A very pleasant time had by all. This was our first experience of an all inclusive hotel. The food (apart from the last 2 days) was great in the main restaurant as you walk from reception through the 1st restaurant. Lots of seafood, freshly cooked fish, omlettes, pasta dishes and grill. So much choice it was hard not to put weight on during our stay. The last 2 days they seemed to scale down the size of the buffett served and moved us right near to reception. The grill we found was better at lunchtime than at night even though it was al a carte in the evening. We gave up in the al a carte restaurant after numerous food distasters we found it was so much better in the standard restaurant. Beware of plates in Al a carte restaurant my 2 year old daughter burnt her hand on a plate. They did say after they had put the plate down don't touch the plate but my daughter was already touching it by that time.

The Superior room was lovely and kept very clean by our maid but we did give generous tips to her. When we arrived there was a cot for our 2 year old daughter but she hadn't slept in a cot for over 6 months but they did offer to change the cot to a bed.

The pool was lovely and kept very clean. We choose to sit in a area where the pool was so low my daughter could walk into. We could walk round with the water just at her waist. I must admit this did wonders for my daughter confidence and gave me more confidence with her in the water.

I think for us though it made us realise that we wouldn't want another all inclusive holiday as we like our own company and after 10 days it all felt a bit repetitive but if you enjoy all inclusive holidays this is a wonderful place to go.

I love Cuba, 6th time before. First time in Holguin.
Long travel distance from Airport.
Big resort..too big to my taste, long walk from some rooms to the lobby and beach.

Did not experience any problems.

Beds were comfortable, sheets changed after 3 days.

- Food. Worth an extra star.
Went only twice to the buffet, don't have a good choice of desserts.

Restaurant a la carte, made all our reservations the first morning. Nice presentation and excellent quality in every dish. Efficient service.

Beach grill for lunch and pizza hut.

One day a Mechoui was served at 4h30 on the boulevard.
Appreciated the ice cream parlor.

-Animation.
Not much.. Evening shows, disappointing.

Travelling is full of compromises.

-We did tip in restaurant & bars, but made no difference. My son in law and myself gave $180 cuc for a week + gifts to room maid and pool bar tender..ok, if we can afford to travel we can also give some to people that work long hours,for not much.

Get ready to relax, enjoy a refreshing strawberry daiquiri and have an unforgettable vacation.

I had been to the Hotel Playa Pesquero, Holguin in Cuba with my spouse 3 years ago in April and we liked it so much, we decided to go back again this year from June 15-22, 2008. I must say we love to travel and discover new places in Canada, US, Caribbean and Europe. What attracted us mostly are the choice of different restaurants and bars, the excellent service, the snorkelling and the hotel quality/price ratio.

Food: We really appreciated the different restaurants, reservations allowed for 4-5 nights per week à la carte with a choice of international wines and loved the bar lounge at reception with grand piano player every night. Champagne, international drinks and excellent cafe latte. It is spacious, attractive and lively atmosphere. Some furniture and upholstery needs to be renovated on the site.

2 well kept secrets: snorkelling is excellent at this beach. A few years ago, it used to be that we could go straight into the water and see lots of different fishes. Now you will see more fishes if you go to the far end, near the rocks, at the right hand side of the beach (in front of other hotel). We have recorded about 40-50 different species. One morning we went in the ocean by catamaran with an employee of the beach house and saw great corals and numerous fishes. It was beautiful. We think storms reduced the amount of fishes because sand covered every thing underneath the ocean near the beach and some plants lay uprooted on the ground. Cubans said fishing caused the reduction in fishes. The second best kept secret are the entertaining shows at the hotel every night. We discovered this only a few nights before leaving and I regretted not seeing more shows. The Musicals and Rock & Roll were great. Dancers are real ballet professionals and musicians excellent.

Bedroom and children at hotel: The bedroom was spacious, quiet, with a touch of European style that we appreciate. Air conditioning is quiet and comfortable. A trick I used – utilize the clean « bidet » to wash little garments like bathing suits. We had to call twice to get room cleaned and bottled water but apart from that, the cleaning was very good. I am not sure at this point if tipping is a good practice. Maybe you only get good service if you tip – which we did 1 day out of 2. I was a bit concerned about the fact that now many families come with their children to the hotel but fortunately, visiting at mid-June - before end of school - only young children were present. We were thankful they were quiet. Only at the airport did we have a few noisy and unpleasant children running and screaming.

Sickness: last time we went, we were not sick at all. This time, on the first day, we think the slush drink at the beach restaurant gave us diarrhea. The next day, I found myself with over 20 mosquito bites and allergic reactions. I put some Benadryl cream (itch relief) but had to go to the pharmacy to get some benadryl pills. Mosquito insect repellent we had brought along also helped. Another lady received a cortisone shot from the doctor and pills to stop the infection. We think there are more sand fleas and mosquitoes at this time of the year. We heard other people complaining about the mosquito bites. The temperature was quite hot: 30-33 degrees Celsius during the day and very humid.

Site: the landscaping is beautiful with lots of trees, flowers, statues and water fountains. The employees work hard to keep it nice and clean. There are many different wall paintings all over the hotel site (natural settings, etc.) and it is quite interesting to look at. The theme of the hotel site – Railroads – is fun. There are many Cuban employees all over the site and they all are very polite, smiling and helpful.

Local Cuban people on the hotel site: I had read on the TripAdvisor that all Cubans are now allowed on hotels sites and I was a bit concerned about it. At first, on the beach, I thought it was quite alright to have the local people around and did not notice them in the hotel. Because I was scared to get bitten by the sand fleas, we did not stay much on the beach. We did snorkelling in the ocean and then relaxed at the pool - which is really beautiful.

Bad experiences: No. 1 - Saturday, the day before leaving, my spouse went snorkelling near the rocks and I relaxed on beach chair with my legs covered with a towel so not to be bitten. Around 4:00 pm about 150-200 Cubans arrived by car and school buses. They ate and left stuff on the beach and in the ocean. I was trying to decide if the local people disturbed me and thought it was OK for them to also enjoy this lovely place.

No. 2 - This being my last day in Cuba, I decided to do a bit of snorkelling alone not far from the hotel. After 1 minute, I saw right in front of my eyes a sexual maniac man, with his penis in erection and his bathing suit down. I just could not believe it and got up right away. A Spanish like man, around 40-50 years old, walked away in the water in the middle of the other Cuban people. Thank God my husband returned on the beach at that moment and joined me in the ocean. I showed him the guy walking away and we decided that back in Canada, I would write to the hotel to make a complaint and talk about it on this site.

With these bad experiences, I believe Cuban government is not making a good decision in allowing the local people on the tourist sites. In many countries, hotel sites are reserved for tourists and local people have their own beaches. I think Playa Pesquero, Holguin used to be Paradise. Maybe I was not lucky but it seems to me that tourism being the 1st industry in this country, government and hotel management should be more careful with the changes they make.

I still love Cuba and the Cuban people (we have been there 5 times) but I will review in the coming years what is being done with this hotel and the country before I return.

This review is a little late as we traveled to PP 19th April 2008, 36 of us in total for our wedding. After reading a few of the reviews I was a little apprehensive about what to expect when we arrived, but I shouldn't have been, we all had a great time and hope to return again in a few years time.

As a bride and groom to be our check in was smooth and straight forward, unfortunately it wasn't the same for the rest of our party there were a few teething problems but nothing that couldn't be sorted.

Our room: we were in block 29 (a superior room) and the only problem was that the curtains didn't hang properly on the rail, but that certainly didn't spoil our holiday, we also had a few ants but take insect spray and it soon gets rid of them. This was a perfect location as we were close to both the pool and the beach.

The Pool: We spent most of our days lazing around the pool near to the bar. The pool wasn't the cleanest but it is so big and people come from the beach and get straight in so what can you expect! Most of the men spent their days watching the football on a small portable tv and playing cards under the gazebo around the pool.

The Beach: Very clean and beautiful, although we didn't spend much time on the beach as the sun loungers didn't have padding on them. I did go snorkeling which was an experience in its self (especially as I hate fish!!!) and the sea was always warm, sometimes like getting into a bath.

The Restaurants: The only restaurants we didn't try were the Asian and Vegetarian (we ran out of days) I don't have any complaints about the food in any of the restaurants or the buffets, lots of choice in all. The favorite by most of our group and many on trip advisor are the Shrimps in Bacon and Octopus in Garlic Sauce - Also the calamari at the Tratoria.
The only problem we experienced was getting seated together in the restaurants, they didn't seem to be able to cater for groups larger than 4 people, but after a short time of persuasion they would move tables together but didn't seem happy about doing so.

Trips: I definitely recommend the Dolphin excursion - a truly amazing day. We also did the sunset cruise but I was sea sick so didn't really enjoy it and it was the cloudiest evening of the holiday so didn't get to see much of a sunset but a good evening (if you are not sea sick!!) Our friends went to Havana and said it was worth every penny as it is quite expensive at approx £200 each.

Wedding: This is what we came to Cuba for and everything went smoothly, the service the photos both at the gazebo and on the beach, horse and carriage and a private reception with lovely food, not forgetting two wedding cakes - one strawberry and one chocolate. I would recommend getting married here to anyone. I was slightly worried the morning of the wedding day as at about 11am it started to rain!! Luckily it stopped after 20 mins. Also we had a slight panic about the wedding dvd as it wasn't there to collect with the photos and only got it the day before we were coming home.

Overall: The holiday was fantastic, lots of sun, sea and Strawberry Daiquiris, Mojitos, Vodka and Lemon Slush, Pina Colada etc etc
Evening entertainment is nothing to write home about, but as there were so many of us that didn't matter.
The people are very friendly, we didn't feel pressured to tip, however we did tip our maid everyday and we got lovely towel art with flowers and chocolates.