Travelled there already a year ago for our first trip to Cuba. You realy need to go there with an open mind, and with that, here is my review of the Cuatro Palmas. Travelling with someone who had stayed there in 2009, we had an idea of what to expect. After all, Cuba is a third world country, and communist on top of it. The people were super friendly, and when you could speak a few words of spanish it was even more fun ! Food at the Cuatro Palmas was good, nothing spectacular, but we always had fresh fruit, breads, sweet desserts and somewhat the same menu each day. The bar in the lobby had GREAT Mojitos, fun local bands and sometimes too many drunk guests, and if you want a cute bar at night it's worth seeing "Kiki" at the "Cuba Bar" near the beach !! Hotel is clean, not super new, but we had a great ocean view, pool view and huge bed. The best thing about this place was it's location: right in town, across from the clinic, near Josone Park, small shops and Rhum museum right across the street. As for the beach, WOW what a beautiful location, nice wide sandy beach, cleaned on a daily basis; some broken chairs and guests who leave their garbage in the sand are the bad things to report. We did do one excursion, the jeep tour which took us through Cuban villages, snorkeling, swimming in a cave, lunch at a beautiful mountain top location and even a trip on a small boat back to our jeeps. Perfect for a one time excursion to see different parts of Cuban lifestyle.Overall, a great experience for first time travel to Cuba. And yes, we are planning a 2013 trip there with our three teens just for th elocation, beach and very affordable prices.

We stayed at Cuatro Palmas from Dec. 20, 2011 to to Jan 3, 2012. Our room, 1330, was on the 3rd of the main hotel building at the east end of the pool.

My wife and I have been to Cuba 14 times before this visit. We have visited most of the Cuban resort areas and have stayed in both 3 and 4 star resorts. This time we were joined for one of our 2 weeks by 12 other members of our family, only one of whom had ever been to Cuba and that was on a short work related visit.

The main reason that I chose this resort was its location. Varadero is one of the few resort areas in Cuba that is available from Edmonton where one of the families came from. The Cuatro Palmas is right in the downtown so you can walk a short distance out the front door to visit Josone park, Calle 62, the municipal museum or go shopping. It is located on some of the best beach in Varadero. Be aware of the fact that this resort is made up of 2 parts. The slightly cheaper LasPalmas section is across the street.

When you stay at any all inclusive resort in Cuba, by the end of the stay, the food at the buffet begins to become reptitious. One of the things that we enjoyed at this resort was the variety of eating options. Besides the main buffet there are 3 a la carte restaraunts that are available for dinner but reservations are required. You may visit each of them once per week. Reservations are made at the desk with a computer on it across from reception between 1:00 and 2:00 PM. Make sure that you are a bit early as reservations go quite quickly. Although the food is not necessarily better at the a la cartes than at the buffet, they do provide a welcome change. In fact our grandchildren probably preferred the buffet because there they could select exactly what they wanted without waiting. And there always was 3 types of ice cream!

The "Italian" restaurant, located across the street in the LasPalmas section, and the TropiPalmas restaurant or international restaurant, located on the far west end of the beach, both have a menu while the Cuba or national, restuarant which is located in the old Bautista summer residence, has a fixed menu that changes weekly. We enjoyed all 3.

Our favourite spot for lunch was the TropiPalmas restaurant. At lunch it is still an a la carte restaurant but no reservations are needed. The menu includes hamburger, pork, grilled fish, chicken souvlaki and calamari. Each entree is served with a salad, fries and a small bit of pasta. Soup and a limited selection of desserts are available on a help yourself basis. Wine, water, soft drinks coffee and tea are available for drinks. We found that the whole staff soon got to know us and encouraged us to come back again. It was very relaxing to be served lunch while looking out over the ocean and beach which was directly in front of the restaurant. Sometimes the restaurant was very busy and short staffed. As a result we might have to go to find the oil and vinegar or catsup but for us that was no big problem.

The grandchildren liked the LAS OLAS snack bar near the pool. There they could order a ham and cheese sandwich, a hamburger or a hotdog and fries. There were tables on the terrace overlooking the ocean.

The food at the buffet was typical of Cuba. There is always a very limited choice of vegetables but I did enjoy the carrots when they were available. I often stole a few from a stew when they were not. The oven baked potaoes were also quite good. There was always a some fresh meat being grilled or carved. The ham, fish and turkey were very good. The steak, as is typical of Cuba, was quite tough.

My main complaint about this resort compared to other 3 star Cuban resorts was at breakfast. It did not have the freshly squeezed orange juice that I have come to expect and the coffee was very bad. We like other reviewers resorted to bringing coffee from the lobby bar.

We had no problems with our room except that our refrigerator was more like a freezer. In fact this was the first time in Cuba that we have had a king size bed. However the rest of the family had the more typical 2 single beds.

It`s sad to see Mercure flagship associated with my worse experience ever in a hotel. Besides being taken to a room 4 blocks away from the beach, the food is poor (and with flees), the bedroom is dirty and the service is 3rd class. To complete this full experience we found a rat, YES A RAT, inside one of our bedrooms (we were a group of 12 people). I`ll NEVER be back again and the image that I had that Mercure had good hotels was seriously damaged.

My husband and I stayed at the Cuatro Palmas Jan1-9th. We stayed in the economy rooms, Las Palmas which are across the street and around the corner. It is a good walk to and from the hotel, our building was on the third block. Building and room was nice, chamber maids and security were good. The down side, being a couple doors down from the outside dance club. It starts rocking at 11 p.m. until 3 or 4 in the morning. Not every night but at least 2 nights while we were there. As the other review mentioned there are roosters living in the neighbourhood. The exuberantly announce the setting and rising of the sun. If you are a light sleeper it could be a problem.

The resort was nice inside, the public bathrooms were too small and over used and often a filthy mess. The were cleaned regularly but they are over used and abused by guests who don't know how to use a bathroom and leave it usable by others. The lounge chairs in the lobby are not proportioned properly, too deep with worn out cushions.

The majority of the hotel staff were less than friendly and yes they did have an attitude that you were bothering them. One server at the buffet laughed when a frustrated guest cleared, washed and set her own table and threw the wash cloth back at the servers station. She went out of her way to ignore the guests. She has the area right of the entrance. Avoid her section at all cost. Not all of the serving staff were bad there was a handful who really made an effort and they always had guests returning to their serving areas.

The pool bar, yes I agree with the previous review, the bar tender was less than friendly. The pool bar/snack bar staff were pretty cold to the guest.

The main lobby bar was good, service was good they were on the ball, they did not keep you waiting even when they were busy. We were sure to tip them a peso several times a day. They appreciated it and gave us good service.

The food at the resort was not great, I have had worse but I have also had much better in Cuba. I have stayed at Puntarena which is also a Grand Caribe hotel, as is the Cuatro Palmas, making it a 100% Cuban run hotel. Which I believe is why the food and service is so bad. We were return customers to Puntarena for 3 years but the food quality got worse and worse. Last November we stayed a Be Live Las Moralas and cannot say enough about the great staff and the great food, it is Italian run. They have the concept of customer service. We have also stayed at Cayo Santa Maria, near Santa Clara, once again great staff and food. My recommendation is to think twice before staying in resorts that belong to Grand Caribe, read the reviews and take them into serious consideration. We will not stay in another resort run by them.

The food selection at the buffet was very poor, the meat was undistinguishable, tough, cold, greasy and tasteless. They often had a ground meat vegetable dish that just looked wrong, the meat was a strange, pink/red/orange, it did not look real. There was always rice, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes that looked like they were instant potatoes that tasted okay but were always cold. There was usually a pasta station set up or a tray for self serve, eatable to say the least. As for vegetables they often had broccoli, carrots, corn and always steamed cabbage and some other bright yellow/orange vegetable. There was some kind of stew, that did not look appetizing soaking in a layer of grease. There was always a few fish dishes. They served very thin looking T-bone type steaks, 1/8" thick, tasteless and tough. Had turkey one night, it was pretty nice, one of the memorable meals. By the end of the week I was having a hard time eating the same low quality offerings, it either had no taste, poor taste, cold etc.
The salad bar had several options but they make some strange looking salads. The bread was alway good and the desserts were good. They even had ice cream.

The front desk staff were not very friendly and always told you to come back at a later time to make your request. Not sure if they thought you would give up and stop asking or what. We had to check out on Sunday at 1 p.m. our pick up for the airport was not until after midnight. We asked if we could pay $25 to keep our room longer. We inquired about it Saturday afternoon, we were told to ask again Sunday about 11 a.m. They were not sure how booked they were, we might be able to keep our room until 8 or 9 p.m. or they might move us to a clean room. We were able to keep our room but we had to wait until 1 p.m to get new keys made. We had two keys and wanted two keys made the second time. They were not willing to do it but my husband insisted. Not happy with the front dest service or attitude. When you go to them for change they will stop serving you to make change for another staff member. Poor service and poor attitude.

The pool was nice, only a few umbrellas for shade, the chairs were in good condition. Can't say the same for the beach chairs they were sagging pretty bad. My husband had to tighten the cords on the chairs before we could use them. Why doesn't the hotel have maintenance staff doing this? The beach was nice, the finest sand I have ever seen. The guests could make more effort to take their garbage with them when they leave.

We did not let the poor food and service at Mercure Cuatro Palmas spoil our vacation. We made the best of our time there and enjoyed ourselves. This resort had some redeeming qualities but not enough to consider returning. I would not recommend this resort.