Even though the resort is old, staff is cleaning all the time. THE FOOD IS HORRIBLE! Same garbage every day. Not much at all in the line of hot foods. You will learn to live on ice cream and pina coladas. Registration staff not at all friendly, but all other staff exceptional, always willing to help or direct. Not too many spoke English.
Get your pesos at the bank on 32nd street, not at your hotel, they charge an extra four per cent. We were on the sixth floor, and had no hot water for the last four days. Also for three days, there was quite a problem with the elevators, most of the time not working.
Cigarettes at the bar quite cheap, $12 pesos per carton, or $1.20 per pack. The nicest thing about this location is the flea market just two doors down. Quite a nice way to spend the afternoon, and good deals. (this flea market better than the one in Havanna).
Also, right across the road and up one block is a smaller version of another flea market.
Some Cubans will ask for the shoes on your feet, just turn and walk away, or you will be hounded. If you get tired of the food at the resort, two doors down is a little "Cafe" that has wonderful hot food. Jamie (who speaks English) is a terrific waitress. You can get a complete lobster dinner, soup, salad, drink, vegetables for 14 pesos. Wonderful!.
Try and stay away from the second week of February, apparently this is there winter. For the first three days, we had our winter coats on. Had only two really nice weather days, and one day a complete wash out, poured rained for ten straight hours. The entertainment at this resort is very minimal, bingo was a hit for some at 4:00 every day. (Hey, full card prize was a bottle of rum! Who knew?) One more piece of adv ise. If you go to the Las Americas mall, there is a grocery store that sell lots of booze. STAY AWAY FROM THAT ONE. Sure you can get a one litre bottle of rum for about 7 pesos, then you pay quite a tax on that same bottle. They will tell you Canadians are allowed to bring back 2 one litres bottles per person. They are wrong. You are allowed a total of 1.5 litres per person only (which is 2- 750ml bottles). The best place to get you booze is at the airport. You have lots of time, and many places sell it, if you need to compare prices.
Anybody know what is up with the airport tax of 25 pesos in Cuba? That is crazy, but don't forget to put the money aside, or you will not leave the island. And make sure it is pesos, not Canadian money, they will not take it, but do have a money conversion booth. I would return to Cuba tomorrow, but never stay in this resort again. Find somewhere that has more than one restaurant, for variety, you will be happy you did.

This is the second year in a row at the same hotel. The room are clean, the staff is great. The food - well it is all the same in Cuba. There is pizza and chinese just up the street if you are really missing canadian food. Very central to the market and a beautiful beach only minutes away. The beds are not the greatest but every day the maid did beautiful things with the towels. We love the atmosphere around the hotel and being close to the local people.
A great value for the money - We would go back in a minute.

hotel was very clean some staff where great but as far as it goes
as many times i have been to varadero this was the first time at this resort and the last time
the food was the worst i have seen in any hotel Lunch was to begin at 12;30 but only once on time just about every day they did not open till about 12;45 to 1 buffet not a very good choice you walk in as soon as they open and all the food is ice cold [not once was any food at least warm]
the part that really bugged me was the day we where leaving at 8pm you must check out at noon was not offered to keep the room till then we had to check out
now here is what they do and the only hotel that has ever done this checked out at noon the minute you check out they cut off your arm band and you are done once they cut it off you can not get a drink lunch or anything else and they treat you like you are a nothing. Went to bar to get a pineapple juice was told you don;t stay here any more so go some place and buy one.What the heck is this bs i asked them they said no arm band no drinks or food unless you paid for it. i will never go back to this hotel or recommend it to any one they did this to every person who had to check out .So go to this hotel i would say no the way they treat you after they have your money you are a nobody there when it is time for you to check out

So I had read a few reviews of this hotel that made us a bit apprehensive about staying there, but they proved to by quite untrue. We got a last minute deal for a crazy price ($511 all-in), so we weren't expect much but we had alot of fun. The room were pretty nice and clean...nothing too special. Got cleaned everyday and we got new towels arranged in fun little designs (though this might be because we left lots good stuff as tips for the maids). We had a TV that got a few English channels like HBO, CNN and a CTV station from Edmonton for some reason. The bathroom was fine with lots of hot water and the water pressure was fine. Only downside was the beds were kind of uncomfortable, and they were twin beds....not so good for couples.

The rest of the hotel was pretty nice...had a games room with free pool, ping pong and foozball. A few nights they had some Cuban dancers come in and do a show which was pretty cool. There was a nice pool but we never used it as there was one of the best beaches I have been to a block away. Swimming in the ocean in February is a very weird thing for a Canadian to do. The beach had a snack bar too and paddle boats you could take out. There was also a snack bar at the hotel which came in hand in between meals.

Now the food seemed to be a big complaint of some people, but i thought is was quite good. Lots of selection of bread, fruit, veggies, pasta, meat and desserts. My girlfriend is vegetarian and still found lots to eat. And they had ice cream!

The staff was nice and friendly as well. The whole experience was really great for us. And it was in a pretty good location as well...you could walk to the main section in Varadero in about 30 mins. You can also walk to the Viazul bus station on Calle 36 to take a cheap bus to Havana (10 CUCs each way) if you don't want to take the expensive guided tour.
We booked this through Nolitours....and the had a rep show up and give some tips on getting around and she was very nice and helpful!

So yeah.....we had a really good time here, but we weren't expecting too much. If you are laid back you will probably enjoy it too. Most of the people staying there seemed to be Russian with some Canadians thrown in the mix, so we didn't really meet anyone, but we were just there for sun and surf and we got exactly that! Good times!!