Cayo Guillermo Travel Forum

We're off in May 2005 for 2 weeks at the Melia Cayo Guillermo, does anyone have any experience of the hotel or what the diving is like?

We have been to the Melia 2 years running. The staff are fantastic. Mary who is Public Relations Manager is a personal friend as is Abel, Arllet, and Edgar. There is a dive school,I myself don't dive but the school is run well. The hotel is clean and the staff are very friendly and helpful. There is a show every night and a disco that keeps open as long as someone is drinking the boys in there are great. The beach is small but runs the length of Cayo Guillermo ,water is clear and is just like getting into a warm bath.don't expect a town on the doorstep as moron is 26 miles away. I do recomend the speedboat trip in the mangroves the trip to Havanna and Jamaica is good too If you need any more info e-mail me. Suzie

Many thanks for the information Suzie.

:>)

After all that, I've changed the hotel to Beaches Varadero because I will get unlimited scuba diving included in the price.
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Hi There,

My boyfriend and i are also off to Cayo Gulliermo the first two weeks of May.

Would appreciate any additional information you have, as at present we are a little clueless and confused.

Thought we were booking this amazing holiday, but since have read a few bad reviews. especially about our resort, Gran Caribe.

Which hotel are you staying at. We stayed at the Melia Guillermo. If you go to sol hotels web site click on Cuba then the Cayos you can see the hotel. Let me know how you get on if need more help let me know. Suzie

Hi, or Hola!

We got back from Melia Cayo Guillermo yesterday! A good source of info can be found at TripAdvisor.com and read the reviews there, at the sake of repeating what has already been stated, they are a reasonable portrayal.

Stuff not covered already I think?

Personally we found the buffet restaurant a diaappointment but the Grill by the beach, the Italian and the A la Carte were very good. These three have to be booked for the evening meal as they provide a limited service then. The Grill and Italian are open for lunch no reservation. The booking system is a bit of a pain.

There are a limited number of sun loungers on the beach which have shade, so get your beach towels down before breakfast - 8am is ok to get a good spot. The pool can get a bit noisey with the ongoing entertainment programme, OK if you want/dont mind it.

Watch out for the sea breeze, can be quite cooling so be careful you dont burn, we saw a lot of pink people about.

The only trip we did was the deep sea fishing...well worth the money if you like that. We had a boat with a crew of two to ourselves, they cooked us lunch, fresh fish (of course) and chicken with rice and biscuits...very cuban, plus unlimited beer and soft drinks, out fishing for up to 7 hours. We caught Grouper Baracuda and something called green fish, like a giant mackerel. Biggest was an 18lb Grouper.

Cubana Airlines.....

C - Completely
U - Useless
B - Bloody
A - Airline
N - No
A - Alcohol.


The staff are rude, lazy (some went to sleep) slow and the food is 1970 style, ie small portions, one small meal and a snack on 10 hours and very limited drinks soft or otherwise. We got one small glass of wine and they ran out. They also ran out of head sets for the films and music. The films on the way back were the same as the way out.

Havana airport had two power failures while when we came back, and we ended up queueing for 2 hours to check-in, join the queue to pay the tax and then the Immigration queue. We got through the final baggage search and walked down to the gate to board the plane. On our feet for three hours.

The internal flight to Cayo Coco is no frills 60 minutes and it wont be on time. You get a drink and a small cake. Day light flights you get a good view of the country - seating is two and two.

Money.

To save confusion. Take cash sterling. There are a few cash points dotted about, but do not rely on finding one or getting cash out of it. You can spot them as they have a policeman stood by it.

The exchange rate at the airport was as good as anywhere else. You will get Cuban convertable Peso (CUC). These are also refered to as dollars. They do not mean US dollars as these can be exchanged but you loose 10% straight away on conversion.

The CUC is the tourist money. The exchange rate two days ago was 1.84 CUC to the £.

In the hotels a beer (local) is 2-3 Pesos (CUC). In the local places (not a tourist trap) a local beer is 1 CUC.

Meals - a good local place a meal will be rice and black beans, pork or ham or omlette, fruit and salad, and that should be about 10 Peso each. Any more and you are paying over the odds. Hotels will be a little more obviously. Tourist traps linked to Hemmingway you will pay double for the food and up to 4x for the drinks.

Tipping.

This is up to you. We tipped usual, driver and porter to and from airport and the bell boy for looking after the luggage after we checked out. 1 peso a bag basically.

In the resort. People were tipping for no reason. Canadians mostly. We only tipped for exceptional service. Some only provided a normal service if you tipped them first...

Anyway, need anything else, email me. hot_dom_aas@hotmail.com

If you are a veggie, you will starve.

We had a great time. Havana is brilliant, Melia is good but let down by a few small things. People are great, food is good, local beer is good, imported wine from spain is pretty good on the whole.


Dom

Cheers all, very sound advice.

:>)

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