Hi! My name is Lisa and I live in Glasgow. I’m in my 20s and I graduated from university in 2007. I...
Hi! My name is Lisa and I live in Glasgow. I’m in my 20s and I graduated from university in 2007. I work as a manager in a well known toy retailers but I am looking for another job at the moment. .
Member since:09.03.2009
Reviews:4
Fisrt of all I would like to say that this is a review for the Sandals Royal Hicacos and not Cuba or Varadero as a place to visit. I can't fault Cuba as a holiday destination.... it's fabulous!
I`ll get straight to the point instead of giving a blow by blow account of my entire holiday.
The staff were wonderful. Especially the waiters/waitresses and the maids. They are paid buttons and work very hard for tips but they don't at all come across as pushy and never actually ask for or expect a tip. Every day the maid cleaned our room and arranged our towels into some sort of amazing sculpture! Swans, hearts, flowers.... we saw it all... literally works of art... with towels! Our maid wrote us a little welcome letter and a little "hope you enjoyed your stay and will remain in love with each other forever" letter for us on our last day.... very sweet. She was discreet and we never actually saw her and our room was always very clean. Our fridge was kept constantly full with water and beer.... happy days.
This resort is right on the beach and the pool area is nice and relaxed. There is always music playing, not too loudly and delicious cocktails on tap from the swim up bar. a nice amount of foliage creates a nice tropical atmosphere too which is lovely.
There is a good air condiditoned little gym if you like that sort of thing with big TV screens in it. We never got any treatments in the spa but the gardens surrounding it looked lovely. we had to see the on site doctor a few times and he was wonderful. Better than any doctor we've ever visited back in the UK!
Bad Points:
The apartments are very clean but extremely dated looking. They're very 1980s and really need modernising. When you see the surrounding resorts you can't help but feel the Royal Hicacos is just..... blah... in comparison.
While the food was good in all the restaurants it gets very very monotnous after a few days. I know Cuba has a limited variety of food available since they don't trade with the USA and can really only live off they're own crops, but if I ever see another black bean........ In saying that the fresh fruit and meats available in the buffet are yummy.
Some the entertainment was just plain weird! Random pool side fashion shows where everything was made out of crochet. And at night there was some 18 to 30s style competitions. I was pulled on stage to perform a lap dance for the presenter along with a few other girls and the audience was to pick the best lap dance....... I walked off the stage and my partner and I retired to the bar.....Perforning a lap dance for another man in front of my boyfriend on our romantic holiday in Cuba? No thanks. I expected a bit more class from a sandles resort.
Please go to Cuba. go to Varadero.... but go to a better resort than this. Its ok... but for the price you want more than ok.
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Strictly speaking this category is for reviews on Cuba as a holiday experience, not an individual hotel so I won't rate it. If you do post it in the correct place drop me a guestbook message and I'll happily rate it
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Advantages: All round good pick for those wanting Caribbean on a budget. Great beach! Disadvantages: Probably not quite up to 5* standards like some other hotels, but we didn't mind!
ikkin1981 12.06.2007 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
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