Melia Varadero

We fell in love with Melià Varadero since the very beginning. Warm welcome with a smile and champagne, quick and efficient check-in, beautiful and clean rooms, very good food, attentive staff and a beach to die for. We hope to return soon.

We had a great time at the resort. Melià Varadero offers a very good variety and quality of food and drinks. The turquoise water of the ocean is warm and calm, perfect for family with kids like us. The pool with its bar next to it (thankfully not a wet bar), with entertainment and music is also an interesting meeting place. Kudos to Pompa, for be so kind with our children anytime they went to the miniclub.

My stay at the Meliá was very special due to the staff members. Luis Eduardo and Caro were standouts. My friend and I were greeted and treated warmly, and had lots of fun being involved in a Spanish/ French lesson with Luis, where we met other travellers turned friends, as well as getting to play volleyball with Caro, other travellers and staff members. Besides an issue with the air conditioning not working well in our room, we had a lovely stay. Thank you!

The hotel manager was loud, discourteous, and unprofessional The only bad experience I had was with the hotel manager

This is a review by a Canadian in August 2025. Not the level. Be sure to read reviews of those not in the level if you aren't as they may have had a different experience with the food. Also food reviews by Cubans may be different as they may be used to the kind of food served here. Food is not 5* It wasn't just that they don't have access to certain food but the food was cold and bland. They served boiled hot dogs in the Cafe that looked disgusting. Fries were like no name frozen ones and always cold. No heinz ketchup or mayonnaise so bring your own!You can find some things to eat at the buffet that are decent but there's not a lot of variety. I wasn't expecting good food but please, keep it warm at least! Frozen boiled vegetables like broccoli and Brussel sprouts were overcooked and then left yo get cold even when we came to dinner right at 7. The pasta was also cold at 7. Was it just leftover from lunch? The cucumbers and carrots didn't have much flavor. Boiled eggs st breakfast were good. You could libe up for omelets. Sometimes there was no butter for toast. But they always had fresh bread and cheese and ham available. Desserts were very good and strawberry ice cream was the best I've had. We ate a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches which were ok but no mustard, mayo available. By the end of the week we could barely stomach the buffet. The restaurants are better. The Japanese one is the best. You get 3 a la carts so be sure to book them. Still, the food wasn't hot even at the restaurants, except the Japanese one. ROOMS: We started out in a very old, outdated room that's like a 3* motel in Canada. Broken fridge, lamp, and toilet flushed every 3rd time. Thankfully they offered to move us day 2 after I had asked 2x to fix the toilet. I'm so thankful they moved us into a renovated room or we wouldn't have enjoyed the trip at all. The new room was beautiful even thoigh the door to the balcony was old and extremely hard to open. So your experience will be very different depending on what type of "classic" room you end up in! OUTSIDE: Beautiful beach and water but enter the beach by the Level cabanas as there are less rocks there. After you get past the rocks, it is all sand and you can see to the bottom. August water was like a warm bath. Weather was perfect all week. The pool is also nice and has shaded spots for afternoon swims. Security everywhere sp you feel safe. Beautiful sunsets. Clean grounds, clean hotel. Dancers entertain in the evening but the formal shows start late (945). We got to see a decent rock band one night. Other: Good cappuccino at the piano bar. If you get a renovated room they're very nice. ..Comfy bed and clean, good shower. Staff were all very polite and work hard. But most don't speak English very well so sometimes that was a challenge. In August it was predominantly Cubans staying at this hotel which isn't a problem though they don't speak much English so not a lot of meeting others here at this time of year unless you speak Spanish. Not a big party place but they do get people up and dancing in the evening and during the day at the beach. Buffet dinner starts at 7pm and lunch is at 1 which is late for us but we adapted. This hotel needs to improve its food dramatically to be a 5*. Unfortunately I would not return to Cuba due to the food. There might be better food at other hotels but I wouldn't want to take my chances again. We went in with very low expectations of the food but it was harder than we thought to not have access to good food for a week. There was no other option nearby for food. Beautiful beaches though.