Iberostar Selection Holguin, Holguin, Cuba

When Sunwing cancelled our vacation to Punta Cana the day we arrived at the airport, Anne, Franca and I scampered to rebook another vacation ASAP. Franca and Anne work so didn't have the flexibility to not take the planned week off. After three hours of going online and calling other providers, the best we could do was the 4 star Sol Turquesa Beach in Holguin (via Air Transat) leaving on Sunday. When we arrived at there late Sunday night, where was everyone?! There are over 500 rooms but apparently only 80 guests. Because of that, a lot of things are closed down and not happening ... no entertainment, no activities, nothing. 

Monday afternoon we spoke with Pablo, the Air Transat rep on site, and asked him to move us. For another $458 each, he moved us the next day to the 5 star Iberostar Selection. We had to pay for the cab to get us there ($25US).

Adele and his '41 Chevy

A much better resort and worth the move! Though it wasn't at capacity, there were lots of guests so there was energy and people to talk with. At night, the animation team put on shows. 

We had a fun time here. My only complaint about the resort is that their WIFI sucked. It was free throughout the resort, including the rooms. When we arrived, we were given a temporary login and then picked up our permanent login info later that day. I wasn't able to get access on my phone at all so used roaming from my provider at home (I'm not looking forward to seeing that charge!). My iPad and laptop were hit and miss ... sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, sometimes it was speedy. Once we inputted our login info that should have been it for the week but I found I was often asked to input it on a daily basis. That was annoying.

These carts drove around often and you could hop on
and head to the main building, the snack bar, the beach,
back to your room, etc.

My room was a five minute walk to the main building and the pool (in the other direction). It had a mini fridge, giant fan above the bed, a/c, etc.

Sol Turquesa Beach Hotel, Holguin, Cuba

In November, Franca, Anne and I had booked a Sunwing vacation for an all-inclusive week in Punta Cana. We were supposed to leave last Wednesday. When we arrived at the airport, we discovered that our flight and our vacation were cancelled and would not be rebooked ... we'd get an automatic refund within 21 days (happily but surprisingly the refund arrived on my VISA this morning). 

Needless to say, we were shocked, disappointed and unhappy. We stayed at the airport and right away started trying to book a vacation elsewhere ASAP but everything was either sold out or so expensive. After three hours of going online and calling other providers, we ended up calling a last minute vacation company. The best she said we could do was the 4 star Sol Turquesa Beach in Holguin (via Air Transat) leaving on Sunday. Right on! So we headed home and met up again at the airport on Sunday.

We arrived at the Sol Turquesa late Sunday night. The lobby bar is open 24/7 and it was empty. Huh?! Usually lobby bars are busy. We headed to the 24/7 snack bar to get a bite to eat and we were the only ones there (when I asked the server about the disco she said this was the disco!). Where was everyone?! There are over 500 rooms here but apparently only 80 guests. Because of that, many things are closed down and not happening ... no entertainment, no activities, nothing. 

Franca and Anne work hard and were looking for a relaxing vacation but not like this. So yesterday we spoke with Pablo, our Air Transat rep, and asked him to move us to another resort. We're definitely not getting our money's worth at this one. This resort has the potential to be awesome but they should either close completely (apparently they were closed for three years and reopened in December 2023) or open to full capacity and provide what they promise. 

We each paid about $2,500 for this vacation (so it wasn't cheap!) and this is more like a $1,700 property given the deficiencies. Melia, the owner of the property, should be ashamed and embarrassed for charging so much and Air Transat should be sending booking reps here to check out the property to ensure their clients aren't getting ripped off like we were.

PROS

The resort - The property itself is lovely. There are lots of pools. The beach is nearby.

The room - We each had our own room and they were huge. But it's obvious there was furniture missing from mine, though, as I had a big corner that is empty. I had two larger twin beds that were pushed together and the bed was comfortable.