Great people and spectacular beach. Food kept the belly full. Bus trip to the resort was long but lots to see on the way. Perfect place to relax, unwind and get a great tan. I would definitely go again!
We arrived on a late flight from Toronto and then sat on a bus for 2 hours to get this small cozy resort. Took a while to get our rooms sorted out and several trip back to the front desk, when we got to our room we found a traditional key lock when we had been giving a key card. Not the easiest place to navigate in the dark in the middle of night but once we got into our room and settled a little we ventured back out to the lobby bar for sandwiches. They were very quick and helpful with any issues we had and after few days I really began to enjoy this small resort. It was a much better experience then my last time in Cuba at a large resort. In short the rooms are rustic and rough but liveable. No safes in the room regardless of what they tell you (they do have them but none of them work). They play loud horrible music all day by the pool bar well into the night but if your at the beach you can’t hear it thankfully. the food was better then I expected for Cuba, always go for what’s being cooked fresh, the beach bar does amazing fish and good burgers (no ketchup anywhere so bring if you need), drinks are ok, water in buffet is very salty so ask for sparkling or get from the pool bar, if you want coffee in the morning stop at the pool bar before going into the buffet. We found out half way through our stay that we could have upgraded and gotten a bottle of water in the room everyday, good to know. We only got 1 bottle for the week but we brought reusable bottles from home which we had filled several times a day at the pool bar. The evening entertainment is very bad, and the kids show rarely happens. Kids club (mini club) was ok, very nice lady running it but I wouldn’t leave my kid there alone for more than 30 mins, if that. The pool was gross and filled with garbage but if I wanted to swim in pool I would have stayed in Canada. The beach was amazing and beautiful. In the future if we were to return to Cuba I would probably consider returning here as the staff were very friendly and kind. They made us feel very welcome and we would know what to expect. However I don’t plan on returning to Cuba anytime soon. I hope this helps someone. I was very nervous about this trip and still unsure during our first few days but like I said we may return in the future. Better a place you know then a place you don’t.…
We were back to our favourite spot in Cuba for our annual visit the first 2 weeks of December. We return to our second home at the same time each year because we enjoy the relative quiet of the resort at that time. Check-in was smooth and all interactions with the Front Desk services during our stay were helpful and friendly. Our ocean view room had a welcome bottle of rum waiting, was recently painted, with everything in working order. It was cleaned nicely each day, and towels were replaced regularly. The overall variety and quality in the buffet was good. The meat station had a good selection, and it was nice to see more grilling on demand rather than pre-cooking. Fresh fruit is always a hit, the ice cream is awesome, the dessert station had a good variety. (The pastel de guayaba and arroz con leche are the best!) Dinners at the ala carte had good sized portions, were hot and tasty. In both locations, the kitchen, serving and bussing staff were friendly and efficient. We purchased lobsters one evening – they were grilled and very good. All the bar staff was friendly and efficient. The lobby bar was open during the day and was also serving coffee. Getting beach towels wasn’t a problem. The beach and grounds were beautiful as always, well tended. New palapas were added last year, but more beach chairs are needed. We enjoyed the short walks to the ranchon to get our drink cups filled, have some laughs, and get our cups refilled (okay, maybe a couple times) for the walk back. Weather was beautiful the entire time, the ocean was pretty warm for December. Going out on the hobie cat is always fun. In the evenings we’d get our drinks at the pool bar and enjoy the beautiful night. The pool bar turned into the disco at 11:00, and we hung out a few nights for some fun when there was a group of Cubans staying for a conference. The returning guests’ dinner had quite a big turnout. It’s great to see so many of the same faces returning each year, and to meet some new ones too. The four-course meal was good and well presented, and the serving staff were very attentive. One of the reasons we love Cuba so much is because the people are lovely. We return to Cova only once per year, but as soon as we arrive and the entire time we’re there, we’re made to feel welcome and part of la familia again by everyone we see, regardless of their role at the resort. We love to chat and get caught up when they have a few minutes here and there. Many of the Management team are often out and about, and they’re always interested in knowing how our visit is going. Cova continues to be great value for our travel dollars. We enjoy the simplicity of the resort, its quiet and seclusion, its small size and style, and of course its beautiful beach. The staff is great, treats you like family and does what it can for you. This is a great spot for those people who have realistic expectations and are looking for a simple and peaceful vacation.…
We had a very good flight down with Air Transat but waiting for our luggage was painful. Since we were the only ones going to this resort, it was lovely to have a nice private taxi. Driver was great and his English was pretty good. It was definitely a long, bumpy ride but when we got to the resort, all was forgotten. Checking in was quick and the desk staff were terrific. The room is very spacious with a king size bed, long dresser, a little table with two chairs and a loveseat ! Really quite lovely. The view from our balcony was spectacular and mere steps to the beach. Bathroom was ok but could use some cleaner caulking in some areas which was a little gross but clean nonetheless. The maids kept our room very clean. Only two smallish towels were provided but I assume we could have asked for more but didn't. Some towels really need to be replaced as they were heavily stained and at times we were reluctant to use them even though they were clean. The area we were in was nice & quiet - perfect for us. The beach stretches out on either side which makes for great walking in the morning. It is a stunning beach with beautiful powdery white sand. The water was shallow enough to just bob around in. Water temps were fantastic. It seemed like they could use more loungers on the beach as people spent time walking around looking for a few. Sadly we joined in on the towel game and got our loungers early in the morning. We didn't use the pool simply because we are beach lovers. At times though walking by the pool, we noticed is was quite murky and wouldn't have gone in anyways. They were constantly cleaning it but I wonder if they are lacking the material needed to "shock" the water. The buffet food was pretty good ! Was always hot and they replenished the trays often. Great selection of cheeses, fresh fruit, breads and more. The grilling station was fantastic. We enjoyed pork, fresh fish, shrimp kabobs and even a rack of lamb - all very delicious. Staff were wonderful and we didn't have to wait long to get a drink as the dining room was never really full....until Valentine's Day. They work so hard but always had a smile as they went along serving guests. Another reviewer stated no a la cartes. Well yes there sure is. We enjoyed two dinners here and very good. It's a nice change from the buffet. The lobster however left little to be desired as it was either undercooked or just bad. Was mushy and we couldn't eat it. Steak was tasty. The beach snack bar also served great food. Hamburgers were always cooked well. Pizza was great. Once again, service fantastic ! It was frustrating however to be in line waiting for your order and a local would come right up and be given large quantities of hamburgers while we had to wait for another batch to be cooked. I think education for staff is the key. They really need to be told to have these people stand in line & wait their turn. Was a very frustrating experience. Getting a drink at the bar was difficult.....one would have the bartender continually pouring cups of beer...10 sometimes 20. The dining room was actually very appalling in that for the first time we witnessed, hoards of food being put into bags and taken out. Same with the beach snack bar. We just shook our heads with this behaviour and waited...and waited longer. Thankfully it was only two days of this behaviour. First few days the mosquitoes/no seeums were out in full force. Had a few bites but nothing like some tourists got. After that, they did fog a few times and that made a big difference. We didn't use spray after that. I think we're just lucky ones that bugs don't go after. We really didn't notice much in the way of shortages. The store at times didn't have Cristal beer. There were a few times that ice wasn't available but that was only for a short time. The resort seemed to have had everything that most would expect at mealtimes. For wine lovers, it was so-so. White wine was just ok and the red was quite nice. They did run out of french fries at the beach snack bar but that was the only thing we saw that they ran out of. The staff were second to none and wonderful. Once again, we met some amazing people....tourists & staff alike. We would certainly like to return but will rethink the time frame. Valentine's is not the time to come. The locals came in droves and pretty much took over the resort which would be fine as they are obviously happy to be on vacation like all of us ... but. This butting in line - taking huge amounts of food - ordering many, many beer at one time while we've been standing there for awhile isn't something we would like to witness again. We had a great time in spite of these happenings. The guests we met and the staff that endured Pat's sense of humour will always be in our hearts. The sun shone...the water was warm, beer was cold....that's what vacation is all about. Pat & Diane North Bay, Ont.…
I was at Brisas from Feb 11-18th. It was a mother daughter trip. My daughter is 16 and not much there for teenagers unless they have a friend. But we loved this resort. The people are so friendly and the food was ok. But if you are looking for a place with a beautiful beach, cold drinks and relax then this is def the place to go. The rooms are very rustic which was ok with us because it was very clean. The weather was beautiful no bugs at all which I read are horrible but we didn’t experience any. Met some wonderful life long friends. The Locals do go their on the weekends. Last Friday we had a bus of 200 show up. Yes they were rude, left garbage everywhere but we didn’t have anything to do with them. It didn’t ruin our vacation. Remember this is a 2.5-3 star. One day at the beach bar while waiting for lunch they were butting in line and I said to another Canadian “ I have been here for 25 mins waiting” he said “ you are on vacation and on island time. From then on, the waiting in line didn’t bother me at all. Just take in the sun and view while waiting for your food. The rooms are large, a store that sells large bottles of water for $1.80 CUC. The hotel had no money to change over but the Sunwing rep was exchanging money for us at the bank rate. For the price we paid and what we got. I will be back next year. Thank you Brisas for a wonderful vacation.…
Came back yesterday from my 4th visit to Covarrubias. We were just a week this time.Two hours from airport but since it was daytime what an interesting trip as usual. Check in time was very fast actually got our room early. We had oceanview, second floor block 6300. The resort was not overly busy. Had amazing weather , rained for maybe 10 minutes one day . The beach was beautiful as usual you can walk so far and it is still shallow. We had a couple days of wind which created waves in the water that were quite fun. The food was quite good as usual for Cuba. Always something tasty to eat. Very good staff overall . Our maid was (Made) she was always ready to help with any of our needs. Our room was spotless looked freshly painted. And thank you to Simpson (maintenance/electrician) for making sure our safe was operating properly. Lots of hot water for showers, air conditioning was working very good. A few changes from 2 year ago. No money exchange at the resort at this time. Had to get CUC from our travel agent. If we had known we could have exchange money at the airport. Chairs at the beach are in very bad shape but I guess not easy to replace equipment in Cuba. Hopefully we will see newer chairs next visit. Not a major issue for us. Mosquitoes as usual. They fumigate but not too effective sometimes. Overall had another great trip and will return in the near future. A new building going up, we were told it should hold gym, towels etc. when finished. Nice to see improvements.…
We had an overall wonderful trip! There were a few things that could’ve been better, but keep in mind that it’s a 3 star review and you’re paying for such. I previously stated in an old review that we may have gotten food poisoning, but I don’t think this is the case since my brother also got sick a day or two later after the trip. So it was most likely a flu. I did see some unsafe food practices going on though such as meat being left out, not refrigerated. Most everything was good. Yolanda, our maid, kept our room nice and clean. There was a nice big balcony, air conditioning, a tv. It was close to everything. Pools were nice and big, beach was amazing!! You can walk down the beach either way for a super long time. Lots of great snorkeling spots. You can take a boat out for 12 peso but we found good spots on our own. Some good entertainment, bingo, live music, table tennis, pool, volleyball in the pool, a multi use sports area including a tennis court, soccer field and basketball court. We brought our own balls and rackets but I’m sure the resort has some. Honestly some of the employees were a little grumpy but there were some nice ones too! Rosanna, Sonia, Jose, were all great bartenders. There were others I didn’t catch the names of! Maintenance workers sometimes gave out fresh coconut drinks when they could find them and there were little sheds to buy souvenirs from. They had a convenience store as well, and a nurse on site 24/7. Doctor during the day. Canadians, bring only bills and only ones in perfect condition. At least if you’re with Sunwing. To buy things on the resort, you need pesos which you can exchange with your Sunwing rep. Idk for anyone else. But they will only accept bills in perfect condition, no coins. You get one big bottle of water free but have to pay for more after that. You can ask for water at any bar though and they’ll pour it from a bottle for you. Main snack bar is open 24/7 serving ham and cheese sandwiches. Wifi isn’t free, but it’s very cheap, just one peso for an hour and you can access it in and around the lobby. Now for food. I’m a vegan, so my choices were limited. I could eat the bread without butter, sometimes jam was available, for breakfast. For lunch and dinner there were usually a few options, pasta with tomato sauce, white rice and occasionally rice with vegetables (but be careful, they usually had small bits of meat in there that were hard to see in first glance). Usually had potatoes and some sort of veggie, I saw peas, carrots, squash and more. They had a fruit station but a lot of times, no one was there to cut the fruit and I don’t think you’re supposed to do it on your own, for sanitary reasons. They had papaya, pineapple and grapefruit. They were out of things sometimes. The fruits weren’t very fresh to be totally honest. I saw mould one time on a papaya. Just on the outside, though. The food was just basic, which was fine for our purposes. Don’t expect luxury. They had fries at the snack bar but it did take a while to get them and they were out for a good 3-4 days of our trip. They were able to accommodate me at the a la carte, which I was pleasantly surprised by. It seemed to be a lot of the same food from the buffet though, but I could tell they put more time and effort into cooking it. Overall it was a fantastic trip and we all really enjoyed it! Granted we are a lower maintenance group and we don’t care about things like our pillows not being fluffed the right way, lol. We were there for fun on the beach and lots of snorkeling and that’s exactly what we got.…
My friend and I was there from Jan 22-29 (7 days). This is the 1st time at this resort, got in around 3-4pm after 2hours taxi drive. I had a beautiful room with ocean front on the 2nd floor (6225-6228) Everything looks great, the food was good and the beach looks beautiful. But things started to change....when I ask to exchange money, they don’t have any from the resort however the front desk supervisor “Raymond “ has money to exchange. Higher % or you can wait until next day. It’s only a bit more but I thought just CAN$50 then I will wait. Well...I waited for 6 days and they still didn’t have any money to exchange but they are willing to take CUC$ if anyone is paying their bill. If you ask where to exchange your money, you can take a taxi to the bank which CUC$25 there and back or there is a Sunwing Rep that has money to exchange in a higher %rate. Yeah that has been my experience so far. The beach is beautiful if you cover yourself with bug repellent before you swim and definitely after you swim. Both my legs and arms are covered with bits and when you go to the resort medical room to ask for cream they will charge you CUC$5. Oh only depends on who is working because the 2nd day I was there it was free. It’s not like they will give you some cream to put on but they will put it on for you. I am willing to pay for the tube but apparently they only have one, OH wait that is a lie because they open a tube of cream the next day. They have 3 bars, the beach front, by the pool and by the front entrance. They have beer, pop and rum. Yup if that is what you like to drink that is it. No juice to mix your drinks and nothing fancy because they don’t have any. Oh there are juice to purchase at the store pears or mango. So you can buy it to do your own drinks. Yeah not really all inclusive. But beside the great food and it is beautiful beach...I been to other resorts in Cuba, it is very unfortunate this resort will help you ONLY if you are willing to pay for it. No need to tell you but I will never go back to this place. I hope this will help.…
We traveled to Brisas Covarrubias Jan 11-17 2020. This was our first visit to this property. We enjoyed our stay very much and would return again. The beach is beautiful and goes on forever. We had a king room with a beautiful view. This property is listed as a 3 1/2 to 4 star property and I would say that is accurate for Cuba. The grounds are well maintained. The food was good, we always had enough to eat. The lobster was yummy and the A La Cart was very nice. The beach snack bar makes a good hamburger and fries. The resort is small which is very nice as there was never a line up for drinks or food. It is an older resort so you need to expect not everything to be 100% . You can book diving and snorkelling trips out of the dive shop —weather permitting. There is really no place to go once you are at this property and there are no tour selections as at other locations. It is 2-2 1/2 hours from the airport. We would recommend seeing Isla and upgrading to the VIP as it provides some great benefits and we thought it was worth the value . We would return because it’s quaint , hot and sunny, has beautiful beaches , always a refreshing drink ( see Yandi at the beach bar for the best pina colada’s ) and good enough food to eat and very helpful friendly staff like Isla.…
It’s been over two years since we last stayed at the Cova. We’ve had so many ups and downs at this resort over the years but the ups outweighed the downs so we thought we would give it another go-around. This is our experience. It was very late at night after a 2 ½ hour drive from Holguin to arrive at the hotel and find that snacks were made available for the late arriving guests at the pool bar which was extremely considerate since we hadn’t eaten. We had upgraded to an ocean view room and requested a room with a king-size bed on the second floor. We were a little disappointed to find that our room was on the ground floor with two beds. OK. We could live with that. There was a bottle of rum in our room with a welcoming note and an invitation to the return guest dinner. A nice touch from Dunia, the public relations director. As we were washing up to get ready for bed, grey and smelly water gushed through the drain under the sink and we had to use the towels to stem the flood. Back to reception to ask for another room but we were told that nothing could be done until morning. In the morning we were told that no other rooms were available. This was totally unacceptable since our room was now invaded by flies as well so we stood our ground and finally were moved to another ocean view room one block over, again on the ground floor with two beds. It was a much better room in all respects so we were satisfied. We had exchanged some money at the airport so we were able to pay for our safe (2 cucs per day) since it was difficult to exchange money at the hotel for most of our stay. Our neighbors were not so fortunate – their safe had no door on it so they locked their valuables in their suitcase. Thinking we were finally settled we began to enjoy our vacation but Mother Nature was not on our side. It was extremely windy throughout our stay so there were no water activities available. Excursions were not offered either since there were not enough tourists to participate. Lots of locals but not many tourists. Then we had a surprise. Our toilet plunger broke and maintenance came to fix the problem five times during our stay. The maintenance crew was excellent and always arrived promptly when a request was made but the inner workings of the toilet were irreparable so the temporary fix just lasted a few flushes. In the end, we just took the lid off the toilet and pushed the flusher manually. Another time our TV stopped working. It was a battery problem, so the battery was taken from the air conditioner remote and placed in our TV since no batteries would be available until the next day. C’est la vie in Cuba. The staff and service from them was 5-star. Maid service was excellent. Overall the food was good and replenished in the buffet as needed. The a la carte dinner was excellent (we ordered the shrimp) as was the return guest dinner which offered a mixed grill of fish, shrimp, tender steak and pork chops. As most of the returnees agreed it was the best they have ever had at the hotel: A fabulous evening with entertainment by guitarist duos and great service. The Spanish red, white and rosé wines that were offered were quite good although the hotel did run out of rosé which is my favorite. The gardeners worked tirelessly to keep the grounds and beach clean and manicured. Maintenance crews were out and about fixing shaky railings and painting lampposts. On that note, a flashlight is recommended since the lighting is not good at night although there were no power outages that lasted for more than a few seconds. No water shortages either. As far as some of the other amenities go there is now a beauty salon where the beach towel exchange used to be. The Ranchon with its beautiful ocean views opens at 10 am and offers beverages and snacks. The lobby bar opens at 9 am but no longer serves beer. The pool bar is open 24-7 and serves great coffees as well as drinks and snacks. Entertainment is offered in the area by the pool. Yani’s bar on the beach was open sporadically and we used to have daiquiris there but these were not available this time round. The Havana Club bar was not open during our stay. There is an excellent medical team on site (that we saw in action when a guest stepped on a sting ray in the shallows). There is a well stocked shop that sells water (only 1 bottle was provided during our stay) as well as toiletries, diapers, snacks, liquor, souvenirs, etc. Rooms are provided with a flat screen TV, new air conditioning units, a mini fridge, hair dryer, 220V outlet and a telephone, although ours was not connected. So if you are looking for simplicity in a small hotel with a beautiful and expansive beach in a remote setting with 5 star service and you can accept some inconveniences the Cova might fit the bill.…
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim Your Listing