Having read previous reviews, we decided as usual to disregard the rants and the over optimistic reviews and settle for the medium view. In essence with this hotel its a case of you get what you pay for. We liked the idea of the brochure description of an ecological paradise, as we have a fascination with wildlife and photography. The description of a lagoon is misleading, as the distinct whiff of raw sewerage is sometimes over-whelming, and as its actually a swamp then the over-zealous insecticide treatment means no living thing actually lives within it anyway.
That then meant no wildlife or photography, so to Plan B, just have a good holiday! The plus points are that the beach is great, the sea fantastic and the reefs not too bad for snorkelling. The pools are clean, and the room was fine. Did hear other complaints but ours was fine. The staff are generally helpful, and obviously hotel is run well. The minus side I explained about the dangers associated with raw pork, but this didnt work.
I gave up and went hungry. The management did act on the complaint, but would recommend checking meat properly! The other main point was The other main point was the prostitution ring which is run for the benefit of the Canadian tourists, where the security guards pimp out the housemaids. This seemed to be an acceptable practise, but a little shocking for us on our honeymoon, but I suppose the hotels nightime economy is important to them.
We will not be rushing back, but realise that, you get what you pay for, but if your prepared to share a 'Shrek' experience then book away!! This was our first trip to Cuba. We stayed at the NH Krystal for a week in August - our two boys are 9 and almost 7 years old. Our eldest has a serious peanut allergy, but we never had any problems we avoided the deserts, just in case.
Half the resort was closed and the word around the pool was that the occupancy was only at about 25 percent. There was rarely a line up or long wait for anything. BTW, all of us also took doctor-prescribed Dukoral before we left - it seemed like a trivial inconvenince to do since I have a bit of a sensitive stomach and we didn't want our kids to get sick. None of us had any major problem that slowed us down. We were also careful and didn't eat or drink anything in an any amount that was out of the ordinary for us.
