Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
The Paradisus Princesa Del Mar Resort & SPA is located in Varadero Beach, the Cuban sun and beach tourist destination for excellence. This stunning Ultra All-Inclusive 5-star hotel is designed for adults only over 18. The property houses 630 rooms equipped with modern comforts and provides a varied gastronomic offer, daily activities, swimming pool and meeting rooms which convey an ambiance of quietness and service. Discover the magical peace of this paradise, recommended for weddings, honeymoons, incentive trips and spa/wellness.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Quiet
Romantic
Languages Spoken
English, French, Russian, Spanish and 1 more
Location
Autopista Sur Carr. Las Morlas Km 19.5, Varadero 42200 Cuba
Paradisus Princesa Del Mar Resort & Spa
10,976 reviews
Getting there
Car recommended
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
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The Paradisus Princesa Del Mar Resort & Spa is celebrated for its vibrant musical atmosphere and engaging live performances. While opinions on the rooms are mixed, with some finding them clean and others outdated, the staff's friendliness and willingness to help are frequently commended. The resort's location near the beach is popular among guests, though beach upkeep has been questioned.
Amenities like the beach, entertainment, and dining options are generally well-received, despite some reported shortages. However, concerns about the overall value and room service efficiency have been raised by travelers.
Location
Beachfront
Atmosphere
Lively
Rooms
Dated
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Mixed
Service
Friendly
Amenities
Satisfactory
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The review is for the period of the end of August, i.e. outside the main tourist season in Cuba, during the period of rains and storms, which actually happened. The journey from the Havana International Airport takes about 3 hours by bus, with delivery to the other hotels, almost to the end of the Varadero peninsula, where the hotel is located. The hotel is categorized as 5 stars 18+, i.e. no children. In no case does this hotel reach such a level as the client is used to from a similarly categorized hotel, e.g. on the Turkish Riviera or in the Dominican Republic. The hotel is practically half-empty during this period and some services are therefore limited. Clients were mostly moved to one block closest to the beach, and this also means that you can get a room with a sea view without extra charge. The blocks are on the ground floor and two are without elevators, i.e. not wheelchair-accessible, and their condition is not great in terms of appearance. There was a strong mustiness in the room, as if it hadn't been there for half a year, and it hadn't changed much even after a week. Spacious rooms for 2 with plenty of storage space, safe and telephone at the reception, large toilet with shower, large balcony, unfortunately no clothes dryer. The room bar in the fridge was empty, only after 2 days they refilled it with water and beer. The voltage in the sockets is standard 220 VAC, US sockets, but the Czech plugs of the connectors of chargers or shavers fit into them. The gardens around the blocks are maintained, around a single indented pool of purity, water depth only max. 1.2 meters in two of its parts. Spacious dining room. In the All Inclusive program, buffets for all meals with a relatively small daily recurring selection (again compared to, for example, Turkey). Unstable level of service.Once they themselves offer you coffee, wine, beer, refill water, and in 2 days you have to tell the same waiter about everything, otherwise you won't get anything. Bars are open 4, at the reception until 24:00, Rock House bar 24/7 with the option of a night snack, beach hut from morning to approx. 17:00, Piano bar until sometimes in the evening. Draft beer, apparently of two brands, one not good and the other disgusting, non-original rounds only poured from PET bottles. The selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails is weak, just the basics. Sports activities at the pool and on the beach are weak, only volleyball, Latin-American dance classes, the animation team
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Review collected in partnership with this hotel
Date of stay: August 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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After reading the reviews, I was very skeptical about the trip. I took everything I could with me, I even bought a toilet brush. On the bus, the guide warned us that we would be checked into our rooms only at 16.00, and we would have to pay extra for early check-in. As soon as we got to the hotel, I immediately thought: “People, are you sure you wrote reviews about the Princess or about some other hotel?!!!” We arrived at 9 am and were checked in immediately. Moreover, when I asked, how much should I pay extra, the girls at the reception had square eyes. The furniture in the room is, of course, worn out, but everything looks very stylish. Very clean. The bed linen is absolutely gorgeous. Linen was changed twice in 10 days, but towels were changed upon request. And yes - there are only two towels and one for the feet. There was a lot of food, fish and chicken and meat, cheeses, sausages, salads, and no powdered omelettes. Some of the food was very strange, but there was a choice. Very tasty pancakes, omelettes, desserts. Alcohol is of very good quality. Every day, past the main restaurant in Obda, even on holidays, with food and animation. The sunbeds, of course, are terrible, but at least they always clean them in front of you. And it’s not true that they do everything just for tips. I have never encountered such a friendly attitude in any hotel. Everyone, from the maid to the manager, constantly kisses and hugs you. Ya., knowing practically no English, became friends with everyone. The manager came up every day and asked if we were happy with everything. We spent 10 days simply in paradise
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Date of stay: December 2023
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
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We stayed in a Royal Service Jr suite swim up room (7132) Sept 16-23/2023.
Royal Service area was so worth the extra as we heard the guests on the other part of resort had various complaints regarding rooms. We had a great room location with swim up pool access in front our room. We were only 3 rooms (less than a minute) from 24hr bar lounge, the check in area and the buffet. The end rooms in these buildings also have a very private outdoor tiled shower as part of the bathroom (so cool!) Our shower was inside but also very nice with a rain shower head and a hand held, but we would have loved to have had an end room for that outdoor shower! Our room had no issues - great AC, loads of hot water, well custom stocked mini bar, amazing jacuzzi, flatscreen tv, and definitely the best mattreses I have slept on in Cuba; and I have been 7 times to various other resorts. The resort's room phone system did go down for part of day but was back up later that day.
Yas and Eileen our butlers were very helpful! Orestes and Yleideyes our bartenders at the bar were just spectacular and so friendly and professional! All the staff at the bar, the buffet, and concierge desk were just so friendly, and so helpful. The French, Japonese, and the Hilltop a la carte restaurants were wonderful Hilltop was my favourite! Unfortunately thr Asian cuisine was closed for renos. We really loved the Tuna steak dinner at the Hilltop a la carte! The buffet was pretty good! Like many other resorts it was a bit repetitive, but there were no shortages of breads, butter, fruit, cold meats and cheese! The hot grill area offered grilled, chicken, pork, and fish at dinner, and of course fried eggs, or omletes for breakfast.
We had a nice relaxing stay with not too much poolside activity nor too much noise and just of enough of a fun and social atmosphere that we also partied it up as needed
The beach, by far is the very best along the Varadero spit! The water was so warm clear and still. The pool was well maintained, as are the grounds. The pool water was so warm, but not cool enough to say refreshing! Note during our stay it was very hot n humid (with highs in low 30's and nights at 25 degrees and very humid). We did expected this though as afterall it is common there in Sept!
On our airport departure we heard so many other resort travellers saying they had terrible stays, and am so glad we chose this location and Royal Service add on!
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Date of stay: September 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip:The pricing at this time of year (Sept) made this worth it. Some winter pricing could make it a...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Director General Paradisus Princesa del Mar, General Manager at Paradisus Princesa Del Mar Resort & Spa
Responded Sep 26, 2023
Dear guest, thank you so much for this comment. Our staff will be delighted to know about your impressions. It is a pleasure to provide good service and especially when you take time to transmit your positive feedback. You will be very welcome to come back anytime.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
The hotel is very nice and most of the staff is exceptional. The overall service of the hotel is very poor, when we chose the hotel in question we chose a place with several restaurants available, several pools with bar and a service with ALL INCLUDED. To begin with, we never had a restaurant option, we were always stuck in the restaurant that was available on the day, in this restaurant that was available the food options were 2 or 3 (chicken, pork or fish), poorly served with portions of protein that did not exceed 60gr, did not allow to choose more than one entry per person and soups were always the same. The drinks of bad quality, the beers of poor quality, the soft drinks without gas and without flavor. There was not even a bleeding! Bars/cafés were ice-free and without disposable glasses frequently. The coffee (in Cuba known to be of high quality) was very bad. They served us a heated seafood rice that had nothing of seafood rice. The pools bars did not comply with the schedules, from 5 pm it was practically impossible to order a drink in the pool, if we went to a bar/café to order a drink to take to the pool there were no disposable glasses and did not find a solution, when I complained at the reception of the hotel quickly appeared disposable glasses that were in a room closed by a manager of the hotel. The hotel at night is poorly illuminated. The animation of the hotel leaves much to be desired and the artists ask for money from hotel guests after the "shows". We stayed 1 week at the hotel and booked 1 night for two Cuban friends to come spend a night at the Resort, before making the Reservation I went to the reception to know if there was any embarrassment and they said no. The next day I went to the reception to ask if we could use the early check-in (which was described on the Reservation) and they said yes, even because there were many rooms available. On the day of check-in the employee was there (I think she was responsible because she had a pink dress) complicated check-in in all possible ways and still insinuated that I had written things in the Reservation notes that I had not written, later confronted with the screenshots of my Reservation. It was a very attentive employee named Denis who managed to solve the situation.In addition to all this, my mobile phone and camera were hacked inside the hotel room, deleting all my personal data and trying to access
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Automatically translated
Date of stay: July 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Differences. No special changes were found from the main zone, with the exception of nutrition, i.e. from whom RS can eat not only at the main buffet, but also for breakfast and lunch in “their” restaurant (i.e. tourists from the main area cannot eat here). We went to A la Carte restaurants for dinner (we were given reservation sheets for several days in advance) Nutrition. Varied. And fish, and meat, and seafood salads, incl. basic food. You definitely can't stay hungry. There are 2-3 bars open 24 hours a day. Leisure. Evening shows on a daily basis, there were also daytime events at the main pool, but we didn’t go there because... We mostly relaxed by the ocean. Staff. Welcoming, friendly. Always in a good mood. Number. Daily cleaning. Beach towels are issued once, but you can change them yourself at the main pool. Regular towels are changed, maybe once every two days (I didn’t pay much attention, because they were always clean)
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Date of stay: November 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
The most disgusting hotel experience and disrespectful service I’ve ever encountered in a 5* hotel!
Started from check in.
All my cards (even the one that was pre-authorised while paying only) got declined. I asked what are the other payment options and was told none, except paying almost double the price in cash. Then went to customer services where I waited for over 1.5 hours for the manager, who didn’t come. The girl at the customer service told me that it’s not their problem and I had to contact my banks before the trip.
After 2 hours of waiting, being told off multiple times and breaking down in tears, I finally got an option to pay via the link.
In total, wasted 2.5hrs for the whole situation being transferred from one person to another who were so rude and disrespectful, not caring at all about the issue. They even discussed among ourselves that it’s my problem and not theirs.
I wasn’t even offered water during the whole waiting and had to wait in an open reception on a very windy and chilly day. Very shocked by the experience, which definitely doesn’t set a good tone to the trip.
Hotel itself is very rundown. Rooms are old, smell of mould, all the furniture is scratched and broken, wardrobes and doors close with effort or don’t close at all. Curtains and bed linen are dirty and worn out, already grey in colour.
Rooms are not cleaned properly - just the bed is done, bed linen or towels are not changed and the floor is not mopped. Our cleaner left a cockroach for us on the floor after cleaning.
You can get only 1 beach towel per person even though it’s all inclusive.
Food & drinks are awful! There’s almost no choice and exactly the same options for all 3 meals at the buffet. They use lunch leftovers to cook dinner meals. Food is overcooked or undercooked. Drinks are ok only at the Royal service bars.
The beach is ok. Great location but very old and uncomfortable sunbeds, beach is not cleaned.
Service is nonexistent. They simply don’t care.
All in all it’s my worst hotel experience. Really disappointed that Melia tricks people into this hotel at high prices with photoshopped pictures and fake positive reviews.
Spoke to a couple of other hotel guests and they are all in shock. Even Anex tours guide at the property agreed that it should be a 3* max hotel.
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Date of stay: December 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This is our second trip to Cuba. We visited Cayo Coco for the first time when we were 21, and decided to give this country a second chance. Everyone excitedly told us that Varadero has the best sand in the world, and they feed here in good fives for slaughter. We flew by Pegasus, minibus for 4 hours, quickly passed through passport control, the ride from the airport to the hotel took no more than 40 minutes. The first impression is very positive. The hotel area is amazingly beautiful, everything is well maintained, the lawns and bushes are perfect! After the plane we run to the buffet in the hope of having a drink and a good meal :) and then hello!!! A girl cooks meat like sole on the grill and some kind of green pepper on 15 plates 🤣 we walked around the buffet distribution area 4 times, found sliced roast beef, had a bite of it and went to rest very upset. Early in the morning we went on reconnaissance and were determined to destroy the tour operator and guide. We came across royal service. We sneaked into their restaurant for breakfast, there wasn’t much choice, but everything was more or less clean, food was available, cappuccino and champagne were served for breakfast. Well, having breakfast outside with a beautiful view is 👌. For 9 nights we paid about $400 for these bracelets. Plus, you can dine with them every day at Ala Carte. In general, the bracelets saved the holiday a little. There is Pedro here, he speaks Russian, solves problems with towels and more. They changed it for us every day without any reminders. Regarding the beach, there is always a carriage of sun loungers in the RS area; and they calmly let people in without gold bracelets. The beach is so-so. The braid is wide; But !!! There is no white sand on the cube) Ale!!!! Anyone who thinks so has never seen white sand. Sand the color of a concrete mixture. Well, in the sun it becomes a little whiter. Our beach had a strong mixture of rocks, shell fragments, twigs and seaweed. Horror! We walked the spit from Marina to Melia las Americas. Here in Las Americas the beach is beautiful. The rest of the bottom! Royalton has even cleaner hicacos, without stones and a finer sand fraction.
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Date of stay: March 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Средство от Комаров - жрут нещадно!!! Баксы наличкой.
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
To start, the resort is beautiful, and the grounds for the most part are very well maintained. Check in was very easy, and I highly recommend upgrading to royal service, believe me it is worth the extra money for the better food alone. Once you arrive there is a buggy that brings you to the royal aide for check in. You meet your butler, who helps with you with any questions you may have. Your butler will also try to book you at every restaurant at least once the entire trip. Food: The main buffet-it’s okay, but the pasta bar is great. The hilltop- cancel your reservation, it was not very good. Marseilles (French) -very good, the carbonara was amazing and very filling. Italian- amazing, the carbonara was super creamy and filling. Sakura-outstanding, so much food and such an amazing experience The rock house- good. Remember! You don’t go to Cuba for food! But this resort has the best so far! The drinks at the royal service lobby bar and yusmillas drinks at the piano bar are my favourite, always perfect. The rooms are nice, and clean. I’ve heard some people we met say some smell a little damp. But it’s hot and humid there all the time, plus Cuba doesn’t have all the supplies to constantly maintain moisture. So always keep that in mind. They have lots of entertainment, but it also can be very quiet during the day. Perfect for those who love to simply relax. The people here work extremely hard to make sure they provide the best service and experience with the supplies they have. Remember Cuba is suffering a massive shortage and financial crisis, and need all the tourist support they can get! Bring American currency! That’s all they wanted the whole time. also bring toiletries (shower stuff, toothbrushes, tampons/pads and painkillers! Plus little toys for the kids!) all these things are very hard for Cubans to get due to cost and supply. Please be patient, and understanding and make the best out of everything! I overall had an amazing trip:)
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Date of stay: December 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Bring bug spray, Advil, reusable cups, and American currency!
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
If your budget only allows you to go to Cuba ok otherwise I advise you to pay a little more and go elsewhere. In the rooms only 2 towels, 2 beers and 2 bottles of water then you have to ask for them to come back and give you some. Shower in the bath with shower head that works more or less. Buffet only chicken fish and pasta every day, the only thing edible is bread and ice cream. If you want to eat something tasty you have to go to the a la carte restaurants. Bar, if you drink beer or strong drink without anything else mixed with ok, but otherwise it's not drinkable...they only have coke to make their mixed drinks. The only positive points for this hotel of no more than 4 stars are the smiling staff and the beach..thats it, thats all.
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Date of stay: April 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
This is a hard review to write because I personally have always had good experiences at resorts by Paradisus, but if you are travelling anywhere in Cuba it would appear the Canadian owned resorts are much much better and have less issues with supply chain for food, beverages etc. We had three different couples travel to Varadero around the same time we did to different resorts and their experience was nothing like I describe below.
The food was inedible, the supply chain issues have hit this resort hard. We had to upgrade to the royal service just so we wouldn’t starve as the buffet on the Royal side is much better.
There was nothing in our mini bar fridge even upon arrival. The last three days we were not given any water in our room.
On arrival our toilet had no seat or lid and it took over 24 hours for it to be fixed. Our key cards had to constantly be reset, our bed broke to the point that the entire thing needed to be replaced, our towels were never changed in the room until they took our dirty towels, did not replace them and we again had to go to the reception to ask for two towels. There were only two bath towels upon arrival, no face towels, hand towels or. Bath mat towel. The Bathtub was not cleaned once during our 7 day stay
ALL lounge chairs by the pool were reserved with towels by 830 a.m. (I would suggest this resort adopt what many other resorts are now doing and banning reserving seats with towels for extended periods of time)
Our room was right outside the 24 hour bar and as our balcony door did not shut properly it was very loud until 2-3 a.m. any requests to move rooms were denied.
The air conditioner broke on the fourth day,was never fixed. It was cooler outside than in our room but we could not leave the balcony door open because of the mosquitoes.
I’m aware that smoking most places in Cuba is normal, but at this resort you could not escape it. You could smoke in many of the restaurants and it was overwhelming even outside at the beach we would have to move constantly to avoid constant cigarette smoke, you literally could not avoid it and my clothes came back smelling of stale cigarette smoke.
Also we noticed that the resort uses ice machines which means that the ice is likely made from the local water, we got extremely ill the last few days and I assume this is the reason.
Our trip improved when we upgraded to royal service but our experience was so poor and off-putting we will not be returning to a Paradisus resort (we have been multiple times before in many different locations) and will not be returning to Varadero and this is sad as we love the Cuban people and the staff other than customer service at this resort were lovely and accommodating.
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Date of stay: February 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Do the Royal Service, I wish I had done it from the beginning but we didn't listen to the review...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Director General Paradisus Princesa del Mar, General Manager at Paradisus Princesa Del Mar Resort & Spa
Responded Mar 26, 2024
Dear guest, thank you for communicating your impressions about the Resort. We appreciate every single opinion weather positive or negative because it is always a productive feedback. We may experience shortage but we always have different options of places and types of food so you can find something of your preference. This may also affect determined maintenance issues that we work to solve as soon as possible. The idea is to get better despite of these circumstances and work hard to provide the good service that has always been of priority in our Resort. Best regards.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
We aren’t smokers but it appeared that you could smoke on the outside terrace of the Mirimar Royal buffet and at the Energy Bar (24 hr lobby bar Royal side). Also appeared able to smoke in main lobby bar. There appeared to be a designated section of loungers for smokers on the Royal beach. There was an ashtray in the room. And of course there is the cigar bar.
There are more places to choose from in the Varadero area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
paradisus princesa del mar hotel varadero, paradisus princesa del mar resort and spa, paradisus princesa del mar resort & spa, paradisus princesa del mar varadero, paradisus princesa varadero, princesa del mar
LOCATION
CaribbeanCubaMatanzas ProvinceVaradero
NUMBER OF ROOMS
630
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
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