Arrived home from Cuba yesterday.... which might explain why i am still awake at this time (1:30am UK).

I travelled with my girlfriend, my sister and her boyfriend. As stated the hotel was only half open which meant the specialist restuarants alternated nights at one location. This proved not to be too much of an issue for myself as i thought the food was awful. The buffet however was a pleasant suprise and we enjoyed many decent meals there throughought our stay.

The staff at the hotel were extrememely friendly and always willing to help bar one of the pool bar staff we ironically named Smiler. The rooms were perfectly maintained as where the beautiful gardens by the workers. I took it upon myself to provide drink and food for them at various points in the holiday as they had been so nice to us.

The cigar lounge was a place i frequented most nights as it provided a great atmosphere for drinks and laughs. The 'discoteque' wasn't up to much and was often fairly empty although Wilbers Flair Bar was a great stopping point. The only downside being the copious amount of mosquitos that 'hung' aroung there.

We paid for the Catamaran and Motor Mayhem excursions through Thomas Cook and enjoyed them both tremendously. The former being an 8 hour trip around the Cayo's and catching/eating lobster and the latter including a ride through the mountains in jeeps and a session in your very own speedboats to a coral reef where snorkling was a must. The Motor Mayhem excursion was how we met our Cuban 'friend' Slim, aka Skinny, aka Flaco, aka Lorraine. 'Lore' as his name badge stated was a tour guide we had met on the Motor Mayhem excursion who we became friends with instantly when he told us our trip had been canceled due to a snow storm... He kindly offered to take us to the mainland on his day off in a rented car for no fee as he 'enjoyed our company'. He stumped up the 200 pesos deposit and we payed for the car hire itself (55pesos) and petrol for the day (45pesos). He picked us up in a Peugeot 207 at 8am and we set out to Santa Clara to see Che Guevara's statue/memorial. On the way we stopped off at his house to meet his lovely parents and beautiful girlfriend. They were so welcoming it really made my holiday worthwhile there and then. From Santa Clara we travelled down to Cienfluegos(sp) to swim with Dolphins(50pesos) which was the highlight of our holiday... the day itself provided countledd laughs with Slim learning more and more English. We arrived back at the hotel around 11:30pm where we duely tipped the man 30pesos aswell as buying him his lunch for which he seemed especially gratefull. I also gave him a football shirt and my sister and girlfriend gave him magazines/books for his girlfriend to read. Without blabbing on and on about this one man I would just say that he typified the Cuban people and will always remind me so. All in all my advice would be to go out into the mainland... meet people by the pool as we did... have a few giggles and make the most of your time there as many pople we spoke to on the way home wich they had done. Cuba to me seemed the safest place in the world contrary to popular belief and i will definitley be heading back there sometime in the near future.... although it will probably be to Varadero.

Quickly referring to the mosquito's.... I was lucky enough to recieve little to no bites without even using insect repellent, however my girlfriend/sister/friend weren't so and my sister even need 2 cortozone injections from the hotel nurse. She was okay physically but it looked to be a depressing factor later on in the holiday as it simply got too much for her.

Missed out loads there too including how beautiful the beach was but ah well. Cuba is what you make it!!!

Viva la Revolucion!!!

4/5 :)

We arrived early evening and was shown to our room on the lagoon.We were pleasently surprised as it was both clean and in a great location. Started to look around and explore the huge site the next day and whilst half was closed due to refurbishment we found this okay as it would have been too large for us.

Get to know the staff and yes tip if you get good service.We were looked after by everyone we came across and didn't see any rude or unattentive staff. The chefs at breakfast were fantastic and our 8 year old son was always raring to get there to see his 'friends' .
The Al a Cartes were okay and when we visited the fish restaurant on my birthday the waitress got me a birthday cake with candles after my son told her.( we didn't pre book or order a cake she just sent a chef out to get it from the main kitchen)

The pool was good and we always got a sunbed even if we had spent the morning at the beach The towel service was also great as you just changed them everyday ..Pool bar was great and never had to wait long to be served and was accessible from 'dry land' as well as in the water.

Beach was almost perfect and again plenty of shade if you wanted it.We tried the Pedloes.kayaks and the hobie cat which we all enjoyed. We all spent time snorkalling just off shore and saw enough fish to keep an 8 year old happy and excited.

My husband would visit the gym everyday and found this to be better than lots of others that we have been to in Cuba.

The mossies were a pain but you expect this and just make sure you take the correct strength protection,we got through 3 bottles in 3 weeks which is not bad for 3 of us.Somedays we needed it during the day as well but mainly at night.

The room was spacious and extremley clean, our maid was the best we have had in 7 years of long haul holidays , she was always ready to chat,ask after us and got us anything we needed which was not much.When we had a problem with the air con leaking she had an engineer out within 5 minutes. The first night we were cold but just turned the temp. up and slept like logs for rest of hol.

The only things that we didn't like were

The kids club- when our son asked to go and check it out we could never find any staff in there.The first week was like this the whole week. In fairness there did not seem to be many children around..On the second week, it was staffed 2 or 3 days.If you have younger children this may be a problem if you fancied a rest.

Our second week was alot busier and we found quite a few guests to be rude and rather obnoxious.They treated the staff like slaves and we had to explain to our son about bad manners and that was not how you treated people which was a shame.

We also found quite a lot of teenagers and they were noisy and very lively around the pool.Again this was mainly our second week.

We feel that if you want a relaxing , chilled out holiday which is good value for money then this is your place to visit .
If you want excitment and nightlife then this is not the place for you.

So don't be put off by the bad reviews and give it a try , we are glad we did.

Went with my spouse. Had a great time overall. We've been to Cuba 4 times, and will keep going back. We love Cuba, and the people are always very friendly with us. We've never been treated badly, and if people say they are, then makes you wonder why. Treat them with respect, courtesy, and you will receive same. The people are mostly always friendly. Here is the nitty gritty with the NH Crystal. We had the Emperador suite, which means we had a room on top of the laguna. Room very nice, all wooden ceilings and walls, felt like a small chalet. Smells bad though all the time in the bathroom because of the laguna. Resort is tired looking, in dire need of fresh paint and would look awesome if it was freshened up. The property itself is huge, good a la carte restaurants. Food good but lacks variety, always same every day, but i'm not fussy, pretty good a la carte though. Service like I said, the people make it worthwhile, always with a smile and will chat with you if you start to talk with them. Lobby very big, great bar at reception area, live music, big comfy chairs, old and smelly but still nice enough. Absolutely no shade in pool area which is small to begin with and no chairs in swim up bar in pool. So because the lack of shade everywhere, even with lots of sunscreen on, we both burnt very badly. Meeting people every night at happy hour made it fun though in the pool. NOW here's the BIGGIE. they spray 4 to 5 times per day with KEROSENE. This person drives around with a huge blower that spews out this toxic grey cloud that chokes you up and you can't breathe in. Planes also dropping kerosene nightly around 7 PM all over the properties. This is while you are drinking and eating, and again before you go to bed, and then again around 4:30 to 5:00 a.m. every morning, the fumes comes through your air conditioner, wakes you up and you gag, so you have no choice to at least shut it off. Smells really really bad .... yuck. BUT the alternative is getting eaten alive by the mosquitoes, so for this reason can't blame them, but can't they use something else?

The beach and sand is amazing. Soft baby powder sand, crystal clear waters and so warm, no big waves.... nice snorkeling on the glass boat for $20, really worth it.
Beach not big enough though and lacks shaded space, can't imagine in high season what it must be like. The disco is actually amazing, also built on the laguna in front of the Cigar Lounge. These are 2 great features of this property actually, something that is lacking in other resorts. For this reason, you have more opportunity to party if you wish.

Would we go back there, not to this resort for sure.

We were dissapointed on arrival to discover that part of the complex was closed due to referbishment. However the following day began the most amazing holiday. The weather was amazing, the staff helpful, food loads of choice, drinks super and the most awesome barman you will ever see. (check out wilber cayo coco on youtube) There are more expensive hotels on the other side of the island but the beach there is stoney rather than the soft sand on this side. Gardeners always willing to talk and make you a hat from coconut leaves.