We returned on March 16 from a week’s stay, starting on March 9 at Superclubs Breezes Jibacoa (SBJ), traveling via Conquest Vacations. A little about us may help bring perspective to this review: Jenn and I are in our mid-twenties and were looking for a nice, clean and quiet place preferably with no kids. Jenn is a teacher, who desperately needed a tan and was tired of seeing children, and I really love Cuban cigars in addition to really wanting to see Cuba before Fidel and/or Raul die and things likely start to change. Because we needed to book for March break, we ruled out a last-minute trip and ended up paying (all-in with a Havana tour, taxes included) about $1800 per person. The resort was actually selected by Jenn with very little input other than ‘thumbs up’ from me, so exact reasons for selecting it are a bit of a mystery to me as I write this review.

To sum up the experience, I can honestly say that it was a great resort and I highly recommend it to people, couples especially, looking for a beautiful place in the sun for relaxation. The most fundamental criticism I can come up with in regard to this resort would be the service, but I will also admit to not being impressed by some of the food and some of the entertainment (though the entertainment staff was excellent). We also felt that the locking mechanisms on the doors were a potential fire hazard and should be looked into ASAP (I mention more about this below). I was really impressed with the cleanliness, its location, the patrons and our accommodation.

Before I go any further, I will say that we are already planning our next stay (and are hoping to one day be back for our 6th stay, which as you probably know, is free) so if you feel that this review is overly critical considering the rating I have given it, please take that into account. I read every single review on this site, and would like to thank all of the other reviewers, whether posting positively or negatively, in regards to this resort as they helped me a lot after we had booked. I will also apologize for the length of this review, but hope that someone finds it helpful. I will omit much of the descriptive information that many other reviewers left, as there were a few in particular that are more than adequate in providing you with a basic walk through of the resort.

Airport
With Skyservice (Conquest) our airport experiences were a breeze. They did tell us at Pearson that our baggage was overweight, and that it was OK on the way down, but they will charge you 10CUC for each extra KG on the way back. Have your return ticket available when you check in with security at the airport in Veradero. There is a money exchange kiosk in the same area that you pick up your bags. If you arrive at night and want to tip or buy anything, exchange some money at the airport as you can’t do it at the resort after 4:00 (I think). The exchange rate seemed fairly consistent across the country. For about $100 you got a little over 75CUC I strongly suggest you tell your traveling partner that it’s possible once you get to Cuba that you will be taking a cab, instead of a tour bus to the resort. If you are taking a cab (like we did) be prepared to be stopped on your way by the police. If you want, grab some beers from the people selling it in front of the airport. I did not, but I wished I did. The trip was about 45 minutes from Veradero to Jibacoa. You are not really in Veradero, so there isn’t much to see there, but the next town/city you get to is Mantazas. After Mantazas you enter into Havana province, where the resort is located. We tipped the driver 5CUC.
Check-in/Accommodation
The staff at check-in were quite cold and we took our own bags even though we were given the option to have someone take them for us. We were not allowed to sign up for the a la cart restaurants, but we did receive our cards. I also asked if we had a power converter in our room, which they said we did. Our room was 2136 that is on the second floor of building 5. Building 5 is a garden view building whose front door opens North (towards the beach, but is blocked by the beach front rooms) and the deck faces South, which is basically a view of the garden, further out the Rancheron/main resort building and behind that the beautiful hills of Jibacoa. Our room had a king size bed (as requested), and like all other rooms except with beachfront; we did not have a fridge. We both thought our room was fantastic and there is nothing to really complain about. Now here are the complaints. The single biggest one (and is probably the most imperative in this entire review) are the room locks. You need a key to unlock the door from the outside, and you need a key to unlock the door from the inside. One morning Jenn accidentally locked the door without shutting it and left, allowing entry of a small bird into the room. This caused me to scramble around trying to find my key in order to lock it again. The next day, Jenn accidentally took my keys to the beach with her and locked the door as she left. I had to call security to get me out as it’s too high to jump without risking injury (or in my case of pulling down the railing on the deck and scaring my neighbors below). Security couldn’t even get the door open (nor could the nearest housekeeping staff member for some reason) so I had to go through my neighbors place. One of the couples we met at SBJ told us that by continuing to turn your key from the inside of the room you will trigger a mechanism that allows the door to remain locked on the outside, and unlocked on the inside. Unfortunately our door must have been broken, or some rooms do not have this option. This is a giant fire hazard and should be looked into. The power converter is a little sketchy, I would suggest that you bring your own if you can. The plugs look the same as ours but they are running 220V. I used the converter to charge my iPod all week and never ran into a problem. The stereo is actually bolted into the bedside table, and had some volume issues (it was either barely audible or really blasting, with nothing in between). We could use our iPod FM transmitter with very little interference. The television is fine, the reception is not (a lot of the time). You periodically get an English sports channel, and get CNN International and Discovery Channel all of the time. There was also an HBO channel, but I couldn’t figure out which one. The back of the television has composite (the red, white and yellow) inputs/outputs. We ran our iPod through the TV with decent results. The safe was fine in our room, it wouldn’t open if you fiddled with it. I’m wondering if it was the safe, or the key/lock mechanism that was bad in some of the reviews as they are separate pieces (the key/lock mechanism fits into a slot in your safe. We did not have much of a smell in our room from the drain but we did bring candles/deodorizers (Jenn noticed it, I did not).

Money
Exchanging money in Cuba was not a hassle for us, but I did catch one of the ladies at the front desk shortchanging me. It was only .43CUC but it’s the principle. I would have gladly left that as a tip, but not having the option really got me mad. I did ask for a receipt at the time, and the next time I went she gave me all of my change and I didn’t need to ask for a receipt as she was already prepared to hand it over. While in Havana we went to the Hotel Inglaterra (Central Havana) for a drink and to use their bathroom. The staff at the front desk gladly exchanged money for us at the same rate (perhaps even a little better) as our resort, when asked. We did not bring traveler’s cheques and I don’t think I would the next time.

Drinking
I highly recommend bringing thermal cups, especially ones that are actually ‘thermal’ and preferably with a top. We had a lot of wind our week, so without a top sand was constantly blowing into it. I also recommend bringing standard ‘keg’ beer plastic cups. The resort cups are very small, and we felt that sitting under the lobby awning at night with a thermal mug looked weird, so we got great use out of our own disposable cups. Make sure you bring enough for the week, or reuse them as we did. If you reuse them, you should wash and hide them before you get room service as one of our maids washed them for us, and the next day when we had someone else, they were discarded. We brought dish soap down to wash everything with, and would again. My favourite place for Mohitos was at the lobby bar. My favorite place for the Spanish Coffee was upstairs in the piano bar with Hector. Overall my favourite drink was the Havana Special, which contains maraschino cherry liquor, white rum (lots) and pineapple juice. I drank a lot of Cristale beer, which I preferred over Buccaneero. I highly recommend asking for a ‘Naughty Cuban’ at the pool bar. It’s pretty much all alcohol mixed with chocolate and is fantastic. It seemed like it was a specialty at the pool bar, and only sporadically could you get them made anywhere else (once we had them at the lobby bar). Thanks to Gage, a great modification to this drink is a shot of espresso. I did feel that other than the front desk, we received the worst service consistently from the bartenders, especially at the lobby bar. Granted that they are working under circumstances that I would never want to truly understand what it’s like, the obligatory smile was all but absent and a head nod indicating who they would serve next was all of the communication I had with them most of the time. Considering how the non-front line staff goes out of their way to smile, say ‘hello’, ‘good morning’, ‘how was your day’ as you pass them, their downright rudeness or at least inattention was a striking contrast. There are always exceptions to this rule, and we received consistently superb service at the piano bar and at least service with a smile (though it was often slow) at the beach bar. Another major complaint I have about the bar is specific to the lobby bar (at night), although it happened at the pool bar during one of the shows as well. It seemed like every single night the staff ‘ran out’ of key ingredients to make some of their more popular drinks. If the bar staff was telling the truth, it is the manager’s responsibility to order materials for drinks, but it seemed like every night they ran out of mint (no Mohitos) or materials to make specialty coffees. I did not see many premium brands, specifically no Bombay Saphire, and by all accounts, the scotch was not good. They did have tomato juice and if requested would make a Bloody Mary/Caesar (no Clamato though). For anyone interested in re-charging their electrolytes with Gatorade or whatever, bring down your own dry crystals as you will not find a great substitute at the resort. We did not use ours (fortunately).

Beach
I highly recommend bringing some kind of pad for the beach chairs. They are really hard/uncomfortable. We brought yoga mats we bought at Wal-Mart for under $15. You will read it all over this site but I’ll mention it anyways, if you are interested in white sand, this is probably not the place for you. I will however disagree with the person who posted saying that they found bits of metal, glass and other debris all along the waterline. If they did, it was cleaned up by the time I got to SBJ. The beach is cleaned up every morning (or two) by a group of Cubans and an old tractor, so in terms of debris, it isn’t that bad. There are few (if any at all) tables for drinks at the beach but a few people brought the ones provided on the decks of their rooms. Our routine consisted of us getting to the beach between 8 and 8:30 and every day we had the same spot. I would strongly dissuade anyone interested in ‘reserving’ their seats early, as it is both unnecessary and an annoyance to anyone around you who was there all day and could see what you were doing. That being said there are lots of loungers and palapas available. Some of the palapas have tables built in them, but they are small and awkward to utilize while in a lounger (especially in the sun) and are in need of repair.

Snorkeling
I highly recommend bringing some of your own snorkeling gear. Obviously you’ll want to do so if you have any issues with well used/shared equipment, but those of you in this category have probably made your decision. But when you compare even the cheap Wal-Mart/Costco Body Glove or U.S. Divers sets for under $50 you’ll see that in just a straight ease-of-use battle, the resort’s equipment can’t even compete. These sets make snorkeling even in choppy conditions a piece of cake because of their drains, valves and guards. The fins at the resort are decent, but they run out quickly on green/yellow flag days and they need to be returned by 4:00. We unfortunately had 4 days of red flags 2 days of yellow and a green flag on the day we left. From the sounds of it, this is very rare for mid-March, although I heard from a couple people finishing 2-week stays as we arrived that it had been similar conditions for at least a week and a half. It was the jellyfish during the first 3 days that closed it, and just windy conditions for the next 3 days. They will let you out in the paddle boats during yellow flag conditions, but I don’t recommend going out to the outer reef (where you see the waves crashing against the coral) unless conditions are calm or you are a very confident swimmer. Jenn is a lifeguard, and a very strong swimmer but after getting a mouthful of water while on the resort-side of the outer reef, she looked up, just in time to be thrown on the coral giving her a large gash on her side. We both feel that that would have been less likely had she been using her own equipment, with modern upgrades like the wave guard. Our favourite place to swim was when we took out a paddleboat (follow the path that the catamarans take) and explored the reef on the ocean-side pretty much directly out from the beach bar. Please do not stand on the coral, and if you are driving the paddleboat, pay attention to where you are, because it is possible to run the boats up on the coral.

Food
I would agree with many of the previous posters who called the food for the most part ‘bland.’ Obviously this is purely opinion, but I thought I would include it anyways. Virtually everything was more than just edible-it just wasn’t great. Now that being said, we thoroughly enjoyed the omelet bar (which we skipped the first day and went straight to the buffet, a mistake we didn’t make again) and the beach bar. We had lunch at the beach bar every day, I stuck mostly to hamburgers (not because I didn’t want to explore other options, but because I thought they were really good) but Jenn tried the fish and the pizza, both of which she loved. Service there, specifically with Joel was the best at the resort (for us). We tried the a la carts and had mixed experiences at both meals. I strongly suggest going to both restaurants, if only for a bit of a change of pace. La Tabernara (Cuban) had a great shrimp cocktail and good spicy squid (calamari), good soup (choice of chicken noodle or farmers medley, which was just vegetable soup), bad salad (mine was cabbage with a papaya vinaigrette), edible main course (pork loin), and edible desert (strawberry shortcake). They actually didn’t have (or lost) our reservation but let us in anyways because we had our ticket. We also went to Martinos which had the best wine and the best atmosphere that you are likely to get on the resort. Although, I wasn’t too happy that they had a keyboard player, as it was a little cheesy. We found it to have fantastic service and good food. We both had the seafood platter to start, which was good, and then the tomato salad (tomatoes with a vinaigrette dressing and a piece of mozzarella cheese on top) that was also good. I found their tomatoes to be excellent the whole week. I believe we also had soup, but it doesn’t stand out in my mind. As the main course (which is served as pasta, and then main course) I had the spaghetti bolognaise which was great and the chicken supreme, which was overcooked. I skipped desert as I was too full but Jenn had the tiramisu, which she liked. They also served us great Spanish coffees and the best cappuccino that Jenn had at the resort. The rest of the nights we went to the buffet. My favourite night was Mexican night. I was not impressed with seafood night, the lobsters were pretty small (though the meat was great) and overcooked, and I couldn’t find any shrimp. At the suggestion of a few reviewers, I bought my wine at the Duty Free shop at Pearson (the selection isn’t that wide, but there are some good finds). I took two bottles down but only drank 1. The wine at the Rancheron is practically undrinkable, I tried two different nights to get an entire glass down, but ended up running for a beer each time. You’ve been warned. I also disagree with many of the previous posters who raved about the fresh fruit selection. Though different from the quality we often manage to procure in Canada, I thought it was quite bad by comparison. Perhaps the fruits that I was eating were not in season, but regardless, it did not do much for me. I couldn’t wait for the freshly squeezed orange juice, as that is easily my favourite thing in the entire world (that I know of) to consume. To me, it tasted like concentrate orange juice mixed with some (key word is some) freshly squeezed. Honestly, for me Tropicana is at least twice as authentic (and Tropicana is not what I would consider freshly squeezed orange juice). I know I’m spoiled, but I have a fruit store that squeezes orange juice for a reasonable price so I have it fairly often. All-in-all you could tell that they were trying, but much of the food was just not my cup of tea. Once again, we are planning to go back, so this in no way affected that decision. I was very well fed.

Entertainment
I thought the entertainment staff were fantastic, but I thought many of the shows at night could use some improving to make them more interesting (to me anyways). I did not participate in anything the whole week (not really my thing) and was never pressured to do so. The people who were interested in participating seemed to have an outlet many times a day, so if that’s your thing, you hopefully will not be disappointed. I also think that the ‘house band’ Akarey is great. Out of all of the music that I heard that week (except when the musicians on Cuba night did an introductory jam) it was the only ‘Cuban’ music that I really enjoyed. I enjoy Cuban music, especially the jazz that has been imported to Canada, and I came expecting a country filled with traditional rhythms and arrangements. But other than Akarey (who I think were only authentic in a ‘tourist’ kind of way) the resort seemed keen to use musicians that appealed more towards a western-pop music oriented crowd. Yes, it was funny to see guys in drag singing silly songs by Aqua or J-Lo or Beyonce or whoever, but humour doesn’t seem to translate as well as music does, for me anyways. I did laugh during the ‘King of the Whip’ show though. I would be quite happy to hear a different band from a different city every night. I would have been very happy for an Akarey set every night. Even on Cuba night we had a band from Mantanzas, who tore it up during their introduction, but as soon as their trio of singers (very talented) singing American influenced Cuban pop arrived they mellowed out and bored me to the point of leaving. I found it very watered down and unauthentic, especially as they predominantly sang songs in English. We also had two nights of participatory entertainment, which did nothing for me. I can understand the cost of having entertainment every night, so I doubt that will change. Management at the resort has obviously clued into the love that the patrons have for Akarey considering how they frequent the resort. I question why they assume that the tourists are looking for westernized music under the stars instead of something that would appeal to a Cuban crowd – but maybe I’m completely wrong, and what we got was authentic music that Cubans adore. Another example was on Mexican night. Though I was not expecting Mexicans, the band that they had (though great when they were playing) had an electric drum kit, and for almost half of the songs it was the synthesizer that played the music. The man singing was pretty good, but it just felt silly seeing a band standing behind him just hanging out instead of backing him up. Anyways, that’s my rant on entertainment. I really hope they improve it before I go back, or I’m heading into Havana a few nights (not that the resort will miss me.)

Day Trips
I was really looking forward to going on the scooter tours, but they filled up far too quickly for us to take advantage of them. We will have to get on that earlier. I will add that the trips are either morning (9-12 I think) or afternoon (2-5 I think). You don’t really have a choice on whether you do the trip in the afternoon or the morning if you also want to select the route, so I would just take whichever one you think will be interesting as soon as you see an opening. We arranged (through our Conquest rep) for a cab to pick us up from the resort at 12:30 for a trip to Havana. The cost remained the same if we took it at 9:00 am but the weather was so great we didn’t want to leave the beach. I would suggest a departure time closer to 1:00 as we ended up skipping lunch because we were worried that the cab wouldn’t hang out too long if we were no-shows. We also had pre-arranged for the $20CAD Havana tour offered by Conquest. They are non-refundable, and I didn’t talk to anyone about it that went with the tour operator. We will definitely get a cab again, but I suggest that either on the way into Havana or out of Havana you request a scenic route. Considering the roads we could have taken, it was a little boring to take the same highway both ways. Havana was awesome, we decided to only go for an afternoon to just get a taste as we already knew that we would have to spend at least a few days there in a row at some point. I wanted to see the Partagas factory, a tour that I highly recommend (both Jenn and myself really found it interesting). The tickets are purchased from a nearby hotel for 10CUC (and our driver took that task upon himself) and the tour lasts less than an hour. Make sure you check the tour-operating schedule because you don’t want to be disappointed. Jenn wanted to go to the market, which is in old Havana. Our cab driver dropped us off there and asked us how long we wanted to wander for, and we said 3 hours. He picked us up promptly at the same spot. The market was decent, the prices were better for the most part than the resort, although we are not big into souvenirs. The people of Havana were very courteous, and we were never really pestered for anything. We walked from the market through Cathetral square to central park and the capital building. We had lunch at the Hotel Inglaterra (oldest hotel in Havana) and skipped the catch-all Hemmingway locations, which I think deserve more attention than what we would give during our short tour. The walk from the market to the Central Park was less than 45 minutes. After having a quick drink and a sundae we went back to the market, where I bought a cigar holder (not a humidor) and Jenn bought some souvenirs for friends at home. Some friends of ours went on the Catamaran tour. They complained that swimming with the dolphins was too brief, but that the snorkeling and white sand beaches were really interesting. We heard from others that the Tropicana tour was great, but the day was far too long.

Tipping/Gifts
I am going to include another shout out to Not Just Tourists. some friends we met at SBJ participated in the program, that arranges for you to bring down a suitcase (or more) of medical supplies to be distributed to hospitals in need. I wish I had known that you don’t collect the supplies yourself, the organization just arranges for you to pick them up. Once you are in Cuba, you can arrange with your travel representative for a meeting at a local hospital where they take them from you and distribute them as needed. We also met a woman who had taken down an entire suitcase of school supplies that she later distributed to a local school. We tried to tip as much as we could (any change we were give went as tips) and at most meals we left something. As previously mentioned we tipped our cab driver $5CUC on our way to the resort, but we did the same for the other two cab rides we took, in addition to giving a bag of school supplies and assorted items to our driver that took us to Havana. Jenn left a pile of gifts for our maids (3 or 4 items per day) and I gave items to some of the gardeners and the doormen. I tipped from time to time at the bars, but definitely should have done so more. When I did tip, I didn’t find that my service improved, except once when I accidentally left a $10CUC tip and didn’t have to wait in line for drinks at the Pool bar. That incident led me to consider making large tips at the bars I frequented earlier in the trip, should I go again.

Cigars
I haven’t really seen a review about them on this site, and for me, it would have been helpful. I strongly suggest to anyone interested in buying cigars in Cuba to do your research (and do a lot of it) before you go down there. Researching cigars really just means visiting cigar shops, Internet sites etc. in Canada to become familiar with the shapes, brands, models, and most of all, prices. It is also helpful to familiarize yourself with the look of boxes and the various security/tampering measures they have in place. I took down a handbook I ordered called Perelman’s Pocket Cyclopedia of Havana Cigars (Third Edition). It is an invaluable source of information; specifically its charts show sizing/shapes of most of the models from all of the Cuban brands. There is enough space for the hard-core shopper to enter in pricing information for the cigars in Canada combined with ratings from your favorite review sources. Above all else, I suggest reading as much as you can about counterfeit cigars, as you are likely to be offered them.
Three incidents barred me from offering a complete rundown on pricing differences in Canada. I was unable to get to the adjacent resort as their security guard kept telling me that I couldn’t go to their resort. She didn’t speak English so I’m guessing it was a miscommunication. I also wasn’t able to spend as much time in the Casa del Habano Partagas as I would have liked because the store was too busy for browsing and I felt quite rushed during the ordeal. Finally, at the airport, I grabbed pricing wherever they were listed, but many were under lock and key in humidors – especially the better Montecristo’s.
In general, pricing for cigars in Cuba is better than the best prices that I could find for ‘real’ branded Cubans in Canada, but the mark-up in Canada doesn’t stay at a standard rate, and fluctuates between 1% and over 60% (per case) depending on the cigar. Most sit in the range of 14% - 30%. I used comparable data, virtually ignoring prices for individual cigars sold individually, and compared pricing on individual cigars sold by the box in both Canada and Cuba.
The biggest markups in Canada occurred on the least expensive cigars, typically in the under $4CAD range. Some examples would be Jose Piedra Brevas that sold for $1.25CAD at the resort and $3.45CAD in Canada or the H. Upmann Regalias that sold for $3.06CAD at the resort and $5.52CAD in Canada. The smaller markups in Canada occurred on the most expensive cigars, usually in the $10CAD and up range. For example, Cohiba Lanceros sold for $15.58CAD at the resort and $15.64CAD in Canada or my favourite, the Partagas Lusitanias that sold for $11.88CAD at the airport and $12.19CAD in Canada.
My advice is, find a good supplier in Canada and compare their prices to some of the ones that I have mentioned. The Internet usually provides some good possibilities (check out Lou’s). If the pricing (especially on the more expensive cigars) are close and you are willing to pay the tax up-charge, then it makes for a tough argument whether you buy in Cuba or just buy in Canada. Chances are you will not get a better deal in Cuba on boxes of cigars. This is especially true of the less expensive cigars that you can pick up for under $50 in Cuba will cost you almost double in Canada.
Individual cigars are a different story. Cuba is hands down the winner, and I’ll show a couple examples from the little smoke shop in the grocery store near my place of work. A Romeo y Julieta Chuchill will cost you around $30CAD whereas at the resort they charge about $12.30CAD. A Hoyo de Monterrey Petit Robusto (another favourite) will cost you around $18.75 in Canada or $5.88 at the resort. So if you are not looking for entire boxes of cigars, and are comparing pricing on individually sold cigars in Cuba and Canada, Cuba comes out as the winner.
I found that pricing is not consistent between the airport and the resort. None of the cigars I compared were cheaper at the airport, but a few were cheaper at the resort (Cohiba Robusto, Montecristo Especiales No. 1, Romeo y Julieta No. 1 and No. 2). There were a couple prices that were the same namely, Cohiba Siglo 1 for $6.5CAD and Cohiba Siglo V for $16.63CAD. Because I found so many price discrepancies (usually favouring the resort), at this time I don’t believe that pricing is universal across the country. Here’s a weird example of a different situation. The Cohiba Siglo V sold for $16.63CAD at the resort and at the airport but sold for $16.33CAD in Canada. If ‘Lou’s’ cigars are real, then you may even get a better deal on certain boxes of cigars in Canada. But buyer beware.
You are allowed to take 50 cigars back to Canada with you, in any manner that you choose according to our Customs rules. You are allowed to leave Cuba with 23 or less individual cigars without being accompanied by a receipt. A receipt involves your passport and a bit of paperwork, and it is required for every box (full or empty, as I was told anyways) of cigars. After that, there is almost no limit to what you can take out of the country.
SBJ’s shop is small, maybe only 15 by 15, a third of which is a humidor. The humidor was of poor construction; there was a humidifier in it, but certainly not the quality in the upper end Casa Del Habanos. It wasn’t sealed properly, and you could tell that in the event of a prolonged power outage, say, during a hurricane, that the cigars had the potential to dry out quickly or become exposed to too much moisture (or temperature variances). All of their boxed cigars are kept there. The individual cigars are kept on a small table near the window (no sunlight), but are exposed day and night to the room’s elements. There is a choice of between 10 and 15 individual cigars, nothing particularly noteworthy, but decent smokes nonetheless. Here’s a rundown of the individual cigars you could buy while I was there and the pricing (in CUC):
Cohiba Especiales (9.95), Cohiba Siglo II (6.95), Cohiba Siglo V (13.3), Cohiba Siglo I (5.2), Cohiba Siglo II (6.45), Cohiba Robustos (10.4), Romeo y Julieta Churchill (tubos) (10.7 or 9.7 for non-tubos) and the Punch Punch (8.3). They smoked very well, and didn’t appear to have dried out or were overly exposed to moisture.
They had probably 75 different cigar varieties and I took pricing down on every single box. Instead of listing them all, I will post a few of the more noteworthy cigars so that you can get a pretty good idea of cost in Cuba. The prices are based on the cost of an individual cigar (obviously) and are all in CAD.
Cohiba – Coronas Especiales (12.44), Robustos (17.83), Siglo V (16.63)
El Ray Del Mundo – Choix Supreme (6.19)
H. Upmann – Magnum 46 (7.56)
Hoyo De Monterrey – Petit Robusto (5.88)
Montecristo – A (24.94), Edmundo (8.38), Especial No. 1 (10.5), Especial No. 2(8.44)
Sancho Panza – Sanchos (16.88)
Vegas Robaina – Don Alejandro (12)
Their selection is good, but not great and is similar in variety to the one I found at the Veradero airport. You will find some of the lesser known names at the resort, but many of the boxes look like they have been there for a while (unfortunately I did not bother to check the manufacture dates on the bottom of the boxes). At the airport you will find catchall smokes (very few hard to find selections) and the stock looks like it turns often. Much of it is contained in very nice humidors, so I would be a lot more comfortable buying my cigars from them. The differences in prices are slight (or they match) but overall the prices at the resort are better. They are not better by enough to make me want to risk getting exposed cigars, though.
Now all of that is one route to go in Cuba. The more interesting route for you may be the black market. Much of the discussion on counterfeit cigars on the Internet focuses on ‘Cuban’ cigars purchased outside of Cuba, and likely produced outside of Cuba. While in Cuba, you can pretty much guarantee that what you are buying is in fact a Cuban, however, you may not be buying what you think (or hope) you are buying (which is, a Habanos brand cigar). Once again, do you own research on this, but the horror stories of buying dried grass in a banana leaf did not make me afraid enough not to partake. There are plenty of people able to roll at the level reserved for the cigar factories, and apparently many do that on the side while working. There are however very few devices on the island which allow the average Cuban to recreate all of the security measures put in place to counteract counterfeiting. Because of this, the materials are likely stolen straight from the factory making some of the tell-tale marks of counterfeit virtually non-existent. So you may buy something that looks like an expensive Cuban cigar but you may not know its authenticity until you actually smoke it. Good luck.
Ethical implications aside, buying cigars outside of government-approved routes is a risk, so do so with that in mind. The most important piece of information I took down with me is this: there are far less Cuban cigars produced in a year than there are people willing to pay whatever price is determined for their sale – so if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. There are also some major economic incentives for the average Cuban to sell you fake cigars, but don’t think you are doing them a favour. If you want sellers to find you, just be out of view of management (if you are at the resort) and make it obvious that you are interested in cigars – trust me, they will. Here are my 3 experiences:
At dinner on the first night at the resort, a staff member spoke to me in private, asking whether I’d be interested in buying cigars. After asking what they were I agreed as long as I could look at them first. She disappeared for a couple minutes and came back with a plastic bag, in it was a box of Cohiba Siglo III’s wrapped in the typical cigar factory white paper wrap. Jenn stayed at the table while I went back to our room to check them out. They had all of the correct packaging, stickers, seals etc. that would indicate authenticity and a relatively recent factory date. Once I broke the seals and slid the top off, the Cohiba logo stamped on the (balsa, I think) thin wood was a give-away that they may be real. The cigars were wrapped in a similar paper to what the box was wrapped in, except it was attached at the center of the box (to its opposite paper wrapping) with a Cohiba Siglo III sticker in all of its authentic glory. The cigars were tied up in yellow Cohiba ribbon (with the model name on its side) in a very nice bow. The cigars were all turned logo up and were all the same colour, length and gauge. The taste test pretty much confirmed that the $62.5CAD ($40CUC) was worth every penny. The cigars were authenticated in Canada at a store selling them for $40CAD each.
The cab driver that took us to Havana had a brother who worked at the Partagas factory, so sensing that I may be interested in buying some good cigars after our tour, he had some waiting for us in the cab. I was so excited to find a box of Cohiba Esplendidos waiting for me, that I failed to remember that I had a perfect Esplendidos example in Jenn’s purse. I went through all of the steps in the previous example, but never compared the one I knew was real to the ones I had just bought. Had I done that, I would recognize that there was a difference of about 1/16 of an inch in length and 1/6 of an inch difference in gauge. Unless you have a real eye for that (which you probably don’t), it’s difficult to know without having another cigar to compare it to, or without using measuring devices if what you have is authentic. Even more obvious than that, the cigar ring was about 1/8 of an inch lower (closer to the butt end) than any of the Cohiba’s I had already bought. As far as I know every single Cohiba cigar has its ring in the exact same position. They smoked well, but you could tell that they were not of the superior quality tobacco that I had been smoking during the week, since buying the Siglo III’s. I still don’t feel I threw my $100CAD down the drain though, as it’s impossible in Canada to find a $4 smoke at that quality and size. It just was definitely not a $600CAD box of cigars. I will add that my local tobacconist told me that they were real, and only doubted their authenticity when we compared it to a box of Esplendidos in his humidor.
After that experience, I went straight back to my ‘friend’ at the resort, who had by then gotten back to me about some other models that I was interested in. She managed to find H. Upmann Magnum 46’s but unfortunately they did not come in a box, so I had to go on visible give-away’s (shape, size, branding, colour) and taste. Every aspect of these cigars met my approval, but I have been unable to authenticate them in Canada as no one has received this year’s production run. For 30 cigars I paid $50CAD.
Bringing these through the airport was easy, although I was prepared for the worst. Friends we had met while away were gracious enough to take a load of cigars with them, and then mail them to me once in Canada. That way each of us took back around 23 (or less) cigars each, therefore staying within the limit for individual cigars obtained without a government receipt. During check-in I asked our ticket agent whether we should keep the cigars on us, or place them in our checked luggage, and he suggested we check them. I was never asked how many cigars, or anything like that. But when I picked up my bag in Toronto, you could tell that it had been searched through (or every one of my zippers mysteriously opened at the same time). It’s possible we had it easy because it was prime traveling time, but I can’t be sure.

Checkout/Airport
Checkout was noon (I think) but since we had to leave at around 4:30 for our cab drive back to the airport (our Conquest rep told us about that earlier in the week) we decided to try to get a full day on the beach and checked out at 9:00. We were told just to leave our bags next to the front desk, which we were hesitant to do (no room was provided for our luggage) but despite other guests coming and going all day our bags were in the same spot when we got ready to leave. We also didn’t have the opportunity to use the courtesy room as another couple we met graciously lent us their shower, which was all we needed. We arrived at the airport about 3.5 hours ahead of time and made it through customs (after paying our 25CUC departure fee) in less than 45 minutes. Beers were 2.5CUC and water was under 2CUC. We spent our last 10CUC this way. Apparently there were no seats in the girls bathrooms, so if you need one to go to the bathroom, I might suggest going before you leave the resort.

All in all we had a wonderful time with Gage, Victoria, Emery, Charlene, Tom and everyone else we met. We are already saving our pennies for our next visit to SBJ and hope that we find it as wonderful our second time as we did on our first.