I will start my review my admitting that we did not do our usual share of research for this trip as it was a last minute decision to meet family members at the Tryp Peninsula resort. Some of my review lean towards some situations that we would have been aware of had we done more research.

Check In - People should be aware that it does not matter what time you arrive on resort, check in is 4pm. Whether your room is ready or not. This is what we were told. It is difficult to get a trolley to help get luggage to your room. We carted ours, both coming and going. We did call for the trolley, none showed. Other than that, check in was efficient enough.

Cadeca - right beside check in. The line up for money conversion is long, and moves slow. We spent 2 hours in line. Do yourself a favor and read the sign for hours of operation, because they adhere to it to the second. They close at meal times, rather than switch off with another staff. Judge how far in line you are from the wicket, as they will close the person in front of you. This did happen! We waited for 2 hours. The people behind us had the window closed on them. Needless to say, not happy customers.

ALACARTES - They say you are allowed 2 per week stay. We booked 4. No problem. THe Japanese is the only one that we could recommend. It was excellent in our opinion. Long pants were not enforced for the men. Our group wore them the first night, only to see plenty of shorts, so switched up after that with no grievance from the staff.

Buffet - very busy. The line ups for the eggs, meat carving station, pasta station were crazy long. We tended to miss out on these items, as did not want to bother with the wait. There is not alot of fruit or produce in the buffet, but people could pretty much find something to eat. There did seem to be a lot of "mystery" meats that our group avoided. But there were alot of freshly cooked options to choose from if one was willing to wait. The service was fine in the buffet.

Snack Bar - by the pool. Open 24 hours. Our group had lots of fries, pizza, burgers there. Nice option if one did not want to go to the buffet.

Pools - there really is only one big pool, and it is not deep at all. Waist deep. ANd it was cold in January, making sitting at the swim up bar very difficult unless one no longer cared due to indulgence. We sat there once or twice! there is a second pool, but it is a kiddy pool and we did not go there.

Rooms - decent enough. We asked for king size bed. Hubby is large man. We did not get that. We got 2 3/4 size beds that did not even push together. Little different, but not a deal breaker. Towels, TP, and water left only when tips were left. We tipped daily, but forgot one morning in our haste to meet our excursion, and nothing was left in our room. Not even the little towel art that we had received daily. Kind of funny, but did not consider the lack of TP very humorous. We had brought our own and would suggest this to anyone travelling off resort to do so as well.

Mobility Challenged - A member of our group has a severely damaged leg. This resort was far to laid out for him to get around comfortably. Regardless what block your room is in, there are long walks to get to everything. If you are close to lobby/buffet, you are far from ocean. If you are close to ocean, you are far from lobby etc.....They have a trolley, but it does not seem to be in place for carting passengers as we are accustomed to at other resorts. We never had use of it once. It passed us lots, but only seemed to be carrying staff, or equipment from place to place. For this reason alone, we would not return to this resort.

Service - Tipping does seem important. But in fairness, we recieved good to excellent service everywhere we went. THe buffet bar gets very busy, and always seemed to have good service there. Swim up bar guy could have been a little friendlier.....

SuperPlus - Coffee Bar. Specialty coffees served right outside the buffet. These boys, Michel and Abel, do a fantastic job. IT is very busy as everyone knows it is good. But there is only one worker for daytime, and one for evening. Do be prepared to wait. But they are awesome guys, and when you see how hard they work, you will want to tip them.

Beach - excellent. Very windy the week we went, Some locals mentioned that it is often windy at the Tryp because it is located right on the tip of the peninsula. Makes sense. Beach bar had some pretty long lines, and they do not have blender for mixed frozen drinks. Vendors are definitely present, but seriously do not bother you the way we have experienced elsewhere. A polite no thank you definitley does work.

Drinks - We brought travel mugs, but did not use them nearly as much as we have elsewhere. Kind of had a slight problem finding drinks that we liked actually. They all had different names, but kind of tasted the same? Except in the coffee bar. They made great frozen drinks there too by the way!

Travel - the hop on hop off bus is awesome. We did choose to leave the resort a little more than we normally do. We loved downtown Varadero and found some great places to eat and buy great drinks. The 5$ fee to ride all day long was too irresistable. Where else could you find this? We did the catamaran excursion as well which was great.

Entertainment - we felt the resort was lacking here. Although we dont like an entertainment crew in our face all day long, they were practically invisible here. Part of our group were younger and asked incessantly where the entertainment crew was as they had fond memories of that aspect on past trips. Disco, not sure how some could say it was rocking because every time we went in, it was empty. Or closed. We just felt there was not alot to do on resort, especially when weather was not cooperating. Which is why we probably chose to leave more often.

Cleanliness - no complaints there at all. Very clean, grounds well manicured. THere are people continuously upkeeping the property. The lobby area and bathrooms are very clean. Good job to the resort on the upkeep.

In closing, this is a good resort. Just not the resort for us. It is too laid out, and quite simply, really lacked in the regular activities we are accustomed to on a resort. We just found it ok. If one is looking for beach only, this may be the place for them. If one is looking for a little more upbeat, they may be disappointed here.

Hey there Trip Advisor, here is a quick review on the Tryp Peninsula.

Traveled alone Feb 2-9 with Transat Holidays-they are almost the exclusive tour operator for this property. I saw Transat France and I think one other tour operator from South America. No Sunwing or Sunquest at least this season.

Flew on Canjet to get there-no issues

Proceeded quickly through customs and to the bus, a bit of a drive but no issues

Check in was fast-no issues

Property is beautiful and well cared for.

The rooms are are fairly nice with what cuba has to work with-tv was old, few channels but it's a vacation anyway so who cares. My safe didn't work at first but had it fixed within 15 minutes of my phone call to the front desk-great! The linen etc is oldish.

The rooms are in as many as 28 separate 3-storey buildings spread throughout the complex. The complex is pretty large but not the largest I have been too. I think there are over 500 guests. The lower number rooms are farthest away from the ocean, and are near the children's area. The mid teens and up are nearest the lobby/pool and the higher number rooms are closest to the beach. Do yourself a favor and request an upper floor and you will have less of a chance in encountering bugs. I did, and got a third floor room, no bugs! I met some people who got a first floor room, and they encountered a bug or two-but no infestation or anything like that. So don't worry too much.

Each room has a balcony. the complex is slightly off the beach, and there is a perimeter of vegetation so there aren't a lot of rooms, if any, that have a clear ocean view.

The beach is beautiful. The first day was windy and there were some waves stirring up the sand, so I didn't see the flat turquoise water that was in the photos, however I didn't have to wait long for the winds to calm down, and the beautiful water was almost like a sheet of glass. Great beach. The water was warm, cool for about 30 seconds and then you got used to it. The locals think it's cold ;-) it's not.

Pool was nice, clean, slightly colder than the ocean- fun

Beach chairs was not a problem on the beach, but was around the pool (they need some more).

The bar service was decent
Drinks good

I found that the service wasn't the best, but not the worst either, okay I guess. It got much better if you threw 10 pesos there way now and then. I ended up meeting a group of people and hanging out with them the whole trip so asking for 8 cervazas, 8 vino blanco and 8 shots every ten minutes may have been a bit demanding, but they were all very nice about it.

The food- Well I lower my expectations quite a bit when I go to cuba, so I was sort of pleasantly surprised with the food. It's not great by any means, but it's ok. There is enough selection for most people to get by, but meal time wasn't something I looked forward too, like other resorts I've been too such as the Riu Palace in Los cabos. But this was a completely different resort and location, and I alter my expectations accordingly. Tip-bring your own ketchup packages- mayo, mustard whatever else you like-you will thank your self later

The disco was okay- a fair amount of people every night

The shows were not that great-the performers were talented but the content of the shows was ...meh...

If you want to do Havana, best to ask the concierge or basically anyone and they will set you up with a driver. You pay for the vehicle, so the more ppl, the cheaper it is. We booked a 10 passenger van, 8 tourists, a guide and a driver. It was great $185 total.

The CUC is on par with the USD but bring CDN money because USD gets taxed an extra 10 percent. I found the best exchange rate to be at the hotel, but I only checked a cpl places.

Also cigars were cheaper at the hotel than the airport. You can get cobibas for about 9 bucks each regardless of how many you buy.

Check out was at noon, I wanted to keep my room till four so was charged 7 CUC per hour. I gladly paid it for the convenience of being able to go back to my room, and shower etc.

All said and done the price was just under $900 per person based on DBL occupancy and I think it was worth it. It is definitely not the best resort in Varadero but I think it's probably near the top of the list. I checked out one of the Iberostar's nearby, and it was a big, slightly nicer/higher end but pricier as well.

I would recommend this resort-If you go-have fun.

Also John/Juan at the beach bar and Rob at the hotel lobby did a great job. And my maid Katia kept my room nice and clean the entire time!

Tips

Bring kleenex packs with you for excurions
Bring condiments
Bring clothing items/shoes (even if they are old) to give to the locals
The locals make between 12-25 CUC a month, that is 12-25 CDN dollars so they have to do other things to try and supplement their income-when the exchange a tip you give them of 1 CUC, they only get 30 cents of that, the Gov't takes the rest. So, if you give them gifts, they can't be taxed on it.
Don't take american based credit cards such as capital one, you can't use them
Don't bother taking American Dollars, you can use them, but lose 10 % so why bother
Bring a larger mug of some sort for your drinks, save on small paper cups and trips to the bar-you can leave it with the bartender at the end of the stay-they'll appreciate it
Bring your beach towel, the ones they have are ok but pretty old
Avoid cigars from anyone selling them outside an official store such as the gift shop

We loved the resort. It's very clean with friendly staff. The beach and pools are excellent. While there are panhandlers on the beach they are not in any way annoying and leave you alone if you aren't interested. The only annoyances are the buffet for which there are frequently lines for fresh made omelets etc. and the line for changing money.

Just got back from our first trip to Cuba. Lots of good & some bad experiences. I've been in the Hospisality Industry for 17yrs so my reveiews are honest and accurate.
1) Fight and Transfer- Flew Air Transat out of Vancouver and got into Varadero @ 4am. Only flight in so going through customs and getting are bags was very quick. No timeshare sharks to hassle you which was great. Cadeca (money exchange open 24hrs just outside door to shuttle) so while one of you waits for the bags have your partner exchange to cuc. Paid for a couple of cold cuervesas & got on the bus for a 25 min ride to the resort.
2) Check-In- We didn't wait for our bags(my husband went back and got them once we were in line) we just went straight to reception. Only 1 lady working to check-in 50 people even though there was other people behind the desk. Everything done by hand (no computer) so process is very slow (about 15mins per group if she could find your name on the sheet quickly,otherwise longer) Finally another lady came out from behind the desk to put bracelets on everyone. They inform you on the ride from the airport that your room won't be ready until about 4pm, but we were fortunate enough(so we thought) to get a room right away.While we were checking in the light went off in lobby & stayed off. The whole resort is on a timer so you need to know where the light switches are located after dark. We waited for the shuttle to take us to our room cause it was pitch black and we couldn't find a room sign, only to be driven back around the lobby to the 1st building out front right beside where we just checked in. Bellboy carried our luggage up 3 flights of stairs and when we tried our room keys they didn't work. He showed us the shortcut back to the lobby & went on his way. By the time I got back to the lobby all the people that had checked-in in front of me were already back there(nobody could get into their room) Thank goodness there was another lady there now who was getting new room keys because the check-in line was still 30 deep. Got back to our room with keys that worked and wished we didn't. Room was right on the road & parking lot (noisy even at 5am) no iron, no safe(battery had been removed) fridge empty, no phone & it was DIRTY. Back to the lobby I go... ask for a different room. None available. Ask if we can get a bottle of water & the safe fixed so we can relax for a bit. 3 hours and 4 trips to the reception later I asked for a manager & immediatley she is switching us to a new room but we had to wait for it to be cleaned. The front desk staff work very hard and not once did I get any attitude.
3) Room- New room in 14 Block(great location right beside the lobby & kid's pool) Spacious and clean. Everything working(toilet ran but we didn't want to move again) A/C was on the whole time we were there & ran great. Iron & board,coffee machine & filters & coffee,2 phones(1 on wall in washroom and 1 on nightstand) TV & remote, beach towels and extra blankets for the huge bed. Home for 2 weeks!! Old room was 10 Block(wouldn't stay there)
4) Room Service and Mini Fridge- Met our maid Regla on our first day there & she was fantastic(left us notes for the gifts we left and made a point of talking to us everytime we saw her. We tipped her 2cuc each day as well as a small gift(tried to bring usefull stuff not dollar store items) and she was thrilled. Our room was done before noon everyday. You have the option of putting a card on the bed to have your sheets changed which we did once while we where there & hung our towels to dry(not expecting fresh towels everyday but got them anyways) Didn't use the huge tub but opted for the shower as they have a limited water supply. We left the mini fridge waiter 1 cuc everyday and a note asking for 2 beer and 1 bottle(1.5l) of water everyday and got exactly that.
5) Bars- Our favourites were the Lobby Bar(best Pina Coladas in the whole resort) and was where our favourite waitress Yania worked. We got to know her very well and it felt like we said goodbye to a old friend. And the Coffee Bar(best Spanish Coffees) where Micheal worked. He is the waiter & bartender for the whole bar so please be patient(it's worth the wait) & remember to tip him for his hard work & amazing coffees. The swim-up bar had no blender which was dissapointing but we brought our own mugs and would pass through the lobby on our way to the pool for a drink. The beach bar also lacked a blender so we never went back. There is also a small bar that opens up when the shows are on but the line-ups huge and the snack bar made drinks but we only had beer there. Lots of choices!!
6) Pools- The pools are not heated(boggles my mind as to why people complian about this) The Adult Pool(even though the sign says kids should not swim in the Adult Pool) isn't an Adult Pool. Tons of kids running around screaming & babies crying. Please don't be offended if your child sees a lady sunbathing topless. This is where the swim-up bar is and daily activities are so it's not a quiet pool but it's the only pool on the resort that is more than waist deep(good place to hang out in the morning) The Kids Pool was great cause the kids were all at the Adult Pool so we had it to ourselves. The deepest part was about 2ft but you could still get wet and there was always lots of lounge chairs available. Great little snack bar with drinks but no alcohol(Lobby bar 1 minute away) The Baby Pool was completley empty(we have no kids but that is where we went every afternoon) Shade for my husband & quiet for me. We loved it!!!
7) Restaurants- We went to all 5 AlaCarte Restaurants and preferred the buffet. Yes it does get busy so plan your meals at quiet time if your that impatient and remember that if you sit at a dirty table not to be rude when it's not cleaned quick enough. The staff does an amazing job at putting hundreds of people through in a very short amount of time so please show them some respect. The amount of food we saw wasted was horrible. The main buffet is the only place open for breakfast(7-10) around 8:30-9 being the bussiest. The beach buffet(smaller & less choices) and the main buffet are your only choices for lunch(no alacarte open for lunch) and for dinner you have the main buffet or 1 of the alacartes. The reservation line for these takes forever so watch for a quiet time or if it's just 2 of you go directly to the restaurant and ask if they have room. We've never been turned away and always tip for the service. My husband made a point to go buy pants to wear and didn't wear them once. Nice dress shorts and sandals were allowed in all of them. I have a fairly sensitive stomach but never had an issue with finding something to eat. The main buffet had a carving station(pork,beef,chicken,turkey) a pasta station,a fish station and a meat station. The only thing we couldn't seem to find cooked right was beef. Everthing else was great!!!
8)Tours- We did the double decker into Varadero(very easy and well worth it) We didn't do any excursions although we heard from poeple that did that they were great(book them right in the lobby from the Transat Rep which is the only thing they are usefull for) We did an overnight in Havana but didn't book it through Transat. I booked a Casa Particular online before we went and we arranged our own transportation into Havana and saved ourselves about $200 and saw what we wanted on our own time. It was fantastic!! Rented scooters right from the resort one afternoon and headed back into Varadero. Lots of markets and restaurants and you must check out the beach. The most amazing beach I've ever seen(even better than the beach at the Tryp)
9) Beach- beautiful beach & you could walk forever in either direction. The vendors didn't bother you at all. Didn't see any seaweed. Loved it!!
10) Orientation Meeting- Some usefull information so make sure at least 1 person in your group goes(like where to exchange to exchange towels)
11) Tipping- the staff all work very hard(from the front desk to the gardeners) so please remember to tip like you do at home for good service.This was how we tipped everyday.. The maid gets 1cuc on each pillow. The mini bar waiter 1 cuc. Breakfast at the buffet 1cuc( there was a couple of mornings when we didn't get asked for juice or coffee and we didn't leave a tip) Every 2nd round of drinks 1cuc(so every 3 or 4 drinks) Lunch buffet 1cuc. Dinner buffet usually 2cuc but sometimes more. If you have the pleasure of meeting Juanito you'll understand why more( by our 3rd day he would have a bottle of champange at our table before we even got our napkins on our lap) We miss him already!! Alacartes 3cuc. The staff for the most part were excellent and a little goes a long way.

My husband & I have been to Mexico 7 times but decided Cuba was a must. I'm so glad we finally tried it. Havana was amazing to see but it's a very big,noisy and dirty city and every 2nd person you meet wants something from you. I don't think we'll go back to Havana. The people in Varadero were very friendly & we never felt uncomfortable(nobody in the steets bothered us at all). I would go back to Varadero for sure. Please remember that your visiting their country and respect the people and the place. I saw some behaviour from tourists that shocked me and wondered if these people are always so ignorant. Please don't change your baby and leave the dirty diaper on the lounge chair. Please pick up the gum your child spits on the pool deck. Please don't wash the sand off your child in the pool when the shower is 5 feet away. Please don't smoke in the restaurant or butt your cigarette on the pool deck. Please respect the staff and don't be rude(this will get you nothing but disrepect in return) The people are on the most part very well educated and you will meet some amazing friends. Go with an open mind and have some patience.
If you want to contact me with any questions regarding this review please do so.