Overview
The Valentin El Patriarca Varadero is an all-inclusive beachfront resort located on Cuba's gorgeous Varadero beach, surrounded by expansive green spaces with tropical foliage, including the legendary 500 year-old "El Patriarca" cactus.
Adults only 18+years
Check in
3 p.m.
Check out
11 a.m.
Rooms
420
Inclusions
- Daily activities
- Round-trip airport transfers
- Nightly entertainment
- All taxes
Rooms
- 1 king bed, or 2 single beds
- Garden view or pool view
- 1 king bed, or 2 single beds
- Garden view or pool view
- Minimum 1 adult, maximum 3 adults
- Balcony
- A/C
- Coffee maker
- Hair dryer
- Iron/Ironing board
- Mini-bar
- Phone
- Safe
- TV
- 220/240 volts
- 1 king bed, or 2 single beds
- 1 king bed, or 2 single beds
- Minimum 1 adult, maximum 3 adults
- Balcony
- A/C
- Coffee maker
- Hair dryer
- Iron/Ironing board
- Mini-bar
- Phone
- Safe
- TV
- 220/240 volts
Alegance Room amenities include:
- Wifi access in Alegance rooms, pool area and Alegance lounge.
- Four hours of complimentary wifi service per room, per stay (restrictions apply).
- Exclusive Alegance pool and bar.
- Priority booking in a la carte restaurants.
- Complimentary room service from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
- Access to Alegance lounge and terrace with daily a la carte breakfast, bar service, premium drinks, TV and internet access ($).
- Special discount on treatments at the Aromance Spa.
- Personalized check-in and check-out in designated lobby area, including check-in express.
- Late check-out (based on availability).
- Butler and concierge service.
- 1 king bed, and 1 sofa bed
- 1 king bed, and 1 sofa bed
- Minimum 1 adult, maximum 3 adults
- Balcony
- Seating area
- A/C
- Coffee maker
- Hair dryer
- Iron/Ironing board
- Mini-bar
- Phone
- Safe
- TV
- 220/240 volts
Alegance Room amenities include:
- Wifi access in Alegance rooms, pool area and Alegance lounge.
- Four hours of complimentary wifi service per room, per stay (restrictions apply).
- Exclusive Alegance pool and bar.
- Priority booking in a la carte restaurants.
- Complimentary room service from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
- Access to Alegance lounge and terrace with daily a la carte breakfast, bar service, premium drinks, TV and internet access ($).
- Special discount on treatments at the Aromance Spa.
- Personalized check-in and check-out in designated lobby area, including check-in express.
- Late check-out (based on availability).
- Butler and concierge service.
Amenities
Tennis Courts
Spa Pool
Gourmet restaurant
Pool
Pool
Fitness centre
Restaurant
Snack bar
Deluxe Room
Alegance lounge
Beach
Spa
Restaurant
Restaurant
Restaurant
Lobby
Show
Pool
Location
Reviews
Nice stay, terrible front desk
Vanessa L on Apr 11, 2024
TLDR; My boyfriend and I had a relatively good stay, but there were some major drawbacks that had us badly stressed out. Food was decent, drinks were good, staff was okay, beach was great and pool was okay. Front desk staff were terrible. BRING LOTS OF CASH. We didn't know that Varadero wouldn't have ATMs, and we stupidly didn't realize it would only give us pesos until we got there. We were lucky to bring enough for tips for the week, but we weren't able to do much outside of the resort because of the lack of physical cash. . The resort was mainly older people, as well, probably around 40-50 and older. MY boyfriend and I were some of the only young people on the resort. If you're young and wanting to socialize with other younger people, this isn't the resort for you, but we managed just fine. My boyfriend and I came here for a week (wednesday to wednesday) on a 50% discount. We wouldn't come here again without a big discount like that. They're advertised as a 5 star resort but I believe it's self proclaimed because it was not perfect or fantastic by any means. Don't get me wrong; we had a great time in Varadero, but the resort could see some improvements. I'll start with the pros:) They had a good variety of drinks and even had strawberry daquiris by the end of our stay. The buffet had a huge variety of food to offer with three hot food stations - one with a meat selection of the day (typically pork or chicken, with simple salt & pepper seasoning), one with bechamel pasta (similar to fettucine) and one with what we believed was seafood. During the mornings, the stations were turned into meat or eggs. The beach was huge and stretched far, but be careful not to take chairs of another resort (or at least get caught doing it, because my boyfriend and I were asked to leave the wrong area). It is pretty rocky and sea shell-y at the start but a 5 minute walk to the end of the area fixes that right up. We didn't bump into any sea animals in the ocean except for one small crab who didn't claw at us (thank god). The pool was also pretty big with a volleyball net in the middle of it. It wasn't too deep, but it was nice to relax in after the heat and easy to find spots without people if you didn't want to socialize. There weren't many people in the pool after 5, either, and we THINK it stayed open until dark, so it was nice to go in when the sun was setting. The same goes for the beach. We didn't use the pool bar much, but they had stools in the pool you could sit on and gave you paper cups so no glass got in the pool. They almost always had pina coladas, too. Mosquitoes and bugs weren't a huge problem. The mosquitoes only bothered us at night, really, and it's probably about the same amount you'd see at a cottage. Lots of reptiles and birds on the resort that were awesome to see, and even a few stray cats that were pretty friendly. I'm not sure if they were a part of the resort or simply stray, but the resort didn't shoo them away so we assumed they were fine. The housekeepers were extremely friendly and great at their jobs. They replaced whatever we needed and always seemed patient when we were rushing out at the last minute before they came to clean. The lobby bar was easily our favourite. Most of the bartenders made very good drinks, and their only bad drinks were when they were in a rush and moving quick to get past it, which we can't fault them for. The glasses they used were never consistent so you never knew what size drink you'd get, but we were always able to ask for another. Three bartenders were exceptional at making drinks. And, if you're looking to socialize, a lot of people are very friendly and stick to the lobby bar around night time. The snack bar was okay. The staff during the day were nice but kind of rude at night. It wasn't open one day because of an event, but was otherwise open all the time. You have to be dry to go in, though, which we learned the hard way. The food there was fine, and the hamburger surprisingly tasted like Harvey's. Easily made the best sangrias out of all the bars. The bus stop and taxis were right outside the gate of the resort so it was easy to go out and about. We didn't take any taxis (lack of cash) so we stuck to the bus. It was about half an hour in and half an hour out and 15 CAD for a day pass for two people. Stay on the left side if you're on the roof to avoid getting hit by a tree branch. If you're wearing a dress, hold it down up the stairs. There were a lot of parts of this resort that needed improvements, though. For example, the front desk staff were terrible. The first night with the front desk started our trip out rough, especially with a delayed flight and no food in over ten hours. The lady at the front desk didn't give us our wifi log in and it wasn't in the room. We had to come back 5 times to get the Wi Fi working and, after that, we had to repeatedly log back in every hour or so to make it work. Sometimes it simply wouldn't work. As well, they gave us the wrong room. It wasn't a huge problem because we were given two beds instead of one and we just pushed them together (which the housekeepers didn't seem to mind), but it was a bit frustrating every now and then. This, however, was an easy fix by talking to the front desk but we weren't bothered enough to do so. The first night we got there, it took about 20-30 minutes to check in and she didn't tell us anything about the room. She told us to go with the bellboy and they forcibly took our bags and drove us to our room. There was only one woman there that was kind and actually helped us when we needed it and was happy to fix the same issue twice (demagnetized card). On our last day at the resort, our Nexus shuttle bus was an hour late and we received 0 warning. Because we had no cash, we couldn't get a taxi without paying an absurd amount of pesos (one taxi asked for 7,000 pesos which is about 400 CAD). The front desk was absolutely no help and our Nexus rep was no where in sight until a few minutes before our bus surprisingly showed up. The bank at Varadero was down (which no one had told us about when we arrived) as well. When we were checking in, we didn't mind the bellboys driving us, but it was our very first night and weren't prepared on the tipping culture quite yet and we would have preferred to walk so we could explore together. It was extremely awkward when they brought our bags in the room for us and opened doors, curtains and turned on the lights then waited by the door for their tip when we never asked to even be taken to our room. Simply put, we would've liked the choice to walk to the room ourselves and explore the resort a little. Similar to the front desk, there was one bellboy who was extremely kind and they exchanged big bills for smaller ones which was very helpful, as we forgot to bring a lot of cash. The theatre was entertaining enough, starting at around 10pm to accomodate the end of the dinner buffet, but there was one show that was downright disturbing and threw off our entire night. They asked for four volunteers and chose four young women to be on stage. The point of the show was to find out who was the sexiest. The first challenge was a sexy strut, the second had included 4 men who would do a push up on top of the girls, laying flat, who would yell something loudly. We didn't stay to find out the rest because it was extremely disturbing and none of the girls "performing" looked comfortable doing it. That was the entire show; there was no real performance, just the harassment of four young women. We're hoping this isn't a weekly performance. We weren't bothered by this too much as we went to the beach and pool to swim and mess around in the waves, but the chairs were constantly taken. There weren't many around the pool and beach, but whenever we got there, seats were reserved and unused for hours because people came at 6am and put towels and other things down to hold their spot. Some people tried to hold chairs overnight, and many people were left without chairs. The beach was similar, but most of the chairs were being used in contrast. We usually went to the beach around noon so we're not sure when people went out for chairs. They had a disco as well that had inconsistent open and close hours, but we never ended up going so we're not sure what it's like inside. People seemed to like it. This one isn't for everyone's stay, but we experienced a partial eclipse while we were there. I understand that handing out glasses to every resort go-er would have been difficult and expensive, but the resort gave out no safety warnings to the start of the eclipse. It was a little concerning given that this was an all inclusive resort with a lot of people drinking and not thinking straight, but this was a very unique experience that won't bother people until the next eclipse. Ultimately, we enjoyed our stay. The only stressful moments we had were the first and last day of our trip due to the front desk and our airport transfer. There were a couple of moments in between- for example, the solar eclipse and things not caused by the resort. The front desk could be severely improved upon, but it was a good trip and had nice drinks, food, bar and restaurant staff, and a great pool and beach. I would've added more photos, but the files were being weird. This place is absolutely gorgeous when it's sunny.
Family vacation
Marise M on Apr 10, 2024
We are in allegance and are very happy with our stay. Service, environment have been great. Food in the allegance section is very good and all the a la carte meals have been very good. Highly recommend. Every body is very friendly. I will come back for sure
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