Paradisus Rio De Oro And Spa Vacations

My daughter and I went on a trip together March 27 to April 3. We had the most relaxing, beautiful week at this resort. We stayed at the Royal Service part. Everything was 5 star including food. Can't wait to go back again.

A very nice facility, the rooms are not 5 stars but the staff, animation and garden are full 5*. The a la carte restaurants and the spa area are recommended.

The staff go above and beyond each and everyday. The staff are yge heart and soul of this resort. It shows everyday.

A great spot. Lots of activities to do and keep busy. Very relaxing. My favourite Cuba spot yet!

At the moment I don't recommend this hotel to anyone. The food is more than lousy and the rooms in the “normal” category are more than shabby. In the Royal Service you are far away from the beautiful beach. At Royal Service Beach you step directly into the sea grass.
Cocktails are only made from unpalatable concentrates and are not at all decorative and served in strangely changing glasses. White wine, rum and cola are not available at all for days.
Even the food in the themed restaurants looks like dog food. The meat, whether pork, beef or chicken, in the Royal Service is inedibly tough. Beer is served from a can although there is a bar with a tap right next to the restaurant.
There is no butter or margarine and eggs at breakfast and there is only white bread. Omelette is made from ready-made mixture; the few fresh juices at breakfast are often already fermented. Jam or grains are completely missing. Yogurt is available every now and then. At the fruit buffet there is usually only papaya, rarely pineapple or bananas. Mango or other fruit is completely missing. Although everything is available at the street stalls outside the complex. Sausage is rarely available and there are only four less tasty types of cheese. Since I pay attention to good quality food and drinks at home, it was a real challenge for me every day.
You rarely get vinegar and oil for lunch or dinner. The Canadians who come to the hotel often bring their sauces and spices with them.

We just returned from a week vacation. A week just wasn’t long enough. The welcome we got at the front desk was great. It was efficient and got us on our way to our room.
The room is a little dated but very comfortable. Lots of water pressure and hot water which was surprising for me. The cleanliness of the room was perfect. Every day it was cleaned with fresh towels and lots of bottled water
The grounds are perfect. Very clean and lots of people around to make sure your stay is perfect.
The food was great bars where stocked pool was clean beach was great

Very nice clean hotel. Lots of Canadians as guests.

HONEST REVIEW:  I hope my detailed review would help some people before they book their trips.This resort is a hit and miss. I now understand why there are mix reviews, good and bad.

Some rooms are ok with minimum issues and some like ours have more issues. We stayed at the building #40 and there was a mold smell, no hot water to shower(once a day at best) and  the door did not lock. We reported it over and over and finally they decided to change our room but we spent 3 hours for that. They gave us 3 keys to different rooms to choose from and they said they were "vacant" BUT two of them had people staying in them so we opened the door and one person was in the bathroom and the other person in the other room we went to was taking a shower. Imagine it was your room and a stranger walked in to your room when you were there.

We had a better experience once we moved to the building #34 which is next to the pool area. In general, the rooms either dont have hot water  or just boiling hot water, no working tv, low water pressure, mold smell or no issues. (We talked to some guests and found out about their experiences) You need to flip the coin on this one.

The customer service at the lobby is not great and you need to repeat yourself over and over. We only asked for water in the mini fridge and told them we dont drink anything else but they kept leaving us 2 small bottles of water a dayand we had to call them everyday.

Food was as expected and I was ok with it. We had real eggs for 3 days. Bring milk, hot sauce and salad dressing as they dont have any of them. The best section at the buffet restaurant was the pasta section for dinner. As for A la carte, only restaurant that worth going is the Japanese one. We had fun and the food was good. I dont think the food at El Patio restaurant was any different than the buffet food.

The beach smells like sewer when it's windy but it's a nice small beach. Just walk to the left side of the beach where you will see the sister hotel to have less rocks and no sewer  smell.

The service was ok, some staff are genuinely kind and some just want tips to serve you. In general they are nice but it doesn't hurt if you tip them. Just dont give change as they cant convert the loonies and toonies.

The excursions are great if you are willing to pay extra. We did the jeep safari which included driving a jeep off road, horse back riding, lunch and a speed boat ride. It was so much fun.

The resort is little retro and older people go there so just keep that in mind. I would not go back to that resort and i think it's not worth the price tag.

Please also remember to bring some donation items for the locals.

I hope my review helps some people. I wish i knew these things before I booked my trip. Go with very minimum expectations. The best part is the weather and the beach time so enjoy it.

In early March 2024, twelve of us from Ontario, Canada, spent 10 days at the beautiful Paradisus Rio de Oro resort in Holguin, Cuba. We had a fantastic time! This was not just a vacation in the end. This was an experience which was incredibly positive. We made friends, both Canadian and Cuban. We were in Cuba to enjoy ourselves and no one was particularly bothered by the occasional shortages of certain foods or drinks and, we most definitely did NOT go hungry or thirsty. We understood the reality of the situation and were not put off at all. Beaches were beautiful and the Cuban spirit and generosity shined brightly. Would go back in a heart beat. The facilities of the hotel were comfortable, the food was good and all resort staff were friendly and helpful. I’ll mention some special ones. During our visits to the main dining room, Lisandra who is part of the table service staff, aided occasionally by Maylen and others, ensured that our group was well looked after. Their care and attention didn’t go unnoticed, it was nice to be greeted each day by these lovely people. Several men servers, also in the dining room, went beyond to make sure that our needs were met. Maylen was also our lunch server at the pool restaurant. She is charming, has a good sense of humour and is truly an asset to the resort.

Okay, now for one of the main highlights of our stay at Paradisus. The animation (entertainment) crew (which I give five out of five stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️) put on exciting and entertaining nightly shows in the main hall as well as the ever fun morning and afternoon events in the pool area. I am told that they are the best entertainment team around, and I tend to agree with that assessment, so would my friends. We took part in most of the daily events, when asked, including pool exercises, volleyball as well as trying to learn supposedly easy dance routines. Animation staff Marianni, Sheyla and I believe Dayaré were particularly nice when coaching my dance moves, and while I still need to work at it — the smiles and laughter we shared during my attempts to keep up, were priceless. The Paradisus animation team consists of many energetic people and while I can’t name them all, they are the best! Marianni, as part of this animation team, gave us a warm welcome on our first day and was likeable from the get go. She has an infectious smile, a pleasant personality and is genuinely a nice person. It was clear that we would be willing participants in anything the animation team had to offer, including being the first to jump in and to entice other guests to join the fun. Marianni along with her fellow animation crew members: Dayaré, Sheyla, Delmis, Daniel, Diane, Lazaro, Alfredo, Vladimir, Erichel and Aynhilis — are amazing people and of exceptional value to the Paradisus resort and their guests. Thank-you, all,

RED ALERT stay away from this resort Whatever you do. And especially don't upgrade to the ROYAL SERVICE which I did, there's no Royal service at all It's fake and the other part of the resort is better. Anything you read about this resort Online is totally fake. I've been traveling for over 30 years. I always stay at a four star resort or better And have never experienced such terrible service, terrible food.
And bars running out of wine and vodka. I spoke with a few people that were there and they all told me the same thing. And think about this. I arrived March 1st at 12 o'clock in the afternoon to the resort and I was booking a flight the next morning to get out of the resort and go back home and I flew out Saturday night at 10 o'clock. Never in a million years would I ever thought that I would throw away $3300 just like that. But there's no way i was going to stay there for the whole week. It was that bad. I could list about at least10 different things but I can't be bothered.

This resort was pretty good for Cuba! There was always food, even if it wasn't what you may want. It adds to the experience of being in Cuba, for me anyway. The resort grounds or beautiful but lots of walking. The rooms are nice of big but make sure you get a second floor room! Way better! The service was excellent in some places on the resort and not great at others. Like the pool bar, not always was the service good, and if you could speak Spanish, you were served first. Many servers were wonderful, though! The room was good and the kind size bed was fine. The pillows deserve zero stars! If you want royal service, wait and upgrade at the resort. It's way cheaper than online! It was only $400 extra for the week in March but it isn't close to the main area at all.

Traveled here the 7th to the 14th of March 2024. We updated our room to Royal service once we got there (Much cheaper then booking online) The butler service on the royal side was truly amazing, they took very good care of us!

*Very quiet resort, not much animation (Classical music in lobby bar) Clientele is a lot of seniors.

*Very clean resort & rooms.

*The staff on Royal side was truly the greatest, bar service was great compared to lobby side)

*Food was decent but a lot of shortage (I suggest bringing food from home. Condiments, Peanut Butter, Snack, Soda Water or Tonic)

* I recommend this place if you are looking for peace and quiet vacation.

We did the dolphin and snorkeling excursion, was AMAZING!

Great beach to snorkel, definitely worth bringing your equipment!

I would definitely go back to this resort.

Stayed at this hotel in 2019 with thomas cook. I have just seen this hotels announcement of flights from uk to Cuba are happening again . WARNING when thomas cook went bust This hotel held 40 brittish families hostage in the hotel and made everyone repay thier bill before being allowed to leave. That was over £2000 we had to pay or "we would be stopped at the airport and sent to jail" if we didn't pay. They where given the reassurance by ATOL they would get paid but they did not care. We all sat in the hotel lobby being denied food and water for 8 hours.

More inspections and it can be considered a 5 star resort.
The food is really bad, poor choice, low quality, tasteless. Not only is there almost no food, but what is available is disgustingly prepared. Ala carte restaurant offered sushi with carrots and onion.
Speaking of food shortages. We still don't understand how it works. When we went to the nearest town in the bars on the beach, the food looked better and the choice was richer, in the resort these days there were 6 types of cabbage salad and overripe papaya, rotten tomatoes, a lot of bad cheese, they didn’t even have pancakes every morning. On the sixth day, inspectors or managers walked around the hotel. And suddenly a miracle happened and normal food appeared: seafood, a lot of meat, more vegetables, oil, salt and pepper appeared.
In general, the resort is wonderful, but there seems to be something dishonest with the food supply. We would go back there again if there was an inspection every day.
The alcohol in bars was good, but you need to watch what bottle the bartenders pour from; sometimes they use something incomprehensible instead of branded bottles.
The hotel area, the beach, the pool - everything is perfect, clean, beautiful and well-groomed. White sand, large reef for snorkeling, pool overlooking the ocean.
Service 4 out of 5. If you don’t give something to the waiters, you can wait a long time for the food and what they brought on the plates seems to make even them laugh.
The rooms are clean and comfortable, but sometimes you can hear your neighbors and the water pressure is weak in the morning.
In general, this is a good resort, just add some control over resources.

We enjoyed it very much. Beautiful place

I just visited the hotel again in the first days of March 2024. Another wonderful stay. I received excellent treatment from the workers, both in services and others who are administrative, as is the case of Ekaterina, to whom I give special recognition for the professionalism and warmth with which she treated me. It is a wonderful group. See you soon

It's Cuba, so the raw ingredients for the food are limited. Low expectations are key to having a great time! Sadly you have to use your beach towels to reserve a good pool/beach chair at 6 am every morning. Wifi is limited even in the lobby.

An excellent Hotel, I recommend it to spend a quiet time as a couple. The staff is excellent and I am very happy that it received the Best Travel Awards 2023 award for best resort in Cuba!

In Cuba, a very decent resort, rich program, beautiful beach, large pool and average food, but we always chose something. Nice service, very nice rooms.

From February 16-23, 2024. No luxury, I would say this resort is at most 4 stars. There is a lot of shortage. We had to use the same beach towel all week because no possibility to exchange, no seafood, no condiments, no liquor, tang juice, water limited to 2 X 500 ml per room, rocky beach, you have to go to Sol Rio Luna & Mares to have a beautiful beach. Little entertainment, swimming pool not cleaned. Very disappointed with the resort for the price paid ($1600)