphins and lobster lunch which was awesome, the lunch was amazing a full lobster cut in half with your choice of side and free drinks. Amazing, if you can try and go swimming with the dolphins without the Europeans as they don't listen to the tour guide and we almost got screwed out a picture because they don't pay attention and they were hogging the dolphin. The trip was only 99 CUC and worth every penny. The on resort snorkeling was nice and was good to get us ready for our big day. The paddle boats were neat too, clean and fun to take out. Any of the off resort tours would be well worth it and ours was the most expensive at 99 peso's. The prices are really affordable when you compare to how much things would cost in Canada.
Other Comments:
Really nice resort, loved the staff and the food. The staff were nothing but helpful and were always willing to help out. Julio the towel guy was always greeting us with a smile. If your going for a walk on the beach at night make sure you talk to Rafa. He was extremely nice and polite and fun to talk with. He showed us the giant blue crabs that he catches on the beach so it's safe for us tourists to walk around on. He said his English was not very good but he spoke fluently. Nothing but good things to say about this resort we will definitely be heading back here.
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