Honeymoon

Terry and I took our honeymoon 6 months after the wedding: we went to Paradisus Varadero, in Cuba, during the week of December 1st to 8th, 2002. It was an absolutely wonderful trip, and we can't wait to go back!

Below is the review that i have posted to Debbie's Caribbean Resort reviews - a site that was invaluable to us when deciding on a destination.

If you wish a visual tour of our trip, photographs may be found here.

My husband and I went to Cuba for "Honeymoon Part B" (we went to a resort in Ontario immediately following our wedding in June). We decided on Cuba based on the safety of this island, the beauty of the beaches, and the relatively inexpensive resorts. We decided on Paradisus, because everything we read indicated that it is the best resort in Cuba. And from what we can tell, it certainly is! Paradisus is five star in every sense, and was an absolutely wonderful experience.

We were in Paradisus in the first week of December, 2002, and the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm every day - about 28 degrees, but since it was relatively humid, the temperature with humidex was probably in the low 30's. Perfect beach weather! (Actually I lied - on our last day it was cloudy and stormy. The cloudiness made it easier to leave our beach paradise the next day. Plus, it since it was still warm, we hung out at the pool instead of the beach).

The clientele of the resort seems to be primarily European - French, Italian and Spanish; I believe there were also some people from South America. There percentage of Anglophone Canadians at the resort seemed to be about 10 percent - and I would say that the number of French Canadians at the resort was higher than that. English is not the most commonly heard language here, so knowing a bit of Spanish will get you a long way! Even if you don't speak Spanish, you will find that most of the staff speak English - some speak just a little, others are quite fluent. My husband was a little unnerved by the lack of Anglophones, but it never bothered me - I actually saw it as a great opportunity to brush up on my Spanish.

The age of the guests was pretty varied - there were young couples, middle aged couples, and senior citizen couples (we are 29 and 31 years old). Notice I say couples -- most of the people there were couples, however there were a few families with young children. This is not a party resort - it is a relaxing and luxurious adult paradise, so if you are looking for a 24x7 party, this is probably not the place for you!

I should mention that it seems that the resort was filled to half capacity while we were there, so it made getting access to services easier than it would have been if it were full.

Tour Operator

World of Vacations. Other than the fact that we had to pick up the tickets at the airport, on the morning of departure, we had no issues with them. (However, that itself was unnerving, since the flight left at 6:30 am! We weren't sure that the ticket counter would be open - but lo and behold, it was). When we got to the resort, we met with Lisa, a Canadian who was the World of Vacations Representative. Lisa was very sweet, full of helpful advice, and seemed to be having a very good time working in Cuba! Lisa had "office hours" in the lobby of the resort, and was always very pleasant to deal with.

Check-In

Probably the only negative thing about the resort is that it is one of the last resorts on the Varadero strip. This means, that on the way from the Airport to the resort, the bus drops World of Vacations travelers off at all the other resorts on the strip, before we got to Paradisus. This took about half an hour. It also meant that for any day trip, the bus would start picking up people at Paradisus, then pick up people from all the other resorts along the strip before finally getting out of Varadero (with the opposite drop off when returning - again, Paradisus people were always dropped off last). So, while you should be prepared for a relatively length ride to the resort, it is worth it! For one, you get a glimpse of many of the other resorts on the strip - and let me tell you that there is no comparison between those resorts and Paradisus. For one, all the other resorts face the ocean on one side, and the main road on the other. Paradisus has an ecological reserve in between it and the road. Once leaving the main road, the bus drives down a pretty side road / drive for quite away to get the resort, and the effect is that of being surrounded by lush, gorgeous vegetation. Since Paradisus doesn't have any resorts immediately adjacent to it (you have to walk quite a ways down the beach to get the Sandals, for instance), the feeling of living in a lush tropical region does not leave you.

Exiting the bus, you walk into the Paradisus lobby - which is just incredible. At the main entrance, there is a large freshwater pond area that you must walk through to get to the lobby itself, and in these ponds are all manner of fish and plant life. Once past the pond area, you are inside the lobby, which is very elegantly appointed, with a very nice sitting area near the lobby bar. From the lobby itself, you look out onto green space, which is followed by the beach and then the gorgeous blue of the ocean itself. The check in is the easiest I have ever experienced - you simply sit down with a chat with one of the resort front desk clerks and you are handed a fruity drink. The desk clerk takes your paper that has your reservation information, and comes back with your keys and gives you some information about your stay at the hotel. Then, you are taken via a golf-cart trolly type thing to your room.

Rooms

Each room is in a villa of sorts - there are at least 20 of these villas on the property, and each one has 16 rooms. Ours was a "Matrimonial Suite", and really, the only difference I can figure is that the bed was a real king sized bed, instead of 2 beds pushed together. We didn't see the inside of the other rooms, so there may be other differences that I am not aware of. (Here is a photo of the entrance to our room; for some reason, we neglected to actually take a picture of our room itself).

The rooms have the king sized bed, a divan, a fridge (with water, beer and pop), a very nice bathroom with a very funny hair dryer, a bidet (never actually used one of those things!), a sitting area, and a TV with a pretty good selection of channels. The air conditioning was very effective. Yes, the bed was harder than the ones her in Canada, but I found it to be very comfortable. Oh, by the way, the room was HUGE - much bigger than I would have expected from a Caribbean resort. All the rooms in this resort are Junior Suites, so expect that they are all at least as big as ours. They are also very decorated very nicely in an understated Spanish design.

As for the maid service, the room was always impeccably clean. We left a good tip for the maid on the first day, and were rewarded with towel arrangements, complete with flowers. It was always fun coming back to the room to see what she had done next. We left additional tips, and a whole bunch of toiletries and other gifts (pens, pencils, gum, etc) when we left.

Beach

Almost immediately after checking in, we went to the beach. The beach is gorgeous! We spent every day thereafter at the beach, with the exception of the day trips we took, and the 1 stormy day that we spent at the pool). On 1 day, there was seaweed on the beach, but for the most part it was kept seaweed free, which was nice. Because the resort wasn't at capacity, it was always easy to get a lounge chair near the beach bar, under a palapa. Actually - there were so many lounge chairs and places to sit, that I doubt that you would have a problem finding a spot no matter how busy the resort was!

The water was warm, and wavy but not too rough (with the exception of that stormy day - a person would be crazy to go in those waves!). You could walk quite a ways into the ocean before you can't touch the bottom. The sand itself was very soft - here and there, there are some seashells, so you do have to be a little careful about where you walk!

There are vendors that walk the beach - they are officially licensed by the Cuban government to sell their wares. They are prohibited by law from harassing you in any way, so you don't have to worry about peddlers.

The one thing I should advise you on: try not to sit by the life guards! The life guards were a bit of a laugh - they seemed to be either sleeping or chatting with girls. One day, we ended up sitting right near them - they approached us and offered to sell us cigars, or to take us to Havana for $20 and have dinner with their family! These were precisely the types of offers that our Lisa, our World of Vacations rep, warned us about. Even without a warning, I doubt that we would have taken them up on their dubious offers. (You hear stories about people buying cigars from unauthorized sources, and finding that the cigars are filled with grass - or worse - instead of fragrant tobacco leaves). Anyways, we politely declined their offers, and they left us alone for the rest of the day.

Speaking of dubious offers - you can walk down the beach in the direction of Sandals (which is about a 15 minute walk away). The beach between Paradisus and Sandals is very nice, and there is brush immediately adjacent to the beach. Watch out for people sitting in the bushes - if security / police is not nearby (recognizable by their uniforms), you may find that you get approached by people who emerge from the beach asking for "gifts". The best way to excuse yourself is just to say that your spouse already gave all your "gifts" away.

Pool

We didn't spend as much time at the pool as the beach, for obvious reasons ;). There are two pools - 1 smaller lap pool, and a very large amoeba shaped pool called the "Pool of Bays". It is surrounded by many lounge chairs, as well as little "cabanas" where you can lounge in the shade. The pool is a refreshing temperature, and is very interestingly designed - you have shallow sloping areas, ledges, a ledge in the middle of the pool with a little lounge that you can sit in. At night the pool and the cabanas are lit up - and if you are celebrating a special occasion at the resort, you can approach the Public Relations desk about having a gourmet meal served to you in one of the cabanas.

Grounds

The grounds of Paradisus are gorgeous. As I said, Paradisus is surrounded by an ecological reserve, so that only adds to the lush tropical feel. The green space is wonderful, with beautiful lawns, amazing flowers, and lots of palm trees. There are many gardeners employed, who will chop down coconuts for you (they call them "coco's"), hack of the top, and pop a straw in for you so you can have a drink. The gardeners seem to do all of their work by hand - my husband was constantly amazed that they would trim and edge the lawn by hand using machetes!

Bars

The bar we frequented the most was the Beach Bar, since we spent so much time at the beach. My husband very much enjoyed the Pina Coladas served at the Beach bar, and there was always Cristal beer on tap. The bartenders are very friendly people, and one was more than happy to have me try out my rudimentary Spanish on him. :D

The lobby bar, Casubi, was very well appointed, and very busy at night. I found that it was faster to get a drink from the bar in the nearby "pub" instead of waiting to get a drink from the lobby bar in the evening. In fact, the pub was often so deserted, that the bartender seemed pretty happy to have somebody come in! :D. The drinks at both of these bars were excellent - they only sad thing is that Caesars don't seem to exist in Cuba, so I had to settle for a Bloody Mary.

We never actually went to the pool bar, which you could swim up to from the pool. We would have liked to swim up to the bar, just to say that we did.

Food

Much has been made about the quality of food in Cuba. We found the food at Paradisus to be very good overall. However, you should expect that the food will be different than it is at home, as in Cuba, there is limited access to fresh fruit and vegetables. My husband and I have a very open mind with respect to food, and found everything to be very good. There was lots of fresh pineapple (not the best I've ever had), bananas, papayas, grapefruit, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables - however, not the same variety that you will see here. The lettuce was lower quality than we expect here in Canada, but I chose not to worry about it - I just didn't eat that many salads (rabbit food anyways :D). Many of the other fruits and vegetables were canned. My philosophy is "choose not to worry" - if you adopt the same philosophy, the food will please you.

One word of advice regarding the "A La Carte" restaurants: if you can, make your reservations the day that you arrive. These restaurants aren't that large, and they book up very fast. Specifically, the Turey (or "Romantico") restaurant is particularly hard to book - we only got a reservation on our last night. If we weren't advised to make reservations for the rest of the week on the Tuesday that we were there, we wouldn't have got a reservation for this restaurant at all! As it was, we went to the Spanish restaurant once (we would have gone twice, but we thought our 2nd reservation was on the Thursday when it was actually on the Wednesday), the Italian once, and the Romantico once. We went to the Buffet the other 4 nights.

In addition to the restaurants I will describe here, there were also little "treat huts" scattered about the resort. Depending on the time of day, you might find in these huts continental breakfast, coffee, treats and cakes, fresh fruit, or champagne. It was one of my husband's favorite things to go into the treat huts and see what was there! :D

Oh, and speaking of coffee - Cuban coffee is very good. Coffee lovers will be in heaven. The coffee is not served with cream as we do here, but with a pot of heated milk. Typically your cup is filled two thirds with coffee, then topped off with milk. Yummy!

All restaurants, except Turey, are open air; however, they have screens that can be drawn in the event of rain. As it was cooler at night, we only felt overly warm while eating dinner one night. The service was always prompt, and the wait staff were very pleasant to deal with. They were very patient with my attempts at Spanish, and we had absolutely no problems with communication.

You will find that there are musicians in each restaurant, at every meal (except if you take an early or late lunch). The musicians are all excellent. At all restaurants except the buffet and Turey, they move from table to table, serenading guests. This is very charming, and typically you can tip the musicians if you enjoy the music. You will probably be offered to buy the musicians' CD if you tip them - we only bought the CD of one group that we particularly enjoyed in the Spanish restaurant. We believe that the resort itself sponsors the musicians, and helps each group create a CD that they can sell to tourists. These CD's aren't cheap - the bargaining seems to start out at $15 US - so spend wisely! Keep in mind that you can always refuse the serenade if you do not want to be put into the awkward position of having to tip when you don't necessarily want to. Or, I guess you can be serenaded, and just not tip - its all up to you, because it is, after all, an all-inclusive resort. We always carried money, just in case.

The buffet restaurant, Ara
Ara had a very nice atmosphere for a buffet. Like any buffet, it was kind of hit and miss - some items were really good, others only mediocre. Learning what to eat and what not to eat is part of the experience. I would say that the quality of the food was at least as good as any relatively high end buffet you would go to here in Toronto. For breakfast, you could have cereal, yogurt (very good), customized omelets (very good), breads, cheese, fruit, eggs, pancakes (not so good), and many, many other items, including (my favorite) banana smoothies. Yum! Dinner was varied, and we found that there was always something good to eat every night. The breads and cheeses were superb. The soups and salads were the buffet's weak point, so I didn't bother with those most nights. They had an excellent seafood station, with tones of fresh shrimp and other yummy delicacies. There was always something good to eat in the hot food station. You could order customized pasta dishes, pizza, paella, and many, many other items. My favorite part of the dinner buffet was the dessert bar, which was amazing. They had excellent cakes and treats, but my favorite part was the flambéed bananas - yummy! We never went to the buffet for lunch, but were are told it was not much different than dinner.

The Beachside Grill
We ate at the beachside grill everyday that we were at the resort for lunch time. The food at this grill was excellent. You could order the most delicious garlic stir fried shrimp (with heads and shells - so beware if you don't like de-shelling shrimp), red snapper, really yummy grilled chicken, hamburgers (my husband ate lots of those), pork kebabs, and best of all, seafood paella (SO GOOD!). There were also salad fixings, and excellent assortment of breads, and fresh fruit for dessert. We loved the grill.

Spanish Restaurant
The Spanish Restaurant was the first "a la carte" restaurant we ate at. We found the food to be very tasty - and for the life of me, beyond a superb garlic soup, I can't remember what I had! This restaurant has a very nice, quiet atmosphere, with a Spanish musical group serenading each table (we bought the CD of this group).

Italian Restaurant
We really enjoyed the Italian restaurant. We were lucky enough to get a seat in one of the little pavilions surrounded by water, instead of in the main restaurant area itself, which was very romantic. My husband had an excellent lasagna, and I had beef saltimboca (a little over done). I don't remember the rest of the meal, but it was all excellent.

Turey ("Romantico")
This is the best restaurant at the resort. I am not sure what category the cuisine falls into - perhaps somewhere between French and the loosely defined "International" cuisine. We were advised to order 2 entrees each, because, like many nouveau cuisine restaurants, the entrees are really quite small. I do not recall my starter or dessert, but for my entrees, I had lobster (very good) and duck (amazing). The food in this restaurant is excellent: well prepared, and exquisitely presented. Bring a sweater to this restaurant: it is the only air conditioned restaurant, and boy, does the AC work!

A final note on restaurants, for cat people: there are tones of kitties at this resort! There are little grey and orange tabbies running about the place. You may see kittens frolicking in the grass by your room from time to time; however, you will most often see the kitties by the restaurants. Cats aren't stupid - they know where the food is, and they know how to look cute! The restaurants are open air, separated from the surroundings by a wooden wall or fence type thing. The kitties will sit by the outside of the restaurants, and many people (including us - bad us!) will give the kitties food). They are very cute, and if you are a cat lover, you will enjoy them. You will rarely see the kitties venture into the restaurants, as they seem to know that it is against the rules, so non-cat people can rest easy that they won't be disturbed. For an example of the kitties, here is my action kitty shot. Advance to the "next" page to see the action kitty! :D

Activities and Animation

As I mentioned in the beginning of the review, this resort is not a party resort. Most guests seemed pretty focused on sitting on the beach or by the pool perfecting their tans ("Palm Tree Syndrome"). As a result, the activities were probably more toned down, relative to other resorts.

My husband participated in beach volleyball a few times, which he very much enjoyed. I participated in stretching and exercises on the beach, lead by a very enthusiastic instructor. I also took some of the Spanish lessons that were offered, to brush up on my language skills. The Spanish lessons were taught by a girl named Datsy, who I think was the substitute instructor - she also participated in the nightly shows. She was a very nice girl, and made the Spanish lessons lots of fun. Over all, the activity (AKA "animation") staff were very enthusiastic, and made a point of getting to know the people who participated. They knew our names, and always had time for some conversation. Other activities included dance lessons, which looked like fun, various water sports, and other land sports such as archery. There are also some pool tables for those who enjoy pool - my husband and I played a rather tipsy game one night, which was much fun.

The nightly stage shows were quite the production! They were very Spanish in presentation and theme, and varied from so-so to flat out amazing. The shows included talented singers, incredible acrobats, and flamboyant dancers. Very cool!

The only problem with the shows was that we were often up early, and we often had wine at dinner - so we were a little sleepy by the time the shows started! :D

Day Trips - SNUBA

Aside from the Honeymooner's Catamaran Cruise (which I will get to in the next section), we only went on one day trip. When we first got the resort, I wanted to take trips here, there, and everywhere! My husband wanted to sit on the beach and perfect his tan :D. We compromised and took one day trip, and it was well worth it! (Let me just say, that I did come around to his way of thinking - relaxing on the beach all day was wonderful, and with a resort as luxurious as Paradisus, why would you want to leave it?)

We took the SNUBA diving day trip to the Bay of Pigs, on the Caribbean side of the island. SNUBA was new to me, and it will probably be new to you as well: it is a combination of SCUBA diving and snorkeling. You have a regulator, diving weights and mask, but the air tanks stay up on a raft on the surface instead of you carrying them on your back. You are connected to the tanks via a 20ft long hose, which is more than long enough for you to explore around the coral reef in the Bay of Pigs. Let me just say, this coral reef is amazing! There are so many beautiful fish in this area, and really amazing reef formations. It was quite an interesting experience to be swimming that far underwater and not have to come up for air!

The tour is operated by a (crazy) Canadian named Elvin, and 4 other Scuba divers. We had at least 20 tourists, from different Varadero Resorts, on the trip with us. We were the only ones from Paradisus.

The trip itself involved a 2 hour drive to the Bay of Pigs in an air conditioned bus. On the way to the Bay of Pigs, we were given a history of the country and the regions that we were passing through by one of the Scuba divers - it was very interesting to learn about the country and its people. We passed through many small towns, and yes, many of the Cuban people are very poor. It was an eye opening experience to see the conditions in which people live, if only from the window of a bus. One thing I found particularly interesting was the number of people trying to hitch a ride by the sides of the roads. We went on the major highway, and the shoulders were crowded with people waiting for somebody to pick them up (picture the 401 like this!). There were very few vehicles, and trucks seemed to be one of the main forms of transportation for Cuban people - you would see trucks crammed with people just trying to get around.

Anyways - we got to the Bay of Pigs, where we were divided into 2 groups. The first group went SNUBA diving while the second group snorkeled around the bay. We were in the second group, so we got to observe the whole process before we went diving ourselves.

The dive was quite an experience! There are 2 tanks (therefore 2 people) per raft, so Terry and I had a raft to ourselves. We were broken into groups of 4 people, and each group had a SCUBA diver with them. The SCUBA diver gave us instructions, and then took us on a tour of the reef! It was amazing! We have many photos from our underwater camera, which will be making an appearance on at http://www.mauraandterry.com/moggie/photos/home.html as soon as I scan them in!

After the dive, we had a simple but excellent lunch in a nearby restaurant. We relaxed for a bit, snorkeled some more, then left for the hotel mid afternoon.

Snuba even has its own web page! (But then, doesn't everything?)

Just a note for traveling off the resort: bring water, suntan lotion, hand sanitizer ('cause you never know), Kleenex ('cause you never know) and anything else that you think might ensure your comfort. Remember that washroom facilities are not the same as they are here in Canada! Fortunately, the ones at the SNUBA location had both TP and soap, so that was all good.

Honeymoon Package

As this was our honeymoon, we got the honeymoon package, which was lovely. We received run (Havana Club, white), champagne (Spanish, so I guest you can't really call it champagne), flowers in our room, a fruit basket in our room, the "matrimonial suite" (described above), and a catamaran cruise.

I would say that the catamaran cruise was my favorite part of the honeymoon package. One of the things I liked about it was that it allowed us to connect with other honeymooning couples. There were perhaps 8 other couples - 7 European and 1 was another young Canadian couple from Calgary, who we got on quite well with. As the only other Canadians we had met were older than us, it was nice to finally meet some Canadians our age! Unfortunately, the honeymoon cruise was on the Friday, and we were leaving on Sunday, so it provided little hanging out time with the other Canadians.

The Catamaran cruise itself was awesome. The boat was huge (Terry guesses it was a 40 ft), with a really nice living area. Of course, we spent all of our time on the deck of the boat itself, enjoying the ride! The cruise was open bar, like the bars at the resort.

We stopped out in the middle of the ocean, where there was another really gorgeous coral reef. We did some snorkeling there for a bit, where we saw some more amazing fish and coral - it was really too bad that we had already used up all of our photos from our underwater camera!

The catamaran took us to a little island called Cayo Blanco, where we stopped for lunch. The little restaurant there seemed to specifically service all of the catamarans that stopped there. We had a great lunch of chicken, rice, beer, and other good stuff.

After lunch, we hoped back on the boat for the ride back. It was truly a nice day! We got back mid-afternoon, so there was still time to relax by the pool.

Varadero Itself

We didn't get very far into Varadero itself. It was hard to get up and leave the resort itself, because it was so nice! Late one day (about 5:30), we did go into town, to go to the market, and to go to the cigar store. To get into town, you can take the bus (cheap), rent a bike or scooter, or take a taxi (not cheap - about $15 one way as it's a long drive). We took a taxi into town, because we were heading out late in the day, and it ended up being quite nice because the car was air conditioned. The taxi dropped us off at the market, and Terry tipped the cab driver well to ensure that he would be there to drive us back. We bought a few trinkets at the market (and actually developed a pretty good tandem bargaining routine), and when we were done, our cab driver was waiting for us. We had no idea where the cigar store was, so he just drove us over there, with the meter off :D, and waited while we bought some cigars. Then he took us back the hotel.

In the market, you can find all sorts of stuff: crocheted and woven clothing, wooden art and trinkets, beach bags, postcards, leatherwork, jewelry. It is very interesting place to walk through! One bit of advice - walk through it at least once, because you will find that there are multiple vendors selling the same items. Also, if you aren't used to bargaining, now is the time to work on your skills! We were told that vendors expect you to bargain, so the original price they tell you is higher than what you should actually end up paying.

Other than the market and the cigar store, we didn't see very much of Varadero itself. Which is a shame, because I am told that there is a very nice park with an Italian restaurant in the middle!

Checkout and Trip Home

Check out day was a sad, sad day.

Checkout itself was quick and easy, nothing exciting. The main reason I wanted to comment on it is that we had to checkout before the buffet restaurant opened for breakfast (however, we were able to have a continental breakfast in one of the little treat huts). Paradisus was nice enough to prepare for us a little packed meal, which included a sandwich, banana, a drink, yogurt, and a granola bar. It was nice to be able to eat this while waiting at the airport, instead of having to rely on airport vendors!

The airport was nothing exciting, with the exception of the mariachi bands who were playing "Feliz Navidad" in the waiting lounge. :D

The flight itself gives you a wonderful view of Varadero on the way out, so it is worth getting a window seat if you are into that kind of thing.

Other Notes

The water in Varadero is purified, and therefore safe to drink. Never the less, we did find the Imodium that we brought us useful.

Yes, there are bugs in Cuba. The mosquitoes and black flies love me here in Canada, and the bugs in Cuba loved me too. I brought insect repellant, but never used it - probably should of because I got some itchy bites. Terry didn't get bit at all. You don't feel the bugs biting you, but you definitely notice the bites after the fact.

With respect to tipping - you will encounter people with different tipping philosophies. Some people will come armed with $100 in $1 bills to tip everybody, others will tip sparingly. As Paradisus is an all-inclusive resort, it is really up to you. Nobody there will pester you for tips, so don't feel pressured. We always had money with us, and we tipped those people who we thought provided good service. It is my impression that Cuban resort workers are among the more well off people in the country, but they still make exceedingly little money compared to what people make here in Canada. My opinion is that every little bit helps, and often people in the tourist industries are supporting family in other parts of the country. So it is nice to help.

We also brought gifts with us to give away, but didn't have much opportunity to do so. We left our gifts for our maid.

There is a store in the resort - we bought some postcards and rum there, nothing exciting.

Overall

We very much enjoyed our trip to Paradisus Varadero. It is an incredible resort, and provides for a very relaxing, enjoyable stay. I would definitely recommend this resort to anybody who is looking for a high class vacation location. Paradisus is luxurious, refined, and wonderful. Go there.