Hi tips,
Can't give an opinion on Cuba yet as I am off for my first visit in a couple of weeks. I did look at a lot of hotels when I was making up my mind and decided on Sol Rio de Luna y Mares. This is in Guardalavaca. I booked with Direct Holidays (part of Thomas Cook) as they were giving the best price at the time.
I have just had a quick look for October 2011 with Direct Holidays (only fortnightly flights, so this may not incorporate half term) and SRLM comes out at £2352 for 3 on 11 Oct. With First Choice, same hotel on 10 Oct is £2575 and 17 Oct £2634

Good luck with the planning!

thanks starry,
would you please do a report here or via pm when you return.
seeing as its your first visit your opinion may be slightly different to others who have been before.
hope you have a great time.
tips

Will do a review on my return

Cuba is great, in the resorts you will probably have to go All Inc not sure what you mean by fully inc.

One thing worth noting is that its a very different type of holiday to Turkey, where as in Turkey you have the choice to eat in the hotel or go out to one of the many restaurants a Cuba holiday is much more restricted to your hotel only.

There is a little more available in resort now as compared to 10 years ago but still not allot.

It is a very safe country and the people are fantastic.

The price you quote seems good value and the RIU hotel in Varadero is nice.

We love Cuba BUT as I have said its a very different holiday experience than Turkey so do look into it a bit deeper.

Hope this helps and please don't hesitate to ask any more questions.

thanks millemiglia
i understand the restricted to hotel situation and i really dont mind that at least for a change.
is there enough to keep a 9/10 year old occupied, are there many families generally with young children, the reason i ask is there doesnt seem to be much in the way of discounts for children, or does this happen when main brochures come out, people with 2 or 3 children might find it quite expensive for a pool type holiday,especially as your paying for alcohol with the all inclusive, that said coke etc is dearer than lager in many places.
are there better resorts or just better hotels.
for this type of holiday what i really want is very good food , clean hotel, good daytime and evening entertainment (not loud disco stuff) plenty of room around pool areas, and a good (not first class) flight seat.
any extra tips you have would be great.
tips........

Hi there, I have been to both and would say Cuba every time without a doubt. We stayed in Gurdalavacca at the Sol Rio de Luna Y mares hotel in November last year and Dalyan in Turkey last month. What we spent in Turkey for a family of 2 adults and 2 teenagers for a weeks Bed & Breakfast plus spending money and eating out every night came to the same amount of money for what we paid fully inclusive in Cuba. Although I liked Turkey, in my opinion it wasn't a patch on Cuba but I guess it's each to their own. I have written a review and posted some pictures of our Cuba trip on here and also Trip advisor is a great site for reviews and tips. I don't think you'll be disappointed with Cuba, it's a beautiful country rich in culture, the people are among the friendliest I've ever met and we found it to be very safe.

tips, with Direct Holidays the Sol Rio de luna y Mares has a child price up to 14

thank you starry,
i did some pricing again and have now noticed the reduction.
tips.........

thanks mdollar,
nice to get a view from someone who has been to both turkey and cuba recently.
and agree with the cost it seems about the same.
on top of your holidays cost what do you people actually spend in cash, we normally have all bases covered and only buy food and drink and a few fake presents with the occasional boat trip, with an overall spend of about £2300.
tips........

SLRM is a great hotel at great prices go for it you will not beat it great beach good snorkelling etc food also very good. at under £1000 for two weeks AI you will not get a better deal.
We stayed last 3 years at sister hotel next door PRDO saddly adults only superb hotel.

thanks snowyboy,
ive just got back from turkey, and i now want to be in cuba lol.
my wife has had flying problems for years, we done the europe thing then moved on to turkey after a lot of finger nails in the back of my hand.
it now seems that although she still dont like it we might just get her onto a longer flight.
tips..........

been to cuba for past two years, booked to go to cayo santa maria next may. we love it. having stayed at varadero and guadalavaca i think if you are taking children then varadero would probably be better, there are more hotels to choose from and you can take a trip into varadero on the open top bus. guadalavaca is very nice but there is nothing there other than hotels and a small market.

we stayed at the blau varadero and the blau costa verde. staying both times 7th to 21st May. In 2009 when we went to varadero there seemed more children but this year the blau costa verde hotel was half empty, we were told it was to do with lots of canadians cancelling due to the ash cloud but not sure. Both hotels have the usual entertainment, kids disco, stuff round the pool so there are things to do but I doubt you would get hundreds of kids like you would in europe. May be different if you going in school holidays but unless the price is good people dont tend to go to caribbean with family unless they get a good deal or its a special occasion (wedding).As for spending money, things aren't cheap in cuba, if you want to buy crisps and sweets they are usually very expensive as you have to buy them from the hotel shop as there aren't any shops out and about. The market stalls sell lots of wooden ornaments, leather bags etc these are very cheap. We tend to take about £500 but that is to pay for at least one trip, other than that we dont spend much, take english money as you cannot exchange convertible cuban peso in this country, if you need a credit card make sure it's not affiliated to america or you cant use it. HAPPY HOLIDAY HUNTING!

thanks sutty,
some great advice there.
tips....

I've never been to Turkey so can't comment on how it compares to Cuba but if you are looking for a hotel based AI holiday then I think that you would be pushed to find anywhere that offered better value than Cuba. But it is a very different culture and the continuing US embargo is still having a big effect.

especially as your paying for alcohol with the all inclusive, that said coke etc is dearer than lager in many places.

I don't usually stay in AI hotels but I've never heard of one where the AI didn't extend to at least the local brands of alcohol. This means that rum and rum based cocktails will be free though you might be paying for eg whisky. The local beers are all of a lager type and beer drinkers tell me they are OK so how much you spend on alcohol will depend on what you like to drink and the star rating of your hotel - the higher it is the wider the selection of drinks that will be available on the AI. And you will find that Coke, as opposed to the local Tukola, is going to be more expensive than a can of local beer because it is all imported and when available is comparatively expensive. Anything that is imported always will be pricey compared to the local version and especially anything American which will have always been imported via a 3rd party and never direct from the US.

That said there are a lot of pluses to a family holiday in Cuba. The main resorts are all based on great beaches, Cubans are very child centred and family orientated, the music and cultrual scene is fantastic, it has a wealth of history for those that like to do excursions and tourism is so vital to the economy that nearly everybody does everything they can to nurture it and make tourists feel safe and welcome. I have never felt unsafe once in 5 trips to Cuba and that includes walking through both Havana and Santiago on my own at night. Finally, as long as you choose the right AI, it's actually very difficult to spend money there.

To give you an idea of how cheap it is, I'm actually just back from Cuba and spent less than £500 in a fortnight but bear in mind that I'm a big Cuban music fan and at least a £100 of that went on CDs. Plus I wasn't staying in an AI hotel but on bed, breakfast and evening meal basis with a local family in Santiago so I was also buying lunch/snacks every day, a minimum of 4 litres of bottled water every day, entrance to music venues for myself and my dance partner along with drinks on a number of evenings, 2 lunches and 1 dinner in Havana on the way home and two trips to the Internacional Clinic for treatment (don't ask!) and which accounted for £80 on their own. I also bought 3 bespoke handpainted fans to add to my collection plus the usual handmade pottery, trinkets and jewellery from the craft markets for friends and family, Cohiba cigars for a friend's dad and rum from the duty free shop at Havana. I also visited the Melia Santiago Hotel twice and paid for a day pass to use the swimming pool as well as taxi fares there and back plus a taxi fare on one day out to a freshwater swimming pool up in the mountains. And I've just remembered that paying in cash to keep my room on in Havana until the early evening on my last day came out of the £500 I changed into CUCs on arrival. And I've a small amount of CUCs left to tide me over on first arriving for the next visit. But once you strip out the money spent on CDs and the medical fees then I spent little more than £300 in a fortnight and a lot of that went on things that you wouldn't need to be spending on in a decent AI hotel.

Admittedly, my spends did not include any excursions which can be expensive and you can't shop around for them because regardless of who you book with they are all provided by the local state tourist agencies and are the same price, but if you know where you want to go and visit it is possible to negotiate with local taxis to drop you off and pick you up later for less. But if you and your kids are primarily looking for a hotel based pool/beach type holiday then you can get away with spending very little unless they want a lot of imported snacks - Pringles from the hotel shop will be as much if not more than you'd pay here.

SM

thanks SMa,
more great info.
can anyone list me examples of the free bar and exactly what you get or dont get, many years ago in AI in spain the spirits beer and wine were pretty rubbish, either very cheap or very weak, any drink worth having was extra.
also do they have lemonade coke etc for the kids, or is this extra.
also does anyone have an example of the basic (not ala carte) menu for breakfast lunch and dinner, this in spain was always fairly good when staying AI, never top notch but you could always find something.
sorry to ask so many questions but i have to relay this to the wife and friends who we always holiday with.
im sadly one of those that likes to be fully armed with info when going anywhere.
tips..............

Hi tips,

Nobody goes to Cuba because of the quality of the food - on the whole Cuban cooking is fairly basic -wholesome but homely is the best way of describing it. My experience of staying in hotels in Cuba is fairly limited but on the whole the breakfast buffets are based on eggs cooked fresh to order (scrambled, fried or omelettes), cold sliced ham, cheese, fresh fruit, fresh fruit juices, bread, jams and honey, small sweet pastries. This might be supplemented by sliced tomatoes or other fresh seasonal vegetables. You're unlikely to ever find anything close to the British fry-up. Think of a continental breakfast plus eggs and don't expect to find breakfast cereals though it might include congee in the form of a rice-based thick gruel. Think of a cross between porridge and thin rice pudding - not as bad as it sounds after you've added either jam or honey to it.

When I do stay in hotels I tend to on the whole stay in those that cater mainly for Cuban visitors but I can't say that I noticed a great deal of difference between them and those that cater mainly for tourists. Even in the 5* Melia in Santiago the lunch and dinner buffets tended to serve mainly fairly simply cooked slabs of protein (a choice of chicken, pork or fish) accompanied by a choice of fairly starchy side dishes such as potatoes (fried and boiled), fried plantain, the ubiquitous rices and beans, yukka/cassava plus salads based on whatever was in season with often overcooked seasonal vegetables. On the whole you shouldn't expect to eat out of season vegetables or fruit. Desserts are usually based on fresh fruit, ice cream (usually excellent), small sweet pastries and cakes and the ubiquitous 'flan' which varies between regions but is a type of creme caramel/baked egg custard.

The meat is most commonly chicken and pork (usually grilled or fried but if offered roast pork this means it's been spit cooked over an open fire - delicious), I've never been served lamb but occasionally been offered goat, and beef when available is usually braised and often finely shredded in a tomatoe based sauce. In my experience, if offered 'beefsteak' it's best avoided as there will be a good chance that it will be tough and overcooked for British tastes - the concept of rare meat is alien. On my last trip I witnessed someone ask for it to be done 'medium rare' and what was served looked like the usual very well cooked shoe leather. 'Steak' is normally cut very thin and hence almost impossible to cook any other way than 'right through'. The only hotel in Cuba I've eaten in where the food didn't follow the standard formula of fried or grilled protein, lots of fried carbohydrate, boiled rice and beans was in the Grande in Trinidad but that was a very untypical experience.

On the whole I try and stick to fish and seafood as much as possible - it tends to much better quality than the meat and cooked much better too. Red snapper with rice and beans, potatos and salad for 4 CUCs (about £3) in a patio restaurant in the heart of old Havana has to be a bargain in anybody's book.

In the big beach resort tourist AI's you'll also find some a la carte restaurants and your package will make it clear how many times ou can eat in them. I can't really comment on what you can expect in them as I don't really have that much experience of them but I'm sure others here can. On the whole I would say that you'll never go hungry in Cuba but you might get bored with what's on offer from the average hotel buffet. A lot depends on whether you prefer your food cooked fairly simply or not and how much a good choice of varied meals is important to you as part of the holiday experience. For me all the positive aspects of trip to cuba outweigh the blandness and 'sameyness' of Cuban cuisine. And there's nowhere else that I can eat a whole lobster for around £5 a head or have a 'homestay' landlady apologise for serving it up twice in 5 days!

I'll leave others to comment on the drinks in AI hotels because I have such limited experience of them and as long as I can get a well made Mojito I'm happy

SM

thank you again SMa,
you certainly know your cuba.
tips..........

We stayed at the Iberostar Varadero this year. It is a 5* hotel so not sure how it would compare with the hotel you are thinking of staying at.

There were international branded tops shelf drinks and all kind of soft drinks. The local lager is nice to drink (can't remember the name of it). Red and white house wine, no rose wine though.

Food wise. Breakfast had a very large selection. Eggs cooked to order, waffles, pancakes, bacon, sausages, cold meats, fruit, cereal etc.

Lunch and evening buffet was a wide selection too. Always a choice of chicken, pork, beef or fish with rice, potatoes, chips, salad etc.

Our hotel had 3 speciality a-la-carte restaurants (1 Oriental, 1 Spanish and 1 Cubun) and could be booked once per week for each restaurant.

Kids seemed all to have a good time. They had an animation team that worked hard from 8AM to 8PM and kept the children well entertained.

As I said, this hotel claims to be the best in Varadero so can't assure the same will apply at other hotels.

Mark

The local lager is nice to drink (can't remember the name of it).

The two main local lager-style beers are Crystal and Buccanero. I'm not a lager drinker and when I have tried them I've never been able to tell the difference between them but Buccanero is the stronger of the two alcohol-wise. Both come in a canned version and a draught version. Hatuey is the other local beer but it's not as widely available and not as popular with the Cubans.

Mark clearly stays in a better class of hotel than on the whole I have used but I would suggest that if you are a Cuba 1st timer then it would be advisable to stay in one of the 'joint venture' hotels such as one of the Melia or Iberostar branded hotels. Whilst the Cuban government has a 51% stake in them, they are run and managed by the hotel chain they are branded under and you are more likely to have a more European-like experience comparable to what you've experienced in other AI hotels. Whereas hotels that are eg part of the Gran Caribe chain are wholly owned and run by the Cuban state and you'll find a more 'relaxed' attitude to customer service etc. This can be apart of the charm for some visitors and simply infuriating to others!

SM