Loved it would go back

By: Deborah Marshall, Cuba Posted: 2011-08-08

The service from ALL members of staff at this hotel was excellent and they were all friendly from the gardeners to managers especially Richardo-Snack Bar, Jesus-Pool Bar and Mara and Marilis-Towel hut.
Our party was made up of 2 adults and 2 children - the room had 1 king-size and 2 3/4 size beds for the kids and there was still plenty of room.
We stayed in room 3116(ground floor) which was about 4 mins walk to the main lobby area/pool area. At first I wasn't happy about it been away from the lobby/pool area but the walk wasn't too bad as this was the only exercise we did all the 2 weeks.
The room was well kept by the cleaner each day and sheets were changed every 3rd day, towels could be changed as often as you wanted them to be.
The bathroom was fairly large with a toilet (obviously), bath and shower over it. The bathroom could do with a little make over but nothing to off putting really. There was plenty of wardrobe space but not enough draw space for all of our clothes, but we managed ok.
The main buffet restaurant used for breakfast, lunch and evening diner always had lots to choose from you were spoilt for choice, they would even cook pasta, pizza, chicken, pork, steak and fish to you on top of what was on offer.
You also have the 24 hours snack bar which you could get hot-dogs, pizza, burger, salads, chips etc and soft and alcoholic drinks from.
There is also the swim up bar which when we were there was swamped by Cubans on holiday at the weekends but Jesus the bar guy knew who was in order to be served.
There is also the afternoon BBQ or the "burger lady" as we called her, who would cook burgers, hot-dogs and prawns each lunch time around the pool, the prawns are LOVELY. Each Saturday there was a 'Cuban' themed day with a pork hog-roast, Cuban music and Cuban themed drinking/pool games - ALL fun.
There are plenty of other places to eat at such as the Cuban restaurant which you can eat in on an afternoon for waitress service but the food is similar to the buffet. This restaurant turns into the bookable a la carte restaurant on an evening but we didn't try it ourselves but it had mixed reviews whilst we were on holiday.
There is a beach bar but not sure if this served food as only ventured onto the beach twice, don’t get me wrong the beach is lovely with white sands and beautiful blue sea but we were more than happy been around the pool every day.
You also have the ice-cream bar which is open 10:30 am - 5pm each day for a refreshing ice-cream.
There was a Bar Corner, basically a bar outside within the complex serving alcohol on an evening if you fancied a change from the lobby bar or the cigar lounge, but the cigar lounge has THE best air conditioning you could wish for on a hot evening.
On the complex there are 2 Jacuzzi’s around the apartments you just need your room key for them to work but the kids enjoyed having a dip in it.
The Japanese restaurant is a MUST if you like that type of food - VERY NICE and entertaining as well. You can go once a week as part of the a la carte package.
The Italian restaurant for all of use was HORRIBLE and we only went the once, when asked by the waitress if we enjoyed our meals and we all answered that we didn't enjoy them she just walked away so we just walked out.
There is also The Steak House called El Bahio, the meals are chargeable but you get THE BIGGEST and BEST STEAK you could wish for, for about £7.00 per person or half price for kids under 12 yrs old. We visited this restaurant 4 times over 2 weeks because the steaks were so tasty; my mouth is watering now thinking about them.
There is an on-site nightclub which kicks off about 8.00pm for kids then 11.00pm it is for adults only. The entertainment on an evening was ok but there were always lots of people watching.
The entertainment team around the pool and in the kiddie club were fantastic as you could do as little or as much as you wanted to such as go for bike rides, water aerobics, pool side games for kids and adults, volleyball, beach volleyball, salsa dancing, etc, etc, and the kids one night did a fashion show with their hairs done by the lady who works in the kiddie club.
There is an on-site bank which gives good rates which are the same as the airport. There is also a little shop in the lobby which sells a few basics but each day there were 5 vendors selling pictures, jewellery, wooden ornaments, dresses and leather goods al at reasonable prices.
We did a few trips Jeep Safari which inc. horse riding, visit local village and ration shop, lunch and jet-ski. We also visited the Dolphins which was out of this world as we also got to feed the dolphins and train them as our group was a small one on the day, this trip also included a sea lion show and a dolphin show
On the funny side if it rained (in small short bursts) you ended up with crabs around your room door but they were more scared of you than us of them. Each night around 6.00pm the ‘smoke wagon’ as we called it drove around the complex blowing smoke out of the back of the van to kill any mosquitoes but we hardly seen any.
BASICALLY, all in all a GREAT holiday all thanks to Playa Costa Verde and Thomas Cook.
P.S. Dress code for a la carte restaurants for gents/boys is long trousers and collared tops, ladies/girls can wear anything!!!!