Melia BuenaVista

Quiet. Peaceful. Secluded. Almost no plastic in sight. Huge comfortable extra? king size beds. Navigates restaurant every night (it’s my fave). Husband eats meat, I am don’t. One man one pole for sure & lots of tasty side dishes to fill me up plus scrumptious and abundant deserts. The ‘noisy pool’ I affectionately call it has light music playing. And for 45 ms just, music pumps for water aerobics (I think it’s charming). Wood oven pizza by the pool, hamburger. Poolside bar with fresh mojitos - for me virgin. The ‘quiet pool’ is curved and has an island and ample shade seating. LOVE daily yoga (just not Sunday) with Navi in the fully shaded cabana out on the water. LOVE spending a half hour prior in a hammock in a mini palapa on stilts in the water. At higher tide your feet can dangle in the refreshing water. Breakfasts - satiating omelettes +. The units are just two stories high. And separate. With 3 unique beaches to choose from there’s so much space. The lobby bar is open nights too for people’ ing. The bus ride is 2 hrs from the airport and it’s big and clean and cool. So worth it to get to this secluded oasis. Beautiful gardens that taper into the wild and preserved groves. Wooden walkway to a longgg white beach. So much privacy. Blue sky, green nature, colorful flowers, aqua water. Much wildlife to enjoy. So much. A resident hawk, newborn starling, stunning caterpillar, fishes, crabs. & lots more. Staff? Wonderful. Service? Wonderful. Outdoor private showers. Beautiful spa and massage and nail services. I do appreciate that this Boutiquey place doesn’t have tip cups out, although they are appreciated when offered. But no pressure or awkwardness. On that note- to fellaw Canadians so inclined please don’t take loonies and toonies as grats as they can’t be cashed at the bank. Cash or US bills only, for our Cuban friends. We went in June, this time. Wouldn’t change a thing about our trip. I’m blown away by the serenity at this very special place. Additional thanks to the two team members in the lobby who went out of their way to get me on to a zoom mtg. Lending me their phone, and all the rest of it - apparently there’s an ap you need to download before going to Cuba, in order to get past firewalls. Hope this helps someone make their important holiday decision. I actually don’t need to trial anywhere else- Melia Buenavista is perfect and our next vacation will be here too.

Fantastic! A place where dreams come true! Best place in Cuba! Great facility and large rooms with outdoor shower! Nice Beaches and Pools!

We echo all of the superlative reviews of this little gem of a resort and highly recommend it. The amability and professionalism of the staff is second to none. Exemplary cleaniness of the rooms, attention given to the gardens and all the facilities is remarquable. Despite the embargo the chef and the restaurant staff go beyond the call of duty to offer variety and quality. Yet as a profesionnal sommelier I would offer that the selection of wines is poor. The bars are very well stocked with liquors rum etc, but It is beyond me why a Melia spanish owned hotel cannot provide for good quality spanish or Chilean wines such as those found in the other Melia resorts in the Cayos. A correct suite entry level white, rosé, red and sparkling should be part of the ''all inclusive'' plus a selection of more potent wines available for purchase would honor all the efforts made by the kitchen staff and earn this place my full five stars. A note for the canadian visitors: do not bring Looneys and Tooneys to offer as tips. The staff cannot trade it for dollars. We came back with 5 kilos of schrapnell last time as we had enough dollars to ''buy back'' the metal. Bring ''over the counter'' medecine, school material, gardeners gloves etc. You have no idea how those little things are appreciated.

Third time in this hotel- we come because we like this place and people who work there. The hotel has changed a lot. Breakfast, lunch and dinner - every day the same. The quality of food has become much worse. No beer, no champagne either. Only rum and wine. One bottle of water in the room and that's it. And this is 5 star?? The Melia Las Dundas hotel is nearby- they had everything and the price was lower than our hotel. I do not recommend at all ! It's a pity ,we loved this place and staff so much....

We have stayed at other Melias in the past and have come acustomed to their 5 star standards. We chose the Buenavista this year because we wanted to try a smaller boutique resort. We arrived at the resort around 1:00pm and could only get to our room at 4:00 pm. Since the resort was almost empty, there was no reason for them to not allow us a room sooner. Resort is quaint, 3 beautiful beaches with lovely sunsets. The staff works hard, always there to help. Resort is showing its age, a fresh coat of paint is needed on the outside showers, rooms are a bit tired but always clean. All rooms have outside showers and we loved this concept. We never ran out of power. Food was mediocre, this resort has no buffets, all a la carte but they do have a bread section and a small area where they have assortment of fruits, cold cuts, salads and desserts. The problem is that they cannot control the flies and there were flies everywhere on the food. It got so bad that they had to start putting saran wrap on the food at lunch, I imagine because some people started to complain. In all of our travels, we have never seen anything like this. We lost 2 days of our vacation as we got sick from something we ate. They definetely need improvement in this area to make this resort a 5 star hotel. This resort is adult only and you come here if you want peace and quiet. We very much enjoyed that part.