This was our 1st time at Azul, but 10th time to Cayo Santa Maria, Check in was wonderful. Arrived at 12:30pm and room was ready. We had read a lot of bad reviews and so we were pleasantly surprised by all the good things that this resort has to offer. First and foremost to us the beach is perfection at it's best. The people that we dealt with were always willing to help us. Many many thanks to the management and their staff for making our stay a VERY pleasant one. Rosemary our chamber maid was so pleasant and had our room done for us each day by noon, Richard at the food grill at the beach, Jose at the beach every morning waiting for us and greeting us with a warm hello after he cleaned our chairs for us, Lester at the towel exchange near the pool was so nice and friendly and too many more to mention that you know who you are :) There was always food to eat as we are not picky eaters. The A la carte restaurants we went to were very good (contrary to the bad reviews...but cooked as best as Cuban do, and we appreciate their culture as they try to please us and make us feel at home) (Isn't the point of going away is to leave home behind ! If you want things to be as they are at home....then stay home !) Seafood restaurant was our favorite, we also went to the Italian, the steak and the Cuban restaurant. we never left hungry or wanting to go to the buffet. The place was very clean and we never ran out of amenities. Sure there is no ketchup or mustard or maple syrop, but if you have been to Cuba before, you can expect it, so go without it for a week or bring your own like so many people do. This was a great bargain for the money. Thanks again to a wonderful staff at Memories Azul......we hope to see you again soon.

Très belle vacance, on y retournerais :)

Hotel nice and clean. The resort is large with alot of walking but have carts you can call in and travel in.. BEACH is the best in Cuba very very nice. Staff all so polite, bus ride is comfortable and you can buy beer on hand bathroom on bus and lots to see on your way in. Market 10 mins walking distance with a nice spa and things to buy.

Bel hôtel, confortable et propre. Plage très belle et nourriture ordinaire mais on fini par trouver quelque chose de bon. Restaurant à la carte italien excellent mais asiatique médiocre. Personnel courtois. Loin de l'aéroport.

c'est très correct comme endroit on trouve de la nourriture mangeable les boissons son correct et le personnel très souriant

Great vacation - beyond expectation : amazing beach and water, very nice resort, excellent entertainment/shows and reasonable food. Very friendly staff.Great value for the money.

I don't know what some of these reviews were complaining about - before I left I started getting really nervous from all the bad reviews this resort was collecting.
Me and my boyfriend got in late at night on April 25, 2013. Before getting on the bus to the resort they handed out envelopes with your room keys in them. They actually didn't have an envelope for us, I guess there was some mistake, but upon arriving at the resort I had sorted it out and collected our room keys at the front desk LITERALLY within 30 seconds. Throughout the week all the staff were VERY nice and they all knew at least a little bit of English. The Sunwing representative at the resort had excellent english.
We had booked an oceanview room...we were not disappointed. Our room was 100m away from the ocean, was spacious, working TV and radio (no clock on the radio or elsewhere, so bring a watch!), a mini fridge that was refilled with juice and beer daily, and air conditioning. Just a gorgeous room.
The food was good, nothing exceptional but definitely good, if not a little repetitive. You can make 3 a la carte reservations for dinner, some are better than others. The top two in the resort are the Italian and the Mediterranian - amazing food, and nice for a change. We also did the Cuban grill, which wasn't the best food, but was still fun to dress up for :)
There were a few excursions offered, and we chose the catamaran for $103 per person - this included going on a catamaran to a great snorkeling spot, then boating to an interaction with the dolphins, then lunch, then a dolphin show, then boating to an island to spend an hour on a beach, then back to the harbor. We left at 8:30am, took a 10 minute bus ride to the harbor and got back at 5pm. It was so much fun!! Also, open bar on the boat ;)
I could go into detail about other things, but really, the only important information is that this is a great resort that did not disappoint in the slightest (in fact, after getting spooked by the bad reviews, we were delightfully surprised by everything!).

The hotel is modern and well laid out with pools reasonably close to whereever your room is located. Rooms are large and well furnished and overall very comfortable. Highly recommend.

Must visit is the trip by air to Havana, but if your a smoker don't take a lighter it get's confiscated at both ends. Well worth the extra to go. The resort was well kept and the rooms lovely and clean the beach was amazing just like the pictures but while there is alot of food it's bland, not hot and every meal has the same selection. If your a person with different dietry requirements this one would not be for you but if your not a picky eater then just sit back relax and enjoy.

Nous avons passé un très beau séjour à cet hôtel. C'était notre tout premier voyage et nous pas été déçu de façon générale. Nous avions lu comme commentaire avant de partir que le site était immense et que nous devions marcher beaucoup pour se rendre, ce qui s'est avéré faux pour nous. Nous nous trouvions au dernier bloc et il nous fallait que 5 minutes pour se rendre au lobby. Pour ceux qui trouvent que c'est trop, il y a des petits karts qui passent à chaque minute durant le jour. Pour ce qui est du buffet, on mange toujours la même chose au diner et au souper et ce, tous les jours. Par contre, c'était mangeable et nous pouvions demander au chef de cuire devant nous des omelettes le matin ou de la viande au courant de la journée. Un seul point très désagréable pour un 5 étoiles: il y avait une dizaine de coquerelles au dessus du bar à dessert. Chose étrange, il n'y en avait pas au buffet de l'hôtel adjacent; le paraiso. Attention: dans les chambres, il y a de petites fourmis alors ne laissez pas de nourriture ou de verres. Nous avons payé pour le Club Diamond et cela nous a pas été utile puisque tout le monde bénéficie d'une bouteille de rhum à l'arrivée, nous ne pouvions pas quitter la chambre plus tard car notre autobus quittait à 6h00, la plage était tellement belle que nous n'avons pas utilisé la section réservé et que les restaurants à la carte qui nous avaient été réservés en priorité utilisaient en fait la nourriture du buffet. Comme toute, nous recommandons cet hôtel mais il ne faut pas s'attendre nécessairement à un 5 étoiles mais plutôt un 4.

Nous avon passer un bon séjour en général. La plage est magnifique ainsi que la température.Par contre nous avons vécus quelques petits iritants tous du a certain membre du personnel.
Barman de la plage: Attitude d'indiference (Je me suis servit moi-même a quelques occasions)
Serveuse au buffet de la piscine qui ignore les clients de facon flagrate.
Pas de pain a ce meme buffet malgré le fait que nous avons observé que des employés de la cuisine en consommaient.
Restaurant asiatique:Bonne Bouffe bon service.
Restaurant El Carmen:Dans un premier temps nous nous sommes fait refusés l'acces malgré que nous étions inscrit sur la liste de réservation par un maitre d'hotel qui se considérait comme le propriétaire des lieux, situation qui a du etre réglé par le directeur Mr. Oscar.
A la suite de differentes observations je suis convaicu que la direction fait tout les efforts pour corriger la situation.
Pour conclure tres bon rapport qualité/prix(764).

P.S. Mr Oscar continué votre bon travail nous y retournerons probablement.

This is not a 5 star resort - maybe a strong 3 star. The beach is the absolute highlight - beautiful white sand and turquoise water with good waves. Beware of strong undertow when waves get high. Rooms are large and comfortable, well air conditioned. Food is problematic - not much variety. Meat, mostly chicken, was always tough and dry. Beef, when available, was the same. Thank goodness for breakfast omelettes and lunch and dinner pasta all cooked to order. The beach made the trip to Cuba worthwhile - it is the best we've ever experienced. And the staff is just SUPER!

Family of 13, 7 kids from 1 - 7. Been to Varadero & Cayo Coco.

Worst food ever in Cuba in terms of selection.

Hotel is generally OK
Beach is very nice.
Food is not good, hard to find something decent to eat.
Beer is very poor quality, you have to buy your own.
Juices are all fake, very limited and low quality fruits, icecream is limited but decent.
Staff is poorly trained and is mostlly focused on the tips not on the service.
Beware that the dining areas are full of cochraches, swarming around, on the tables, dishes, around food.
Pool is nice and clean.
Entertainment is OK
Out of the resort activities are expensive and not interesting
Front desk is ok
You will 'enjoy'the books about 'criminal America' and the great Che.
Hotel rooms are not cleaned up properly, the pillows stink, sheets are not very clean
Towells are very old. Bring your own.
So, if you are going just for the beach then you willl be fine. If you want an all inclusive experience ... Don't go to Cuba.

Site superbe, buffet répétitif, où tout manque!

This review should be called line ups, line ups and more line ups! Now I know that we are on vacation so whats the big deal with waiting in a few lines, but the line ups for the food stations daily in the buffet are crazy (20 mins sometimes). Be aware there are cockroaches in the buffet area. I seen 4 scurrying across the different buffet serving counters on seperate occasions. Definitely makes you wonder what's going on in the kitchen area then. I know others that review Cuba say its another country but I really dont think that I will go back due to the slow service and lack of good/edible food. We would order drinks with dinner and the servers would forget or bring it once we were done (1/2 hr later). Also in the morning we asked for orange juice and when the server poured it, a fly was in our glass... after alerting her, she brought a new glass but continued to pour from the same jug. GROSS! If you do book this resort, do not, I repeat do not book the Asain ala carte. Its a joke! Its a makeshift ala carte in the bar closest to the pool, so you will have ppl constantly coming in with the bathings suits on to grab a drink, the food is disgusting, the soya sauce is like sugar and oil mixed. We did take advantage of the $15 additional dinner in the marketplace, Kazuka, that was a decent Teppinyaki place. We really enjoyed that. The rooms are lacklustre. The blankets smell, and there were little ants on the bathroom counter.
The pool bar ran out of plastic cups and told us to wait 10 mins but 1/2 hr passed and still no cups. Like really?
Overall I would not recommend this resort, but like I said in the title, you get what you pay for. I really thought that the food would not bother me too much but the sanitary conditions really turned me off. We did go to the Italian and Mediterranian ala carte which was decent. the evening entertainment was decent as well, a lot of dancing and singing.

It was a nice hotel but the food service is very poor. The food was cold most days and there were many times when they ran out of items, such as bread and fresh fruit. The wait service left much to be desired. There were times when you had almost finished your meal before you were even offered a glass of water, while you watched 3-4 servers gathered around talking. Mini fridge was empty our first day and not stocked until suppertime the second day. They didn't arrived until 9pm the last night to restock for the day. The internet was not working while we were there. Could not book a la carte, we tried twice, first time, there was a 60-90 min wait, the second time, the power was out in the theatre, so the computer could not be accessed. We decided to not waste anymore time with the process. The grounds were nicely kept and we spent most of our time at the pool. This was because you could not get shade on the beach. People had their towels,etc on the chairs starting before midnight. My husband did manage to get us one for a day but had to go to the beach at 4am and there were only a couple left. Same thing at the pool. We started setting our alarm for 4am to just be able to find a place with shade. The beach and pool are not guarded after night and there were people partying in the pool every night until 5am. It made for a difficult sleep if you were unfortunate enough to have your room facing the pool area. The check in process was quick and easy, as it was all pre-done and we rec'd our packages on the bus. Check out was very quick and efficient. The front desk staff were very friendly, whenever we stopped by with a question. The bartender staff at the pool were excellent. Always quick with drinks and very friendly. The beach was amazing but very unstaffed with life guards. The life guards basically had a whistle and that was it. If someone was drowning, there is not much chance they would be able to make it out to them. They did not even have a life saver or body board. Overall, the area was beautiful but I would not recommend this resort until the issues with staff are corrected.

Memories Azul is a nice resort in a stunning location. I definitely would not class this hotel as a 5 star, a strong 4 star would be better. The airport is small so you are in and out quickly then met at the bus with your room keys and bracelets, your luggage is tagged and delivered to your room upon arrival at the resort. Its a nice change from having to stand in line at the reception desk for an hour. There are several pools to choose from for variety if you like that. We spent most of our time at the kids/family pool by the kids club as our son is 4 and prefers to be able to touch the bottom. I loved the fact that there was no pounding music and there were lots of kids for my son to play with. The beach is probably the nicest beach I have ever seen and the water is crystal clear. Lots of seashells to collect. There were lots of pergolas set up for shade but those went fast, if you wanted shade you needed to be there early. The buffet is a typical Cuban buffet, lots of chicken, pork and seafood and if you wanted hot food you had to stand in line at the grills. More grills are needed as the lines were long and slow. We tried three a la cartes 1)seafood (great); 2)Italian (excellent); 3)Asian (Awful). There were several other a la cartes we weren't able to try as you are only allowed 3 per week. The rooms were pretty standard, we were not lucky enough to score a room with a king bed, but got a room with 2 -3/4 beds shoved together which did the job. Lots of people had issues with mosquitos we did not, but definitely bring spray and lots of sunscreen! We did the catamaran excursion its a full day of fun, even our 4 year old was not bored, his favorite was the dolphins. All in all we had a great time, I don't know if I would go back to the resort as there are lots of other places to see but I would definitely go back to Cayo Santa Maria.

we had a great time. The Cuban people are wonderful. When going you must remember this is Cuba. There is an embargo with the USA. Not everything is available. If you are really picky and expect everything perfect go elsewhere. If you can go with the flow it is an excellent place to go - especially for the price. The beach is fantastic and you can walk out quite a way before it gets deep. The hotel/tours should invest in more toilet tissue and make sure it is replenished regularily. For those with mobility problems this is a large resort with a lot of walking. We ate at both the large buffets and the 24 hour grill. More limited at the grill but still plenty to choose from. A la cartes are hard to get in to. The trip from the airport is great for site seeing but it is a long drive. Pools were excellent also.

tres belle vacance.

Vacances en familles...
La plage est magnifique, exceptionnelle... Il n'y a aucun vendeur sur la plage. La température est exceptionnelle. Beaucoup de végétation, d'arbres à fleurs sur le site, grande beauté...
Points forts:
Le check-in a été fait avant d'entrer dans l'autobus, les valises ont été portées à notre chambre. Chambre accueillante, confortable.
Bon service en général... Le personnel adore les enfants. Nous avons fait l'excursion aux dauphins que nous avons beaucoup aimés. Les piscines sont magnifiques.
Points faibles:
La NOURRITURE et les boissons (en poudre sucré), la propreté des toilettes publiques (odeur d'urine qui agace le nez même assit autour de la piscine)... Mais le reste du site est très propre, le personnel travaille très fort.
Il faut se lever très tôt pour réussir à avoir un palapas sur la plage... ou un coin à l'ombre à la piscine (les gens se lèvent aux aurores pour réserver leur place et ne reviennent qu'en fin d'am pour en profiter). Beaucoup de moustiques (chambre côté jardin), apportez de la crème contre les moustiques.
Mais en général, de magnifiques vacances sur un site d'une beauté exceptionnelle...

We spent two beautiful weeks at the Azul and enjoyed ourselves immensely. The beech is one of the cleaned and most beautiful beaches I have ever run across. We subscribed to the "Diamond Club" perks while we were there and it was worth it. Butler service on the beach and a refrigerator that always had a couple of beers in it a the end of the day. Staff was helpful and friendly.

toujours la meme bouffe, saucisse a tous les jours serviettes sales

nous avons passé un tres beau séjour a Santa Maria la plage est Magnifique et l'hotel tres propre nous etions situé au bloc 52 tres bien pour les enfants, car on est proche de tout (theatre,mini club,et buffet) le grill 24h. est tres bon, le resto méditeraneen vraiment bon ,et l'italien aussi. Ce qui est super c'est le check in car on a tout nos document dans l'autobus alors quand on arrive a l'hotel tout est fait !!! le seul gros point négatif est qu'il n'y a pas assez de palapa a la plage il faut se lever de bonne heure genre 6h. pour en avoir un . Et aussi au buffet si vous arrivez un peu tard il ne remplisse pas tres souvent mais la bouffe etait tres bien.il n'y a pas de vendeur sur la plage c'est tres agreable de ne pas se faire achaler!!!! J'y retournerais sans hésiter !!!

voyage relaxant et plage magnifique.

excellete experience tres heureux de ce voyage recommande a tous

We have been to Cuba 6 times and we would definately return to this resort. The beach is absolutely beautiful! Crystal clear water, and lots of soft white sand. Keep in mind the staff advised us that the water will rise in July and shorten the beach so the best time to go if you are a beach lover is April/May. Reach the beach early as most Palapas are taken by 6 a.m. As return tourists, we are aware of the food limitations in Cuba, but we were always able to choose from pasta, squash, asparagus, brussel sprouts, potatoes, peas, chicken, beef, pork dishes and lots of fish! There is no need to complain about the food, to do so is disrespectful also to the Cubans who I'm sure have much less when they go home. Remember that you choose to go to Cuba, and if you complain about the food, then choose another country! The resort is large, so prepare to walk, they do have mini buses for transportation and you can hop on and off or call and ask to be transported within the resort. Pools are great, lots of fun, but once again, you must be up early to reserve a sun umbrella. Rooms are so-so, could have been a little cleaner in the bathroom area and behind the doors... however, for the price we paid for this two week holiday, we could overlook that. The staff overall were great, just the front desk staff could be friendlier, however this didn't ruin our vacation either. Overall, fantastic resort, great for kids and families, we will definately return.

Staff were great, so polite and caring. Beach was amazing. Food was great. Cleanliness was good. Room was perfect. We will propably go back. Currency exchange was just in the lobby, very convenient!

We returned to this resort as we had a great experience on the Paraiso side last April. This is our tenth year south and we are NOT fussy travelers however were disappointed in the service and food this year. The buffet was very repetitive and always seemed to be lacking (eg: buns but no butter, no coffee cups by the coffee maker). We went to two a la cartes; Asia and Caribean and they were not great. If you are a beach lover you will be in heaven, if you are looking for a 5 star resort,you will be disappointed. Bring extra beach towels as the towel exchange is not open often and ketchup/mustard if you do not like plain hamburgers and fries. The Catamaran excursion (second year doing) is still great and excellent value for the money. Scuba diving excursions were booked all week so I would recommend checking ahead of time.

We enjoyed our stay from April 7th to April 14th. We were pleased with our room in Bungalow 61 with an ocean view. It was clean and the bed was very comfortable. The staff at Memories Azul were friendly and efficient. The beach was the best we've been to. This was our 10th trip to Cuba and we found this resort of a higher quality so the 5 Star is pretty accurate! Thank you for a great time!