We stayed at the Cameleon Villas Jibacoa from March 20th to the 27th, 2008 thru Transat.
The flight from Halifax was fine. We ran into a slight problem at the Varadero airport but this does not reflect onto the Cameleon. My husband was pulled aside and taken into a room, asked a few questions, had to open his luggage, and they looked thru it a bit. I was already outside the airport and was a bit worried, but he said it was no big deal. He didnt have anything to hide so he was not nervous. He said that the lady that looked thru his suitcase was very nice but did not speak English, so it was brief. She held up his dental floss and asked what it was. We figure it is because he has a dark complection, (could pass for Cuban) and another guy that was checked also was even darker. I am only telling you this so if it happens to you, do not freak out. If you are not hiding anything, you have nothing to worry about. They probably check a few people on each flight. This was our 3rd trip into the Varadero airport and this is the first time anything has happened.
We arrived at the Cameleon around noon time. Our room was not ready, so we got a drink at the lobby bar, changed our clothes in the bathroom and went on the beach. Went to lunch at 1pm and by then our room was ready.
Room 12. (not round roof) We had never stayed at a 3 star before, but the room was fine. Large shower, no tub. Liked the fridge in the room, very handy. All week the room was kept clean. We asked for 2 extra pillows a few days in and received them the same day. Air conditioning worked good and not noisy. Bed was comfy, 2 extra blankets in the closet. Maid even folded our clothes that we left on the chair. We left gifts daily for the maid, (we had 2 different ones during our stay) Had various towel art daily. The only complaint and no biggie, was it was too bad there was no screen on the patio door. We left the room door open alot and misquitos get in the room, but we did not get even one bite by anything during our stay. But other people did, I believe by misquitos. They must not have liked our smell,lol.
Beach was great. If you want the Varadero beach, do not go to Jibacoa. It is very different. Bring water shoes and snorkling equipment. My husband cannot swim and even he is hooked on snorkling now. The fish are amazing. You can borrow snorkles etc from the resort and he used these, I had my own. They had life jackets hanging by the catamaran, peddleboats, you could use. We were able to snorkle 5 out of 8 days. The other 3 days were red flag. Very rough waves. I only saw 2 jelly fish on the beach on one of these days, but I wasn`t patrolling looking all day for them. Never saw any in the water. The beach was very large with lots of space and chairs, lots of shade. I walked over to the Breezes beach and it was a red flag day, so hardly anyone was on the beach, but the chairs were out and very crowded together.
The food at the buffet was good. Not a huge selection, but I could identify everything and ate most everything. Did not like the pizza at all. They had a bottle of Tabasco out most days and I used that quite a bit. The food was a bit repetitive, but I think I gained a few pounds actually. They had ketchup and mustard, jams, syrup, oil vinigar dressings. Ice cream was only at lunch. They had a big dinner on Easter with roast of pork, roast turkey, delicious chocolate cake. There were hotdogs and pannini ham and cheese sandwiches at the pool bar available from about noon to suppertime. Lunch starts at 1pm and supper 7pm. I think breakfast started at 7am or so. Best time to eat was right when they opened. There is only one a la carte, we did not bother booking it. There are a bunch of cats that hang out in front of the buffet, which are cute, one is always up on the roof. They were around the resort, here and there. They did not bother anyone that I could see. They were friendly but no one really would get close enough to pat them.
The front desk staff were excellent. I believe if you treat someone as you want to be treated then they will do the same. They were really nice and friendly, and accomadated your requests. One girl actually gave me a nice bracelet when I checked out, and she also came out to the bus to say goodbye. I would rate the staff at this resort as 5 star all the way. I had several hugs and cheek kisses the day we were leaving from different bartenders and staff. . The staff and fellow travellers were a very fine bunch. Being a smaller resort you get to know everyone. The bartenders, especially at the lobbey bar are the best I have seen, the drinks are picture perfect. With the sprinkles, fruit etc. The spanish coffees are to die for, very time consuming, perfectly made, even when Ruddy had to make probably dozens in an evening, each one was perfectly layered. I tried to make an effort to use my very limited spanish, I had brought a tiny Spanish English book called Fast Talk from Lonely Planet and you could tell they really appreciated my efforts. One bartender Luis has quite the dry sense of humour and he would make me use Spanish to order and help me out with the pronunciation. We tipped sporadically, sometimes we didn`t have any cuc on us, but generally I would say we spent about $10cuc a day. We gave out gifts to workers we had met and they truly appreciated it.
The grounds were lovely, lots of space, not crowded at all even tho the resort was full. Lots of birds singing, flowering shrubs etc. Only saw 1 lizard and 1 gecko. Saw 1 crab on the beach.
Pool was great, quite deep on one side for swimming, very clean, with a great view of the ocean.
Entertainment, was late afternoon around the pool. You could join in if you wanted. We only went to the evening entertainment once, it was ok, and stayed a little bit after for the disco. Others went every night and to the disco. It varied on how late it stayed open, depending on how many people were there. No later than 2am. Sometimes 11pm. The only drawback to this resort was the loud music from the disco, it could be heard quite a ways away. We were in 12 so it was not so bad, but anyone in a room behind the disco must have beeen irritated. Alot of people asked to be moved and I believe they were accomadated if at all possible.
We went on an organized hike to the top of the mountain above Breezes. The view was worth the climb, tho I thought I was going to pass out when I got to the top. Wear sneakers for sure. The hike comes out in a farm yard and then down the road back to the resort. I had wished I had brought some things with me for the locals (gifts) so the next two days we took a walk back up the road in the mornings and gave some things out. The asked for soap, clothes, shampoo. We gave out treat bags of candy to the children among other things. We met a very nice family and they invited us into their house. Everyone was very gracious and friendly. I found this area very different from Varadero. Lots of cows, horses, pigs, roosters, goats on the side of the road.
We rented a cab and driver for 6 hours for $90.00cuc and went to Havana. You could have up to 4 persons in the car. Orlando was really great, spoke English. We have been to Havana before so we knew what to expect. We liked this better than the bus tour. The 4 of us gave a huge tip $20cuc as the taxi driver did an excellent job. We found a pub to eat in, O Reillys, which was in no way Irish, and really the food stank, but it was cheap. As soon as we left about a block up we spotted the restaurant we had planned on eating in La Dominica. Oh well next time.
It was a lovely week and I would certainly go to this resort again. The price was good and the people the best.