Hotel Islazul Mar del Sur (Varadero, Cuba)

The hotel food is decent and bearable, and you can get your stomach full enough to go about your day.

If you want to get right into the midst of Cuban night life, just go a couple of blocks from the hotel. You will find dancing, jazz, salsa classes, and plenty of clubs like the Havana Club, La Mediteraneo, and La Rhumba. They offer a mix of Cuban traditional music, Cuban rap music, and American style music.

Bring some goodies with you and get ready to wheel-and-deal. Things like clothing, toothbrushes, soap, band-aids, whatever you can find. You will probably end-up not paying for anything as you will have so much to barter with!

Hopefully, you will get one of the refurbished rooms. If not, be prepared for the worse. Rotting wood, no glass in the windows, no proper shower fixtures, and other inconsistencies. Just be sure to be precise about the type of accommodation you want. Remember, they have renovated rooms that are quite decent.

Oh dear, it's those critters that makes your skin crawl, cockroaches! Don't be surprised if you encounter them in your room.

You may get the whiff of a foul petro odour, depending on which way the wind is blowing. It seems that the petroleum rig located outside the city exudes a petro smell and depending on which direction the wind is blowing, you can smell it all over the place. It's a petro/sulphur smell and if you have any breathing issues like asthma, this can be a big issue. You will probably be astonished how nonchalantly the staff reacts to the smell.