Overall we spent 17 days in Cuba, 13 of them we stayed in local “casa particularis”’s and 4 in this wonderful hotel in Varadero.
Just to start with - it was a truly wonderful real Cuba experience, everything you could read in the blogs and webpages about Cuba - that happened in this hotel!
To start with - check in to our hotel room lasted 1,5 hours! Waiting in line with understaffed hotel reception.
Secondly, we did not have hot water for two days, in third day a splash on warm water came from the shower! Super!
Third, the lines, oh the lines everywhere... hotel supposed to have 5 bars. One of them was working. The others... maybe 2-4 hours a day, and they were missing most of the drinks, ice etc. Only one main lobby bar was working... well... once the barman was so drunk he couldn’t get what or where is is, took him 25 minutes to screw a screwdriver... True Cuban experience... Love it!
At dinner time there were 3 drink options available - beer, coke, sprite-like-drink... oh, at first there was some rosé wine (vintage of 2000) as well... :)
In the rooms - there were no electric bulbs. We became friends with Mr. Vladimir. He had spent a week in this hotel with no electricity in his room. Just a TV light. What a wonderful romantic light he had in his room.
Authenticity to Cuba in this hotel is so remarkable! Amazing!