Terrible impression of Cuba left us tour operator
Cuba 2008-11-10
We ordered trips to Cuba already 2 months before departure, we chose a hotel for a long time, we wanted the vacation to be unforgettable, especially since it was a birthday present for me. We booked tours with an individual transfer at ICS. Before departure, after the hurricanes that happened in Cuba, we went to our travel agency to once again clarify whether the hurricane had touched our hotel, the girls specifically contacted the tour operator and he replied that nothing terrible had happened, that all this was an exaggeration of the media.
The first day.
Here comes our long-awaited vacation. We took off from Sheremetyevo-2 on the night of October 24 by Aeroflot plane, the flight lasted 12.30 hours, on the morning of October 24 we flew to Havana. We went through passport control quickly and got our luggage. At the exit, we were met by a representative of the ICS company - Anise.
She noted us in her papers and offered us to get on the bus, it’s strange because we had an individual transfer, then she really came to her senses and said that, no, you don’t get on the bus, you have an individual transfer! Then she began to tell us that they would pick us up from the hotel at 3 am - strange, the husband said, and what we would do at the airport when we had a flight to Holguin at 19.00. She, it turns out, was not aware that we already have tickets for a local flight, bought back in Moscow, to which she said “OK”, no problem, we will cancel ours. We left the airport building, Anise went somewhere, apparently went to catch a taxi (which, in theory, should have been ordered a long time ago and should have been waiting for us). Anise also managed to tell us that there is a guide Lyuba in Havana, she can offer us excursions and that in the hotel you can find a representative of the Kubatour company (which, by the way, Lyuba is) and order excursions.
We haven't seen Anise since. We drove for 40-50 minutes to our hotel in Havana - Central Park, no one met us at the hotel, I myself went to the reception, gave the voucher and we were registered. Then, after a while, Anisa called us in the room, found out how we settled down and once again clarified about our excursion with Lyuba, which we appointed on the same day at 12.00. We had a little time to rest in the room, and then went downstairs to wait for Lyuba. For about 10 minutes we could not find each other, then the guide found us, it turned out that a 4-hour walking tour of the city was waiting for us, of course, not far from our hotel. On the way, we went for another couple to another hotel, from where, in general, our excursion began, the hotel itself would be historically famous for the fact that it once belonged to the Italian mafiosi, personalities such as Alcapone and other representatives of Koza stayed in it -nostry.
Then she took us to a bar where Hemingway drank Daiquiri, it is called Floridita, then we walked around several more hotels, Hemingway stayed in one of them, Isadora Duncan lived in another, etc. , we reached the Capitol, looked at cigar factory. In principle, the tour was interesting, then we went to the square, where there was a Greek church, and behind it is our temple. There she talked about the Cuban beggar, who was later elevated to the face of saints, while his monument stood on the square, near which everyone made wishes to hold his beard and a finger on his hand. In principle, this is where our tour ended and we went to a beer bar, which Lyuba also told us about, where they prepared beer directly and immediately poured it into such interesting flasks with a tap, there was ice inside the flasks.
The next day, we agreed that Lyuba would try to talk to two drivers she knew, and one of them would arrange a sightseeing tour for us throughout Havana, take us through the tunnel to El More Ford on the other side of the city, but alas, we and didn't wait. But we previously agreed with the guys with whom we had an excursion, if we meet at their hotel at 10 in the morning and if nothing works out with Anyone, we will go for a ride on tourist buses around the city. Speaking of buses, these are large red double-decker buses that have several routes, the journey to the bottom costs 5 cookies (almost 5 Euros) per person, but you buy one ticket per day and with this ticket you can ride from morning to evening and at jumping from bus to bus of different routes is a very convenient thing, and at the stops there is a schedule of these routes and their scheme, i. e.
tourists can easily find their bearings on the route they took. At first, you rode on route No. 1, got off near the Havana Libra hotel, went into an ice cream parlor there, though we made a little mistake, we went into a cafe that was located in the hotel itself, but it turns out that the most famous Kapelia ice cream parlor was located across the road, but to be honest, we probably wouldn’t stand there, there are such huge queues !! ! I don’t know what is in this ice cream or in the cafe itself, but this is too much! Then we got back on the same bus and drove back. Then we decided to get to the other side of Havana ourselves (through an underground tunnel that runs under the ocean). We changed to another route of the same tourist bus that went in that direction. But the funniest thing was when we drove up to this Ford, then turned around and drove on without stopping there, as it turned out to be on the beach!!!
As a result, we uselessly lost an hour riding back and forth. On the way back, we asked to be dropped off there, the guide kindly agreed. We bought entrance tickets, I don’t remember 2 or 3 cookies (2-3 Euros) and went to wander around this fortress on our own, besides, we managed to get to the theatrical performance when the guard was changing in costumes of that time and besides, they were still firing from cannons. Already pretty tired and angry with Lyuba, who did not provide us with excursions, we did not calm down and decided to go even to the statue of Christ, though we did not immediately understand which road leads there, but as a result we found it and after 15 minutes we were already there, from there it opened very nice view of Havana. On the way back, we already ate, trudged, still terribly hungry, and we were told that somewhere there is a restaurant with seafood.
Of course, we had to look for it, and you won’t immediately understand that this is a restaurant, of course there is a cheerful sign there, but it was in a private house and we doubted for a long time whether we should enter it or not. Well, as a result, we had a good meal, the hostess didn’t have a menu, she said that she herself had a menu! And she began to list her treats to us, among which were plates with seafood (shrimp, octopus and fish, lobster and fish and a meat plate) all plates for 25 cookies (25 euros), well, we ordered a plate with shrimp, it came with another free 4 or 5 courses (I don't remember). Then, after a hearty dinner, we had to somehow get home, either wait for a bus, or catch a taxi, but we decided to save some money and wanted to try to go through the tunnel on foot, but it wasn’t there. Out of nowhere, a security guard came out and said that it was forbidden to walk, they say, go to the bus.
There was nothing to do, we went back to the bus stop, it was not clear which bus we got on, with a bunch of local people, and I didn’t see anyone buying tickets or punching those already bought, from which we concluded that the buses were free.
Having reached our part of the city and instead of going to rest, our men wanted a beer and we went again to the same pub, sat there for a while and, already completely drunk, each walked to his hotel.
Havana. Day three. Flight to Holguin.
We checked out of the hotel at 12.00 and sat at the reception with our suitcases. The only thing is that no one warned us that their clocks are also set back an hour, like ours. And as a result, we started waiting for a taxi an hour earlier than expected. At the appointed hour, when the taxi did not arrive, I began to call Anisa, to which she said oh sorry, I didn’t tell you that our clocks are set back an hour and therefore you have to wait another hour for a taxi.
We were already stunned by this expectation, it would be better to wander around the city during this time. In the end, I was terribly hungry and at about 15.30 we went to a bar to have a bite, but I ordered and then, as luck would have it, a taxi driver arrived, the time was 15.45 and I asked him to wait 5 minutes. As a result, these hamburgers were cooked for us for so long that we were released only at 16.25, the taxi driver was already furious. We quickly drove to the local airport, he dropped us off and then on their own, as you wish. Where to go, where to register!! ! All information in Spanish. It’s good that while we were taking pictures, some local resident noticed us, or rather not at us, but at our camera, then he told us that registration had already begun and where we should go. The plane, thank God, was not a "maize", but rather large. From Havana to Holguin we flew 1.5 hours, arrived somewhere at 21.
00, we quickly got our luggage and went to look for our transport, the taxi was already standing at the airport, though again without a guide, just a driver who spoke a little English. He said that we had to drive a little over an hour to the hotel. It was already dark and little was visible, but in principle, along the road it was already noticeable that a hurricane had passed here, trees uprooted and felled with roots, broken crowns. On the way, my husband and I were still joking and joking, well, in our hearts we hoped that everything was fine with the hotel, because before departure we specifically checked with the tour operators whether our hotel was intact, to which we received a convincing answer that everything was fine, don’t worry. We were brought to the Paradise Rio de Oro hotel in Holguin at about eleven o'clock in the evening, as soon as we were about to get out of the taxi, the taxi driver politely asked us to wait.
He started talking to one of the hotel managers, and then he was told that the hotel is generally closed and the official opening is only tomorrow, October 27, after 17.00. That's the number!!! ! This has never happened to us before! And what to do, there is no guide with us, no one! Then it turned out that this manager speaks good Russian, he explained to us that all the tour operators knew very well that their hotel was closed for reconstruction and everyone knew the date of its opening. Everyone except the Russians!! ! Normally! He turned out to be a very good-natured person, he said that we should not worry and that he would try to agree that we would spend the night in a nearby hotel. He agreed on everything and the taxi driver took us to that 4-star Sol Rio Luna de Maris hotel, instead of our five-star Paradise.
With grief, we were settled in half, we crawled to the room in a nervous state, dropped our things and went to inspect the territory, hoping to have at least something to eat, otherwise we didn’t eat anything in the morning. But alas, only a bar with drinks was open, but there was no food. We drank a cocktail, fuuuuu we were mixed with terrible booze, went for a walk around the hotel, along the beach and wandered into the room to sleep, in the hope that tomorrow they would take us to their 5 stars.
At the same time, we also called Moscow, our travel agency, which sold us vouchers, she said that she would figure out what was the matter. We were terribly angry at this Anisa, who did not tell us anything about the fact that the hotel was not working, because, of course, she knew everything very well.
After a call to Moscow, Anisa immediately called us back and said that they say do not worry at 17.00 a free transfer will come for you and take you to your hotel. Well, we kind of calmed down, although there were many different thoughts in my head ....
“They say that we will be alone in this hotel”, “will they cook for us there” and in general how everything will be there! WE had breakfast, compared to a five-star hotel in Havana, where there were 5 types of freshly squeezed juice to choose from, here we were only waiting for one orange and then diluted with water, the breakfast assortment also left much to be desired .... , but oh well, at least like that, or else in general hungry! Then we went to the beach, there is beauty! Soft white sand and blue ocean. The sun that day was just roasting and we were lying under umbrellas, swimming, sunbathing and went for a walk along the coast, we decided to walk to our hotel to see. Came, looked - silence! We again became alert, but is it sure that it will be opened today? In short all day on the nerves! For lunch we went to a bar on the beach, I ate fish there, then I felt terribly ill ...All the same, the hotels of the four in Cuba leave much to be desired, we realized this only later, when we were returned to our hotel ...
The time was 16.
Already somewhere at 19 o'clock a large bus drove up with tourists (foreigners) who apparently knew exactly when the hotel was opening, and not like us !!!!
And from that day on, our paradise vacation began! Breakfasts, lunches and dinners in restaurants with live music, drinks of all kinds in bars, delicious cocktails, Jack Daniels, Black Johnny Walker, Balantayz, Liqueurs - all for free !!!!
The hotel itself, of course, was pretty battered by a hurricane, the flora was almost completely destroyed, bushes and plants were planted again, trees, or rather what was left of them, this is a trunk and a small number of young shoots instead of a crown, well, still strong palm trees with shabby tops, closer to the ocean no grass, earth and dried leaves, they have not yet managed to get there, apparently few people go there, so they left it for later.
The hotel rooms were huge.
The territory of the hotel was also large, a lake flowed nearby, which then, after one rainy day, flowed into the ocean and spoiled the beach for us a little. It is also strange that it was not fenced in any way and only sand separated it from the ocean, which, of course, was washed away by rain and all this dark water flowed into the azure ocean, with its own smell. True, everything was clean on our beach, but at the neighboring hotel it was not possible to swim at all, all the water was brown! BRRRRRRRRRRR! The weather was cloudy throughout our vacation, it even rained and then we spent the whole day in the room - we watched movies on a laptop, since there is no Russian channel in Cuba, at least we didn’t have it in Havana or Holguin! Excursions are also tense, it is very difficult to find a Russian guide in Holguin. Yes, from the travel agencies in our hotel there was only one of the Gaviota tour, through which we booked 2 excursions.
One jeep safari with an English guide, well, in principle, a guide is not really needed there, this excursion included riding an open-top jeep (an old Suzuki Vitara), then riding Horses in the reserve, riding a jet ski and riding buffaloes. The second tour was already with a Russian speaker, if you can call it that way a guide in the city of Holguin. Although there is nothing special to see there, we liked it, nevertheless there is some kind of variety. The city of Holguin itself is quite large, plus a number of provinces adjoin it. In Holguin we visited a cigar factory, a very interesting sight, we drove to the highest point in Holguin, where the Spanish Cross stands, ate at a restaurant and then the guide took us to an Indian village, we didn’t have it on the tour, we just asked him, then they paid him and the driver a tip of 5 Euros each.
And our tour operator for all our stay at the hotel did not ask us whether we got settled in the first place or not, did not offer us a single excursion. As it turned out later, this is our fault, we ourselves had to look for this tour operator, ask for phones at the reception, call them and look for meetings with them.
Our holiday in this hotel in Holguin was coming to an end, it was time to pack our bags. The day before the flight to Havana, we approached the reception, found out if there was any information about our transfer, to which they answered that not yet, they asked when we had a plane, I said that on November 6th at 0.30, then they told me that maybe in the morning there would be information, once again a whole day in stock. On the morning of November 5th, we again came to the reception, again to ask if there was anything about our flight to Havana, again nothing. Well, we think, maybe in the evening they will write a note to the room. Let's go to the beach.
True, they also asked us to prepare a letter stating that the hotel opened one day later than we were settled, in order to present it later in Moscow. Evening came, we came to the room from the beach, again no information, packed our suitcase and went to dinner. After dinner, we again approached the reception and again nothing, then we still decided to call Anisa. Calling her, I realized that no one remembers us. She began to make claims to me that we had to find Kubatur ourselves at our hotel, and where we would look for him, when we had only one representative from Gaviota tour in our hotel. In all civilized countries, the tour operator does not leave his tourists at all, because in addition to the driver, there is always an escort during the transfer, who takes you to the hotel, places you in it, and then he comes and picks you up. And in our case it was an ordinary taxi!
So why did we book it in advance, if you can catch a taxi without problems and without such worries, and it will come when you need it.
In general, Anise didn’t help us, I said I couldn’t do anything from Havana, and the office in Guardalac near Kubatura was already closed, so sit and wait, if there is no transfer in 15 minutes, call a taxi and go to the airport of Holguin yourself . We did just that, the transfer did not arrive at the scheduled time (3 hours before departure), I went to the reception and asked to call a taxi. After about 5 minutes, a taxi arrived, as soon as we were about to load, the taxi driver said: “Wait, another taxi will arrive now” and left, our heads were completely drooping ...even the taxi no longer wants to take us. Another 5 minutes passed again by taxi, we load the suitcase and then from the reception they shout to us, they say, come to the phone.
I come up to see Anise, who tells me that our plane has already taken off for Havana, then I start to boil and start talking to her in a rude tone, that how is this even possible !! ! She again begins to tell me that it is our fault that we did not find anyone here and did not confirm our transfer. Well, it’s interesting, so you should already meet us in Havana upon arrival, and therefore you don’t know either, you just find out that the plane of your tourists has been rescheduled. Although at the very beginning she copied all our tickets (departure to Holguin, and arrival from Holguin), she wrote down the flight number, date and time of departure. That is, it turns out that even if we suddenly managed to catch this plane that flew earlier, then no one would have met us at the airport again! To my rude tone, instead of apologizing, she begins to say that I should not talk to her like that, that she is the only friend we have who can help us at all !!!
I wonder what her help is! ? Only in consultation by phone, because it turns out that I myself have to come to the airport and change my tickets there, for which you may still have to pay extra and it’s not known at all whether you will change them. Or you will have to wait for another flight, which is not clear when it will be. And we already have tickets for a flight to Moscow on November 7th! She offered me to go to the airport right now!!! ! The time was 22.00, and our next flight departed at 8.00 am. What for?? ? Just hanging out at the airport like that? That is, a person does not think about people at all! I said no, we will spend the night in our hotel, and in the morning we will call a taxi. She asked us to call a taxi driver who almost drove us to the phone, and agreed with him that in the morning at 4.30 he would come for us. We again called the travel agency in Moscow, Lena said that she would figure it out and try to arrange a transfer, though we must first change the tickets.
Somehow we fell asleep, in the morning again at the reception, the taxi arrived almost on time, we loaded up and drove off, we arrived at the airport at 5.30, it was dark all around, the airport itself was closed !!! ! The taxi driver unloaded us, took 40 cookies (40 euros) from us and said that the airport would open at 6.30. Well, it's all!!! ! And what would we do here if we went to the airport at 22:00, as this Anise told us!! ! In general, the picture is cheerful, the two of us on suitcases near the airport doors, not a soul around! After 30 minutes, a girl approached me, apparently an employee of the airport, she does not speak English, only Spanish. We didn’t understand each other, then another girl came out more or less able to tell me that the airport will open at 7 am, and I can change tickets at 8 am, when a girl from our carrier airline comes to work. The flight is at 8:20 am. I got nervous again.
But by the way, in vain, we waited until an employee of the Kuban airline came, I went to her, asked to change our tickets and she re-glued the stickers with the date and time of departure without any problems. And we ran to register. They wrote a text message to Lena in Moscow that the tickets had been changed, the flight was at 8.20. Checked in luggage, boarding began in 30 minutes. The plane arrived on time, the flight to Havana lasted 1.30 minutes. While my husband was receiving luggage, I began to look for a representative of Kubatour, found some peasant with the inscription Kubatour, he asked me for some of his last names. I called him ours and said that we were supposed to fly in at night. He went to his room, took some papers and went out into the street for a taxi. That is, when we left the airport, the taxi had already arrived. All right, we thought, our troubles are finally over. We drove up to the Melia Cohiba Hotel, a huge, chic hotel, we thought, got out of the taxi and went to the reception.
There I filled out the cards, it's worth waiting. I see a girl, somehow ran. A few minutes later, the administrator came up to me and said, sorry, our hotel is full, but now we will take you to the Melia Habana hotel ourselves, my husband and I have a long face! How? Again? Well, why can't even the last day in Cuba pass without incident! Well, there is nothing to do, not to spend the night on the rug, even in such a chic hotel, we went to another. Hotel "Melia Habana" is certainly worse than the previous one and much more, despite the fact that both of them are 5 stars. We again began to write SMS to Moscow, saying when it was already over, to which they sent us an answer that, as they were told, we were accommodated as expected in Melia Cohiba, well, here we just exploded, well, what impudence. I write again that we stayed in room 4104 at Melia Habana.
Then a phone call rings in our room, Anisa calls, my husband picked up the phone, because I could no longer talk to her, I would just say a lot of nasty things to her. She said that due to the replacement of the hotel, they offer us a free dinner, at first I did not want to agree that this dinner was for us, when the whole rest was going wrong, just a complete hassle. But my husband said, okay, we'll take this dinner, and then we'll figure it out. We also immediately agreed with her about our tomorrow's transfer to the airport, that the taxi would come for us at 7.30, so that we would wait at the reception. We came to our senses a little and ran quickly to the tourist bus, again no one offered us excursions, we again had to arrange our leisure time somehow. In the evening we went to dinner, I don’t know how much it was free, as it turned out all the drinks were for money and as a result we had to pay 6 cookies (6 euros) for wine.
After dinner we went to bed to get some rest before the long flight to Moscow. In the morning, as agreed in advance, we had breakfast and handed over our room and at 7.30 sat at the reception waiting for a taxi. I have repeatedly (2 times) approached the reception with a request to receive a letter from them that we lived in their hotel, to which I received a polite refusal at first, saying that the girl who prints these letters has not yet come, when I approached the second time, a lady already spoke aggressively enough to me, saying what kind of letter do you need, when everything is like wonderful with you, and dinner was provided to you and your room was paid for, what kind of letter do you need, we do not give such letters. I later regretted that we paid for the wine right at dinner, so we would have had a bill, saying that, they say, number 4104, the debt for wine, such and such, has been paid. Well, at least something, but now you can’t prove it.
I think that they were already warned in advance that we would ask them for such a paper and that they would not give it out in any case. But the funny thing is that it was already 8 am, and there was no taxi. My husband and I were already in shock, well, how is it possible at all !! ! I again went to call Anisa, at the reception they refused to connect me, I had to go again to call for money, 25 cents a minute. She told me in a very surprised voice that she would find out everything and call me back. She called back in a couple of minutes and speaks with such confidence that she contacted the taxi driver, saying that he was waiting for us from the outside, as we agreed at 7.30. My husband and I put our suitcases in our hands and run downstairs, run out - no one! I already thought that maybe a taxi was somewhere below, I began to run around looking, went up to a bunch of taxi drivers, asked Kubatur, one taxi driver nodded back at me, they say yes!
I wave to my husband to come down with a suitcase, at the same time I ask the taxi driver that this is a transfer to the airport, he tells me YES, I ask, the guide called you, he answers YES. The husband gets into the car and the taxi driver turns on the meter, he didn’t understand, the husband said, why is this. And at that moment the taxi driver tells me 25 cookies. I'm like him like??? ? He reports to me, which means how, the road to the airport is 25 cookies. I told him again, I asked you, our guide called you, you said yes. It seems that the taxi driver hardly understood English, heard the familiar word "airport" and already answered yes to everything. My husband and I jumped out of the car, naturally began to swear after that. Then the phone on the street rings, the guard picks up the phone and calls us to the phone, this is our dear Anise again, saying that the taxi will be in five minutes. So how do you understand it?? ? That taxi has been waiting for us for a long time, then it will only be in five minutes. It's been 20 minutes now, still no taxi, the time is fast approaching 8.
30, and we already have a flight at 10.30, and the airport is about 40 minutes away. I again take 25 cents, call Anisa again, already almost crying, asking where our taxi is. As a result, after 10 minutes a taxi appears, I even burst into tears, I don’t know if it was from joy or from hopelessness. We arrived at the airport at 9.15, Anise finally appeared there, and began to tell us, well, you tanned well, which means you had a good rest. When we began to tell her that this was the most terrible vacation in our practice, that we had never been sent alone, without escorts to a CLOSED hotel, and that the plane would fly away without us, we couldn’t even think about it, that it wasn’t coincidence, but just some kind of regularity that not a single transfer with us could do without adventures !! ! She is all her own again, well, in general, you had a good rest, the hotel would be wonderful, etc. That is, she is already for us and she decided that we had a good rest.
In general, I didn’t want to sort things out with her anymore, I wanted to quickly fly away from this country, although in the end my husband told her that we would sue. To which she began to thrust us some piece of paper, which she had time to throw, such an easy planner of our stay and her participation in this. My husband said that he would not sign anything, I decided to read it anyway, and signed the first 2 points that I agree with them, this is where she wrote that she met us in Havana and provided us with a guide with excursions, well, at least she called the hotel and asked, if we settled down and that’s all, her participation in our vacation stopped, it already turns out that we ourselves had to call everyone, look for everyone. That is, we did not come to rest, but to look for our guides, when in other countries these guides find and do not lose sight of their wards.