Costa Morena Hotel: Santiago, Cuba; Sunwing Single @$1065 all in, January 29 - February 12, 2009

This is a two star hotel that has two things that are going for it in a big way. It is cheap and the weather is fantastic.

Since it is cheap you shouldn’t expect too much but it is quite adequate if you ignore various things that are in disrepair. I stayed in the older building (1xx) and the furniture was old plywood and splayed at the bottom that was probably due to water damage. The bathroom had broken tiles in the shower. The sink drained slowly but the toilet worked fine (hooray!!!). The TV was older but worked OK as well. The key safe was free. The mattress was old but made into a king sized bed; it had no blanket other than a sheet. My idea was this is what a real Cuban hotel should look like so I had no big complaints. Apparently the staff is quick to fix something but I never bothered to call them. However, a couple was without a toilet seat for the whole week that they were there. You have to ask your maid for a towel. If you want the Hilton, please go to Niagara Falls but the newer buildings (5 and 6) have better rooms.

There was no problem at the airport at all; Sunwing was good and there was a movie and a hot meal. It is as good as I have seen elsewhere and I have been to Cuba about 17 times. The Sunwing representative, Pablo, has good English, was organized, prompt, and friendly. He probably services the four hotels in the area. I never went on any tours.

The food is all right but not terribly exciting. There is lots of grilled or fried chicken. If eggplant is in season you will see a lot of it. There will be fish from time to time, bacon once, and beef rarely although the stews are tasty. Once they had delicious roast pork and when they often fry thin pork steaks they are the best. Pancakes in the morning tasted good and you can get eggs any style. There is no a la carte although you can find lobsters outside the hotel. You will not starve here and the food is good enough.

The nightly (usually) entertainment is quite good and excellent at times. Santiago is full of musicians and dancers so there is no shortage of talent. There were some shows that were of Vegas quality. Music is also at dinner and lunch but you should tip these poor minstrels if you enjoy the music.

There is no sandy beach. It is rather unique in that it has a cement beach. It seems to have been partially destroyed by a hurricane (you can still see X tape marks on some of the windows). They are slowly fixing it up but there is tons of room near the Natural Pool. There is a natural rock break wall about 30 m out which is fun to watch because of the waves breaking over it. The long pool is shallow but you can swim around easily and use their free snorkeling gear or paddle around on kayaks.  There is a rocky beach to the east of the hotel but you have to be careful of the waves or you will brain yourself on the rocks. You have to be careful at the cement beach too due to slimy conditions. There is a hit and miss taxi to a public beach to the west (about 8 km) which we walked to and back in 3 hours. The beach is full of people to bug you to buy stuff. Andy is the lifeguard and he can get you anything (wink wink). I was content to be at the cement beach as there is hardly anyone there and there is a beach bar with my buddy, Dato, the bartender; there is no beer at this bar but it has lots of hard drinks.

Speaking of bars, there are three others. The most popular one is beside the dining room. It serves everything including beer, red and white Cuban wine, liquors and Cuban hard stuff. When you eat, the waitress will get you wine from here; the wine is potable and I liked the vino blanco better. The pool bar had beer and liquor but no wine. The disco bar is open at 9 pm and the drinks seemed to be free for an hour or so during the entertainment which starts about 9:15. There is sometimes a disco after the show but I am not sure if drinks were included then or not – probably yes. This hotel is AAI (almost all inclusive) because there are international drinks you can buy. For example, the cement beach bar has good scotch and so on for about CUC1.30 a shot. The lobby bar will sell beer in a can and whole bottles of booze at Canadian prices. The shop also sells a limited amount of shirts and drinks. A bottle of Cristal is CUC1.00 and you can put it into your fridge in your room to enjoy on your private balcony with ocean front view – everyone has one.

The water in the room might be OK but I got water from the handy barrel cooler in the dining room.

There is a games room with pool and ping pong etc. There were a couple of kids there the first week and none the next. In fact, there seemed to be about 100 people there at any time so, although there are not many lounges around the pool, there never seemed to be a problem.

We took a local bus for CUC4 to Santiago to look around. It leaves at 07:30 and gets you near downtown. You can either fight your way onto another bus or just take a half hour to look around while walking downtown towards Parque Céspeses. I was in Santiago a couple of years ago and have noticed that things are getting better there. The women dress well, almost to Mediterranean standards. Some Cubans are getting fat like their North American counterparts so food seems to be more plentiful. The pollution is bad as vehicles spew out diesel fumes. You can walk around fairly freely but there will be people looking for handouts; there were no “tour” guides this time which bugged us two years ago. It is a nice place to walk around (Moncada barracks!) and there is lots of music in the evening but we were there during the morning. You can catch the bus back to the hotel at 1 pm which stops at the hotel’s delivery entrance but check with hotel staff about the details of catching buses.

The weather is 5-star. We had an hour of light rain in two weeks and one cloudy day. Otherwise, the weather is perfect: strong sun, about 24C every day, windy sometimes, clear and not humid, nights were cool sometimes and you’d need a sweater. The stars are clear and bright.

My preference was to hike around. There is a walking tour I did up the highway to the Carosol Hotel and then make a left into the mountains on a dirt road. You go by a military training facility, ranches and the small defunct town of Sigua. There are animals everywhere and even a reservoir lake. We once hiked from Baconao (we took the bus there at 10 am for CUC1) through the road from the totem poles back to Sigua and the hotel; it took 4 hours. There is a delightful hike to the cascades; hike up the dirt road from the hotel and turn left at the gravel pit, past the baseball diamond and on to the river about an hour away. You go along the dried out wash way and mountains which are very beautiful. As mentioned, you can hike to the public beach to the west. The horse and buggy guy, Mariano, will get you around as well at CUC2 per person per hour; a trip to Baconao will take an hour each way so is a nice trip. There is an aquarium to the east about 4 km but we never went in although the dolphin show is supposed to be good and you can even swim with them (at an inflated cost); however, most of the aquarium is not in service. There is a Disneyland (Cuban style nearby) with Snow White and so on but it is pretty poor looking. Across the street from it is the Mini Zoo but there is nothing there at all.

I’d recommend the Grand Piedra to visit that we went to last time. It is a hair pin turn drive up a mountain then a climb up many steps to the top of the mountain. The view is spectacular and, supposedly you can see lights in Jamaica to the south west at night. The area is where Castro hung out and started the revolution; there are some “museums” on the highway. Guantanamo is just to the east past Baconao but you can’t get there from here due to the mountains and military.

The clientele are all from Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal departure points. Other than Toronto (probably due to exorbitant landing fees), the other places will get you here for $405 including taxes for each of a couple. You will meet all sorts of interesting characters and some you will not like but you can choose your friends. Some men come down to have “fun” with the local women. The police and their dogs were there a number of times to haul in hookers. Well, it is a fact of life what goes on there. Say no more.

The area is very dry but it has interesting arid features. A walk through the cactus garden near the hotel is recommended for the less adventurous. The hotel has a beautiful tree by the dining room that has fabulous pink flowers that continually fall off. The area is in the Sierra Maestra Mountains so it has nice panoramas everywhere. It is completely safe.

I would recommend this hotel to budget travelers who don’t complain too much (no one likes a bitch anyway). The weather is 5-star. If you want much better accommodation try the Carosol which is about 6 km east down the road. I was in there and it looked much better with swim up bar and perhaps 3.5 star atmosphere. The popular Sierra Mar is to the west of Santiago but about 80 km from the airport.

 Tito