Some posters on TA have received emails direct from the PRDO - mails from the hotel say they are hoping to re-open on 1st November. Thomas Cook have cancelled all flights into Holguin until 31st October; I can't understand why as yet First Choice haven't made the same decision. I take it you are travelling with FC Treetop?

Yes I am. I think this is absolutely disgraceful. I could be making plans to organise an alternative holiday but until they tell me that this is cancelled I am tied.

They seem to be offering people the Dominican Republic instead according to another travel forum.

I have just been told that I will get a call today. They are not sending us to Holquin. They are offering Varadero instead but not sure if this will fly on Saturday.

Hi Treetop. I understood the FC Holguin flights are now going to Varadero on Saturday 20th and Monday 22nd. I believe FC are offering like for like hotels in Vardero but they seem to be accommodation on arrival. It might be worth checking the Varadero hotel reviews and trying to get FC to give you a named hotel of your choice. The Paradisus Varadero looks very good, as does the Iberostar Varadero. Hope you manage to get something sorted before Saturday.

Cazz

Thanks. I will speak to them after 3.00pm if they have the update by then. This is now getting me down. Work hard, so need this holiday.

Thanks for your help

Varadero has a lovely beach, and you can go to lots of great places on excursions. We particularly enjoyed visiting Trinidad (the town not the country!), and you will be able to enjoy Havanna too. If your hotel/TO is offering an overnight including a visit to the Tropicana night club, I would recommend you going if the price is within your budget. Have a great holiday where ever you get billetted ........ and remember that your holiday starts when you lock your front door!! All good wishes xxxxx

Thanks very much. Going to Varadero, staying at the Paradisus Princess. I will let you know how we get on.

Sorry for the delay, but an update....

Thomas Cook agreed to allow me to change my holiday (subject to amendment fee) last Saturday, before it was confirmed that all Holguin flights were cancelled until November. Although the cost was £150 more than the online price, we decided to take it as we were worried that there would be limited availability in light of XL going bust. I collected our tickets and a refund of the balance yesterday and we weren't charged the amendment fee, so although we're gutted that we won't be going on our dream holiday we're quite happy with the outcome.

Thanks for all the replies, and will post a review of our hotel on return - hope all who have booked with First Choice get sorted quickly!

Thanks for the update Thinmum, we are glad you are sorted.

Sarah

I missed where your new holiday destination is, Thinmum, but have a good one.
Regarding the £150 extra instore rather than online, I think you should write a letter of complaint demanding a refund immediately because you had to do the shop route due to the fact that they were dilly dallying and not admitting the truth of the situation, so why should you be penalised.

Meanwhile, I thought it was nice of Thomson and First Choice to immediately offer to allow XL holidaymakers to transfer their holiday bookings to FC/Thompson, subject to paying any extra holiday costs. Particularly as they had just increased the price of holidays by, on the one I was interested in as an example, over 25%. We were debating whether it was worth £445 each for the week, suddenly it went up to £575, and then I started getting emails from Thompson with the XL transfer offer.

Uh-oh - it's our turn now! We were also supposed to be travelling out on 1st October to Havana, Santiago de Cuba then Guardelavaca. Having watched this Forum with interest in the week after Ike hit and having called our Tour Operator I have left it for the Tour Operator's Project Manager to go out and assess the situation.

Was due to call them back tomorrow - guess I will be calling at 9am on the dot and be forewarned! Not sure if we want to do Varadero allcoation on arrival - the point of going to Guardelevaca was to avoid the most popular resort; point of three site was to see more of the island. Hmmm

Hi ColandLulu, there should be no problems with the Santiago leg of your trip. I have friends there and saw a mutual friend this Saturday who was actually out there when both hurricanes hit the island. She had to fly back from Havana rather than Holguin but Santiago escaped relatively unscathed. They had lots of torrential rain and some damage as a result of that but nothing long lasting. Also there was loacl disruption to water and power supplies but that is common a this time of year anyway and the hotels will have good contingency plans in operation. Do you know which hotel you due to stay at? I can possibly obtain more specific information for you then.

According to my friends, the Santiago area was largely protected as a result of the shelter provided by the Sierra Maestre mountains so you might want to check out some of the beach resorts at the eastern end of the island as a possible alternative to Guardelavaca, especially as you wanted to avoid the more populous tourist resorts. Baracoa suffered quite a bit of structural damage but not all the coastal towns in the Oriente region did.

SM

Hi SM.

Thanks for your notes. TO Product Manager returning from Cuba tomorrow so they will give us an update then. However any information you might get would be gratefully received. We are at Melia Santiago going onto Sol Rio de Luna Mares in Guardalavaca. We've asked for information on the region as we were hoping to get out and explore a bit and weren't intending to stay tied to the resort. Even if the hotel is ok we would like more than that although not sure how that sits with the TO.

Thanks again.

ColandLulu

we had a customer due to fly out to the sol luna mares, but there were moved to varadero 3 days before departure due to the extensive damage the resort has had.

with regards to holiday price increases since xl went bust, ive seen it accross the board with all operators, not just thomson and first choice. they're all cashing in.

Hi ColandLulu,

The Santiago is a quite decent modern hotel - lovely pool in particular - but a short taxi ride out of the city centre on a busy dual carriageway. A taxi into the old part of the town should never cost more than 10CUCs including tip. It's unlikely to have been affected by the hurricane and you should still get a decent stay there. The beaches immediately around Santiago aren't that good - so when in need of a days R&R I prefer to go to the Santiago and pay my 10CUCs as a non-resident and spend the day around their pool! From the sound of it Guardalavaca and the Holguin area in general will be off the tourist map until sometime after you return and if you really don't want to end up in Varadero I suggest that you need to be pro-active in trying to negotiate somewhere else. The big problem is that none of the beach tourist resorts, including Guardalavaca, are likely to actually give you that much of a feel for real Cuban life. This might be sacrilege but is a beach stay an important part of the holiday for you? If it isn't, and depending on where in Havana you are staying you might want to consider extending your stay in either Havana or Santiago and giving the whole beach resort thing a miss?

Personally, I love Santiago and it will give you a real feel for Cuba but we're in danger of going off topic so it might be better to continue this conversation in the Cuba thread on the Caribbean forum. If you'd like to know more about what to see and do in the Santiago area post there and I'll reply.

SM

Hi SM

Looks like we will be going to Varadero after all but feeling better about it as have been persuaded there are lots of excursions we can take and, although it's very touristy we're not packed in like sardines. Will also be doing a night at Playa del Este.

Thanks for your input.

ColandLulu

Playa del Este.

Is that where you are staying for the Havana leg of your trip? It's a little way of the city and I would take the usual estimate of it being 20mins drive away from the city with a pinch of salt. Be ready to pay between 15/20CUCs in each direction to get in and out of Havana Vieja by taxi.

SM