I have just read the various reviews of SBJ and feel the need to add my comments, albeit a few months late. We are well travelled and chose SBJ for our family vacation and 5th trip to Cuba. We have travelled to all-inclusives and have cruised extensively. We travelled with our 3 teens (as the resort is 14+) who had a marvellous time. The staff at the hotel are friendly and willing to serve. The grounds, rooms and stores are pristine and the entertainment is adequate. There were not too many teens at the resort so the Disco was not that well utilized. It also did not open until around 11:00 - 11:30 p.m. The food was the best we have ever had "in CUBA". There was always something to choose from at every meal. The specialty restaurants were o.k. with the Italian far surpassing the Cuban (too salty!!!). We would not eat there again. Beach, beach bar and restaurant get top marks and so does the activities staff. We also lucked out and paid a bargain price to go there and are planning on going back in July again. My husband and his friend are going back on May 5th. We never felt the need to be constantly tipping, as one reviewer suggests, but tips are always appreciated in such countries. We also brought gifts. Lastly, there is horseback riding and mopeds (very cheap) and scuba offered. Finally, as for the coffee - the best coffee is at the 24 hr lobby bar. Capuccino is always available and very tasty. If you're going, ENJOY!

Just returned form Breezes Jibcoa April 1 to the 8th,
What a great resort. Good food and lots of it, clean rooms (building 2 room 1114 close to the ocean), very friendly staff. Great beach bar ( spent a lot of time there) I would go back there anytime.

We went to Jibacoa with 22 of our friends and family to get married in February of this year! We had heard from our travel agent that Jibacoa was one of the most beautiful places in Cuba to get married and we weren't disappointed. The resort was spectacular - from the lobby all the way down to the beach! The Wedding:
We were happy enough with our choice of a wedding destination and were really happy that the ceremony was super quick, but we do have a few warnings for other couples who are thinking about getting hitched at Jibacoa. Firstly, the wedding coordinator was really wonderful and she did everything in her power to accommodate our requests, but we still ran into a few glitches with the wedding.
First, Jibacoa's policy is to hold a dinner for the wedding party and guests in one of the restaurants on the wedding day. We got married on the Thursday that turned out to be the Seafood Buffet night - something we did not want to miss. So, from the beginning, we told the coordinator that we didn't care about having a wedding dinner in the restaurant because everyone wanted to go to the buffet for dinner. The only request we had was that we could move a few tables together so all of our friends and family could sit together. The coordinator wouldn't allow us to do this, but she never really gave us an explanation as to why she wouldn't allow it, she just said it was against their policy. We went to the buffet anyway and enjoyed the delicious seafood spread, even though not all of us were able to sit together. The coordinator did make up for this, however, because she made a reservation for all 22 of us at the Italian restaurant on the last night that we were there. The food was amazing - although there was a lot of it and we were all stuffed full by the end of it.
The second glitch was with the hairdresser. The wedding coordinator told us at the beginning of the week that she didn't collect the money for the hairdresser - we would just deal with him directly on the wedding day. On the wedding day, we had six ladies who wanted their hair done and, at the beginning, before the hairdresser had touched anyone's hair, I offered him eighty convertible pesos for all of us. He said yes, "no problem", and then he started. After he spent two and a half hours doing all of our hairdos (three of which were, by general consensus, not very attractive at all - he made my aunt look like she had a pineapple on top of her head with a rooster tail sticking up), I handed him the 80 CUC's and another 20 CUC's as a tip (even though he was a tad hostile and slightly rude when one of the ladies said she didn't like her hairdo and asked him to do it a different way). He told us that we owed him $215 CUC's and that the 100 that I'd given him wasn't enough. He said that none of the 100 CUC's I gave him went to him and that it all went to the resort. When I mentioned to him that the wedding coordinator had already told us that the money went directly to him and offered to call her and bring her to the room to deal with the situation, he completely changed his tune and said that 100 CUC's was "more than fair". So, be careful when dealing with him because he may try to overcharge you as well. I wouldn't have been upset about it at all and would have paid him the $215 CUC's without thinking if he had not agreed to the 80 CUC's at the beginning and if he wouldn't have been so upset when all of his hairdos weren't met with applause. We all felt that he was really trying to take advantage of us and I feel it is necessary to warn the next people about him.
The third glitch, and the one we were most upset about, was the photographer. When we sat down in the wedding coordinator's office and looked at all of the pictures on her wall of previous weddings, we thought the pictures were nice. However, the photographer, despite the claim that she had done 80 weddings already, seemed not only amateurish, but also at a loss for ideas for original pictures. We had to give her ideas for pictures and she was constantly making us squint into the sunshine. When we got the pictures back, I nearly cried. Many of them had us squinting and, of course, not looking our best. Others had us half in sun, half in shadow and, worst of all, nearly every picture had a line about one inch wide down the right side that looked like water or dirt spots. Her lens was either dirty or it has permanent marks on it. Out of the 72 pictures she took, there were two pictures that were all right to use. It is lucky for us that I am very adept at using Photoshop because I took those pictures and spent an hour on each to make them look much better. We were also fortunate that all of our friends and family had their digitals with them because we got a few really nice digital pics as well. The photographer only printed off 40 pictures for us, so it wasn't until we got home and I got all of the pictures developed that we realized that every picture had a problem. My advice to those of you is to forget about hiring a photographer and just ask someone to follow you around the resort and on the beach and stop to take pictures wherever you find pretty spots. You will be much more likely to capture good shots that way than to pay for someone to take below par pics - pics that are supposed to last a lifetime as memories of your special day.

The excursions and other stuff:
Aside from the wedding glitches, we had an awesome vacation. I definitely recommend taking a few scooter tours - Javier is a fun scooter guide - he cracks jokes the whole time, but is also very informative and easy to get along with. Adrian is also very good, but he is less of a comedian and more of a history expert.
We did three scooter tours and enjoyed them all.

The environmental jeep safari is also a lot of fun. The two guides, Mike and Ariel, are easy going and informative and they try to make the excursion as fun as possible. They take you to an underground cavern that is 80 metres deep, to an old coffee plantation, snorkeling at a popular ocean spot and also in a fresh-water underground cave (probably the coolest thing we'd ever seen) and through the Matanzas city and countryside.

My husband and a large part of our group also went to Havana for the day and everyone enjoyed the old buildings and many other interesting sites to see along the way.

We didn't do any other big excursions, but we managed to go Kayaking, Peddle boating, snorkeling and catamaraning during the week we were there. The snorkeling was phenomenal. You could walk into the water up to your knees and see fish swimming around all over the place. If you swam out a bit farther to the reef, you could lie on top of the water and the fish would all come and swim in a circle around you. I watched a Barracuda for about 10 minutes and it actually swam right by my face twice just getting a look at me. If the green flag was up, we were in the water as much as possible. However, watch out for the jellyfish during that time of year (I hear they are not as bothersome in the summer months as they are in the winter). If the yellow or red flags are up, stay out of the water. You can't see them because they float on the surface and their tentacles drag along behind them in the water. A man we met from Ontario was out snorkeling one morning and the yellow flag went up while he was in the water, so he decided to get out. He was stung by a Man O'War as he was standing up to get out of the water - all across his back and shoulders. He said it was the most intense pain he had ever felt in his life - for about an hour until the shot of Benadryl and Demerol the doctor gave him had kicked in!!!

The food was really good too. The poached eggs in the morning were delicious and the U-make omelets were incredible. Seafood night was the best!

The best part of the trip, I thought, wasn't the wedding or the excursions - it was spending time with our friends and family in one of the most beautiful places we'd ever seen....of course, the beach bar was a nice touch too!

Well, where to start. Without repeating everyone elses comments, I will give my 'travel agent' views.

As a travel agent with 20 years I have been to a few places and have escorted a few groups. This resort is great. It is the first time that no one in the group complained about their rooms. The rooms were all spotless and well cared for. We never had to ask for towels, coffee, nothing. Whatever was needed was quietly replaced. I do love the 'if you want to use your towel again, hang it up' system. I totally agree that no one needs a clean towel everyday or the linens changed everyday, maybe that is why the rooms get prepared so quickly.

The staff is super, everyone speaks to you, the gardeners, painters, everyone. Remember that tourism is their main business and they have worked hard to get to be employed at the resort so please respect their hard work. They all appreciate gifts and we found that if you talked to them and found out they had children, a gift for that child meant alot.

You will never go hungry here. I think the most important thing to do with the buffet is, before you grab a plate and start loading it up, walk around and see what there is then figure out what you want that day. Some of the food was bland and not cooked in any spices, but I think a little hot sauce next year will fix that up. The a la cart restaurants are worth the hassle to get to, book these ASAP. Also, we had a couple of people who took a chance and went to the Cuban restaurant just to see if they could get in and they were allowed. I don't recommend doing it a lot, but it can work for 2 people. The beach grill was great. The grilled fish is so good, that I had it twice (would have had it 3 times but Russ ate it). The burgers were to die for. I think everyone has decided that cucumbers on a burger are the way to go now.

The beach and pool speak for themselves. There is an over abundance of loungers. Beware though, if you leave things behind they will go missing. I do believe though that it is other visitors and not staff who take these.

The tours are very reasonable. The cost of the all day Havana tour with Tropicana show 125CUC was worth every penny. It included lunch and dinner, the tour and the show. If you just did the show it would be 60CUC and that would be without the transportation in to Havana.

I did not do the swimming with the dolphins but everyone who did said it was awesome. The cost was 75CUC and included lunch and beverages. It costs more then double that at most places.

We were a large group and when you travel with a large group the concern is that you take over and ostracize other people, but we are the types that welcome everyone in to our crazy group with open arms.

Thanks to everyone who made our vacation what it was and I look forward to returning and bringing lots more people too.

If you want to contact me directly cj_rugbymom@hotmail.com

Cathy