Fun in the sun!

The hotel wasn't the best, didn't have any hot water all week, food was pretty good and the beach was gorgeous! I wish the accommodations were a little better, service wise. And also I wish the same bartender, server and/or front desk cert worked no so stageared. Other than that the staff were nice and the people in the cities were friendly to Canadians!

You get what you pay for

All in all this was a good trip. Would I go back to the Solymar side probably not, but maybe the Arenas Blancas side.... Pros: - great beach with lots of chairs and shade umbrellas - if you're interested in partying this is the place to be, there was a party by the pool every night - walking distance to the town - the lobby with the hanging vines is beautiful - able to go between the 2 resorts Cons: - the food was as to be expected but we found things to eat - the resort needs maintenance (ext [... read more]erior needs a paint job, shower door fell off in my bathroom, the lobby bathrooms need updating, only 1 jacuzzi was working) If you want to get away for cheap it's a good option.

Varadero's Best Resort!!

The Barceló Solymar Hotel is, I think, the best in Cuba! It is clean, the staff are friendly and very helpful, and it has a beautiful pool and grounds. It's close to the beach and minutes away from the main shopping strip downtown. It has a nice party atmosphere that winds down by midnight and if you are craving more dancing past this you can go next door to Arenas Blancas and continue the all inclusive party or go to dance clubs in the area. This was my second trip there in 1 year and will def [... read more]initely go back again and again! I can't wait for the next time I can go!!

Barcelo Solymar

I have stayed here several times and as much as I love the hotel and the staff, the hotel is not being taken care of. My room wasn't cleaned daily, the air conditioner didn't work properly and caused daily flooding in the room. The pool could have used some cleaning. Overall, the staff at this hotel are amazing and are the best part of the trip and it's in a perfect location from the nightlife of varadero.

Beautiful beach, decent resort

The beach and ocean are so lovely all up and down the peninsula. The resort itself was totally fine, no big issues. The buffet on the Arenas Blancas side was better. The a la carte restaurants were pretty good. We booked a bungalow close to the beach and enjoyed not being in the main building, though if you like being more central to the buffet, desk, etc., the rooms in the main building are nice too (probably a bit nicer). The location is right on the border between town and the all-resort part [... read more] of the peninsula farther up, which was good.

Worth the Money

Well situated, close to Varadero, with a spectacular beach layout. Hotel is a bit dated and in need of renovations. The week we were there the main building had no air conditionning. We we're lucky enough to be transferred to one of the free standing bungalows that were well laid out, clean and...cool. Staff is friendly. Food is average with the breakfast portion being the weakest link.

I loved it all!

I loved this resort, the staff were amazing. They allowed us to change rooms just to have a higher balcony and everything was taken care of promptly. The layout was awesome and the beach was amazing. I took part in many of the games and it really added some laughs to our trip. The food is what you could expect but I found many items and a la carte dinners to be quite good. I would go back anytime!

Will definitely return!!!!!

Got back 2 weeks ago. Travelled from Aug.28-Sept.11/2015. Sunwing staff AWESOME! Resort staff AWESOME! Alexis you are the best, always took good care of our mini-bar ! Shout out to Genny at reception! She rocks! Beach Breath Taking! Nautica staff SUPERSTARS! Love all 6 of them (Norbert, Rolando, Hector, Jorge, my Niño (Anthony) and Hello! Hello!) Beach bar awesome! They know how to take care of you! Animation was a lot of fun! "Trouble" is an awesome dancer! Pool bar at night, bartender is amaz [... read more]ing! Buffet staff are great! Shout out to Heity!!! 5 months pregnant and she was amazing!!!! Betsy at the lobby bar was great! And the Security staff, TOTALLY AWESOME! Shout out to Alexander, Nainyelt, Niño, Giovel, Eli, Jose, Jasmany and all the rest. They are discreet but always around. Always felt safe! Can't say it enough: they are TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! Stayed in the hotel, 4th floor, oceanview. Our chambermaid was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! Don't remember her name, but sounds like Marsy.... They turn off the AC in the rooms during the day. Goes back on around 7pm. Frustrating when you go to your room earlier. AC in Buffet barely works. Made it really difficult to sit and eat. Thank God for awesome staff! Unfair for them to work under those conditions. You must try , 10 minutes walking distance from Barceló, Meson del Quijote, as long as you have Lazaro as your waiter. You will meet him on the beach during the day! You must try Dante's and Varadero 60!!!! Before I forget, we met a few people that stayed in the bungalows and there was no issues with the AC. Because of the staff, we will definitely go back. Hopefully AC will be fixed.

Hotel needs improvement but....

Aside for the air condition that was turned OFF everyday from 10 am to 5 pm, so much for afternoon naps! The rest was good, the staff was amazing and the beach breathtaking! Dollars for value it was a great and fun trip!!!

Great Holiday in Cuba

We had a wonderful time, hotel was a really good location near the town of Varadero walking distance of 10 minutes. The hotel room was spacious and clean it was 4th floor ocean view so could see the sunsets from the balcony. Bottled water and beer put in fridge in room everyday and delightful to see what shape the maid had made with the towels after cleaning the room i.e. a swan or heart shape! The food was good, chefs at each meal cooked up fresh meats and eggs and pasta in front of you. The pa [... read more]stry/bread chef made the most delicious rolls, croissants and victoria sponge cakes. Good selection of fruits from mango to melons, guava and papaya every meal and the a la carte meal at the spainish restaurant was excellent. One of our party was vegetarian and this was catered to with no problem wherever we went. The beach and the sea of course was the best part of this trip, out of this world, clean clear warm water and clean beach and we were always able to find beds and umbrella to lie on and under. Entertainment at night was fun saw some excellent dancing shows, a michael jackson show and disco on the beach some nights. The guests ranged from families with children to a few elderly but mostly in the 20-30 age group. The staff were all lovely and helpful.

Amazing resort!!!

The hotel room was amazing always clean and the fridge is always stocked with water and beers and myself and my boyfriend had an amazing time. The food was not always the best but breakfast you can always find something to eat and lunch was not that bad either but if your an adventure you can always go to one of the many restaurants in town and they have amazing food at very lost cost.

Decent resort.

The food wasn't as bad as people were saying. Staff were very friendly and accommodating although a lot of problems with the ac not working in many rooms. The hotel was located conveniently near the city. The beach was absolutely beautiful! However, this hotel is not worth paying > 1000 dollars for.

Great beach resort

The beach is wonderful. Beach towels in rooms, we never got them changed in the 3 days we were there because they said they never had clean ones. Other than that excellent place to stay. Oh! No entertainment!

Absolutely Stunning Beach

My fiancé and I traveled to the Barcelo Solymar from June 27 to July 4th , 2015. When I first read the reviews for this resort, I was pretty terrified of what to expect when I arrived, but it is not nearly as bad as people have been making it out to be … some people you can just never please. Was it perfect … no … was it still enjoyable… absolutely. Let me start by saying the resort is a little run down in some areas, but not to the magnitude some make it out to be. I will say that th [... read more]ey are making efforts to be try and update / maintain their facilities. While we were there, we seen multiple different locations in the building being painted, new shower heads being put on the outdoor showers, the pool bar was renovated, fixed up and reopened while we were there and all the loungers by the pool appeared to be brand new. When we first arrived, the check-in was quick maybe a 10 minute wait, and the lady was very nice and polite. We were originally put into room 1260, unfortunately the air conditioner was not working, and because it was so hot we went right back down to reception and they happily changed our room to 1221 which was much better, the air worked pretty good and the bed was clean. I do have to mention that in our first room when I was checking the bed for bed bugs (which I thankfully did not find and), I did however notice quite a large white stain on the red box spring (you can take a guess at what it might have been … eeeek). The rooms are older but they are fine, our couch was black leather, and it was all torn up so they just threw a sheet on it to cover it … not very good for first impressions, but we are easy going so it didn’t bother us much. The maids were good, clean rooms but she only left hand towels to shower with, which was weird, I would recommend that larger towels are left in the room to shower with. The food as with most Cuban destinations was not the greatest, but they did put on a decent spread of food. My biggest complaint about the buffet was the lack of air conditioning, it was very warm and muggy every time we ate in the buffet whether it be breakfast lunch or dinner, and the doors were always open so flies would get in. We only got to try the Italian restaurant and it was ok, when we tried for Mexican and Japanese’s on other nights it was closed, but we didn’t try very hard to get the nights they were open so not a big deal. The positives of the trip was that the staff was friendly and the beach was absolutely gorgeous, probably the nicest beach I have ever seen. The crowd was a mixture of families with children and young adults. We are 29 and 33 so the noisy partying didn’t bother us much but it was definitely louder (at times) than most other resorts I have travelled to. Overall, if you are looking for luxury, fine dining and a quiet relaxing vacation, this is probably not the best resort for you, however if you are young and aren’t picky this is a reasonably priced decent resort. We had a good vacation, and for the price this is a good stay.

Probably wont return..to Barcelo Solymar

Barcelo Solymar Cuba.This was probably one of the worst vacations i have taken in my life. there were many negative things on and off the resort that happened, but i will only review the hotel experience. Keep in mind i am a very patient and understanding person but there is a limit. Anyway we arrived at the hotel a bit later at night and to a very long check-in line This was expected since i read in the reviews that this would happen. so after about half an hour in line we got to our room. We w [... read more]ere satisfied with the quality of the room aesthetically, but then after further exploration we found out that the shower door rusted so bad that it fell off once we opened the bathroom door. the balcony door was broken and would not close and the one thing that i wanted in a room was not there. AIR CONDITIONING. This is Cuba so at night it would be around 30 Celsius. we immediately went to reception to ask if they can fix it. They were quick in calling someone on the phone to fix and said there would be someone to fix it in 10 minutes. we gave them a tip for their help because we like to tip for good service. well 10 minutes turned to an hour and an hour turned to 2 hours. well you can imagine nobody showed up and it was around midnight and decided to sleep in the room sweaty and super uncomfortable. The next day we went down to ask what happened and they said there was nobody available to fix it and we couldn't switch rooms. once i heard that i knew this week would be terrible. So for the whole week it was scorching hot and we even opened the balcony door and it helped a little. but mosquitoes feasted on our blood and i am not exaggerating we got dozens and dozens of mosquito bites. The food at the hotel was reviewed to be bad and i am definitely not a picky eater but it was bad. I don't know they can mess up cooking rice, pasta and potatoes, you literally just have to boil it. So even though we got all inclusive at this "4 star" hotel we ate off resort every lunch and dinner. To be fair the breakfast was decent and had the most flavor, but we rarely were awake for those times. Now the staff, the staff were very polite and were super attentive but they had an ulterior motive. Every staff member from reception to security to waiters were looking for tips. If you did not tip them after they helped you they would not even look at you for the rest of the week, even if you made eye contact with them they would just ignore you. The good part of this vacation was that beaches which has nothing to do with the hotel. the pool was pretty good but the best part were the people on and off the resort. My group and I made many friends on the resort sometimes because of the negative things we had in common and the locals off the resort were pretty polite. All in all i would go back to Cuba but probably no to this hotel..

Nice beach but Horrible room

We knew the hotel rooms are in bad condition in Cuba so we paid for the suite bungalow which is the most expensive room we can get. But to our disappointment. the room is in very bad condition. No blow dryer, no iron. Bathroom is in very bad condition. Equivalent to the a one star hotel here in Canada. The bathroom ceiling collapse on us on the 4th day. The management actually wanted to just fix it while we are living there. But it was not fixable so they switched us to a cheaper room saying the [... read more]y have no other rooms available. Have fun at this hotel :)

Good resort, not for families or relaxing

This resort is close to town so it is a great location. The beach and grounds are wonderful. Recently, however, it seems to have gained the reputation of a party hotel, and this is noted every night with screaming and loud music at all hours of the night. The staff are wonderful everywhere, however with the party kids and too many locals now visiting this resort, the staff cannot keep up, and you end up waiting in line or walking through trash.

Good but not great this time.

So as everyone knows the resort food is not good, that is to be expected so that's that.But if your in your 20s to mid 30s and you want to party then all the time then this is the spot to go hands down.It was my second time going So I new what to expect, The only negative was that the pool bar was under construction and they don't have the beach bar with 24 hr drinks anymore.You really need to get those areas back up bc they are the social hubs of the whole resort.Other than that it was good tim [... read more]e's.

A beautiful resort and a very good time!!!

The resort was very pretty! The rooms were very clean and very spacious, the pools were great and the beach was amazing! I also loved that we could used paddle boats, sail boats and kayaks for free! The general buffet food was not good at all (but what do you expect with an all inclusive lol) but the "a-la cart" were awesome and whatever the chefs were cooking at the buffet was always good! For some reason the air conditioning was working on and off which was a bit annoying but when it was on it [... read more] was good!

All depends on what you are looking for

If you are 18-25 and looking to get drunk partying with 'bros' from Toronto, then this is the place for you. If you are anything but, then your time at Solymar won't be as much fun. Don't expect any miracles from the local cuisine. This is Cuba, eat what you need to eat in order to survive. Anyway, no one who goes to Cuba goes there for the fine dining. They go there for everything else it has to offer, which is above average relative to other resort destinations. And cheap. A huge bonus is th [... read more]e affiliation that Solymar has with Arenas Blancas next door. With a Solymar bracelet, you are entitled to pretty much everything that Blancas has to offer. The open bars, the restos, services... everything. This makes for a great escape if Solymar itself is overrun with 'Bros'. The '3' rating I gave Solymar should be taken with a grain of salt. It's all a matter of perspective. I'd go back. Although I'd book at Blancas instead and go over to Solymar should the 'Bro' element be at a minimum.