When I was in Cuba in May I met a few folk staying at the Hotel Breezes which is in a lovely quiet location between Matanzas and Havana. It's a long way from anywhere so might not suit some folk, but it did look very attractive and it is adult only. I planned to check on it for next year. Sorry I don't know which, if any, UK operators offer it, since the folk I met were Canadian.

If you do find another decent adult only hotel in Cuba please pass on the info.
cheers Bill

ukbill wrote:

When I was in Cuba in May I met a few folk staying at the Hotel Breezes which is in a lovely quiet location between Matanzas and Havana. It's a long way from anywhere so might not suit some folk, but it did look very attractive and it is adult only. I planned to check on it for next year. Sorry I don't know which, if any, UK operators offer it, since the folk I met were Canadian.

If you do find another decent adult only hotel in Cuba please pass on the info.
cheers Bill

Thanks. I googled it but it seems to not be adult only?

Think by the sounds of it we're going to have to go for one of the multiplex hotels.

I think you may have looked at Breezes Varadero.
I was refering to Breezes Jibacoa - which is quite a way from Varadero, and is adult only.
Here's a link to the saga brochure for it.

http://travel.saga.co.uk/holidays/hotel-holidays/central-america-and-caribbean/hotel-breezes-jibacoa/hotel-details.aspx

I just checked a little more, and Kuoni also offer it as well as companies like Travel Republic.

http://www.kuoni.co.uk/en/holiday/caribbean/cuba/cuba-beaches/varadero/accommodation/pages/breezes-jibacoa.aspx#/

ukbill wrote:

I just checked a little more, and Kuoni also offer it as well as companies like Travel Republic.

http://www.kuoni.co.uk/en/holiday/caribbean/cuba/cuba-beaches/varadero/accommodation/pages/breezes-jibacoa.aspx#/

Thanks. I think some of the confusion has arisen as they do allow children 14 and up...

This isn't my type of holiday so I can't offer any specific advice on this or similar hotels but if you decode the Kuoni description of the resort they do make it clear that, yes, they do accept bookings for 14+ young adults but provide no entertainment aimed at them. So families who do their research beforehand should only really book here if their teenage offspring are quite mature and going to be happy with a laid back, flop and drop holiday. And for that matter, from the tone of the reviews that Kuoni provide a link to, it sounds as if it is only suitable for those who enjoy that type of holiday regardless of their age - it doesn't sound like a place for those whose holiday is made by having a very active animation team with lots of evening entertainmjent laid on. So it might suit me after all :-)

Seriously though if you want an 18+ only resort hotel I think you might find that difficult in Cuba because on the whole their tourist industry has become much more focussed on the family markewt in recent years - especially those hotels/resorts run in conjunction with the main European chains. Somewhere like Sandals Royal Hicacos will be 18+ couples only - but with 400+ suites it probably doesn't fit the category of 'small'.

One of the things to remember is that whilst November/December is generally regarded by us here in the UK as being 'off-season'' it falls within Cuba's peak season. This is when the bulk of Canadian visitors (still a major part of their market) visit the island as an escape from their winter. So hotel prices will often be higher at that time of year than during the UK school summer holidays. This means that families are unlikely to get child reductions etc anywhere and hence even hotels which do accept children, there's a good chance that you won't find many around. But it does also mean that there are few bargains to be had and as you have discovered, many TO packages aimed at the UK market simply don't offer hotels that are very popular with Canadian visitors at that time of year.

SM

SMa wrote:

This isn't my type of holiday so I can't offer any specific advice on this or similar hotels but if you decode the Kuoni description of the resort they do make it clear that, yes, they do accept bookings for 14+ young adults but provide no entertainment aimed at them. So families who do their research beforehand should only really book here if their teenage offspring are quite mature and going to be happy with a laid back, flop and drop holiday. And for that matter, from the tone of the reviews that Kuoni provide a link to, it sounds as if it is only suitable for those who enjoy that type of holiday regardless of their age - it doesn't sound like a place for those whose holiday is made by having a very active animation team with lots of evening entertainmjent laid on. So it might suit me after all :-)

Seriously though if you want an 18+ only resort hotel I think you might find that difficult in Cuba because on the whole their tourist industry has become much more focussed on the family markewt in recent years - especially those hotels/resorts run in conjunction with the main European chains. Somewhere like Sandals Royal Hicacos will be 18+ couples only - but with 400+ suites it probably doesn't fit the category of 'small'.

One of the things to remember is that whilst November/December is generally regarded by us here in the UK as being 'off-season'' it falls within Cuba's peak season. This is when the bulk of Canadian visitors (still a major part of their market) visit the island as an escape from their winter. So hotel prices will often be higher at that time of year than during the UK school summer holidays. This means that families are unlikely to get child reductions etc anywhere and hence even hotels which do accept children, there's a good chance that you won't find many around. But it does also mean that there are few bargains to be had and as you have discovered, many TO packages aimed at the UK market simply don't offer hotels that are very popular with Canadian visitors at that time of year.

SM

Thanks for the reply.

We've kinda decided to postpone till the end of April as listening to others it appears the last few years the weather in Cuba in December has been a bit ropey so April time might be better....

Hi, I think that it depends a lot on what you mean by 'ropey' and also which part of the island you go to. Friends who go most years in December/January have usually had good weather. But that said I'm planning to go in March next year because the weather does tend to to be more settled and less humid then compared to during the tropical storm season (which does seem to be getting longer at both ends). However I don't think you should ever go to Cuba at any time of the year expecting to escape rain completely. Move away from the beaches and you'll see that the island is really very lush - all that sugar cane and tobacco thrives because it is not just hot but wet a lot of the time too!

But compared to here the difference is that when it rains it really,really rains and often with spectacular thunder and lightening - a lot of water in a short period of time - but it stops pretty quickly too and the sun soon comes out, the surface puddles dry up and everybody is back outdoors again. In fact at bit like this last weekend here after all

SM

SMa wrote:

Hi, I think that it depends a lot on what you mean by 'ropey' and also which part of the island you go to. Friends who go most years in December/January have usually had good weather. But that said I'm planning to go in March next year because the weather does tend to to be more settled and less humid then compared to during the tropical storm season (which does seem to be getting longer at both ends). However I don't think you should ever go to Cuba at any time of the year expecting to escape rain completely. Move away from the beaches and you'll see that the island is really very lush - all that sugar cane and tobacco thrives because it is not just hot but wet a lot of the time too!

But compared to here the difference is that when it rains it really,really rains and often with spectacular thunder and lightening - a lot of water in a short period of time - but it stops pretty quickly too and the sun soon comes out, the surface puddles dry up and everybody is back outdoors again. In fact at bit like this last weekend here after all

SM

Not so much rain as I've had that before in those areas, more that people say it can struggle around the 20 degree mark and be colder than that at nights....

Not so much rain as I've had that before in those areas, more that people say it can struggle around the 20 degree mark and be colder than that at nights.

Aah! Then in that case they were probably staying in Varadero or somewhere on or off the northeast coast? Whereas the friends I was referring to would have been based in the southeast and would have only spnet a few days in Havana at most. It is considerably hotter down around the southeastern corner of the island at any time of year. I usually try and take some conversational Spanish classes when over there and in the early days my tutor (in Santiago de Cuba) kept trying to correct me when, after she remarked that in Havana in the winter it sometimes got as cold as 23C in the evening and you had to wear a jumper, I replied that sometimes where I live in Scotland in the summer it got as warm as 23C and you could take your jumper off! She was convinced that I hadn't understood her correctly and also that I couldn't possibly be saying what I intended her to understand either. After trying to maintain the discipline of only talking in Spanish but with me simply repeating the same thing over and over again, she asked me in English did I really mean that it only sometimes got as warm as 23C and that the locals considered that to be warm? She was incredulous when I replied, yes.

SM

SMa wrote:

Not so much rain as I've had that before in those areas, more that people say it can struggle around the 20 degree mark and be colder than that at nights.

Aah! Then in that case they were probably staying in Varadero or somewhere on or off the northeast coast? Whereas the friends I was referring to would have been based in the southeast and would have only spnet a few days in Havana at most. It is considerably hotter down around the southeastern corner of the island at any time of year. I usually try and take some conversational Spanish classes when over there and in the early days my tutor (in Santiago de Cuba) kept trying to correct me when, after she remarked that in Havana in the winter it sometimes got as cold as 23C in the evening and you had to wear a jumper, I replied that sometimes where I live in Scotland in the summer it got as warm as 23C and you could take your jumper off! She was convinced that I hadn't understood her correctly and also that I couldn't possibly be saying what I intended her to understand either. After trying to maintain the discipline of only talking in Spanish but with me simply repeating the same thing over and over again, she asked me in English did I really mean that it only sometimes got as warm as 23C and that the locals considered that to be warm? She was incredulous when I replied, yes.

SM

Lol...Well considering it's meant to be be 11 degrees on Sunday where I live in Scotland I think she might have had real issues with that one...

Not a small hotel but the Paradisus Rio de Oro is 18+, gets good reviews.

The PRDO is a fantastic hotel, and arguably the best in Cuba. It's not that big and is well laid out. The food is really good. Evening entertainment was a bit lacking IMO, but I don't go on holiday for entertainment. I would return in a heart beat!

Thanks will check it out for April then. Is there one company who tend to do the better deals to PDRO? ....

Thomas Cook are usually cheaper than Thomsons but it really just depends on who you'd rather fly with, if you have a preference. You could try The Holiday Place for a price as well.

Has anyone ever been with the holiday discount centre they seem to have cheap prices are they genuine.