TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Horrible experience. Our door never locked the whole trip. We went to the front desk 4 times about it and had a tech fix it twice. It worked for all of 5 minutes before breaking again. Ended up sleeping with the ironing board propped up against the door. The safe was also broken but the tech replaced the door on that and It worked for our entire trip. Some of the reception staff were rude and un helpful. Moldy shower/tub combo awkward to get in an out of, stained and ripped sheets and the hotel was in generally dirty poor condition. Not alot of options for food or drink but we expected that in Cuba. Beach was the only saving grace. Will not return.

Avoid this place and I suggest avoid going to Cuba all together. They have no quality food not even egg! Go to Mexico or Dominican. Rather than the beach I have nothing good to say. This overall was the worst one week. Food was very bad. Nothing seemed to be clean. We ate in the city a few times which again there is not many choices.

I enjoyed my stay mainly because of the staff, the beautiful beach, and the pool area. Isabel, our housekeeper, did a fantastic job, and she was amazing with my daughter. My daughter would actually seek her out every day, begging her to come to our room! Isabel wasn’t just friendly and kind—she went out of her way to leave a nice surprise for my daughter each day by making the towels into different shapes. I really appreciated Isabel’s warmth towards my daughter; it made such a big difference to our experience! The food isn’t the best, but you can make do. The staff all try their best, but it’s clear they don’t have enough resources or enough staff to deliver better outcomes. The food might not be for everyone, especially kids and adults who aren’t used to the type of cuisine available. The resort should consider bringing in staff from abroad for training and provide more condiments so that more guests can enjoy the food. The rooms aren’t in the greatest shape. I had to be moved from one terrible room with a stained toilet, worn-down doors, and stained towels—it was horrible. The next room was a significant improvement but still just average. On top of that, the elevators were shut down, so climbing stairs to the 3rd floor was bothersome at times. The entertainment staff were great—enthusiastic and super friendly. However, there were only two of them, and they could use more help. There was someone there who seemed to be from the head office, but that seemed like a waste since the entertainers were already doing a great job. The real issues are with the food and the quality of resources available at this resort. It was also disappointing that they cut back and didn’t have the kids’ club open. They should have made this clear, especially since they advertise the kids’ club and an ice cream bar as available. Again the staff are all amazing- shout out to Beatriz the cleaner in the buffet room. She was so lovely with my daughter too!

Before going to Iberostar Laguna Azul, I came here to Trip Advisor to read some reviews. My wife had made the decision to go before talking to me (it was her surprise for me and the kids) and I wanted to read up on it. She’d seen a few good reviews, but when I started researching for myself, I found wildly differing reviews from “It was amazing!’ to “It was the worst!” We last visited Cuba back in 2001 for our honeymoon, but a lot can change in 23 years. With such varied opinions in the reviews, I figured it must come down to individual expectations, so I resolved to keep my expectations low in the hopes of being pleasantly surprised. I also tried to keep in mind that I’d heard there are supposedly ongoing food and labour shortages. I’ll share some of our experiences, and then give my final thoughts. So, we arrived at night. We checked in quickly and easily. The gentleman behind the desk was courteous and professional. He gave us our key cards and we went to our room. The air conditioning wasn’t working and there were a number of cockroaches. The furniture was intact but had seen better days. I tried turning up the air conditioning and we wondered if maybe it had been turned on just prior to our arrival, so decided to give it a bit of time to cool the room while we went to find some food, since we hadn’t had supper. The buffet was closed, so we went to the 24-hour snack bar. They were offering hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken sandwiches. The boys and I ordered the hot dogs, and my wife ordered the chicken sandwich. The actual hot dogs, as it turned out, were cut in half lengthwise, so it was half a hot dog in a bun, with ketchup and mayonnaise. It wasn’t bad, but not great. My wife bit into her sandwich and commented “It tastes like pickles.” She opened it up and discovered that there were, indeed, pickles, along with what might have been mayonnaise. And that’s it. It was a chicken-free chicken sandwich. We ate quickly, with a group of about 5 stray dogs circling our table. They didn’t appear aggressive, but we didn’t want to take chances on our first night. (The dogs made several further appearances on the beach but were never aggressive.) We returned to our room, and it was still hot. That, combined with more cockroach sightings prompted me to go ask for a different room. We had rented a 2-room family suite but were now all in agreement that we’d rather take a single room or pay more if it meant it was clean and cool. They were unable to relocate us that night, but we moved one floor up in the morning. The new room was identical in layout, but the furniture was in slightly better shape and there was a tub in the bathroom, whereas the first room had only a shower and a curtain, which meant that the water would probably spread across the entire bathroom floor if the shower was used. The towels and sheets had some stains, including what seemed to be dried blood on one pillowcase. A chair in the room had what appeared to be burn marks. The room was moderately clean and we didn’t spot any cockroaches until the 3rd or 4th night so that was an improvement of sorts. The bed was very soft and I think it was a memory foam mattress, as I would lay on my side for a time and then when I rolled onto my back, I would be lying at an angle, with an indentation where I had just been. We went to the buffet and there wasn’t a whole lot that appealed to me personally, so I just had a bread roll of some kind and some water to drink. At lunch, there was again not too much that appealed to me, so I mostly had some spaghetti and a few slices of watermelon. The spaghetti wasn’t bad but I tried some other noodles that had what I took to be an Alfredo sauce, and they tasted like overcooked noodles and water. The food in the evening was essentially the same as in the afternoon, and this continued throughout the week, with the available dishes remaining 95% identical for lunch and supper every day. Outside of our 3 visits to the à la carte restaurants, I ate bread for breakfast and spaghetti for lunch and supper every day. I like spaghetti but don’t anticipate having it again for a few months.... During that second day, we also discovered entirely by accident that the door to our room wasn’t locking, when my younger son walked right in before we even tried the key card. I informed the employee at the desk, and someone came within 15 or 20 minutes to fix it. Unfortunately, it stopped working again a day or two later and despite being told that it would be fixed, no one ever came to repair it. I won’t mention the room number for the safety of anyone currently renting it but if you rent a 2-room suite, be sure to check your doors every time you leave. On our 3rd day, no one came to clean our room. This would have been fine since we didn’t need it (and the cleaning on day 2 had been cursory at best, anyway), but the problem was that they only replaced the water during the cleaning. We were ok that day, but on a later day, we ran out of water and despite asking at about 1:30 or 2:00 for more, we never got any until someone came to clean the room at almost 5 PM. So far, this all sounds really negative, but we recognize that the people there were doing the best they could with what they had, Many of the employees were very kind and attentive, though a few seemed to be completely uninterested in their job until you tipped them. So, let’s move on to look at things by category: The Rooms Our first one was a turn-off but the second was functional. I wouldn’t say much more than that. The sheets and towels were stained and the furniture was outdated and slightly damaged. Water pressure in the shower was average, with plenty of hot water. The Food I see a lot of complaints about the food. It wasn’t horrible. My family did ok. For me, the issue was that I am a bit of a fussy eater, hence my eating spaghetti for almost every meal, since there wasn’t much else that appealed to me. One of the biggest problems was actually due to our fellow visitors, who would fill their plates with more than they would eat. One morning, we arrived at the buffet just as it opened. I was in the line for the bread rolls/ buns/ baked goods and a woman in front of me piled her plate almost 6 inches high, taking enough for several people. More annoying was the time I saw a young girl taking ice cream at lunch. Instead of using one of the bowls laid out for us, she had a large plastic container which she packed solid. She took probably close to 1 litre of ice cream. The next day I saw her again, this time with her father. Between the two of them, they filled 2 bowls and 4 large plastic containers, taking literally the entire tray of vanilla ice cream for themselves. And no, I am not exaggerating in the least. I had to scrape the tray multiple times to get one scoop. My wife had a similar encounter when she lined up to get some meat. She and others were waiting in line and the man in front of her was very chatty with the chef who was cooking the meat. He was given a portion nearly 4 times the size that my wife and others received. Also, if you are squeamish, be aware that there are flies walking over a lot of the flood. So, there are indeed issues with the food, but a lot of it comes from other visitors who are just greedy and taking more than they need for themselves. All that said, the à la carte restaurants were very good, with the Japanese being excellent. It was the best meal I had all week. I was frustrated seeing one person at the Japanese restaurant receive a full plate of food and then only eat a bite or two. The Service Many of the employees are quite nice. While I had a lifeguard at the pool try to sell me cigars, no one else tried to push for any kind of sales, which was nice. You will get better service from some of the staff if you tip, but others will ignore tippers and non-tippers equally. The Beach This is the real reason to go. The beach is wonderful, and we spent a lot of time there. We didn’t even bother with the pools. The kids had a lot of fun with the canoes, paddle boats, and a snorkelling expedition on a catamaran. Overall At the end of our visit, I was honestly glad to be coming home, though one frustrating thing was that checkout was at noon and the bus to the airport was 4:50 PM, which meant we spent nearly 5 hours sitting with our luggage, sweating in the lobby. The property itself looks like it was once beautiful, but age and neglect seem to have taken their toll. If you are going mainly for the opportunity to lie on the beach, this may be for you. If you are looking for an all-inclusive resort with great service, flowing drinks, fantastic food, and clean, comfy rooms, you will probably do better elsewhere. Our last trip was to the Dominican Republic, which was not only cheaper, but much, much better in almost every way.

Overall we had a great time in Cuba, however this resort is definitely not 4 star. The rooms were not serviced properly, the first day we arrived, it was clear that the bathrooms had not been cleaned. When we asked for someone to go in and clean the room, they simply closed the toilet lid, and did not clean it. This was evident because there was hair on the seat, and when we opened the lid again, the hair was still present. Most of the towels were stained, along with the toilet seats, and tubs. There were also many cockroaches which was not a pleasant sight. Maid service was not the best to say the least. The rooms in this resort are very outdated, we ran into a major problem with our door not locking. This become a regular occurrence, even when we would get it fixed, it would still happen once we opened the door with the key. Eventually we stopped using one door and would go in from the second attached room. The only good restaurant was the Japanese one. We booked 3 (max number of reservations you can have in a week) We went to international, Italian, and Japanese - both International and Italian had the exact same menus, minus the addition of 1 pasta and soup for Italian. The buffet food was not good, there were also cockroaches in the kitchen which was very off putting as I can only imagine how many we couldn't see. We really survived on hotdogs, sandwiches, and french fries from the snack bars. The food always seemed undercooked and we were constantly having to ask to make sure it was cooked thoroughly. Most of the service we received in terms of the buffet area/bars and for entertainment was very pleasant, they were always kind and made the experience a bit better. There was internet service, which was on and off, you definitely had to reconnect many times throughout the day. The best part about the resort is definitely the beach, although the drinks at the beach bar are served in paper cups so they end up tasting like paper. The pool bar was closed most of the time, so we spent a lot of time in the ocean instead. I would bring your own beach towels, they charge a $15 credit card hold for towels. I would recommend doing a lot of research on resorts before visiting.