Review of the Paradisus Rio De Oro, Guardalavaca, Cuba.

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My wife and I have been to this resort a few times. We renewed our wedding vows there in 2006. Its a fabulous, friendly and romantic destination. Below is a review from our most recent visit.........




Yet another great holiday at the Paradisus Rio De Oro. Some of you may know it was the third visit for my wife Karen and I and as usual it didn’t disappoint. Although there were a few changes and problems which I will mention later, that didn’t ruin our trip but has left me wondering if we will ever return??


I won’t bore you with all the flight details etc, other than to say it was the first time we had upgraded to Premium Cabin and at around £130 each I think it was well worth it. From the lady at check in, who booked our 4 travel companions in with us, although they were travelling economy, to the Stewardesses who kept the copious amounts of booze flowing, the bigger more comfortable seats and the large choice of films, it was actually an enjoyable flight! I’ve never said that before!!


We got the block I had asked for, Block 38 down by the pool. Which to be honest turned out to be a good move as you’ll find out when I tell you the towel saga!! We got an upstairs corner and our friends, two downstairs corners, so that was all good. The décor was fine for me, same as each visit. A bit jaded, patched up paint in places, a few cracked tiles. Who cares?? The toilet worked, the Bidet worked, the shower was hot or cold as required, with a strong flow. There was plenty of hanging space in the wardrobe with a good iron and board available. Our fridge was stocked with fizzy, Beer, Champagne and we had a bottle of Havana Club Especial on the table along with fruit and flowers…………….perfect!! The aircon worked, the bed was hard but huge and the blackout lining curtains made it nice and dark at night.


The first night and next day were spent in a bit of a daze getting over the Jetlag. We tried to stay up as late as possible but woke up at 03:30 on the first morning. Went for a wander at 06:00 and it was at this time I realised that the towel problem mentioned on TA had reached epic proportions. At this ungodly hour I would say that at least half the beds, around the main pool area, were already reserved with all manner of holiday paraphernalia including, towels, t-shirts, shoes, books and at least a couple of sleeping humans. I could except the sleeping humans, if they arrived in the last half hour and were ready for the day in their swimmys, but these were leftovers from the night before (fully clothed) that had either decided that the bed problem was so severe, they needed to physically protect their favorite patch or they were so drunk the night before and having tried to find their way back to their block (which are all remarkably similar) decided to cut their losses, sleep out and kill two birds with one stone.


That first night and day was also spent greeting all the staff that remembered us from our previous visits. It never ceases to amaze me how these staff members remember who we are? How many thousands of people do they see each year? Our last visit was 06’ yet certain staff remembered our names, that we renewed our vows last visit, what drinks we like and asked about the friends (by name) that came with us last time. Certainly makes you feel special…………………….. Was a shame to find that some of our old favorites were no longer there? Michael especially, was a cracking lad who really made our visit great last time, had gone and young Annia who helped with our wedding had also moved on. But loads of others were still large as life. Manuel the waiter in the lobby bar continued his fantastic service and looked after us superbly. Roberto, the football shirt fanatic at the Beach restaurant was at his jovial best. Incidentally, if you are going out and have any football shirts you don’t need anymore, take them for Roberto if you want to make someone VERY happy!! Of course Heidi from the animation team did her absolute best to entertain us every day. John, who now works the bar at the Pool restaurant and the adorable Odalys who works with customer service who insured that whatever we needed or wanted, we had………….


So the second morning came and as I stood on my balcony at around 06:00 again and watched a steady trickle of sleepy looking men heavily laden with purple towels heading in the direction of the pool, the horrible realization that I was going to have to join in with this ridiculous practice dawned on me and I couldn’t help to think that much of this may have been caused by the endless TA reports that told any future visitors that they would have to be up early to get beds. Maybe we are our own worst enemies, as by mentioning there could be a problem we may have actually created it!? As the week went on it got worse. Out of the six of us, we took it in turns to traipse down the pool at the crack of dawn and sometimes before, just to try and get our favorite position. Everyone has certain requirements for a comfortable and enjoyable day. We generally had four rules, near the pool, near the mushrooms (the small Palapas), near the loo and most of all near the bar! So our perfect spot was near the little paddling pool. Sometimes we got it, sometimes we didn’t. If it was not available, we didn’t gripe, just sat elsewhere. What did bother me was how hard it was to get a tent. (The new canvas / bed style Palapas round the bottom end of the pool) Even at 06:00 you had more chance of finding Hen’s Teeth than finding a couple of available tents. What annoyed me more was that many people would reserve a tent and also reserve two beds next to the pool. That was just plain selfish. There were people walking around with no where to sit while a handful of selfish couples were lording it up moving from sun to shade and back again, when ever the mood took them. On one afternoon, when we returned from the beach to a very busy pool, we found a couple of beds dotted around with no blue mattress on them. The reason for this was that people would set their bed up with towel, book, lotion etc and rather than disturb this comfy little nest, would grab a mattress off another bed and float around the pool, not returning the mattress of course when they had finished. I saw one couple lying on two mattresses each……..how nice and squashy for them, while I laid on the floor on my towel, considering going over for an argument. But who wants that hassle on their hols?......................If you bed hogs are reading this shame on you!! So friends, I’m afraid the stories on TA are correct. Never before have I had to tip toe to a pool or beach under the light of the silvery moon, but on this occasion it was a case of you can’t beat them, you’re gonna have to join them and if I woke up for a wee at 03:00, as I often did having introduced a fair bit of fluid to my system in the evenings, I would do my ablutions then creep off to the pool to lay the towels. Do you know that even at that time in the morning there were other towels down before mine? Not good!!!!




As anyone who was there at the same time will know, the weather was glorious for the first week, temps as high as 101 degrees were reported. So, being the cautious kind I did my best to avoid the harmful rays by starting off with factor 15. By the end of the week I was happy with my midway tan. Unfortunately the Cuban weather had different ideas and wanted me to go home as white as usual. The seventh night saw torrential rain, lightning, thunder and more rain. No problem thought I, it will soon clear up but unfortunately it didn’t……………….much! There was the odd break in the cloud and sometimes it thinned a bit. We saw so many people burnt on these cloudy days, it was unbelievable. It did allow me to drop down to the factor 4 and I thoroughly enjoyed being the only mad Englishman swimming in the pool during the heavy rain. It was also amusing to see all the people changing their sopping wet towels when they finally arrived at their beds 4 hours after originally placing them.


The weather didn’t dampen our spirits though. We still sat round the pool, down the beach and mostly round the bar, which was or course always open! We played games in the lobby and went walking on the beach. There were Salsa lessons available but I opted out of these as I found it hard not to spill my Ballantynes and diet while jigging about with a very enthusiastic animation team member, that’ll be Heidi then…………………..




Fishing was great fun. Darren, Clive and I took telescopic rods, reels, tackle and as much enthusiasm as the Salsa dancers. We fished the bottom, float fished and spun with Rapalas. During the two weeks we caught a dazzling array of different fish species. The fortnight ended during one of the heaviest downpours of the week where the fish were biting every few seconds, the lightning was flashing down around our Carbon Fiber rods and the rain ensured our glasses were never empty. Talk about watered down beer!! That fishing session was one of the highlights of the week for me.




We had a night out in Guardalavaca. As mentioned on previous TA reports there is a club in town called La Roca. I think Thomas Cook must have cottoned on to the idea that visitors were starting to get taxi’s / busses to the club as they are now booking it as an excursion. 25 cuc per person secured you a place on the bus. The price covered your bus, entry to the club and drinks, to a fashion. Each couple received a bottle of 3 year old Havana Club and 2 cans of Coke, well the local brand of Rola Cola, weather you wanted it or not. After about half the bottle I was in the mood to party. The band was excellent and so were the local, young dancers. Of course not many of us Brit’s were capable of Salsa-ing, in fact a few of us were not capable of any dancing by the time we reached the bottom of that Club bottle. I had a good go at a bit of Dad dancing with the Mrs and to be honest, found the whole evening thoroughly enjoyable and would recommend it.




I was shocked and a bit annoyed at the way the standards had slipped in the Buffet restaurant! It clearly states on all paperwork that the dress code for men is long trousers and collared shirt. I spent a lot of money updating my wardrobe and took a lot of shirts and trousers with me. To be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I always like to dress up during the evening on any holiday we go on. But I was gob smacked to see guys walking around the Buffet (during the evening) wearing not just shorts, but swimming and football style shirts, flip flops, and not just t-shirts but FOOTBALL shirts!! There was always staff on the door but mostly these were young girls who clearly had no authority and no power to stop people coming in dressed as they wish. It was hot at night, sometimes quite unbearable. I was uncomfortable at times, but rules are rules. What’s right for one should be right for all. I felt great in my clobber and to be honest was disappointed and disgusted at the state of a lot of the other men in there. Not just the youngsters either, many older guys were walking around in football shirts etc. It’s really not on and needs to be addressed. As does the towels round the pool issues. I suggested a manager could walk around the pool at 07:00 every morning and collect up all the towels. Then stand in a hut as people turned up to their empty beds. He could charge a 10 cuc on the spot fine to each offending towel retriever. How many times do you think it would take before people took the hint? One day, maybe two? Did it happen?? No. Did anything happen??? No. This is something else that really needs to be addressed!!!


While I’m on my soapbox and on the subject of things that need to change, there was a rather upsetting occurrence that happened to a delightful couple towards the end of their holiday. Now I am all for helping people where possible. I and members of our party bought out a lot of “aid” to dish out to hotel staff and locals. All the usual toiletries, medications, trainers and clothing etc costs us next to nothing and we chose those we thought worthy to receive this help by talking to staff and helping those who went the extra yard to be helpful and nice to us. So you can understand how disappointed we all were when we had this story relayed to us. A maid left a lovely note detailing how she had enjoyed doing the room and that she would not be at work when the couple went home two days later. The maid asked in the note if they could leave her tip today so she would not miss it. She also said it was her daughter’s birthday and that she would love to give her an ipod. She then lovingly left a flower on top of the man’s ipod next to his bed, in the obvious hope that the mp3 player would be left as a tip. The poor couple was left frustrated and devastated as they obviously didn’t want to part with something as expensive as an ipod but felt bad about the young girl’s birthday. Not a very nice thing to happen, I think you’ll agree? In my opinion though, this is yet another problem that many of us visitors have caused ourselves. We take all our expensive mp3’s, cameras, DVD’s, phones, PSP’s and god knows what else and parade around with them in front of people who couldn’t even buy them even if they could afford them as these items are not available in Cuba. People have started leaving these items as gifts. Once one has done it, others will follow. Once one local has an ipod his mate will want an ipod. Someone down the road has a DVD, up the road will want a DVD. You know what I am saying. Thank goodness the maid was good enough to leave a note in the hope of a gift, rather than just help herself. In other countries we have been to, items like this could not be left out in the room but had to be locked away. Lets hope this does not start to happen in Cuba……..




Finally, I need to say hi to all the friends we made this year. Mostly people I had chatted to on the TA forums. Dannyboy and his better half who enjoyed it so much it seems they are booking again next year. Dormouse and her hubby who between them attempted to drain the Cuban Champagne reserves. Eddie Gremlin and Bigbird. We awarded Eddie a medal for his resilience and dedication by managing to secure the use of a tent on more than a few occasions by getting the towels down as early as 02:45!! PRDOfan and her family, who braved the wet conditions during her daughters wedding and for complementing me on my vast array of loud shirts. To the lovely Jan & Hubby, the stunning couple on their 9th visit that we travelled home with and who recognized us from our 06’ visit. We truly hope you all enjoyed your holidays as much as we did. It was lovely meeting you all and we may see you somewhere in the world in the future.


I have already made the statement that I will not return to the PRDO. Don’t get me wrong, the place is fantastic. First time in 04’ we loved it and had to go back as we had found the place where we wanted to renew our vows. In 06’ we returned to do the vows with 21 friends and family and the whole trip was magical. This year, spent with 4 PRDO virgins was hilarious with never a dull moment and our friends made fantastic travel companions. We couldn’t have wished for better.


As for the resort itself, something was not quite right, not sure why. It may have been the sun bed thing, the slipping of dress standards in the restaurants or even the disappointing weather. Somehow it just didn’t have the wow factor you enjoy when you see a new place for the first time. There isn’t much to do outside of the hotel. The trips are pretty expensive and the Spa is highly overpriced. But can I really never go back? The staff are the most fantastic we have seen anywhere in the world. The fishing & Snorkeling are superb. Food & drink standards are very high; in fact it’s the best All Inclusive I have ever seen. So I suppose I should never say never………………………

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Photos

Deserted Caletica
One of the beautiful private beaches at the resort.

Fallen Flowers
A view through some of the gardens.

Gazebo Sunset
The wonderful Wedding Gazebo.

Night Pool
View across the pool at night.

Gazebo
Another stunning sunset over the Gazebo

Buoys
The Carribean Sea.

Gazebo by Day
Another gazebo shot. I love that little building!