Occidental Arenas Blancas

“Awesome”

Been to this and arenas Blanca's about 20 times. Still amazing. The food was great, service was great. Just everything was great. Not a bad thing to say. Going back in nov and I can't wait. My wish is to be able to plant a tree in memory of my best friend who has also stayed at this resort over 2… more

Been to this and arenas Blanca's about 20 times. Still amazing. The food was great, service was great. Just everything was great. Not a bad thing to say. Going back in nov and I can't wait. My wish is to be able to plant a tree in memory of my best friend who has also stayed at this resort over 20 times as well, he just passed away in June. See you in nov

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“Feliz descanso”

Highlight the pleasant stay in this wonderful complex, the clean rooms, good comfort, very attentive waitresses. The staff provides very good service, the food is good and well prepared as far as possible, all areas of the hotel are wonderful, clean pools with good hygiene, the Cuban day was wonder… more

Highlight the pleasant stay in this wonderful complex, the clean rooms, good comfort, very attentive waitresses. The staff provides very good service, the food is good and well prepared as far as possible, all areas of the hotel are wonderful, clean pools with good hygiene, the Cuban day was wonderful, my friends and I had a lot of fun, highlighting the great work of the entertainment guys, especially Cesar Alvarez the Charanga boy, thank you all for making my stay a wonderful few days

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“Relaxing”

We left the hotel today after a 7-day stay, the beach was wonderful, although I confess that in my family we are more in love with the pool this time, the weather was a perfect combination with the waves and fine sand. Otherwise it would be sad to overshadow the holidays by thinking about the n… more

We left the hotel today after a 7-day stay, the beach was wonderful, although I confess that in my family we are more in love with the pool this time, the weather was a perfect combination with the waves and fine sand. Otherwise it would be sad to overshadow the holidays by thinking about the negative things. We enjoyed it as a family and that was the most important thing for us. Thanks to Nayle, the lady at the reception, for her friendly welcome, and also to Natacha from customer service for her efficiency in processing and solving all our problems during our stay. In the lobby bar, the service is very fast and pleasant from the gastronomic staff, as well as in the buffet and the specialized seafood restaurant. PS: bring your own bath and beach towels, availability is almost non-existent at the resort.

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“Average Cuban Resort”

Summary: I would definitely return to Cuba, Varadero has the nicest beach, just beautiful. The double decker bus up and down the Varadero strip is a must, seeing Havana is a must. Helping the Cuban people, a definite must. For all those reasons I will return to Cuba again and again. If you are look… more

Summary: I would definitely return to Cuba, Varadero has the nicest beach, just beautiful. The double decker bus up and down the Varadero strip is a must, seeing Havana is a must. Helping the Cuban people, a definite must. For all those reasons I will return to Cuba again and again. If you are looking for luxury and pampering and living like a king or queen for a week while being a glutton, Cuba isn’t for you. If you are looking for rest, relaxation in the sun and don’t have high expectations on food, then Cuba is a great and affordable place for you. Now the Details: We are seasoned travelers, there were four in our group in our forties and fifties. AirTransat was great, got there and home on time, lovely and appreciated. Customs at the Varadero airport went smoothly as was the transfer to our hotel. Check in, just my sister, her boyfriend, my boyfriend and myself. So not too long to check in. My sister beat me to the counter, so she got the bell hop. He left with her and her stuff. No problem, we finished checking in and were given our cards, we found our own way up to our room but then the cards didn’t work. The bell hop spotted us on his way back, he said the desk had not given us the right type of card for that particular room so he went down to deal with that. He came back five minutes later with the right type of card and let us in. At first glance the room seemed okay, it was late night so couldn’t tell what kind of view we had. The bathroom was more than run down, there was a missing tile, soap dispenser looked mangled and the tube looked filthy, like horror movie filthy so we showered in flip flops. Half an hour in we’d already seen three cockroaches, over the week we saw at least a dozen. It was room 1350, they need to do better about wiping out that problem because if the bathroom had been better maintained and the roaches addressed, it would have been an overall good hotel. The beds and pillows were comfortable, the view in the morning was of the ocean and it was gorgeous, best view I’ve ever had on vacation, ever. The resort is fairly large but nice and flat so easy to walk. The pool is fairly big but very shallow and no swim up bar, which isn’t a problem at this resort because the beach is the best. I’m normally a pool person but in Varadero, the beach is the best. There aren’t any bathrooms near the beach and no drink service so that could be improved upon, or maybe it was just because it was summer and the hotel was near empty so service wasn’t as good as it would normally be in the winter months. The buffet was adequate, we always found something to eat, mainly I stuck with breads, chicken and rice, the pastas were okay as well. Also bring your own condiments as they won’t have butter, ketchup, peanut butter, etc. Everyone ogled our condiment case with envy. Supply shortages have been impacting Cuba for years and covid and sanctions have only made that problem worse. We never saw a tomato, eggs, bacon, French fries, desserts for the duration of our trip, they just don’t have it. They have egg substitute and a flour shortage. They had beer every day but some days they would have no soft drinks, one day they would only have orange soda, one day just lemonade, so if you aren’t too picky, you’ll be fine. They have shortages of cups and glasses so it would be handy to bring your own insulated Bubba type of glass rather than the thimble sized plastic glasses they have, it’s better for the environment as well. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to bring your own facial tissues and one roll of toilet paper. They had toilet paper in the hotel room but you don’t normally find it in any of the common bathrooms or on excursions. Bring bug spray, mosquitoes can be bad. We absolutely recommend the excursion to Havana, what a beautiful, historic city, so much to see and do. And if you plan on buying any rum in Cuba, we recommend going to the downtown area of Varadero, La Casa del Ron had prices way cheaper than the airport or Havana. There are also a lot of restaurants in Varadero if you want a break from the buffet every night. If you have extra room in your luggage, please bring things for the Cuban people. While talking to some hotel staff we found out that even if they have extra money they cannot buy certain things because they just aren’t available. They can’t even find toothpaste. I knew about the shortages before going and made up care bags with everyday items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, bandages, aspirin, colouring books and pencil crayons, feminine hygiene products, chap stick, stuff like that. Then we rented a 73 year old taxi and asked him to take us to Santa Marta and handed the bags out to women with children. You can also drop stuff off at churches or leave for your maid staff. We figured the maids have access to the best stuff already so we wanted to spread it around places that don’t have access to tourists. If we tipped at the hotel with an American buck, the people were grateful but if you passed them a toothpaste, they got so excited. Makes me sad and angry that they have it so rough and I really hope their government and the US make things better for them. Right now, it seems like tourism is all they’ve got and they really need tourists to come back. Please think about Cuba for your next vacation.

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