Melia Internacional

I travelled to the Melia International April 29 to May 6. It was my first time at this resort, and definitely will not be my last, as I have already booked again for two weeks June 15-29. I knew while I was on resort I would be booking another trip right away when I got home.

The resort is very modern with a cosmopolitan feel. It is well laid out with all of the restaurants except one and the same area on the ground floor and all the shops are also located on the ground floor.

My room was on the sixth floor with a fabulous ocean front view. The room was large and very comfortable. The bed and the pillows provided a great nights sleep. The shower is large and has two rain showers. One on each end. There is a hairdryer and amenities in the bathroom.

Thanks so much to the staff from sales office Nelido Casay and Mari the Community Manager that helped witj everything and assisted in my requests and suggestions as well as worried about my stay every day which made it exceptional in every way. I celebrated my birthday there and they made it unforgettable for me!!

I ate at two of the a La carte restaurants in and both of them were fantastic. Sensum would be my favourite and they made my birthday dinner amazing. At the end of my meal they even had a flambé cake for me. The other restaurant was Casa Nostra the Italian restaurant. The pumpkin risotto and the chicken Parmesan were wonderful. There was also plenty of Prosecco in both restaurants. Many people are speaking of shortages on the resorts, but there was nothing that stood out to me while I was there.

The pools are very clean and I was always able to find a chair. There are also two snack bars on either end of the pools. The beach is only a short walk with a great composite boardwalk. I have been to Cuba more than 25 times and I have never been on a beach as beautiful as the one at this hotel. It is a shallow walk out with white sand and very clear water. There is no shortage of beach chairs, and Palapas even when the resort is full to capacity.

Anyone going to the Melia International will definitely not be disappointed. Great food, large clean rooms, helpful staff, fantastic entertainment, and generally just one of the best resorts in Varadero. Four weeks to my next visit and the countdown is on. [Details]

I have been to many places in carribean including a sandals ochi and melia international is by far the best for beach rooms and service i have ever had!!!! I would go back here in a minute..Best value for your money! [Details]

My experience was the greatest holiday I have ever had. The staff made is all happen. Resort was clean and had lots of things to do. No problems at all, perfect vacation. [Details]

I was at Melia international resort for a week which I met 3 nice staff over there.their name was Emanuel, William blanco and Lindsay.at first night they welcomed us at the nice party and invited us to their table and the following day Emanule made us the best Sangria which I had in my life at the buffet. They were welcoming, kind professional and knowledgeable about everything.I never forget my experience at Melia international resort .because they made it an exceptional experience for us. [Details]

The hotel is beautiful. The ocean is wonderfull. The food was ok but basically chicken, pork, mahi-mahi, rice, potatoes. No beef what so ever even if it's on the menu. They had shrimp but ran out after a couple if days, no other seafood. A la carte restaurants, same as buffet and only served just red wine, just beer, or just cola??? No white wine, no gin tonic no champagne ect..at the restaurants. Not to mention the unbelievably lack of toilet paper and hand soap around the resort. A la carte restaurants as well. NOT KIDDING. Guests were stuck in the bathroom until there spouse found toilet paper at some other bathroom. We carried a roll with us just in case, and glad we did. We stayed at the Level-Familly. Room had ants. Fridge was never restocked, was frustrating had to call everyday. One roll of toilet paper in room. You figure they would add a second roll once the first one was more than half way gone, but no. Coffee machine in room, but no coffee, suger, spoon and cups. The day before we left, they added the coffee cups but nothing else. Pool was nice, but again, no tropicaly drinks. Couldn't believe it. No strawberry, mango, banana daiquiris. Just lime until they ran out of that. No pina colada's. The icecream shop never had spoons, they gave instead a pointed plastic knife? Staff was friendly. But no matter how much you complain at the front desk, no matter what it is, was pointless. Some reservations were not respected, even if we had proof of confirmation. They just cannot or will not accommodate. Wifi was bad. [Details]

Our hotel stay for 2022 was the second time we visited the resort, the first was in 2020. The hotel was initially opened in 2019 and when we first visited in 2020 we were blown away with the experience and were upgraded to the "Level". Our 2022 visit we booked the "Level" expecting the same level of quality, much to our disappointment we did not.

Hotel Room 2020- FIVE STAR *****
Hotel Room 2022- FIVE STAR *****

Food Quality/ Choice 2020- FIVE STAR *****
Food Quality/ Choice 2022- TWO STAR **

Staff (friendliness/ attentiveness) 2020- FIVE STAR *****
Staff (friendliness/ attentiveness) 2022- THREE STAR ***

It appears as though the Melia Corporation has "come out of the gate" strong with the initial opening but has lost it's desire to stand above the other Cuba hotels on the peninsula. Based on the quality of the food I would strongly recommend AGAINST upgrading to the level, it is not worth the extra $$.

Overall the hotel still stands above the other Cuban resorts we have visited but it has got too comfortable and doesn't feel they need to "try" anymore. [Details]

TL;DR: would recommend, plan to return

CONTEXT
We recently returned from a one week vacation at Melia Internacional Varadero. As a family, we've been to Cuba more than half a dozen times, but have not been since before the start of the pandemic.

THE HOTEL:
This was our 1st visit to Melia Internacional. This is an older hotel that was purchased by Melia and renovated in the last couple of years. As a result there is a mix of new & old/established.
The hotel is huge with over 900 rooms.
3 main pools as well as a kids pool with pirate theme and slide, great for young kids. There's also a small wading pool for infants as part of the playground near the Cubamigos kids' club.
In addition there's another pool for the adults only (cannot speak to as we were not in level or adult).
The rooms are great with awesome view regardless of which way you're facing. Unfortunately there is a mold problem in the bathrooms, especially those equipped with bathtubs. This is in part due to the fact that the hotels were closed for so long during the pandemic. A proper treatment of the mold should be undertaken and it is truly the only thing that needs improvement in my opinion.
Did not get too check out spa this time.

THE FOOD:
The main buffet Merkado always had a decent variety of options and had the main stations: fish, meat/chicken, and pasta. We had exceptional service from two wait staff: Aidi and Alicia! And Yaime on the fish station was very attentive!
We had three a la carte réservations but only went to two of them.
HACIENDA (Mexican): the mini burrito appetizers and the nachos were AMAZING! I was content with the main and the service by the staff was great!
CASA NOSTRA (Italian): in my opinion, this a la carte is a must go! The food and the service was amazing! The hostess who seated us was also very attentive and considerate (unfortunately don't remember her name, visited on May 31). The pizza, the pasta and the seafood were all incredible. Even the picky eaters enjoyed it. The tiramisu was delicious, even better than some I've had in Canada.
We also went to a restaurant in town which was only a short walk but due to the rain we took a taxi.
Overall, we did not go hungry and we did not get sick from any of the food. No complaints at all.

THE ENTERTAINMENT:
DAYTIME:
The entertainment staff are always a pleasure and make the trip truly worthwhile.
We participated in Aqua gym, trivia, dancing lesson, and have contests. All were lots of fun!
Exceptional staff is definitely Yosbel! He has so much energy and really gets you excited about participating.
Bebe also got my kid dancing which was great.
David, Daniel, and Rosalba also were good entertainers!
EVENINGS:
We did not attend much of the evening entertainment but what we did attend we enjoyed. Whether it's a trio band at the Blue Sky Bar or an entire dance party in the Red Bar, or a solo singer. There was also amazing musicians serenading the entire resort from the Gaia bar by the pools (one time it was a clarinet player, another it was a flute player).
Overall entertainment was great, caught a glimpse of the kids evening and daytime entertainment and it was also excellent and fun.

CLUB HOUSE: towel exchange with Yoel; always a smile and pleasant service.

POOL BAR:
Amazing attentive staff with two absolute favourites are Claudia and Sergio. We also had good service from Heidi. Drinks were great and delicious.

FRONT DESK:
All the staff are always willing to help but Alicia often went above and beyond. Truly grateful to her!

BELLHOP: Osdany went above and beyond and we also received great service on departure but I don't remember the name of the fellow (lanky/tall/glasses).

ROOM CLEANING STAFF:
We had amazing experience with Yalennys; making fun designs with the towels and leaving a thoughtful note.

RESTAURANT BOOKING: Rosemarie helped us so much with booking our restaurant reservations absolutely fantastic customer service skills!

PUBLIC RELATIONS: Kandy was pleasant via email and resourceful when we needed some assistance. [Details]

Great trip, lovely hotel but the food was like McDonald's every day [Details]

This hotel is fabulous! This being our second time at this hotel, first time was pre-covid, we did find some things that were slightly different than the first time. We found less selection in food choices, or rather less variety. The first time they offered different theme nights and variety like outdoor bbq choices. It is noticeable that every day there were improvements in and around the hotel.
Covid protocols are very good. We felt that the restaurant as well as the front desk and customer service staff were all very friendly and helpful.
We will be back, hopefully soon! [Details]

Very, very clean facilities! Congratulations and big Thank You for all of the people that are involved in keeping hotel and surroundings neat and clean.
Great food selection. Very good drinks selection including high quality domestic drinks and some international as well. Guests are allowed to use hotel after their check out (noon time) until the scheduled airport bus pick up. This does not include hotel rooms which are charged $29 USD/hour!!! [Details]

I had the chance to stay at this wonderful resort for a second time, this time I stayed in the Level Adult section. This trip was also amazing, great hotel, great food and all the personal is very friendly.

Arrival: upon arrival I was greeted by the management which was a great way to start the trip. Lisset, the Level Adult manager, made sure to make me feel welcome and helped me to get organised.

Concierge service: Andy and the rest of the team was just amazing, every time I needed something he would get on it right away, great service!

Food: The food was unreal, sooooo good! The service I received at the restaurent was very professional, efficient and the staff always had a big smile. They even taught me Spanish during my vacation. Julio and Ernesto were amazing and very nice, I developed a strong friendship with them, fell like I knew them for years.

Cigar: The cigar lounge is very nice, they offer great cigars and rhum. The staff is very knowledgeable, it was very nice to discuss cigars and rhum with Yaniris, she's an expert in cigar and rhum!

Animation: Bébé is sooooo good at her job at animation, she's very funny and very nice. Her catch phrase is Ciao Ciao Mickey Mouse and it cracks me up everything I hear it.

Entertainment: The entertainment at the Melia is perfect. The shows are very classy and fun. The talent displayed by the entertainment artist was simply amazing. You would pay money to go see artists of that caliber in Canada.

Rooms: the rooms are very modern and nice, if fact they are perfect!

To conclude, I would like to thank the Melia staff for a wonderful vacation.

Thank you,

Stef [Details]

Overall, the hotel is new and clean. Staff is friendly and generally things are great. The only issue is the cross-contamination with food. My daughter has fish allergies and she had a reaction to plain pasta sauce and chickpeas because cooks use the same spoon for the fish sauce as they do for regular sauce. There doesn't seem to be any consideration for people with food allergies as everything is mixed and it's not clear. For instance some pizza would have tuna but it's not marked and it's right beside the plain cheese pizza. She was very limited in terms of what she could eat because the hotel does not do a good job separating allergens from the rest of the food. If you don't have food allergies then I say this place is great to visit. The beach is breathtaking. [Details]

We have no complaints for the hotel. everything was beautiful and brand new. we stayed for a week and enjoyed every minute of it. the people were great, location was amazing and beach was beautiful! [Details]

The front desk staff “Luis” in particular was rude not so much with us after a few times dealing with him but with other customers. No patience to explain on how to access the internet which is not an easy task there!!! Once you do get it you lose the signal constantly which means no tv or on and off!
Classic room bookings only gets you 3 a la carte dinners! The food is not great anywhere even at la carte but the worst is the breakfast buffet! Even for lunch and dinner you don't know what you're eating cause there isn't any proper signs in the right place indicating what it is! [Details]

Varadero Stay Jan.19-26, 2020
On the surface the MELIA INTERNACIONAL VARADERO looks stunning from some aspects. It is a new hotel finished in Feb. 2019 on the property of the old Internacional hotel which no longer exists. It is about a 10 to 15 minute walk into Varadero by sidewalk or probably 20 minutes along the beach. We had a PREMIER OV room on the LEVEL not to be confused with the ADULTS ONLY section which is a separate building.
Our room was exactly in the center of the hotel on the 5th floor. The view from our room and balcony was postcard perfect. We had a view of a gorgeous pool, stunningly tall bent tree, and the beautiful ocean. We couldn't ask for a better view, or better beach which went on forever, into Varadeo one way and past several hotels the other. The view of the hotel lit up at night from the beach or pool was magical.
The room was a good size, had a bathtub plus a big double shower, big sink with double faucets, separate room for toilet, 2 open closets. Our king size bed was quite comfortable, but the furnishings in the room were cheap IKEA like. The 1st time I sat down in a chair by the room table it cracked so they replaced with same kind of chair. We decided it would be better to use one from the balcony as they were much sturdier. Make sure you door is fully closed as we thought we had closed ours at night and put the dead bolt on but on Jan. 23 at 8 A.M. a women opened our door who was not hotel staff.
Hairdryer was in bathroom, but cradle not attached to wall. Apparently voltage in bathroom does not support hairdryers. We had to use plug on wall over table by the balcony doors. There were no slippers in room or beach bag for level guests. No hand towels till second last day. No Kleenex at all for entire stay.
Sunrise grill by beach not open as well as few other restaurants and some bars/entertainment rooms even though they either had them posted in daily activities or on their welcome passport.
Most of the time there was no butter, no orange juice , or apple juice. If you wanted one of the dozen drinks listed on Bar Menu that contained orange juice they would give you grapefruit juice without telling you. Half of the time their wa no mint for MOJITOS which is supposed to be one of their National drinks. Also on the Bar Menu, they listed about a dozen liquors, such as Frangelico, Amerato, Baileys, etc. But they were not available.
They food in the Buffets that were open was below par for Cuba. In the al la carte restaurants, one day it would be very good, so you would order the same thing the next day and it was barely edible.
Bottom line we have stayed at Melia hotels in Cuba before, specifically the MELIA VARADEO a few times. Although the hotel is older and the pool, beach and view were not as stunning we found on previous trips that the food and entertainment was far superior. [Details]

We were a family of 6. Three had never been to Cuba while 2 had spent a dozen vacations throughout Cuba.
Checkin was late evening and a room change was done within minutes to accommodate 4 family members. Ocean view upgrades as we were returning Melia clients.
This resort by far exceeded our expectations.
Our rooms were clean, modern and had all the amenities.
Overall the resort was compact with 3 easy walkways to the beach.
We found it more adult orientated until the Club Amigo was researched. The 8 and 10 year olds requested to go back and again the staff were excellent in the Club. We felt safe with the children in their care.
The food was adequate in the buffet and we had 3 al à cartes. The Mexican was our favourite and 2 of us were able to go twice.
The Cigar bar was great although I do not smoke, it was the best place for the 2 young ones to get their afternoon choc milk. The staff were fantastic with all of us.
Pools large and clean; beach- Varadero, nothing more needs to be said!
We were not Level service but you were treated as if you were a valued guest!
Overall, 10/10 for our Cuban vacation. [Details]

Our experience was overall very good (see weak points for areas of improvement). [Details]

Very good hotel,we enjoyed our stay there a lot:rooms spacious and beautiful very modern,clean,never problems with towels if one calls maintenance,react immediate,ly food good inough,service very good polite,friendly,good music not overwhelming,beach is amazing,second to none,lots of space and beds and umbrellas,pool very clean,lots of everything,resort is very beautiful to look at. [Details]

We enjoyed the week we were at the resort and will be back for sure! No problems during our stay. It's an amazing resort. [Details]

very sad that a nice hotel like this one (melia international varadero) have such of bad customer services. first if you speak spanish they mistreated you. i live outside cuba for many many year and i decided to take my family to varadero. as soon we arrived we was very impressive because i have to admit the hotel is very nice. i make the reservation online for me and my wife and we add couple of family members at the hotel (front desk). at the same hotel they offer you 2 different prices (one at the front desk for $189 per night and another price in the first floor for $110 ) both same access and the same rooms, nothing different. i asked why the different and the answer was the hotel ( melia international varadero ) work that way. on our second day at the hotel we went to the buffet to have lunch. my little nephew (he wasn't born in cuba) ask for chocolate ice cream, we ask the waiter for chocolate ice cream ( in spanish) and the answer was we don't have chocolate ice cream at this time. we was trying to explain my nephew ( in english) that they don't have chocolate ice cream and as soon the waiter finds out that we are from>>>>( outside cuba) he brought us the ice cream in seconds. same happened at the pool bar and at the front desk. now i know that if you are cuban this people won't treat you the same way that if you are coming from outside cuba. i've traveled to dominican republic, puerto rico, spain, mexico, bahamas and many other places. never have to go through this at any of those places. again, the hotel facility is very nice but the customer services is the worts. [Details]

Not my first visit to Cuba.

Was concerned like everyone about the food. I had read some pretty bad reviews. I don't understand what all the fuss was about - the food was good - perhaps not out of this world - but it's Cuba - we didn't starve or get sick - breakfast - you can't go wrong - lunch and dinner - sure we could have asked for some more choices - but not that bad - they do however use a lot of SALT on some dishes -

The pizza by the pool is very good -
The snack bar - very good - the grill by the pool very good -

The SPA services outstanding - try the 3 rooftop plunge pools - super hot, regular - and ice cold ....

TV - bring a media player with movies - the rooms has nice TV with easy access to RCA cable, HDMI or USB connection -

The water pressure is quite weak (normal for cuba)

English is spoken.

Hotel very clean -

Not much of way of shows at night - not much to do at night .

ask for room not to far from the elevators - and room with a shower.

wifi - is ok. [Details]