Hotel Roc Barlovento (Cuba) – Review June 2018

Hotel Roc Barlovento

Located at the beginning of Varadero Strip

June 8th – June 12th, 2018

Ambiance

My girlfriend Fernanda and I arrived around 11:30 pm and my first impression of this hotel at night was a disappointing one. It was small, simple, basic and very unassuming. The reception desk to the left looked outdated and the bar to the right was crowded and the air was stale and full of smoke. People milled around the bar and smokers filled all the lounge chairs and tables that were available.

Check-in, was painfully slow, as the gentleman, registered us. He was pleasant enough and described where all the facilities were located, as he handed me the resort map.

It took a while to finally head to our rooms.

The bellboy helped us with our bags, which I was totally grateful for.

Room

Room #355

This room was spacious for my friend and me, but when we saw the view. We both agreed we will request a room change asap.

Opening the curtains to our balcony was a huge tree. That’s it. Facing the garden. Nope, that didn’t do at all.

The bed was comfortable, but the one body pillow that was on the bed was flat as a pancake. It was horrid actually like an elephant had sat on it and deflated it.

Everything was clean. The fridge empty. The washroom clean.

I should mention that the washroom has a frosted door, you can see the person’s silhouette when they go about their business. If you stared a bit too long, you’ll get an awesome peep show, I’m pretty sure. Ew!

We both agreed, the hallway was off limits while in the washroom. Oh my God!

Room #201

This was heaven!!

This room is a corner room, which had an amazing view of the large pool, courtyard and the main lobby.  It also had 2 balconies. It was hell fantastic!

A duplicate of the other room, but way better view.

So happy!

Just a note, that was a bit disappointing: there is no mini bar at this resort. Yes, can you believe it?!

I’m not a drinker, but I do like when there is a variety of cold beverages in your room.

That was a bummer and a shock.

Hotel

The next day I was able to get a clearer view of what this quaint resort was like visually.

I surprised myself as to actually liking my surroundings. The large pool which was known as the “noisy pool” because they played music all day, was totally nice!

I counted how many people were in the pool, each day because I was amazed at how it was so empty.

10 people were the most that ever populated the pool. It felt like this was our pool and had a great time swimming freely and being able to swim and any directions without having to stop and see if you’re going to bump into anybody.

I’m so used to going to my usual 5-star large resort hotel, that is always crowded and you can’t even get a decent swim, without plowing into somebody.

This experience was really awesome!

Everything was close proximity.

The beach; 5-minute walk from our room or from the pools.

A la carte restaurants, same thing.

The gym.

Entertainment stage, you can see from the large pool and be just off to the side from the Main buffet.

This is a quaint resort. Very chill, no bells and whistle’s here.

If you want to relax without anyone bothering, you. This is the place.

The surroundings and grounds were well manicured and very pretty to the eyes.

Staff/Service

The gentleman who registered us was very welcoming, slow but nice. The lady beside him, she was curt and didn’t have a happy expression.

The servers at the Main buffet, were absolutely the best. They had personality, knew right away our seat preferences and choice of beverage.

They engaged in daily conversations and would check up on you every now and then. They were great!

Overall, the staff was friendly and easy going. They were great!

Food

Now, this is where I think I would put all my stars if I had to. On the scale of 1 – 5 stars. The food was full out 5 for me, and you know how much I love food!

It was tasty every day, served hot, cook to order, which for me, was kind of slow when you’re starving to death, but still very good.

I’ve been to Cuba many times, and each resort it would be a hit or miss. This one truly hit the spot for me.

The cooked to order was: Fish, a variety of seafood, beef, pork, pasta and your choice of eggs.

The rest you will find on the buffet table.

We went to one A la carte, which upon your arrival has already been pre-booked for you.

We got to try Fusion. It was terrible. The steak so chewy, the tempura blah and lifeless and the dessert you can get at the Main buffet.

We regretted going.

Pools/Beach

3 pools

Large pool

Here they play music all day.

The waterfall was amazing.

Clean. Plenty of loungers, no matter what time of day you arrive.

Soaker pool

I call it this because that’s basically what it looks like. I went in there and the water was just above my ankles. I’m 5 ‘1’… I only saw it being utilized one time. A lady dragged her lounger in there as she read her book.  Damn, I should have done that!

Quiet Pool

Closer to the beach/snack bar

This pool is also large, but no waterfall.

No music.

FYI, NONE OF THE POOLS HAVE A SWIM UP BAR. Ugggggggh!

Beach

The beach, as usual, was beautiful. It is Cuba after all and I have not seen one ugly beach ever.

Plenty of loungers just like the pool area.

Clean and quiet and people just enjoying themselves.

Snack Bar

Just burgers. Non-existent during the night.

If you arrive late, just be ready to starve.

Final thoughts

I enjoyed my time here, at Roc Barlovento. I’m used to frills, bells, and whistles. At this resort there was none, but I grew to realize, that was pretty okay. My girlfriend and I just wanted quality time, beach, sun, and abundance of binge eating, and that’s exactly what we got, and what we achieved!

This is the most chill resort I have ever been to, and wow It actually was a good experience.

I believe that the positives outweighed the negatives on this one.

Positives

• Great staff
• Tasty & hot food
• Pools were empty
• Beach was awesome
• Plenty of loungers no matter what time of day
• Quiet
• At the very tip of Varadero strip
• Clean
• Nightly entertainment wasn’t bad at all

Negatives

• No mini bar in the room
• No swim up bar in pools
• Flat pillows
• Outdated
• Wifi was horrific

All in all, I really did enjoy myself. If you don’t care much for like I said “frills” and just want to hang out and be left alone. Then this is your resort. The food I absolutely loved. The crowd was also 90% 55 and older. The rest was a mixture of between 30’s and 4o’s. I didn’t care at all.

Still not bad at all. For the price we paid, It was well worth it.