My wife, in-laws and our two boys (5 and 2) spent a week here and loved it. The accommodations are clean and the staff are friendly. The units are small detached villas with tiled patios to sit out on. The beach is great (can be rough when the wind kicks up) with easy access to good snorkeling and diving. Great pool area for kids. Dinners are late for young children so bring snacks and eat big ate lunches to get them thru. We preferred this to a high rise type building on the Varadero strip - mostly families and older couples so very quiet. The surrounding area is rural and lends itself to nice walks/hikes etc. Only an hour ride from Old Havana which is worth a few hours of exploring. Food - well, now I know what everyone meant when they said "You don't go to Cuba for the food"! Overall we would stay there again based on our experience but won't likely because we'd like to see other parts of the country.

For those of you interested in staying at Cameleon Villas Jibacoa, I strongly urge you to go, I promise you wont be disapointed. Theres a lot of reviews that have in-depth detail but I'll try to cover some things that I learned that will be useful to future travelers.

-The rooms are all free standing, brightly coloured and very clean. Air conditioning lets you escape from the heat (ours broke but was fixed within hours) Theres no seal on the bottom of the door, so dont be surprised if you see a few bugs. There ants are tiny and if you bring flowers in your room you'll be sure to find them covered in ants. Bring Raid if your sketched out by them.

-I highly reccomend bringing a few gifts to give away to your new friends. They really like items for children (marbles, hair ties, toy cars, checkers, frisbees, skipping ropes, dolls, hackey sac, baseball) toiletries, as well as clothes. Someone will probably ask you for your hat (i was asked 3x a day) They loves baseball caps.

-We found Cuba to be a very safe place. I left my stuff unattended on the beach all the time with money, ipod ect in my bag and never once was anything missing. I learned my lesson though, dont leave anything on your front step at night. We had our snorkel gear and flip flops taken under the mask of night.

-The best way to pay for things is cash. Canadian/Euro currency is best as American money is charged an exchange levy. You will need to exchange your money into Convertable pesos and can do that at either the airport or hotel. I was told that the exchange rate was dollar for dollar, but that is incorrect. It's something like 80 cents to your dollar, so you loose out a bit but everything is so cheap it's not a total ripoff. Any credit cards used cannot be affiliated with an American company ei: Capitol One, American Express ect as they wont accept it. Canadian/European cards are fine but they charge you %10.

-Be aware that they will NOT accept any ripped bills. I tried to convert my last 20 dollar Canadian bill at the front desk and they told me the Cuban Bank will not take ripped bills and therefore wouldn't let me exchange it.

-Tips are only useful to staff in cuban pesos/gifts. LOONIES AND TOONIES ARE WORTHLESS TO THEM. Please dont tip them with Candian coins. Cuban banks only accept BILLS in other currencies. We had the bartenders asking if we could switch the TOONIES for pesos because they had no use for them.

-Unlike other resorts, the staff are allowed to mingle and make friends with the guests. The bartenders will have a drink with you, the entertainers after the show will sit down with you and talk about Cuban life, the groundsmen will stop you on your walk to give you flowers. These people are so friendly. Bring gifts for them and they will be grately appreciated. Even something simple as bringing water and a sandwhich to the security gaurds on the beach, "buying" rounds of beer for the dancers, leaving clothes and toiletries for the hosekeeping.

-Have an open mind when you are there. The food is not amazing, but it fills your belly and they work so hard for you.The beach is not the flawless white beaches of Veradero but is beautiful and #1 for snorkeling.

-I highly reccomend going on the hiking tour. Its a free, morning walk up the nearby mountain with Torres or Yosmany. The hike itself is only about 10 minutes from bottom to top, bring water, running shoes arent totally nessisary as I did it both times in flip flops no problem. The view is worth it! (photo #2) You then walk to the famers house where they greet you with sugar cane and coconut. It's a great cultural experiance. We brought them gifts and were greatly appreciated

-Bring a banana or two when you go snorkeling and you'll be sure for an amazing show. The fish arent shy. Bring an underwater camera!!

-Bring your own cup (plastic, travel mug, ect) as the ones at the bar areTINY and will reduce trash greatly.

-The worst part is saying goodbye. It was truely the most amazing week of my life and cried as the bus pulled away. I hope you have a great time as well.

My GF and I stayed here in late April 2008, again I won't repeat what others have said, they are all true. This is a great place to relax if that is what your looking for. It has the feel of a small intimate resort where you get to know everyone. It is not 5 star quality but they are renovating slowly with what little they have and the new renovations look awesome (they do renovations every fall).

Tips:

Take the taxi to Havana, its $90CUC for up to 4 people and it a way better value than the package tour ($51CUC per person)

Bring gifts for EVERYONE, the security guards (6 watching the resort) get forgotten alot and get paid very little.

Book the ALA Carte, they really try hard and you have 2 servers and a personal chef for around 5-6 tables max. We really enjoyed it. Its a 4 course meal.

Book a massage, $10CUC for 30 min, $25CUC for Full Hour. He is a registered massage therapist, this is almost a steal. He is amazing according to my GF.

Treat everyone with respect and you will get it back ten-fold.
The bartenders and animation staff work 17 hour days, one day on one day off, but they usually end up working 4-5 days straight. I have never seen harder working people at any resort that still care at Midnight the same as they cared at 10am. They have to show up early to make sure the pool area is clean and clean it up after the bar closes.

All in all, if you dont go in with an attitude you will have a great relaxing vacation.

Stayed for 5 nights late April 2008. Resort experience mirrored the many reviews here. Very good value, would go back tomorrow. One major complaint: impossible to escape the music thumping until 0130 every morning (and the same bad songs every night). Take earplugs.

Rooms: clean, functional. A/C, minifridge. Note that you should not keep any open food or beverage containers in the room (even if emptied), as the many tiny ants will find it.

Beds: king-sized, hard mattress with springs palpable.

Food: functional. Breakfast omlette was good, especially after adding bacon and cheese (not at omlette station). Fresh OJ was excellent, but disappeared after Day 3. Lunch and dinner was variable, could usually find something palatable. Would recommend showing up early for meals, not everything was replaced. As well, at the cook station ask for fresh-cooked items, as the pre-cooked fish or pork was typically way overdone and dry. No GI issues encountered, and I did eat fresh vegs.

Drinks: weak, variable quality. Recommend bringing your own (large-ish) travelmug, to cut down on trips to the bar. Some bartenders made tastier drinks than others. Spanish coffee (highlighted in many of the photos) was uniformly excellent (and strong). Coffee was in general very good (some variability). Beer was refreshing if weak. As a test, banged back 4 glasses in about 10 minutes to no/zero/zip effect. No swim-up bar (I consider this a good thing, for one obvious reason).

Beach: very good. Excellent snorkelling just off the beach (saw a puffer fish less than 8 feet from shore)! Reef goes on forever. Please remember not to touch the coral, it is very very fragile and I would like it to still be there when I go back. Provided equipment is passable, if you don't know how to snorkel just ask at the dive shop. No jellies when we were there.

Activities: okay, but are not really my thing. Walk up the hill was good, with short visit to small farm. Amazing small banasas served up, better than any other I have ever tasted. Havana excursion was just okay, would instead recommend renting a taxi and seeing the city that way. Guide has a script he has to follow.

Resort grounds: large, clean, colourful. Keep an eye out for smallish holes in the grass near the pool, they hold land crabs (how cool is that?)! Decent if uninspired pool area.

Staff: excellent. Well, front desk was not always perfect.

Safety: no issues. Small lock-box in room if you want for passport etc.