We stayed as a family at the Iberostar from Jan 31 to Feb 7, 2012 (6 adults, 3 kids, 4 rooms). We had a great trip, and would return again. The value of quality vs price was excellent, and with that in mind we rate it a 4 star.

Weather:
Although weather is obviously unpredictable, we discovered that December and January are the windy months there. We stayed during the tail end of it. We didn't know this before going, and none of my research said anything about this. It seems to be quite well known to those there though. It makes a hot day a bit more bearable, but it was still too windy for my taste. This is not a breeze, this is a strong wind. Had I known this previously, we would have booked for later in February to avoid the winds. On the plus side, since there was wind there were NO bugs. The wind was less by the pool as it's more protected by the buildings and trees.

Beach:
Gorgeous. Clear water. Safe. Soft sand. The beach goes for miles, if you're into taking long walks on the beach, you will love it. My family and I enjoyed playing in the sand and swimming in the ocean. The waves are small and the water is shallow far out, so it's safe for small kids. The sand strip is quite narrow during high tide, but when it's low tide, boy, is it amazing. Free to use paddle boats for an hour, which was fun (other water gear available too, but that's all we used).

Food:
I was expecting the food to be bad, but was pleasantly surprised! The fresh grills were the best, by far (for breakfast: omelettes, pancakes and french toast; for lunch/dinner: fresh fish, fresh chicken, fresh beef). The pre-mixed buffet dishes were OK, not spectacular, but the fresh grills really made up for it. The biggest disappointment was the lack of fresh fruit variety. You would think as a tropical island that fruit is the one thing they would have in abundance, but no. It was usually limited to bananas, dragon fruit, papaya, and grapefruit. The Cuban restaurant was a disappointment, the Mexican was excellent. Cuba Libre restaurant on the beach was great value (when facing the ocean at the resort, walk to the left). 15 CUC for a huge lobster tail, shrimp and squash. You can bring your drink from the resort, or they have some for sale there too.

Drinks:
The lobby bar makes the best drinks. Much better than the pool bar. The plastic cups are flimsy and small, bring a non-glass tumbler of your own if you don't want to go back and forth too much. You get a new large water bottle provided in your room every other day. You can fill up with filtered water in the main buffet restaurant in between, if needed.

Rooms:
Dated, yes. But it was clean and well cared for. We had a wonderful view of the ocean. The maid did a great job cleaning every day, and our son loved the animals she made for us with the towels and blankets. Wish there were screen doors on the balcony patio doors to be able to keep it open for extended periods of time. Our biggest disappointment: we had requested adjoining rooms when we booked (in fact a large reason for choosing this resort was that they had adjoining rooms). We even emailed a few days in advance to request the adjoining rooms again. We did not get adjoining rooms. This was a pain since we had a small child in our room and wanted to have adjoining rooms to be able to put him to bed early and stay up in the other room without waking the child. We worked around it, but were disappointed. So no guarantees on adjoining rooms!

Service:
Everyone was so friendly and professional. Always a smile and willing to help. We tipped nicely, and left gifts for the maid and a few other helpful employees.

Kids Club:
My son had no interest in staying there (he's a bit shy), but we went in and hung out with Lucy (the animator) and some other kids. I would have felt completely safe leaving my son there. The club is in plain view of the whole resort, and has windows all around. There is a gate so the kids can't wander off. They have an outside play area within the gates with sand and some mini play structures. Lucy was very friendly and had lots of energy.

Pilar beach:
Beautiful long and wide stretch of beach, that is shallow far out and stays aqua far out as well. Truly gorgeous beach. Worth the 5 CUC bus trip (roundtrip). The bus schedule is posted outside the resort. It's about a 15 minute bus ride. There are beach chairs available at the beach for 2 CUC each, and there is a very average restaurant there as well.

Sunwing:
This doesn't really have anything to do with the resort, but we booked our travel and flew with Sunwing Vacations. What a treat. The crew was friendly and helpful at all times. We were served champagne and a meal with wine (no extra charge). They had a little bag with toys for the kids. They were on time both ways, and the plane was comfortable. We would fly with them again in a heartbeat. Big difference over Thomas Cook, whom we flew with last year to Costa Rica. Rude flight attendants, incredibly old and uncomfortable plane, and they took 50 pieces of luggage off the plane before take-off as they had too much weight on the plane (they gave priority to cargo they were carrying!!), one of the pieces being ours (it showed up 3 days later).

I always read reviews and never bothered writing one, but this is an honest opinion. You make the vacation special. No vacation is perfect if your a picky person. I enjoyed this vacation for some much needed relaxation and was astounded by the hospitality, the beauty of the atmosphere and the wonderful nature of what paradise is all about 5* all the way :))))

I had been to Cuba only once before this trip. My first visit was to Cayo Santa Maria so I wanted to discover something different. Iberostar Daiquiri was very different. Cayo Guillermo is a small quaint island of the northern coast of Cuba. The airstrip is on the neighbouring Cayo Coco island (about 40 Minute bus ride) so its very close.

The resort is very nice. The architecture of the 3 story buildings that house the rooms is very original. The room I had was nice also. Clean, large, comfortable, with a wonderful view of the see.

The food was very good (even if it's a buffet, they fix it up so their is a variety anyways) I tried 2 of the 3 A-la-carte restaurants. They were ok but I preferred the buffet for the variety. The employees I met were very polite and helpful.

There are beautiful wharves build in front of all the hotels on Cayo Guillermo and there alot of magnificent Palm and Coconut trees along the long, power white beach. I also loved the fact that the beach is ever changing (quite narrow when the seas are high and very large when they are low) The seas are a mix of blues and greens because of the multiple levels of the sans banks. There are many Kit Surfers also so it's a lovely sight to see. The sea is quite shallow so if you want deeper waters you can simply visit Playa El Pilar (a wonderful beach 7 KM away). You can go by taxi or use the sightseeing bus that visits Cayo Coco. (Bring a few Pesos to the beach because there are low affordable fees for the use of the beach loungers and such)

So, I really liked this Island and this resort.

Lots has been said about this resort. Some true, some not. Suffice to say it is not a 4 star, more like a 3 star. I have been told that whatever the rating given to a Cuban hotel, drop it by 1...i.e. 5 is 4, 4 is 3, etc. to get a more realistic perspective

Despite it being a 3 star (our rating), we had a good time. We joined friends at the resort and this made it quite enjoyable.
Some tips..
1. Make sure you bring an electrical converter. The hotel does not have or sell them. I was able to charge my Galaxy Tablet in the 220 volt outlet in the room but that was because my transformer allowed it.
2. If you plan to drink in areas outside of the bar area, they will give you your drink in a small plastic cup. Many people who had been to Cuba before were well prepared and came with larger glasses of their own or thermusis. That makes a lot of sense.
3. The rooms are very basic. There is no clock so would recommend that you bring one if time is important to you.

Other observations.....
Old televisions, a fridge that did not work, and a constant shortage of things was frustrating. Linens were minimal. For example, the beds in the room are singles pushed together. My sheet was only large enough to cover the top of the mattress so it did not wrap under the matteress to keep it from moving. So every morning, I would wake up and find myself sleeping on the rubber covering under the sheet. And since my wife had a sheet that did wrap around and mine didn't for the entire 7 days, I assume they only change the sheets once during the week. Towels were also at a premium. Two bath and two smaller ones. No facecloths. And these normally had to be delivered later in the day for whatever reason.

The food is fine but would recommend that you go to the speciality restaurants. We liked the Italian, Mexican, and Cuban in that order. We actually went back a second time to the Italian one.
We took a day trip to Moron outside of the resort and enjoyed that. Our tour guide, Hector, was excellent and gave us good info on the history of Cuba.
The nightly shows were okay...some nights better than others. But I give full marks to the performers who do a different rountine every night and are very enthusiastic. And that counts.
Some of the hotel staff are indifferent to your needs but others were quite attentive. Like any place I suppose. Irrespective, they all work hard and need tips to survive. They make about 20 pesos per month which is hardly enough to live on. So each time you give a pesos tip (about 1 dollar), you really help these people.
We asked for a wake up call on the morning of our flight and did not get it. Fortunately we were up so not an issue but it could have been. When I told the front desk about it, they suggested that I should have checked my phone to see if it was working as there are a number of problems with the phone system. Nice to know after the fact!

While we enjoyed our time in Cuba because our friends were there, it is unlikely that we will go again.