Having read the revues prior to going I was not sure what to expect with all the references to third world experience and don’t expect to much more than 3 star treatment. On a whole we were very pleased with what we got.

We had booked 9 nights to carry on from our 5 nights in Havana. The taxi transfer arranged by PPDM (as it is refereed to locally) from Havana was minute perfect, not the most comfortable but clean quick and efficient. We had booked Royal service so when we arrived we were whisked away to the special check in at the top of the hill and we were comfortable seated and plied with sparkling wine etc. The check was a painless experience and the receptionist was most apologetic that we had to wait two minutes for the previous quest to finish checking in. We were introduced to our butler Kenia, we never did work out what the butler’s role is, but, if it was to make us very welcome and always to be on hand to smile and be extremely pleasant, then she did a great job. One did hear idle chat in the bar about the butlers not being helpful but I think this was more about having something to moan about and certainly was not borne out in our case.

The room was spacious and airy, everything was in good order. Nice bathroom and the towels were the softest I have ever had. The bed on the other hand were firmer then we would have liked, however having used hotels in Spain this was luxury in comparison. Nice balcony with good view. Except the TV did not work for the whole period but that was not a worry. Overall the room exceeded expectations.

The Hill Top restaurant and bar which was for Royal service only was very pleasant if lacking a little in atmosphere. The food here was great, lobster every night if you want. I asked for two one night as a joke and had to eat my words, literally. The staff in the Hill Top was the best. No complaints at all.

Booking the feature restaurants was not a problem, I just spoke with the receptionist on the day and it was booked.

Japanese restaurant - was good, although it is the same every night.
Bamboo restaurant - was strange, never eaten food like it.
French restaurant – was very good, probably our best meal
Cuban Rock – extremely average
Italian restaurant – poor
Buffet – only went at lunch, but the food was great. The cooks if you engaged them would always offer a smile but could be a bit glum other wise. The birds flying around inside was a bit off-putting.

There was also the 24 bar/café by the tennis court which was always lively and although a bit down market I quite liked it in a beach b*m sort of way.

The site was very well maintained with the gardens looking good. The beach was very well run with more than enough places for us to relax on the waters edge. Drinks were supplied in a steady stream too. I did read in a previous review that no Royal quest could use this facility; this was not our experience as we saw a number of people being asked to move on (in a very nice way). The microlite with the boat strapped underneath, which flew up and down the beach constantly, was a bit of a pain though.

Would I recommend this hotel, not on your life? Why? The smell! It did not matter where you were on the complex there was this over powering smell. It was revolting. The source was a natural lagoon in front between the beach and the accommodation blocks. It smelt like raw sewage. I believe that it is a natural lagoon cut off from the sea and the authorities will not let them touch it as it is an eco lake. If the wind was in your direction you could not help your self from gagging. Disgusting, think very carefully before booking!!

We travelled the past two years to the Paradisus resort in Holguin and just loved it. The Princesa del Mar is almost as good and our stay was very enjoyable. The beach is windy as mentioned on other reviews - usually we would spend the entire day at the beach but here we spent more time at the pool. The pool is also very nice but as stated above one wonders about the louts at the pool bar who never leave for a bathroom break so you just know its a bit of a problem.
For the first time ever in the Carribean the mosquitoes attacked. I have never had a problem with this before and in fact didn't feel them biting but the bites were all over our lower legs - take repellent and don't wear scent! The food was as expected - not gourmet but certainly good. I think their breads and pastries are amazing. Lots of bars and restaurants to choose from. Lovely grounds. The room was well appointed but again for the first time ever I could hear people above us and beside us. I have never had this experience at a resort before. The soundproofing was definitely lacking. Good night time entertainment. Pleasant and helpful staff. Good Weather. We flew with Sunwing and it was fine. No glitches.

My husband and I flew to Veradero from Toronto with Sunquest.
We vacationed from April 28 - May 5 / 08.
We chose the Paradisus Princesa Del Mar based on the rating and reviews it received from this site.

As with all reviews - they are highly subjective - this review is coming from myself and my husband - we are 38 and 43 yrs old. Both of us have travelled extensively and have both been to numerous locations in the Caribbean. Neither one of us had ever been to Cuba before and it had been some time since we'd stayed at an AI - usually we book hotel and flight separate.

FIRST THE HOTEL:
It was quite lovely - the lobby and the grounds are beautiful. We saw other hotels and would have to say the Princessa is one of the nicer ones - other hotels we saw that had a high 'wow factor' would be the TRYP - it looked like it was a true 5 star from the outside.

ROOMS: The Princessa as a whole is more like a 4 - 4.5 star according to north american standards. The rooms are a 3 - 3.5 star but more on the 3 star rating. Standard rooms are basic - very basic. A hotel receives a 5 star rating based on it's score on a variety of criteria. One of the criteria, for us at least, being attention to detail. Their rooms failed miserably in this area - there is no detail in the rooms - very functional and basic - far from a 4 or 5 star rating. We, unfortunately, did not have a hard working maid, even though we tipped generously daily. He or she simply did not clean our room - made the bed and took out the garbage, gave us clean towels and that was it - we were sometimes given garbage bags in our garbage bins - toilet paper was only sometimes replenished, floors were never swept - and the mini bar was rarely replenished - when it was it was only half filled. On two occasions the fridge had been unplugged ??? Some days we got water bottles other days nothing.
The rooms are very functional - but not a 4 or 5 star rating in any way. We met a couple who were staying in the Royal Service rooms and they too said their room was far from being a 4 star rating. They complained about the maloderous lagoon - we had an ocean facing room and did not have the misfortune of smelling the lagoon.

We stayed in room 1215 - you might want to avoid this room for it must have been located below a maids room - there was excessive noise early in the AM and at night from above - a lot of furniture moving and a heavy footed person running around - we were unable to dertermine from the staff exactly what this room was being used for - at any rate the noise woke us up daily and was annoying at night.

POOL AREA - the pool area is quite lovely - you can be as close or as far from the bar area as you want - the 'rowdy' folk tend to gravitate to the bar and that's obvious. We quickly caught on to the goings on at the bar - after day 2 we kept our pool visits to a minimum - To our horror we realized that everyone drinking at the bar didn't get out of the pool to use the bathroom facilities - they drank a lot but never seemed to leave the pool - by 3pm the pool was cloudy - it's no mystery why. The pool was never closed during the day for shocking - the cloudiness of the water is an indication that the pool is only shocked after hours. The hotel should really look into this issue.

BEACH - the beach was windy and the water rough our first 2 days so we stayed by the pool. The winds never left entirely however they did die down a bit and the beach was beautiful. We have been to the Caribbean before and the sand is NOT white here - it's a lighter sand shade but definately NOT white. Barbados has white sand but our beach in Veradero and surrounding beaches did not. The beach area seemed to have some raking in the AM by a truck but the shore was still quite weedy - not the cleanest beach we've visited but not the worst beach either - at least the weeds weren't smelly - they didn't bother us at all. The water was a beautiful turquoise blue and it was so amazing to be able to swim every day - we loved the beach experience. If you go for a walk you will be approached by people from time to time asking if you want to buy some nic naks - but they're harmless and leave you alone if you politely ask them to.

A LA CARTe RESTOS - Don't bother - do yourself a favor - we tried the french and chinese and cancelled the rest because our food was so so bad - We did however go to the Cuban a la carte and to our surprise it was delicious. I had a traditional pork dish served on a bed of rice , I had the bean soup appitizer - we enjoyed our meal there.

The Rock House resto has a mini buffet at lunch - we ate at the buffet twice and it was delicious - we had lamb one day and goat another. We ordered from the menu another day and it wasn't all that.

The 24 hr club house is fine for snacks - the ham and cheese sammy is ok - the fries are hit and miss - some days crispy other days soggy.

BUFFET - We have read reviews saying the food is bland - the food is far from bland - they have spices and sauces - they just don't know how to use them. Cubans are not good at imitating american food - they don't know how to cook in that respect. But who goes to another country looking for american food? you're in another country for crying out loud. That being said, according to our north american standards - the bottom line is the spread of the day is hit and miss - some days the buffet was amazing - there was always several amazing food choices to choose from. The meat choices were always good - the meat is gamey tasting but that's because it's so fresh and organic and not pumped with antibiotics like our meat is in north america. I could see how some folks would be turned off by this.

Other days the buffet was just ok - But we never went hungry - there are always imported cheeses, olives and fresh bread. They also have freshly squeezed juices daily and the fresh pastries weren't bad.

Coffee in the buffet is instant - they try to tell you otherwise but it's clearly instant coffee they serve. We caught on quickly and had our wait person get us an "Americano from the espresso machine at the bar" - Also, the milk is powdered milk - they have no cream. No big deal - a week without cream in our coffee is no catastrophe.

The fruit was rarely ripe (this perplexed us) so we didn't have much of that - on our last day they served ripe mango and that was a treat.

For a 3rd world country we actually ate quite well! And like I said, we never went hungry.

The staff is friendly - however it's clear that your tips dictate the kind of service you receive.

DAY TRIPS - we went on the Havana day trip and we also did the Jeep Safari - they were amazing trips and we are so glad we did them - we highly recommend both!!

All in all the hotel was good - not a 5 star - but good nonetheless - we were quite happy with our choice.

THE BAD.
We flew Sunquest and had a horrible experience. I will make a very long story short. We took a late evening flight out of Toronto for Veradero. 20 mins before landing the pilot informed us that the Veradero airport was closed because there was an aircraft on the runway with a flat tire and it could not be moved - we therefore had to land in Havana. We were told a Sunquest rep. would be waiting for us in Havana and that buses would be coming from Veradero to pick us up and bus us to our hotels. The bus ride from Havana to Veradero is approx. 2.5 hrs.
Bottom line is there was no Sunquest Rep. in Havana - no one ever showed up to give passengers any sense of direction. The buses didn't arrive until approx. 1 - 2am. By 10pm we were exhausted and dying of heat and thirst and decided to take a taxi for $140 - we then learned that as the night progressed the taxi price went up to $200. YIKES!
We were also told there would be refreshments for passengers - unfortunately what Sunquest aircraft staff didn't tell us was that the refreshments were available for a fee and the fee was in pesos - the money xchange in Havana airport was closed - so unless you had pesos - you did not get any hydration.

When we finally arrived at the hotel the hotel staff had no clue the airport was closed - however, the check in was prompt thankfully.

The next day (we were told in Toronto by our travel agent that there would be an orientation but the SUnquest rep) - our orientation consisted of the rep giving us a map and pointing out where our room was in relation to the rest of the hotel - he also told us there was a bus that ran every 30min that could take us into Veradero centre - orientation took about 5 mins and that was the extent of it. The rep also had no idea that everyone had been redirected to Havana and that it was a total nightmare to get to Veradero. He offered no apologies on behalf of Sunquest.

We learned on our flight home that people didn't get to their hotels until 5am - and that a Sunquest rep never appeared.

We never once received an apology from Sunquest. We returned and sent them a letter of concern regarding our unfortunate and costly experience and we still haven't heard anything - not even 'sorry for your luck' - nothing. Too bad for them - we'll certainly think twice if not three or four times before considering flying with them ever again. Their customer service is non existent!

The departure experience was not the greatest either - we were charged for over-weight baggage - which clearly were not over -weight. When we left TO our baggage were under-weight - we did not buy anything in Cuba - infact we left quite a bit behind.... we were the unfortunate victims of greed - we learned we weren't the olnly ones - there were several other ppl on our flight who saw the scale with their own eyes but were still told their baggage was over. It's all too bad - we ended up having to pay $20 pesos - The sunquest staff in Veradero originally wanted $50 pesos for our baggage and then we bargained for $20.
Bottomline - be prepared for anything in Cuba and bring a lot of extra cash with you.

All in all e had a good trip - we went there for some R&R and we were able accomplish that. We would never go back to Cuba - there are other places in the Carribean worth seeing and frankly the political climate in Cuba is changing and unfortunately it's not changing for the better - not for tourists nor for the locals.

I would suggest visiting Cuba at least once in your lifetimes before it's opened up to the US and commercialism kills it of it's current charm - especially Havana - it's a must see. You can find great beaches anywhere - but Havana is one of a kind and definately worth visiting.

Stayed for one week in April and had the best holiday ever. We upgraded to Royal Service and have to say it was money well spent. I read an earlier review where someone stated "its not worth the money because you are hardly in your room" I have to disagree, upgrading to Royal Service is not just about the room, its the whole package, from the minute you arrive to leaving, you are treated like royalty. The manager of the Hilltop, Ernesto was exceptional, nothing was too much trouble. In fact all the staff were exceptional especially Mislenny the pool girl. We were never without a drink. After spending our "hard" day by the pool we would arrive back to our room to find our butler had prepared our jacuzzi which would be surrounded by flowers or petals and a bucket of champagne on ice, then to round it off we were served canapes while watching the sun go down. I never wanted the day to end.

Food at the Hilltop was excellent, we had breakfast there most mornings, we tried the buffet breakfast once but it was too busy and fast paced, the Hilltop, with its much slower pace of life was more to my liking. We liked the French, Italian and the Japanese restaurants, the service and food was good in all three. The Oriental I would give a miss, the food and service were dire!

The only criticism I would have is the maids, the beds were changed and made every day and the towels were also changed every day, as for cleaning, that never really happened, it became a laugh each day to see just how much more dust had accumulated on the furniture. ........but, we got some lovely towel art and petals all over the bed and she even left us little presents to take home, so that more than made up for it, plus the maids always had a smile for you.

On our last night my husband arranged with the staff for a special dinner as it was our anniversary, the staff went out of their way to make it one of the best nights ever. It was very special and a lovely way to end our holiday.

All in all a wonderful holiday, if you are considering a holiday at the Princesa, you will not be disappointed. We will definitely be returning, maybe next time I will bring my duster.........