On August 19th, 2013 our family had the pleasure to travel to Cuba. We stayed seven days at the all inclusive Memories Flamenco Resort in Cayo Coco, Cuba. This was our first time traveling to Cuba, so I have nothing else in Cuba to compare this resort to. My wife & I took our 3 ½ year old daughter with us. Before going to Cuba, I had a lot of questions about the country and the resort that never seemed to get answered. During our week, I took note of the things that I had questions about and have included them in this blog.
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| Cayo Coco International Airport |
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| Leaving the plane |
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| Front entrance to the resort |
Review
I would highly recommend this resort to anyone traveling to Cuba, especially with children. The motto at the resort is that Memories Flamenco is your second home. The staff is very friendly and the resort is very clean and well maintained. Everywhere you look are tropical plants and palm trees.
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| Lobby |
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| Lobby Bar |
We paid the extra money for an ocean view room and the Diamond Club, no regrets. With Diamond Club you get an extra a la carte dinner reservation, private area on the beach, beach towels in your room, late checkout on the day you leave and many more perks. The Diamond Club area on the beach was incredible and the private concierge service was top notch. There were never any lineups and we never waited long for food, drinks or service. Either at the beach or the pool, lots of lounge chairs were always available to use. No need to wake up early to reserve them.
Here is a video of what it's like to take the boardwalk to the Diamond Club area of the beach:
Boardwalk to the Diamond Club beach area
Bring water shoes for the beach. The beach is all natural and has lots of coral as you enter the water. The coral is slippery and in some areas a little sharp. This is not a complaint because the beach is beautiful as is and you don't have to enter the water very far to get past the coral.
The staff here works very hard and they all deserve any tips you may have. We tipped the bar tenders, the maids, the entertainment staff, the grounds keepers, the chefs, the banker, etc... They work very long hours and very hard, all for $20 CUC (Cuban convertible pesos) per month. Any monetary tips you give have to be shared with their fellow co-workers, but giving small gifts is also much appreciated.
I'm taking the time and effort to write this blog supporting the resort because it definitely deserves it. It's a very safe place and our family loved every minute of our trip. I'd say this resort was a 6 star.
The resort is only a short 20 minute bus ride from the airport. During the bus ride, you get a welcome package which includes your room keys. No need to report/check-in at the front desk on arrival, it's all done for you. This perk is for everyone, not just Diamond Club members.
Hydro - All the hydro at the hotel is 220 volts. Most modern electronics like battery chargers
and laptops have built in converters so you can plug them straight into the
sockets with no extra adapters or problems.
I took some electronics that only ran off 110 volts, so I bought a
converter. Below is the link for the
converter that I bought. It worked with
no issues. I also used a power bar for
charging multiple devices which worked great because all the devices were very low
drain. Read your electrical devices
before you go. My wife took her hair
straightener and it will only work on 110 volts at a max of 30 watts. The converter that I bought was powerful
enough and worked fine. A friend of mine plugged her
curling iron right into the wall and it was fried.
**Caution - power bars only work on 110 volts. If you plug them into the 220 volt socket
they will be fried.**
Bathroom - Toilet paper was supplied and there was always 2 rolls in the room. The toilet paper wasn’t the really soft stuff that we are used to but wasn’t too harsh either. We took our own toilet paper but it’s not required. Any of the public washrooms on the resort were very clean and had plenty of toilet paper in them as well.
The shower had awesome water pressure and constant hot
water. There was also a clothes line
over the tub to hang your wet bathing suits to dry. My tub at home measures 16” from the floor to the top. The tubs at the resort are just as deep as
our tubs but sit slightly higher off the floor.
Tubs at the resort were about 22” high.
The extra 6” you have to lift your legs to get into the tub is very noticeable. The tubs came with a plug. In order to use the plug you place it into
the drain hole and turn the silver knob located just under the water spout to lower or raise it.
Toilet seats were a little big for our 3 ½ year old
daughter. We took a potty seat for her
which worked great.
Room - Our room came with 2 large umbrellas to use for either rain or
shine. In the closet was a digital
safe. No keys required, just enter a
4 digit pass code each time you lock it. The
safe was big enough to store our cell phones, iPad, iPod, Nikon D7000 digital
SLR and full size laptop, plenty of room for everything. On a side note, anything we left in our room or around the
resort never went missing. There are lots of
hangers in the closet and an iron & ironing board.
In the sink area was a hair dryer and a makeup mirror. The sinks were very big but the taps were
small. It was hard to wash your hands
under the small taps without getting water on the counter.
Our room had a door leading into the room beside us. If you travel with a large family, joining rooms are available.
The curtains covering the balcony door were great for blocking out light. You could make your room pitch dark in the middle of the day if required. The balcony is equipped with a screen door. The first time you open the screen, it will fall off the track - GUARANTEED! Don't worry, as you walk around the resort you will see every other screen door off the tracks as well.
The TV in the room was LCD. The rear had an HDMI port so if you wanted to play movies from your laptop or view photos from your camera just bring a cable with you.
Most of the TV channels were American. They had A&E, CNN, CTV News, TBS, HBO, Cartoons and more, all in English.
When we booked our room, we picked a room with a king size bed because the other option was two twin beds. It turns out that the twin beds in Cuba are almost the size of a Canadian double. We switched to a room with two twins so our daughter didn’t have to sleep on a cot. The twin beds were plenty big enough for my wife & I to sleep in. I found the beds to be a little hard but my wife had no complaints - everyone is different.
If you have a baby, I did notice that cribs are also available. There are no elevators anywhere at the resort, so if you have any disabilities or hate stairs, book a ground floor room.
Our room had a door leading into the room beside us. If you travel with a large family, joining rooms are available.
The curtains covering the balcony door were great for blocking out light. You could make your room pitch dark in the middle of the day if required. The balcony is equipped with a screen door. The first time you open the screen, it will fall off the track - GUARANTEED! Don't worry, as you walk around the resort you will see every other screen door off the tracks as well.
The TV in the room was LCD. The rear had an HDMI port so if you wanted to play movies from your laptop or view photos from your camera just bring a cable with you.
Most of the TV channels were American. They had A&E, CNN, CTV News, TBS, HBO, Cartoons and more, all in English.
When we booked our room, we picked a room with a king size bed because the other option was two twin beds. It turns out that the twin beds in Cuba are almost the size of a Canadian double. We switched to a room with two twins so our daughter didn’t have to sleep on a cot. The twin beds were plenty big enough for my wife & I to sleep in. I found the beds to be a little hard but my wife had no complaints - everyone is different.
If you have a baby, I did notice that cribs are also available. There are no elevators anywhere at the resort, so if you have any disabilities or hate stairs, book a ground floor room.
The AC in the rooms worked great, especially for
sleeping. Some mornings I had to take a
hot shower just to warm up.
There is a small fridge in the room. It was usually stocked with a variety of
canned beer, a large bottle of water and the Cuban versions of Coke and Sprite. There was also a coffee maker in the room.
I only drank bottled water, however, there were no issues with using the tap water for brushing teeth and bathing.
None of us got sick or had any other issues like diarrhea or constipation.
Internet and phones - THERE IS NO Wi-Fi OR FREE INTERNET
There is a computer room in the lobby to get internet access. It costs about $1cuc per 10 minutes of use and it’s VERY slow. I never used it so I can’t comment on it.
There is a computer room in the lobby to get internet access. It costs about $1cuc per 10 minutes of use and it’s VERY slow. I never used it so I can’t comment on it.
Bank - Just behind the front desk in the lobby is the bank. If you need to exchange your Canadian money
to the Cuban convertible peso (CUC) this is where it’s done. Following are the conversion rates that I was
charged:
For $115 Canadian I got $101.20 CUC in return
For $100 Canadian I got $88.55 CUC in return
For $20 Canadian I got $17.50 CUC in return
For $40 Canadian I got $34.80 CUC in return
For $100 Canadian I got $88.55 CUC in return
For $20 Canadian I got $17.50 CUC in return
For $40 Canadian I got $34.80 CUC in return
It’s approximately 13% conversion fee to buy the CUC with
Canadian money.
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| Bank is located just behind the front desk. |
Restaurants - All restaurants were very clean and the food was good. The ketchup in Cuba isn’t the same as in
Canada but it wasn’t terrible. There is
no peanut butter. Our daughter loves
peanut butter so we took those little restaurant sized packets, that we bought in Canada, with us each day
to breakfast. I did notice that a lot of
the tables never had salt and pepper shakers.
If they did, they barely worked because of the humidity. The restaurants have AC but I think they only turn it on just before dinner, so dress
lightly when going to eat, it gets a little warm. The buffet
had a very relaxed dress code. You could
go and eat breakfast & lunch while wearing your bathing suit, dinner time you had to wear clothes.
We always dressed up to eat at the a la carte restaurants. It isn't mandatory that guys wear long pants, I wore shorts on most occasions.
The food was good and the presentation was nice. If portion size was an issue, all you had to do was ask for more.
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| Shrimp salad |
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| Chicken |
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| Dessert - flan |
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| Butter |
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| Shrimp & lobster appetizer |
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| Pork |
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| Chicken & shrimp |
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| Chicken |
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| Cheesecake |
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| Shrimp & rice |
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| Chicken |
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| Flan |
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| Pulled pork |
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| Prawns |
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| Asian appetizer |
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| Asian beef |
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| Chicken & noodles |
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| Fish & shrimp |
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| Cream puffs |
Each restaurant has a high chair for babies. They look to be in excellent shape and appear
to be very clean.
The snack bar was open 24 hours a day for food and drinks.
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| Snack Bar |
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| Cuban Catsup |
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| Cuban Mustard |
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| Menu from 10am to 10pm |
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| 24 hour menu |
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| Cuban hotdog. Hotdog wiener cut in half between two slices of bread |
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| Cheese burger - tasted way better than it looks |
Service - There is a Sunwing rep at the resort every day to book
excursions through. We even pre-booked our
seats home on the airplane through the rep.
VISA and MasterCard were good to use.
If your credit card is associated with an American bank they won’t
accept them.
Always carry a pen with you.
On the plane ride there you will have to fill out the forms for your Cuban VISA’s
before you land. On the excursions, the
tour guides will have you fill out comment cards as well.
Airports - We had no issues getting through Cuban customs with all our
electronics.
At the airport in Toronto, they
weighed our carry-on bags. You are only
allowed 5kg, plus or minus a bit. They
never weighed my wife’s purse or my camera bag as they are considered personal
items. My camera bag weighed about 6kg
on its own. In Toronto they weighed our
checked luggage one at a time. On the
way home, in the Cuban airport, they weighed our check baggage all at once. In Cuba they never weighed our carry-on bags.
The nightly entertainment was
great. At 8:30pm there was a 30 minute
show for the kids to participate in, next was 30 minutes of
intermission/entertainment and from 9:30pm to 10:00 was the show. Each show was incredible, especially the
Michael Jackson one. The shows are very
well put together, costumes, props, music and lights. The shows are all FREE but they are all worth
paying for.
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| A list of the shows during our stay |
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| Michael Jackson Show |
The maid was great and always did a fantastic job cleaning our room. Everyday, she made our blankets and towels into different animals which my daughter loved. The maid even used my daughter's stuffed animals in her daily creations.
Here are some general photos from around the resort.
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| Pirate ship near lobby |
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| View from our ocean-view room 3202 |
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| Pool with swim-up bar |
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| Lobby |
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| Building #3 - where we stayed |
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| Boardwalk to beach |
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| Pools light up at night |
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| Hermit crab |
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| Gardener with his pet bird. He let my daughter hold it. |
Restaurant photos
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| Buffet |
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| Creole Restaurant |
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| Italian Restaurant |
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| Asian Restaurant |
There was also a kids club area at the resort. They offered babysitting services and had 2 very shallow pools and a playground. We never used their babysitting services but the pools and playground are open for anyone to use.
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| Kids club area |
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| Playground |
The store at the resort has a large variety of items for
sale and the prices are very reasonable.
We forgot water wings at home and bought some at the store for $2
CUC. They have a large walk-in humidor
with a variety of cigars. A lighter only
cost $0.50 CUC. I don’t smoke cigars but
bought two of them. I bought a Punch in a
metal tube and a Romeo y Julieta (bulk) for around $6 CUC each. They sell toiletries and baby diapers as
well. A pack of diapers was around $8
CUC and a big bottle of shampoo was $6 CUC.
If you see something at the store that you want to take home, buy it as
soon as you see it as stock goes quick.
I saw some honey and they had 20 bottles of it. Went back a few nights later to buy some and
it was all gone.
Take bug spray for at night, the bug bites are brutal. There aren’t a lot of bugs but when they bite
they BITE! Also take a small flashlight for walking around at night. The pathways are well lit but none of the stairwells are.
Because of work, I downloaded the app Google Translate. It’s available for iPhone and Android for
FREE. Each of the language packs can be
downloaded for offline use. I downloaded
the Spanish language pack and it worked great when communicating with people at
the resort that had poor English skills.
The audio doesn’t work offline but you can have the other person read
the screen. It worked great for me at the
resort and at work.
On a side note, we paid extra for the Sunwing Elite-Plus service for the flight to Cuba. The main reason was for the extra weight allowance, 30kg instead of 20kg for each checked bag. The Elite-Plus has no bearing on your carry-on bags, you are only allowed 5kg for each bag. We chose our seats to be right up front on the right side of the plane. I believe our seats were 2D, 2E & 2F. They were great seats for the extra leg room and no one was in front of us. The disadvantage to these seats was our carry on bags had to be stored further back because directly above our seats is where they stored all the first aid items. The other problem was with the tables. Because there are no seats in front of you, they are stored in your arm rest. When the tables are out, they are very flimsy and have to be supported by your knee or hand. Because the tables are stored in the arm rest, the arm rests don't fold up like they do in every other seat. Usually on these late night flights when my daughter wants to sleep we usually just fold up the arm rest and have her lay across us. This wasn't possible on the flight to Cuba. These were very minor issues but nice to know for next time.
On a side note, we paid extra for the Sunwing Elite-Plus service for the flight to Cuba. The main reason was for the extra weight allowance, 30kg instead of 20kg for each checked bag. The Elite-Plus has no bearing on your carry-on bags, you are only allowed 5kg for each bag. We chose our seats to be right up front on the right side of the plane. I believe our seats were 2D, 2E & 2F. They were great seats for the extra leg room and no one was in front of us. The disadvantage to these seats was our carry on bags had to be stored further back because directly above our seats is where they stored all the first aid items. The other problem was with the tables. Because there are no seats in front of you, they are stored in your arm rest. When the tables are out, they are very flimsy and have to be supported by your knee or hand. Because the tables are stored in the arm rest, the arm rests don't fold up like they do in every other seat. Usually on these late night flights when my daughter wants to sleep we usually just fold up the arm rest and have her lay across us. This wasn't possible on the flight to Cuba. These were very minor issues but nice to know for next time.
Overall, this resort is heaven on earth. We really enjoyed ourselves and would definitely return.
Thank you Memories Flamenco for such a great vacation! Hope to see you soon.
Any questions about the resort please don't hesitate to ask.
