Meliá Las Antillas ****

bernadette pulcini, CA, 2008-08-17
this was our first trip and it was even better than we expected. thank you very much for the fantastic service of all the staff and most of all for making us feel special and at ease. our only regret... that we didnot book for 2 weeks. we tried to prolong our stay but very difficult to do.

Sylvie Laroche, CA, 2008-02-20
Super beau voyage de une semaine avec une des mes amies!
L'hotel ,les bars et les restos super!
Si vous y aller demandez un Spécial Raoul à Raoul ou un Mohito à Tatania au bar de la piscine, le spécial Chevvy et le sourire de Ramone!!!!!!
Super belle semaine je vous le promet!!!
Sylvie et Lorrainne

Toby Hoehn, DE, 2007-07-20
to cut a long story short-it was absolutly fab! Wonderful place with very friendly people, great food...fantastic beach and sea...
I highly recommend this place!
Toby

Anónimo, GB, 2007-06-20  
My husband and I went to Melia Las Antillas May 27-June 3. It was fantastic!!!

Room: Clean, spacious and great balcony. we left gifts and tips everyday and came home to a clean room with towel swans and 3 or 4 packages of Coffee for the Coffee Maker.

Food: Not bad...not alot to choose from at the Buffet. They have theme nights Seafood night was good. Ate at Seafood resturant and Romantico both were very good. If you want huge delicious lobster go into Varadero and eat at El Rancho. Awesome!!!!

Beach: FABULOUS!!!! what more can a person say about Cuba beaches they are the best. Sand like powder, the water is warm, and no one bugs you to buy anything.

Excersions: Did Catamaran/Snorkel trip was nice the weather wasn't but we made the best of it. Would book a snorkel trip without Catamaran next time. Also did the full day tour of Havana and Tropicana Show. That is definately a must!!! Bring pesos for people on the street. If you take pictures of people in costume most will expect payment. Both trips were well worth the cost...Catamaran $85US / person...$125US / person.

Night Life: The nightly show was fantastic. We did the Disco at the resort a couple of times very boring. If you want to go out for the night life talk to the MC's from the nightly show they set up a group trip to a club. They are very hush hush because the resort doesn't like the tourists to leave. But it was very safe and alot of fun. We went to the Beach Party amazing view.

Overall: We would definately go back to this resort. It was a great value for the price.

Anónimo, CA, 2007-06-20  
This was my first trip to Cuba, however I have been to an all inclusive in Dominican so I do have something to compare it to.
I'll break it into categories, focusing on food first since that is what alot of people seem to be the most concerned about.

FOOD
Breakfast
Great omelettes, good selection of fruits and cheeses, excellent orange juice, smooties, and a good selection of pastries (Croissants were amazing!), decent french toast. We didn't really eat much out of the "Domes of doom" as I have seen them referred, I don't usually eat that type of food so I can't say whether it was good or bad because I didn't try it. Seem to get quicker coffee if you sit outside, they have less tables to watch over. Some reviews mention that the coffee was bad, but I think it really depends on preference, we really enjoyed it. Not too much negative to say about breakfast.
Lunch
Mostly we ate lunch at the pool restaurant. We would recommend going close to 1pm, as later in the afternoon it gets really busy and you may have to wait for a table. The cheeseburgers, french fries and half chicken were good, as well as the salad bar. There is no lettuce at the salad bar though, and actually barely saw lettuce for the entire trip. Other than the lack of lettuce they had a good selection of other veggies (tomatoes, cucumber, pearled onions, olives, cheese, etc..)
Can't say much about lunch at the buffet, we only ate there once.
We did hear that the hot dogs at the beach hut were good, and found out they are Canadian hot dogs if that makes anyone feel better.
Dinner
Pasta bar or the grill is the way to go! On the grill you can get fish, shrimp, chicken, beef - I can't only speak about the chicken and shrimp which were very good. The only thing I can say negative about the grill is that on the night we were out there the employee wasn't overly friendly, but that was a rarity as in general the employees were all very friendly! The pasta bar was very good. although you may have a line to wait in but it is worth it.
A la cartes
If you book with Sunwing, you are guaranteed to be able to book for all three a la cartes on your first day. People who book with other tour operators weren't so lucky and had to try to get reservations day by day. You can check back with guest services through the day as there may have been cancellations. We lucked out and got in to the Romantico on the very first night because there was a cancellation. Romantico was good. The shrimp were good as an appetizer, small portions but good. The sushi was Ok, but not the most amazing food ever. We ordered the lobster because we had read reviews that said it was amazing. We are a little spoiled being from Nova Scotia so we are used to exceptional lobster, this caused us to not be blown away by the lobster in Cuba (it was OK, but Nova scotia lobster is better). The truffle was desert was good, but a little rich for my tastes. Italian a la carte...I can't say enough about!! The fried mozzerella was good, the pizza was fantastic, the anti-pesto bar on the side was great as well! I didn't bother too much with desert because I was so full from all the food prior to desert.
Overall - if people say they find nothing to eat at Melia Las Antillas they are way too picky!
Entertainment
I got involved with pool volleyball, dance lessons...but also saw the pool aerobics, yoga, water polo happening through the day. If you were around the pool you heard them announcing the activities coming up and them trying to get people involved. At night there were shows on the stage with dancing and singing. Great place to socialize with fellow vacationers hanging around the bar. It is true that the pool bar closes at midnight, but if you want to continue drinking you can move to the disco or the lobby bar. The disco is as much fun as you make it to be. If there are a few of you, you can certainly have fun. It was never packed while i was there but wasn't completely empty either. They play a mix of cuban and dance music. You may see some of the workers from the resort come in and encourage people to dance.
I also went to two off site clubs for dancing, not too far away from the resorts.

Off resort excursions
We did the catamaran trip, which was fantastic! They stopped for snorkelling, swimming with dolphins, and then for lunch at Cayo Blanco beach. That beach was beautiful, even moreso than at the resort. The sand was very fine and the water seemed to be even more turquoise.
Overnight to Havana - we were lucky and got this trip for free. When we checked in we were notified that the hotel was overbooked for a night while we were going to be there and we were offered an overnight trip to Havana as long as we packed our bags and checked out of our room (they locked up what luggage we didn't need for our Havana trip) Trip included all meals, a hotel in Havana, the Tropicana show, and some touring around the city. Fascinating city, would love to come back and spend more time there.

Beach
So many people have mentioned how great the beach is, and I do agree! We had green flags all week until our second last day. They had a cold front come through the previous day, which stirred up the ocean. Vendors came up and down the beach, but were never intrusive – you had to go to them if you wanted to buy something.

The rooms/resort in general
Room was very clean, found the resort clean as well. When you got up early you saw the workers out cleaning up the grounds from the careless guests the night before leaving glasses/straws around the grounds. We saw one bug in our room the entire stay, which isn’t bad considering we left the patio door open almost the whole time we were in the room.

Probably the biggest inconvenience from our entire trip was that a water line broke to the resort one evening we were there, so all the rooms lost water. This caused us to skip our evening shower, not a huge deal in my opinion – these things can happen. The staff in the lobby were giving out extra bottled water to people who wanted it during this time.

Overall we found the staff to be very friendly and eager to make the guests comfortable.
We were very lucky and had great weather for our week, only seeing rain for a short period of time while we were in Havana.
Met lots of great people, had a few drinks, swam, soaked up some sun, had some fun, some good food – not too much more I could ask for in a vacation!

Would I recommend this resort – absolutely!
Would I go back – probably not, only because I like to experience new things and will probably pick another country to travel to next time.