This hotel offers good buffet food, a nice a la carte menu with a friendly smile. The beach is just a stroll though the property and was excellent. Nice sand and clear water. I was very impressed. The guys at the coffee corner make the best coffee I have ever tasted. Ida who works at the bar beside the open lunch area greets you with a smile everyday and asks how you are. La China makes the best Pina Coladas on the beach. Everyone is friendly and I can't wait to return. The only negative thing is all the loud, rude French Quebecers who push there way through the line-ups complaining about the food, the amount of rum in their drinks and they don't tip! What a disgrace! Everyone was talking about them! Other than that, I would highly recommend this hotel. I was there from Jan.22-29th.

The Barlovento was a blast everyone their was very friendly and maid you feel safe. Had no problems except did not get water in our fridge and did not have very good water pressure but other than that i would deff go back

Our first holiday in Cuba. Lovely people - very friendly, unlike some parts of the Caribbean that can feel threatening at times.The hotel was fine and the location can't be beat.It is close to town (what there is of it ),many flea markets and reasonably priced eating places within five minutes walk, fabulous beach. From what I could see, if you stay at the hotels out on the peninsula you have nowhere to go outside your hotel except the beach unless you take a bus ( $5.00 per day ) or taxi.The first of the tips - do not do, as I did, change your currency at the front desk. I changed $600 and received a bit over 500 pesos in return, instead use the little one-room bank in the hotel. Far, far better rate. Second tip - If you take a ride in one of the horse-drawn buggy's as we did the driver will show you the price printed on the back of the cart, this is not the price you will pay. This is the price PER PERSON , which makes a difference if you are a family of six and the price you see is $10. Finally , on the subject of tips - tip EVERYBODY, they are paid so little and even one peso is accepted with gratitude.Think of it as making up for the great bargain that is Cuba.

We survived our first 2 days here quite well, the food was OK, the pool area clean and grounds, and the dance group was better than the Tropicana in Havana for dancing, not so showy but great dancers. We thought we had chosen well for a couple of cheap nights to get used to the heat. But during the day, the wind blows from the NE, on shore. When the wind drops at night, a thick fowl smell from an oil processing plant creeps into the area, and nothing we tried could keep it out of our room. Damp towels over the floor drains, windows shut, plugs in the bath and sink. My partner developed a headache; I gaged all night. On asking about it at the frontdesk in the morning, they explained that they no longer smelt it. This is the kind of smell that causes miscarriges in cattle in northern Alberta. Someone in the Cuban central planning department needs a head examine. We walked east up the beach, asking people if they smelt it the night before. Unfortunately their reports were variable, and I think unreliable due to volume of rum consumed as "night caps". Perhaps we should have got plastered too to survive our second night. We departed for Trinidad by Visazul bus early the next morning.