I travelled to Carisol Los Corales with my snorkel buddy and her husband. We had visited Bucanero last January, so we knew in advance the weather would be perfect, and we were not disappointed. Wonderful, warm sunshine every single day! The bus ride to the hotel was picturesque, and check in went smoothly. We stayed at the Los Corales side and began our week in the 500 block, which we found somewhat noisy at night. The next day we changed our rooms to the 100 block, which was much quieter.The rooms were very nice, although I found the beds a bit hard for my comfort, a usual problem for me in Cuba. Other than that, everything about the room was good. The A/C worked well, although it was a bit noisy but since "white noise" helps to cover exterior noises, I didn't find it objectionable. The shower always had great water pressure and lots of hot water. One minor problem was the transference of noise between bathrooms. You didn't have much doubt about what your neighbour was doing next door, which was esthetically displeasing, since it is a good bet he had the same information about you!

A nice advantage of having two hotels to choose from is using the facilities of both. We alternated between the buffets, and had lunch at the pizza/pasta restaurant at Carisol most days. Good pizza! We skipped the beach restaurant except for a couple of orders of banana fries, since they only had hamburgers and hotdogs on offer, plus a small salad bar.

The buffets were typical for a Cuban 3 star resort. I am primarily vegetarian, and I found enough to eat. Disappointingly, the bread and buns were sometimes stale. Freshly cooked omelets were great at breakfast, however, and ice cream was available most nights. We did the "Grill" a la carte one evening, and it was wonderful! Our other a la carte reservation got mixed up, leaving us looking for an empty table at the buffet an hour after it opened, a task which proved almost impossible. Other than this one glitch, things went pretty smoothly and I was satisfied with the restaurants and service. The coffee bar and the lobby bars were both good and appreciated.

The beach. Nice white sand, if a bit coarse and shelly. Not a swimmer's beach, but very good for snorkelling. The reef protects the beach very well, so even when the ocean is rough it is possible to get in for a swim or snorkel without difficulty. There is a small sandy area where you can take a dip without encountering sea grass, but the rest is mostly grassy and shallow. In the mornings it was usually calm enough to venture outside the reef to snorkel, although we were cautioned about current in the channel on an outgoing tide, since people sometimes run into difficulty with this. It was definitely there, but posed no problem for us, although I would not have wanted to venture outside without fins. The snorkelling was quite good off the beach, and there is the option of going out with the dive boat or the Hobie, or of course with a paddle boat as well. Sailing was excellent, since it was possible to get out on very windy days. We had several memorable sails on the windy afternoons.

We did a walking excursion that included a short boat ride and a visit to a crocodile farm and lunch at the restaurant there. This was quite enjoyable. The walk took us up through the pass behind the resort and down to the lagoon for the boat ride.

I enjoyed my week at Los Corales, and I will be returning to this resort. It is a good option in this area of Cuba.

Well, much to our disappointment Los Corales has gone downhill since our last visit in January of 2011. Very sad indeed. It appears the Cuban government isn't investing money into this resort and it shows. The place is in need of repair. There isn't one 'big' thing that requires repair, it's all the small things that add up.

There has been a lot of staff changes and removal of staff without replacing. We noticed there were not as many security guards looking after the place. There used to be one per block, not sure how many they have now, but not that.

We don't got to Cuba for the food, period, but I have to say, this year it was atrocious. So many people at the resort had stomach/intestinal ailments. Personally, I ended up with food poisoning two nights before we were leaving. It was so bad, the doctor had to be called to give me antibiotics, electrolyte powder, homeopathic remedies, anti-nausea medication and hours before boarding the plane, he put an IV in to replenish my system. It was not pleasant. The doctor and the nurses were fantastic. It put the doctor in a new light for me. There really was a purpose for him. I wasn't the only one needing to have an IV treatment...at least three others that we were aware of. The doctor wasn't aware of the other members of our party having intestinal issues because they were dealing with it themselves with the medication they brought so I can imagine how many more there were that he wasn't aware of. It seems there is a 'don't talk, don't tell' policy about anything negative around the resort.

The beach is still lovely and the pool great.

The room had ants all over the bathroom which was really gross sharing the floor with the ants are the food poisoning made its way through me.

Suggested to the Sunwing representative that at the aiport pick up they need to be better organized. There were three buses wth great confusion what bus we were to take to get to Los Corales. This was at 2:30 a.m. and we're flipping between buses. I also suggested he take into consideration that not everyone on the bus speaks French and that the representative on the bus speak in English and French to explain what's going on. Seeing as we've done this upwards of 7 times, I knew, but there were others who didn't.

Sigh...not sure if we'll be returning, which is sad. We'll miss our Cuban families outside the resort since this is THE only hotel so close to Baccano Village.

This was our 3rd visit in this resort. We knew what to expect from this 3* and we got all we needed: 2 sunny weeks over Christmas holidays, with plenty of simple and healthy food (without cooking or serving others at home!), great beach time (yes, there is an excellent sandy beach with plenty of chairs, paddleboats, kayaks and morning to noon sport activities!) and few interesting area trips.
Rooms were very clean and towels changed daily, excellent pool, cold drinks at bars all the time. New Year's Eve dinner was nice. Seafood restaurant choices were our favorite. Coffee at lobby bar is the best!
The most important, people in the resort are very nice and very attentive. They will always greet you with a nice smile and will be ready to help you if you need it! They are wonderful people who work for 15 or more hours/day to entertain and meet all requests of hotel guests.
So I wonder what some of you (Writers) complain about! Especially if you paid so little for being in this resort. Try to spend a Holiday week at Ontario Hotel for the same $...not possible, you know it very well.
I would totally agree with Mashoud from Ottawa, and repeat her words "Hakuna Matata or just chill out, dude," if this is not enough for you, just pay big $ or "max your credit card at 5* hotels in other country"
When I was there for my holidays, I met so many returning guests, and all of them were happy, nobody complained, and everybody I talked with just enjoyed their time at this sunny place.
Your Vacation is who you are and what you do with your free time: enjoy what you paid for instead of looking for reasons to complain about... and playing mascarade of being "rich or diva".
We loved the resort and wonderful staff. We will certainly come back, hoping to see the nice people we've met over 2 holiday weeks, again.... Greetings to All of You! and to Wonderful Staff of Corales resort!

We stayed at Los Corales from Jan. 15 to the 22. Late check-out was free on the day we left. Santiago airport was easy to get mixed up on arrival. The porters carried our bikes to the wrong bus and demanded a tip. They had no idea which bus we needed to be on, just move the bikes 30 feet and intimidate my kids. Bad experience on arrival. Nothing to do with the resort.
At Los Corales check-in was easy. The rep suggested getting a meal while the ONE person at the desk handled the 24 people checking in.
BARS. The bars have varying hours which are confusing to follow. The pool bar is open from 12ish to 5ish. The Theatre bar is open from 5ish till after the show at 10:30ish. The 24 hour bar serves booze when the other bars are closed. It has beer all the time, and the theatre bar has none at various times. The Lobby bar is open from 12ish till 6ish, but hours may change. The Pool bar has a slushy machine for pina coladas. The beach bar is open from 10ish to about 5ish. The Carisol is a nicer layout resort. We spent our last couple days hanging out there because it has a larger pool deck and a single bar.
RESTAURANTS. The beach restaurant has decent burgers and dogs, and our last day they had chicken burgers. The beach restaurant becomes the seafood restaurant in the evenings. The buffet is not the best I have been to in Cuba, maybe not even in the top 10. (I’ve been to 10 resorts). The omelets are fresh made at breakfast. Good! The 24 hour bar has excellent coffee and passable burgers and hot dogs. The Carisol has the pasta and pizza restaurant for lunch. DON'T order a pizza and pasta at the same time for lunch. They put the pasta on a plate and wait for the pizza to cook before serving both. Order either pizza or pasta and they both come hot and freshly made.
We went off the resort on the bikes each day. We gave our bikes away to locals when we left. One went to the 'goat lady', and the other went to 'my fren' who I met off the resort.
We went to Santiago for the 1/2 day trip. Too much money for the time spent. The excursion was 140 for the 4 of us. If you want to go to Santiago, talk to a local, (he will find you if you cross the fence at the east end of the beach). 60 CUC for the whole day with his friend with a car. That’s how I would do it if I had the chance now.
If you play ping-pong, take some old paddles and balls. The resort equipment is in poor shape. The resort bikes are in good shape. Turn right at the road, Baconao is 4 km away, easy riding.
You can snorkel off the beach, entering near the volleyball net to avoid some grasses. I saw lionfish, grouper, gar and lots of colourful others. Our snorkeling excursion was ok. One hour snorkeling at a reef near the aquarium. If you have the voucher from Holasun, take the trip. They need the voucher at the Nautical Centre, don’t give it to the booking desk, take it to the Nautical Centre. The boat goes out at 9:30.
We had a good time. Our rooms were spotless. The resort workers were courteous and efficient.