When I first started looking, you could get a an all-inclusive 7-day package for $200. I hesitated for a week and ended up paying $300. That's still pretty cheap! I would not pay more than that.

I read the reviews on Trip Advisor and they diverged wildly from ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE to I HAD A WONDERFUL TIME. I wondered how people could have such totally different experiences, and figured it was a question of different expectations, different standards and different holiday goals.

I figured that if I went expecting an absolute hellhole, food poisoning, hookers and hustlers everywhere, no shuttle service and watered down drinks - basically my worst nightmare, that at worst I would not be disappointed. I was going alone and wanted to spend all of my time in Havana, so as long as the beach was nice I didn't care so much about the resort. As a touring musician, I've stayed in some motels that would curdle your blood so I felt prepared.

My flight down on Air Transat was good, but incredibly cramped - as I suppose most planes are these days. When I got to the Varadero airport everything was very fast and smooth, which was a pleasant surprise after my previous experience in Holguin. There was just me and one other guy taking a shuttle to Playa Del Este and so they put us in a small cab. It took longer than I expected but was a peaceful ride.

After a good check-in experience, where I was offered a key to the room safe at no charge I headed up to my fourth floor room. It was as I expected not especially nice but not terrifying either - no crazy spiders, cockroaches, etc - just some ants but they looked harmless enough.

I checked for bedbugs and was nervous that I had found them ( I've never seen them so.. ) but after 7 days in the room I had no problems so clearly I was wrong. But that first nights sleep was pretty edgy.

Anyway, the room was nothing fancy - small beds that turned out to actually be more comfortable for my back than my brand new $700 Sealy at home. But no fitted sheets - this was my major complaint - every morning you wake up with the sheets all asunder.

There was a tiny little tv but it had a working remote control and they got HBO and a few other American channels which I enjoyed on the few nights that I came home early enough to bother turning on the tv.

The electricity all worked fine - lots of lights everywhere and no troubles. The air conditioning wasn't great - in terms of noise and not especially cool air, but air conditioning wasn't ultra necessary when I was there so no trouble. One problem was that the area around the air conditioner was not well sealed and so when we had a mini hurricane I had flooding.

My shower was fine - no trouble whatsoever with hot water. Although the shower was no longer mounted on the wall - I assume it had been originally. It was ok - I just held it and that did the trick. You ought to bring some nice toiletry stuff - they provide some soap and shampoos but they don't look super appealing. I was glad to have brought a bar of English Lavender for the shower.

I threw my stuff in the closet which in theory locks but due to age or poor design you could just pull it open anyway. I had no problems as far as I know anyway. I carried my valuables in a money belt most of the time anyway.

After checking out my room I sussed out the hotel - it was a pretty dead scene - all older single men chatting with each other in the 24-hour bar and the "disco" was deader than a doornail . I had no desire to get involved in that "sausage party" - being a lone wolf anyway - so I just grabbed a shot of low-end rum - Havana Club was conspicuously absent from the bar, as was coke and beer etc - and he had soft drink machines filled with scary looking mixes for what I assumed were eg daiquiri and etc.

So I just took straight rum and headed for the really pleasant quiet patio outdoors with palm trees and lots of adorable little birds in cages.

The next morning I didn't even bother with the Tropicoco breakfast - it looked scary. I headed for the beach and it was heavenly. I didn't experience the whole hooker/hustler thing at all. Just endless beautiful beach, gorgeous water and palm trees. Heaven! Although as you walk away from the resort a fair distance the beach is a bit unkempt in places with a dead goat/dog in one spot and some glass and garbage littering the beach in other spots. No big deal.

After a few hours I grabbed a cab into Havana for $15. Always check in Havana that the price will be $15. They will try to charge $20, you can just tell them $15 then walk away when they won't do it - they'll chase after you and say ok ok.

So I basically just used Tropicoco as a bed at night and an amazing beach in the mornings, then had a great time checking out Havana. On my last day I ate breakfast in the cafeteria - I watched the girl peeling fruit before my eyes so I knew it was fresh, and the grapefruit juice was killer diller! The bread was stale-ish but the cheese was great. The espresso rocked my world - one of the best shots I've ever had! I checkout out the dingy a la carte in the basement for lunch - the pizza was ok but the grilled chicken was ghastly and I felt bad a chicken had to die to make that atrocity. I couldn't eat it and just ran out after leaving a little tip for the waiter. I coudn't believe how long it took to make such a lacklustre meal!

There was an old man with an INCREDIBLY HOT girl (hooker!?) who looked like she could have been VERY underage. I was kinda creeped out especially because there was no discretion - he was fawning all over her in a pretty crude manner - otherwise I would MAYBE have assumed it was his daughter or granddaughter. So I guess there is that element of old men and hookers that the other reviewers speak of but because I didn't spend so much time around the resort I didn't really notice it.

Around the resort there are some restaurants and bars and you can walk to the town of Guanaboa.

For the shuttle back they were two hours late and I had to call to get things rolling. The taxi driver was incredibly slow getting us there and I ended up losing one of my suitcases when I got to Montreal. It's been three days now and it still has not showed up. If at all possible, just bring a carry on to avoid this kind of hassle.

So for me Tropicoco was a pretty great time - I came expecting the worst but I knew that I had barely even paid for my airfare let alone 7 days in a resort so I was actually pleasantly surprised. If you just want a place to lay your head - can tolerate some minor/major problems and roll with it and you want the best of both worlds - a great beach and checking out Havana - then you may be actually pleasantly surprised by your vacation at the Tropicoco.

But for a romantic couple or a family, for older couples etc that have high standards and don't have experience with sketchy places who are looking for a "Cuban 5-star beach resort" where they are just going to hang around the resort, drink the drinks, eat the food, stay in the lobby, enjoy their room, and enjoy the nightlife - then AVOID AT ALL COSTS. THIS WILL BE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE AND A LIVING HELL. But for younger people with high tolerance for unpredictable situations - you can get a great bargain and have an AWESOME TIME. And if you totally can't deal with the Tropicoco - if you spent as little as I did then you could even just stay at a nice casa particular in Havana for not much more - if not less - than a cab ride to Havana and back!

Where to start?

Much of the nightmare has been repressed but I'll try to convey what I can.

Firstly, the food! OK, I realize it is a two star resort and I also realize that Cuba is not known for quality food, but are you kidding me? They serve what amounts to be warm "KoolAid" or "Tang" most mornings instead of orange juice. The bread is stale much of the time, the short handle tongs for the butter fall into the bowl so you have to fish through the butter other people are going to use with your fingers to fish it back out to use it (gross!). Fruit fly infested rotting fruit. The uneaten breakfast and lunch food is recycled and used in the dinner buffet. I witnessed buffet serving staff handle money that they get for tips, and then pick food off of the utencils they serve your food to you with, they proceed to put this food in their mouths, no plastic or latex gloves in site or even hand sanitizer for them to use, AGAIN (GROSS!!!). No toaster, toast is made on the grill and turned by unwashed hands. What passes for wine is disgusting. Plates and cups were not washed properly. Always a shortage of napkins and salt and pepper shakers, you will have to go hunting for these. On the plus side, the a la carte restaurant is not too bad.

The bar service, well if you like beer you are out of luck after 10pm. Beer is available a the little restaurant a couple of blocks away for one peso a piece however. The 24 hour hour bar does not serve beer, only rum. They also run out of coke very often as well. The bar selection is limited and the rum is second rate. No Havana Club served here!!! The beach bar is a joke, don't even waste your time. The bar service at the hotel is OK however and the cappuccino is just as good as any of the four star hotels I have stayed at in Cuba.

The entertainment was limited and lame. The staff seem friendly enough but it is clear that they don't have enough resources to provide very much so what can they do?

The rooms are basic and the cleaning staff do an "OK" job. Clean towels were provided when I wanted them. There are no fitted sheets for the beds and the sheets are too small for the mattresses, so I would wake up every morning laying on my mattress. My toilet seat was in disrepair, had to use caution when sitting down on it. I did have a flood in my room one day because of a bad rain storm. I guess the windows are not well sealed. Oh, almost forgot, on more than one occasion, my room filled up with what can only be described as the odor of raw sewage. This was obviously because of a poorly designed plumbing system as I heard other guest complain about it as well. Hot water is not available most of the time and electricity goes out every once in a while as well.

The pool was cleaned regularly but was very cold and covered by shade most of the day. The beach across the road was nice, except for the litter of beer cans and plastic cups from the hotel, I found it close to what you would find in Varadero. Yes, there are prostitutes that hang out there and if you are a single man they will probably approach you.

Reception staff seem to do a good job. They handle a lot of complaints but they seem to always be helpful to me. At least they would listen even if they knew full well that nothing would be done to address any concerns I had.

As far as location goes. The beach and the twice daily shuttle to Havana is the selling point here. This is the one good thing I can say about Tropicoco. It has a great location.

As far as my general feelings about the hotel go, I found that because the hotel is a two star and offered at a very reasonable price, you tend to get a crowd there that...., how should I say this without sounding like a snob? Hmmm..., you tend to get a crowd there that doesn't seem to get out much and their social skills may not be up to par with generally acceptable behavior. The site of a drunken adult male prancing around the lobby with his pants around his ankles comes to mind, or the guy who thought he could sing opera belting out a tune whenever he got drunk just to try and seek some attention. If a resort was to be created to cater to "trailer trash" then it would be Tropicoco. With that said, there were also plenty of well adjusted people there too, most obviously had a high tolerance of the shortcomings of others. I also found this place to cater to a lot of socially inept men who come to Cuba to find..., well let's be frank,... sex! Lot's of single male tourist there who seem to come with the intention of paying a Cuban woman to be their girlfriend. Some even seem to be proud to parade them around the resort after buying them a day pass. That kind of surprised me but I guess what they do is their business. If you want to take your kids on vacation I would warn against Tropicoco perhaps. I guess it depends on your sense of morality.

To sum it up, pay the extra two or three hundred dollars to get into a nice three or four star hotel in Cuba. Tropicoco is a hole that should be avoided.

We got to Hotel Tropicoco and we knew we were in trouble. The first room that was given to us had no electricity . On to room 2 and it was the worst room that I had ever seen. The floors were dirty and the beds were not made. We had arrived at the end of a storm and had very cold weather for the majority of our stay. The food was horrible and we were glad to leave the hotel to see Havana and look for some decent food to eat. I travel every year and have never stayed at a hotel that the pool water was like a block of ice. Nobody was in the pool all week long. The beach that we went to was full of prostitutes that were trying to pick up the men that were there on holidays. I would not recemmend this hotel to anyone!!!! We call this the hotel tropicacca!([--]). Take my advice and stay far, far, away from this place.

We (me, my mom and SIL) went to the Tropicoco from December 28th-January 3.
Firstly, we were supposed to leave Montreal around 5:30 on December 27th. The flight was delayed by almost five hours. We had to de-ice twice and had to leave the plane before takeoff because of some mechanical error (better that they found it before we took off!) A note to Sunwing...If people are delayed, tired and cranky, it's not a good idea to try and placate them with frozen muffins and warm water!
We were supposed to arrive at the Tropicoco around 11:00 PM on the 27th, but didn't get in until 5:00AM on the 28th. I really felt that we were shortchanged a whole day because of this, but anyway, we were just so glad to get to the hotel.

I've been to Cuba five other times, but this was my first time in the Havana area. In my opinion, the major differences in star ratings is the food...For this reason, I feel the Tropicoco deserves it's two star rating. I normally stay in 3*, and the difference in food is astonishing. I'm a pretty easy to please person, but really, to only have grapefruit and oranges available for fruit? It's Cuba, I'm sure they could have found some bananas somewhere! Pretty much the same thing day in and day out, although the bread/rolls were very fresh. The New Year's Eve bash was wonderful though, they really put on a spread for that! One other complaint was that there really is no a la carte (they do have one at lunch, but it was only open on the last day we were there, so we didn't get to try it). Also, no real snack bar, although the bar by the pool will make you a ham and cheese sandwich if you ask (it wasn't very good)

The hotel itself is older, but that's Cuba! We were on the third floor- we only used the elevators the first day, I was too scared after that, so we just took the stairs. The bartenders were increadibly friendly to us, we had two in particular who were phenomenal. We also had no problems with the desk staff (which was nice for a change!) The first five days, the weather was fantastic, it got very windy and cold the last two days. The pool at the hotel is absolutely freezing- it's partially covered, so it doesn't get heated up by the sun, that's for sure!

The shuttle to Havana is hard to get on. We went in three times, and only took the shuttle once, since you have to book the day before (and early, I went at 10:00 AM one morning and the shuttle was already full for the next day!) A cab ride into the city is only 15 CUC though. Havana was wonderful, we ate the Paris Cafe, wandered around a lot, and had ice cream at the Copellia. The hotel is only a 15 minute cab ride to the old city, so for that reason alone, it was worth it!

One other thing I like and disliked at the same time was the mix of people at the hotel...Lots of Cubans, Italians, Germans and Canadians. That being said, it seems to be a place to go and meet a "friend" for the week. We were quite turned off by the few older gentlemen with their significantly younger Cuban girlfriends (their behaviour was not discreet!)

Our hotel transfer was two hours late in picking us up as well, and we had to deal with a sick drunk guy on the bus, but the Sunwing rep was very professional with him- I had to bite my tongue, especially after the old guy threw up!

I'd stay at the Tropicoco again, but only if it was a fantastic deal. The proximity to Havana really is the reason to stay here.