Camino del Mar Hotel, Cayo Guillermo Cuba. 5 stars.

Excellent Frank

Excelent services
The Meliá Cayo Guillermo Hotel, on one of the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean region, is located in Jardines del Rey (King's Gardens), an archipelago north of eastern Ciego de Avila province. The hotel, which is an excellent place for weddings, honeymoons, events and incentives, is 20 kilometers from Cayo Coco's International Airport and 125 kilometers from Ciego de Avila's airport. For nature lovers, it is an excellent place where they can enjoy the beautiful views of mangrove swamps, the turquoise blue sea, majestic flamingos and the underwater world.

Awfull Jw5876

“Worst Holiday experience EVER! ”
My family and I saved for months to go here. We read review after review and thought with all the positive feedback received it must be worth the money and its 5 star review. On first impressions this hotel looks great. You enter into an impressive reception / lobby area, check in is quick and straight forward and after a long flight (9 hours from the UK) the transfer is only 25-30 minutes. On being issued our rooms key card we were given instructions on how to use this and advised not to keep near mobile phones etc as this would render this useless and would need 'resetting'. When we got to our room it didn't work so we trudged back to reception to advise them. They issued us with another key card and was sent on our merry way. This was a constant battle throughout our holiday. In the end we accumulated 7 different key cards and on one occasion at 9pm the maintenance man had to replace the full lock which took him 2 and a half hours. During this time we were trying desperately to get our baby to sleep but he seemed to have no awareness or consideration in our plight. We entered the room which was clean enough but the door and its frame were rotten, which in my opinion wouldn't stand a strong gust of wind. The room had a damp musty smell which we thought was simply down to the humidity etc but it was in desperate need for renovation especially the bathroom area. The gardens are pretty around the pool area but stray just a little and you enter into a completely different area that one could liken to Pripyat after the Chernobyl disaster of 86. There is an archery area which hadn't been used in months despite the brochure advertising this as one of the available leisure activities. Throughout our stay we never heard or witnessed that this was available. The pool looked clean enough but when you entered the water from the shallow end it was like stepping onto a bouncy castle due to the lining not being fitted correctly. The activities around the pool were in my opinion extremely poor and quite honestly became an annoyance as the week went on. The walk down to the beach is pleasant but be mindful of the rusty nails which protrude from the boards as one wrong step could result in a lengthy stay in hospital. This was reported but after checking on our last day hadn't been rectified. The food in the buffet was terrible. The guy who cooked the meat used the spatula for raw food to also turn the cooked meat. Needless to say we rarely ate meat. The choice was poor and at times looked and tasted that it had been sitting there for hours and even days. After our first visit to the buffet 4 of our group of 8 became ill. This seemed to the norm for the next 2 weeks. Only 2 of our party didn't become ill and that's because all they ate was bread, biscuits and ice-cream. 3 of our party had to pay a visit to the onsite doctor who didn't seem surprised to learn of our symptoms and advised us of what foods were best to eat and which were best to avoid. Most of us didn't eat anything other than Pringles for the last 6 days. The Italian didn't fair any better either and if you book to go on an evening the service was terribly slow as it was in the International Restaurant. The only meal I enjoyed was the lobster at the Rachon restaurant which sadly was only ever open during lunchtimes but one of my friends received an undercooked steak which he returned. The staff seemed standoffish unless you're Canadian and tip from the outset. They would rarely strike up a conversation unless money was visible in your hand. On the last 2 days of our stay staff would then acknowledge you, strike up conversations about family, show you pictures of their children or nephews and nieces if they didn't have their own and cheekily request clothes from you when you left. Coincidentally a lot of the staff purported to have children exactly the same age as our own children! The people in charge of the kids club would simply play on their phones when in charge of the children. After the third day we stopped our children going altogether. The mosquitos and other insects that bite were intolerable. Now I don't usually get bitten myself but I itched from head to foot for 2 whole weeks despite bathing in repellents etc. If you're visiting arm yourself with tropical strength repellent although this seems to attract them rather than repel them. Overall we were extremely angry and disappointed. We would not recommend you visit this hotel and based on this experience will not be returning to Cuba.