We flew in with Sunwing from Montreal and both flights in and out were smooth and delayed by 25 minutes due to de-icing back in Montreal. We paid the 40$ per person each way for the Elite Plus which was great because there were no long cues (priority check-in in YUL and VRA) and the seat pitch is wonderful. We really enjoyed the extra leg room. Plus, we received a 50$ voucher for our next trip. Service was prompt and efficient. Thanks Sunwing! They also honoured my vegetarian meal request.

Varadero airport has since been renovated and is much larger. They've expanded the check-in area as well as the waiting lounge upstairs. All bathrooms are also modern and have toilet paper ;-) Nice!

OK, so back tot he hotel. We stayed in the main building and were greeted with a friendly smile. We arrived a little early so we dropped off our bags, changed into swimwear and enjoyed the afternoon. Returned at 4 PM and were brought to our room. They had left some flowers and a bottle of rum. Sweet touch! Room is basic and a little outdated but everything is functional (mini-fridge, safe, a/c-- that was terribly loud... had it checked by maintenance which somewhat helped. But it was still really loud!). TV has basic channels like CTV, CNN, some Chinese and Russian channels too. I didn't really watch it anyways. Water pressure was great in the shower and rooms were always kept VERY clean. Bed was quite hard but comfy enough for me. Hubby found it a little too hard. 4 pillows were made available. Sheets and towels were fresh and crisp. Large closet space with a dresser-- 2 drawers and 2 shelves.

Beach- well, you can't criticize Varadero beach except for the plastic cups that tourists leave lying around as well as straws and cigarette butts. For crying out loud people, throw your trash and cig. butts where they belong!
There was always plenty of shade and palapas available until approx. 9:30 am. Lots of chairs, even in the afternoon. Not much of the towel game.
Sand was soft, white and groomed every morning. The water was gorgeous; approx. 24-26 degrees all week. We had mostly yellow flags and one red flag because of undertow. Large waves too! It did get quite windy by the afternoon, which is normal for this time of the year.

Restaurants- Main buffet- non smoking! I was pleased about that. Before, you could smoke in there and it got a little stuffy. Not anymore. The food was fine for us. Personally, I don't understand when people say the food is bad. It is not bad. It's different and perhaps a little bland. Some days you have something available, and the next, well, you don't. But generally, it was fine for us. I do not eat meat and always found fish, lots of fresh fruit, bread, rice and/or pasta, eggs, some veggies for salads and great desserts. Hubby found great pork and roasted chicken. Exactly what I expect from a 3 star hotel in Cuba.

The Cuban night was great! Lots of traditional Cuban foods! That was on Wednesday night.

Yes we saw flies in the buffet restaurant as well as birds. It wasn't out of control. It wasn't disgusting either. Nor unhygienic. If it were, people would constantly be sick. Which was not the case.
The waiters always had a table available for us with clean cutlery and all the necessary items such as glassed, drinks, refills, napkins and salt&pepper.

The beach grill (Tropipalma) has a 4 item menu I believe. The lemon fish was outstanding. I had that at least 5 times out of the 7 we were there! There's a chicken brochette, a pork steak and hamburger. BTW, the burgers were really good and always cooked thoroughly. As per hubby! Nighttime, it becomes a Cuban restaurant. Which had delicious shrimp by the way!

The Italian restaurant was alright. The wine isn't very good (well at least the red but the white is fine. It's a reisling.). Food was OK.

We didn't go tot he international.

Snack bar has burgers and pizza as well as sandwiches. They were alright.

Pool- They did get new chairs which were great! We didn't go to it but noticed that a lot of people were using the pool compared to last year. Always clean and parasols were made available upon request.

Bars- Kiki's serves the best mojitos and piña coladas. By far!! Opens at 6:00 PM, I think. Main lobby bar always had live music and the drinks there too, were very good! Pool bar on the other hand was so-so.

Animation team was always present with Spanish classes, salsa, ping-pong, water aerobics, etc... non-motorized sports available also.

We went for a massage at the hotel. WOW! Don't expect a soft, gently massage. Let me tell you, she got the nots out and then some! I was aching for a few hours after but felt unbelievably light and relaxed by the evening... The massage room as well as the gym are also quite dated and humid. Don't expect a 5 star spa. But at the end, the results were well worth it.

Generally, the hotel is dated but clean. The staff, just like the last years we've been there were always ready to help, greeted us with a smile and are the main reason as to why we keep going back there. The General Manager, the Guest Services Manager as well as the Reservations Manager are always present and ready to answer any questions. No one hides behind closed doors. That gives me reassurance. They trust their product if they are willing to show their face!

We did not see many children as their are no kids club nor activities planned for them. It always makes for a 'quieter' environment... we like that!

You can't beat the location of this hotel. Within walking distance of many main attractions. Speaking of which, we went to a fabulous Cuban restaurant called Casa Nostra Cubana which was recommended by a local friend. Well worth it! The food is authentic, it is fresh and the plantain (or banana) soup was outstanding! Hubby and I ate there for 25$ CUC. 2 Canchanchara's each (lime juice, honey and aguardiente de caña) yum, yum! 1 shrimp entree, 2 main dished and 2 coffees. It is located on 54th street, before the highway on your left. Friendly service too!

So, as mentioned in my previous reviews, we will be back! You can't beat the quality-price-location of this place. People keep coming back (yes, there are many people from Quebec... but I noticed that they were very generous with staff and the staff seemed to really like them... and some had been on their 10th trip ++). There were Russians and Italians and some anglo-Canadians. We met-up with a Swedish couple and they helped make our vacation truly unforgettable this year! Hej Peter and Lena ;-) .

Remember that this is a 3 star hotel in Cuba. It is not for everyone. It is not fancy and it is a little dated. If you want an inexpensive holiday on a great beach with really nice staff withing walking distance of many restaurants, clubs and shops, than this will be the place for you. If you want something not as dated, perhaps you can look at the Barcelo Solymar and Arenas Blancas which are just a few blocks away, or the Breezes Varadero and the Breezes Bella Costa which are approx. 20-25 minute walk to town.

Also, I noticed that a previous poster mentioned the rooms across the street as being 4 blocks away. They are not. They are across the street, 1 block away from the main hotel for a total of 2 walking minutes. The a/c in those rooms are new, very quiet and most people we spoke with said that apart from the noise on the street side of the hotel, they were pleased with their accommodations. The park side of the hotel is much quieter.

I didn't have pleasant impressions of this hotel - it is overpriced for the quality they propose. The staff is quite unfriendly. The food is disgusting, dishes are dirty. If you fighting with a big jet leg than stay away from this hotel because it is increadibly loud due to the daily late evening events where the entertainer speaks into a microphone as well as the disco opened till early morning. The music in the disco is great though! Take lots and lots of mosquito spray with you because there are lots of giant mosquitos in the room. On the morning of the day I was checking out, there was a little frog in the bathroom... Yuk! The only great thing I loved is the beach. But I went furhter to relax and swim away from load stupid drunked crowds..

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.