отель хороший. Стоит ехать семьей или с ребенком the hotel is good. Worth a trip with family or kids

This was the first such long journey since the birth of her daughter. She is 2 years and 8 months old. We flew from Pegas Tourist, Boeing 777-200 (Nordwind). Initially, they didn’t expect anything from the flight, everything was democratic, no entertainment, monotonous two meals a day, drunk Russians secretly pouring alcohol like teenagers, after which small drunken brawls. In general, our country cannot be changed...The flight takes 11 hours and 30 minutes. Flight delay 40 minutes. The child tolerated relatively well. Tablets with cartoons were indispensable. At the airport, we quickly passed customs control, and now we are moving along the road to the hotels. The road took about 40 minutes, our hotel Melia Peninsula was one of the last. We visited various fives, the most interesting ones: Iberostar Grand Azul and ours. Settled immediately upon arrival, check-in at the hotel at 16-00. We from the whole group came alone to this hotel. Most are Canadians, still others, there are practically no Russians.
There are no Russian speakers in the hotel, but basic knowledge of English is enough. As already written by others, a colonial-style hotel, quite large in area, immersed in greenery and artificial reservoirs; all over the 2 and 3 storey villas, we got room 2024 roughly in the middle, not far from the pool. The location is very good, about the same distance to the beach and the main restaurant. Next to the snack bar 24 hours a day. Nice spacious room, balcony, shower and bath, coffee maker, minibar (2 cans of beer, cola and 1.5 liters of water replenished daily). The electronic safe is small, the laptop, the camera were stored in a suitcase under a combination lock. During the rest, no loss of personal belongings.
On the territory of the main restaurant and 4 a la carte (you can visit 2 restaurants per week). A lot of bars, I’ll say right away that the best cocktails are in the lobby bar.

Drinks of local and foreign production are free of charge (drank Chivas 12 years old, Benentines, Olmeca tequila, Kalua liqueur, martini, Molinari sambuca). And of course rum (mainly Havana club and Santiago de Cuba). The main restaurant has good wine and champagne for lunch and dinner. A little about food: the main restaurant is a lot of meat of all kinds, but the most decent is chicken and pork, the rest is not chewed ...Fish, mussels, squid, shrimps, stingrays - in salads, boiled, fried. From fruits: guava, papaya, watermelons, melons, pineapples, bananas, but the most delicious is mango! For lunch and dinner, good ice cream with toppings. Many types of cheeses of good quality, you can safely take. What was pleasantly surprised was the ham "Prosciutto" and the sausage "Chorizo" - every day, they ate plenty. The service is good even without a tip, but with a tip you are more attentive to your glasses.
I didn’t like the grill bar near the beach - slow service, one name from the grill, everyone tries to fry quickly on an open fire, so the taste is appropriate. In bars, hamburgers, pizza and hot dogs are not edible, but you can have a snack.
The beach is good, the ocean is amazing, although sometimes there are algae. There are no problems with sun loungers and umbrellas, there is at any time, next to the bar. Catamarans, kayaks, windsurfing are free, but subject to windiness. The animation is standard: games, aqua gymnastics, water polo, etc. Since the hotel is not a youth hotel (most middle-aged and elderly couples) it was difficult to get together. In the evenings, a circus show for children, quite funny, then thematic shows, of satisfactory quality by hotel standards. Quite an interesting evening program in the lobby bar: bands, singers, dances every day - we liked it much more there. There is a night club, small, with modern music.
Admission is free, drinks are included. Both children and adults are allowed.
From excursions: before departure, we contacted local guides, agreed on an individual excursion to Havana, it was very convenient for us, I won’t describe it, we were satisfied. We passed all the sights, the guide Rocher was rather silent, but to be honest, the history of Cuba cannot be remembered in one tour, but we quickly went through a lot. In Havana, they immediately bought cigars and rum. The prices there are cheaper compared to Varadero. The trip cost 150 cookies for three (the operator has 500 cookies). On the way, we stopped in a valley, on a rocky ocean shore where there are very beautiful high waves, on a bridge in the bay. We arrived at the hotel at 6 pm, managed to swim in the pool.
The second trip was chosen Guama-Punto Perdis. Indian village, crocodile farm and the Caribbean coast of Cuba. We already went from the tour operator, because they turned out to be cheaper (161 cookies for three).

Guide Eduardo, cheerful, cheerful, who lived for 5 years in Tashkent, willingly talked about himself, years of study, joked; so the road went unnoticed. The Indian village, artificially created in the second half of the 20th century, does not carry any historical value, it is good to ride boats along the riverbed, try turtle and crocodile meat. On the farm there are crocodiles of different ages, it will be interesting for children. Well, in the end, the Caribbean Sea is very warm, with corals, fish, but a rocky bottom and poor infrastructure in this place. Cubans themselves come here to relax. Bathing about 1.5 hours, lunch, bar-all inclusive (beer, rum and soda turned out to be included). On the way back again downpour, in which the Cubans blame the Americans (local joke). On the way back everyone slept, the guide was silent. At 6 pm we returned to the hotel.

Toward the end of the holiday, we went on a tour of Varadero, all with the same Roger.
He takes 20 cookies for a group of up to 3 people and accompanies you everywhere and takes you to all places, and a taxi 15 cookies one way is easy to get to. Lucky on his old rarity. We drove through the markets, visited the city beach, stopped at the house of Al Capone and Louis Dupont. We ate lobster in one of the restaurants (who are interested in $22 large and $18 smaller). Bought the remaining souvenirs and returned to the hotel. It is difficult to go on other excursions with a small child.

The weather in general was excellent, but since it is already the rainy season, it rained, or rather a real tropical downpour, every day starting from 6 days, at different times, but more often in the afternoon, although once it rained all day! But you can get burned before and after the rain. Take maximum creams, the sun is very hard!
The return flight was by the same airline: the flight was delayed by 6 hours, after 4 hours of waiting and calls to Moscow, they allocated a bottle of water and a sandwich.
No explanation of the reasons for the delay and estimated time of departure. As a result, our brothers bought up all the alcohol in the Duty free zone and drank it to the songs of Leps. Still, if there is an opportunity not to fly Nord Wind, I recommend using this opportunity! If you do not want to be late for flights and trains to your cities, eat the same thing several times (by the way, the food was better on the way back - the merit of Cubacatering) Or just spend a quarter of a day at the airport.
But still, this is a colorful Cuba, not yet spoiled with big money, with clean beaches and the ocean, friendly Cubans and incendiary dance rhythms! And it's worth seeing with your own eyes...
P. S. If someone needs Rocher's mobile phone number +5.52628368, you can write to the hotel, reset the hotel name and room number, he will call you back.