Royal Hicacos

What sets it apart in late 2026 is that the reports since the handover are good, and consistently so. Guests in September and October called it the best hotel in Varadero, said the food and drinks were the best part of the stay, praised the entertainment and the butlers, and one described the resort running its own generator through outages. Those reports come from a hotel running well below capacity, in a country where no Visa or Mastercard has worked since June and the national grid collapsed eight times this year, so read them as the ceiling rather than the floor. One thing the new operator dropped: golf. Royalton's Diamond Club bundled the green fees at the Varadero Golf Club, 5 km away; the current listing marks the course as a paid extra.

This is the Varadero resort for couples who want Cuba specifically, want the strip's best beach without children, and can get there, which with every Canadian airline suspended until further notice means arriving through Europe, Mexico or Panama. It is priced at the top of the island, and that is Mexican or Dominican money, where the same budget buys a resort without the blackouts and the shortages. But among Cuban hotels it is the one whose post-handover reviews we would most trust, and for an adults-only week on this beach it remains the pick.