Occidental at Xcaret Destination: Amazing Time!

This hotel is currently under renovations as we knew about this before we went and contrary to what others have wrote on Trip Advisor the construction was NO BIG DEAL. Unless you plan to sleep all day in your room in which case you may hear some of the banging but otherwise the noise is limited to 10-5 everyday. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous, monkeys, birds, flamingos as you walk around the resort. The pools are spotless and the entertainment staff at the activities pool are a blast and s [... read more]o accommodating (especially Marialuna and Ali). The food was really good and selection of restaturants (and the fact that you do not need to make reservations in advance - this was a first for us) was amazing. There was food choices for everyone - even the pickiest of eaters. Bars and bartenders and servers were phenomenal and would serve top shelf booze if requested and always with a smile. We had pool side service and an amazing server (Noemi) who always made sure we were taken care of. I would and will definitely go back to this resort. My only complaint if I had one was the beach and it is small (but we knew that going in and made the best of it).

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Barcelo chain of resorts is huge!

We stayed at the Colonial which has the authentic Mexican look (as did the Tropical buildings) They are clean and well kept but older looking and if authentic is what you want, then choose either of those two. If you want more modern looking I would choose the Caribe or Beach resort. We didn't stay at those, but from the outside it looked more modern with ceramics tiles and less traditional looking. When you stay at one you have access to the main hub of them all. Each hotel has its own lob [... read more]by/check in etc. but they are all connected with TONS of walking and beach front. There is a double decker bus to take you to each of them should you need a ride. There is one more resort but its exclusive for those who have tons of extra money to spare. Its called the Royale Palace Deluxe. They do have access to the other four though. You get free Wi-Fi in the mall/shopping area each day from 10am to 1pm only! You can pay extra if you want all access though. The buffet was ok....breakfast was good since you can't go wrong with fresh eggs and toast plus a huge assortment of stuff to choose from. Lunch & dinner buffet was touch and go. For those looking for a huge assortment but not fussy on taste...its good. The a la carte restaurants were the best food and it was awesome!! You have to go to the Tokyo Japanese for the great presentation and food!!! The ONLY place open to eat 24/7 was the "sports bar" located at the 6/10Caribe section of the mall. If I had to rate those snacks it would be 6/10. If you like runny cheese on your nachos its good for you then. Can't go wrong with the all you can drink booze/drinks though. Although each bartender makes them different!! Pools close at dark, which was around 6pm...so if you are looking for something to do after dark...good luck! Unless you are into a party you can check out Jaguars' night club (we didn't but its a night club, not much to explain). Each night at 9:30pm they have a 45 minute show, different each night. Excursions...you have to do the ALLTOURNATIVE tours they were amazing! We did two...one was atv/zipline/maya jungle walk and swimming in a cenote. The other was a mayan village tour/lunch/walk, zip line, repel into a cenote and bike ride to see mayan ruins in coba. amazing!!! Overall I would give this resort a 4 not a 4.5 but we had a great time. Our kids are 11,14,16 and there was no teens/kids club so they were bored after the pool closed. We would visit again, but just the two of us. If you have younger kids, they have a kiddie pool/water slides and a kids club which looked great for young ones. Oh, and if you can speak Spanish that is an asset because the front desk staff (all two of them at any given time) they speak a little bit of English. The bar tenders know drink names and that is about it. Maids/other workers won't even look at you so unless you know Spanish, don't bother asking them for anything. I had to ask front desk 3 times after trying to ask maid staff for a face cloth for 3 days. Just minor things, but if you need anything good luck getting it! Also, the communication between each resort isn't the same. I asked my front desk staff what the theme at the show was for that night, at the other resort and they had no idea. Vice versa, I asked them a question about the "water park" and they had to call them and still got no answer. Mixed messages and lots of walking in the heat to find out was frustrating. The pirates waterpark costs $15 USD for one day use per person. It has a few small waterslides and a surf simulator. No shade really though so put on your sunscreen. It was open 9-5pm. It was fun for one day for our kids.

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Great resort !

My wife & I spent one week @ Barcelo Maya Colonial Beach .This was one of the best places we've ever visited. Great place for singles,couples and family.No lineups in restaurants and very good food.Rooms are extremely clean. Looking forward to going to this place again,but this time for more than seven days.

Barcelo Solymar: Amazing resort

The room always gets cleaned by housekeepers. Although there were some things that need fixing such as the light fixture, toilet seat, hair dryer at the room we stayed. Other than that service is pretty good. Food is alright. But my overall experience has been fantastic and I would definitely come back and recommend it to my friends and family

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Something for Everyone

First impression, this resort is extremely clean and beautiful. The lobby is elegent and spacious with lush gardens throughout the resort. The rooms were large and very nice. We went Premium, but would not go that route again. Some things we did not get with that package, so not worth the extra money. Pools are clean and lots of room to find a chair or your own little space. The beach is long and tons of room for a lounger or a nice long walk. Gorgeous sun rises here every morning. Yes [... read more] there are tons of rocks and coral in the water, but we were able to find space to walk in without hitting the rocks and loved the clear blue water. The water activities were plentiful and easy to use and lots of fun. The staff were nice, but again would not go Premium again as they were not overly helpful and customer service is not a priority at all. The buffets were actually better than the al al carte's as there was much more selection and better tasting. The exception was the Mexican restaurant where they served extremely good food and they were very attentive.

Barcelo Bavaro Beach: Great golf holiday!

Just returned from a week at the Barcelo Bavaro Beach. Golfed every morning and spent every afternoon at the beach. Loved everything about this resort and the Palace next door whose amenities we shared. Pretty much every activity or sport is available there. The golf course was fantastic, the beach beautiful. Super clean. Walk to the beach from any part of the hotel is never more than a minute or two. Only negative and not bad enough to stop me from going again, was the wine in the buff [... read more]et restaurants both at lunch and dinner was undrinkable. We drank beer after the first day. Coffee service at all meals was also very slow to non existent.

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Amazing as usual

we have been to this resort 6 times and it did not disappoint! Many upgrades and service and food were fabulous. I would not recommend the bowling however. Very poorly run. Did not have shoes to fit the children and then offered bumpers on our 10th frame....geez thanks! We also were never asked if we wanted a beverage or snack which is included! When paying $15/person you kind of expect some service.

Barcelo Maya Caribe: awesome resort

we have been going to this resort for 10 years it never disappoints biggest draw for us is the amazing beach no complaints ...staff is friendly and helpful rooms are clean and food is good. have stayed at all sections of this resort except the palace.

Occidental at Xcaret Destination: Twice Lucky, Great times

The Occidental at Xcaret Destination is a great place to visit especially if you like excursions they are so close to everything that you will never run out of things to do. The food is amazing, my favorite the Steakhouse went twice for the sirloin. The pool is huge with a great swim up bar the only down side to that is the wonderful waterfall over the bar it looks great but you can't get away from the bar without a watered down drink. The staff are always friendly and eager to help. The one dow [... read more]nside to this resort and I find it with many is the constant request to be a part of the vacation club, the "free" gift you will get but only if you do a tour and sit through a sales presentation. It gets tiring and eventually just a nuisance. But for good food, clean room, great swimming and even safe snorkeling on the beach the Occidental is perfect.

Occidental Caribe: Better than expected !

Stayed @ the Barcelo Punta Cana from Oct22-29th My wife and I went there for a family wedding. We have been to Punta Cana many times and usually stay @ 5 star resorts.This resort was listed at 3-1/2 to 4 star so my exoectations were not high ! We were pleasantly surprised as the hotel turned out to be better than we expected.The rooms while on the small size are well kept with a very comfortable bed. The beach and pool areas were very good and the grounds beautiful and well kept. The food  [... read more]in the buffet was O.K. but a little on the bland side ( more spices required )abd sevice needed was sadly lacking. The a la carte restaurants were pretty good and had good meals at the French, Japanese & Italian retaurants. One complaint I had read about before going was that check in was very slow and that turned out to be true. They need to improve in that regard ! The service overall was O.K. and I would recommend trying to learn a couple of Spanish words, goes a long way to getting better service. Most of the staffs English is @ a minimum though we did meet some who were quite fluent. The hotel did an excellent job for the wedding day and a fun day was had by all as we danced under the stars on the beach after the ceremony & meal !! Wanted to mention that this resort is being taken over by the Occidental chain in December, so there was a lot of renovations being done on rooms/hotel. The noise bothered some people but you have to appreciate the improvements they are making. I would recommend this hotel for people not requiring 4-5 star treatment but a nice getaway !

Occidental Caribe: Solid 3 star Hotel

Check in is a very slow process. Better at late arrivals. I would like to clarify the “Blocks” of the hotel. “Blocks” are sections, but all connected through 1 horseshoe shaped building. Wheelchair accessible. Although some elevators didn’t work, others did, So you can still get everywhere. Hotel has a great friendly staff. Very clean rooms and public washrooms throughout the resort. Our room was perfect, (Block 6/ 2nd floor) balcony facing the pool, pool bar and ocean,  [... read more]although others in our party weren’t so lucky. Some had mold in their room, some had broken shower heads, and some were placed on construction floors. Block 3 is above the buffet dining room, so quite noisy early mornings (6 am) preparing for breakfast. Food is ok, a little bland, but ok. Beef is quite tough! Stick to chicken, pork, and pasta. Breakfast was always amazing!!! Fantastic chocolate croissants, omelets, pancakes, French toast and fresh fruit. A la carte restaurants are not all opened daily, so try to go to the French, Japanese and Italian Restaurants. You are able to make your reservations daily. Reservation office opens at 7 am. Weekends the resort is opened to the locals, so it gets very busy! Try to stay away from The buffet on weekend dinners. Crazy busy!!! Drinks are not so great. House wine is absolutely AWFUL!!! Wine drinkers beware!!! You can purchase a decent bottle of wine ($40) No real juice other than cranberry juice. Orange, pineapple and fruit juices are a sort of powdered tang. Don’t expect to have yummy chill blended tropical drinks. They do serve Pina Coladas but from a pre-made mix slush machine. Cappuccinos are amazing!!! Very, very good!!! Pools are clean and well maintained. Doesn’t really have an adult pool, but the one without the swim up pool bar is quieter and more relaxing than the other. Beach is very nice with lots of lounge chairs available in the sun or the shade. We were here for a friend’s wedding. (54 guests) They did a fantastic job with all wedding preps, although most were at extra costs to the bride and groom. All in all, the resort is a good and solid 3 star. If you get a good deal on your trip, (around $1000) you will be happy, just don’t pay extra to upgrade because then you will be disappointed. Upgrades aren’t any better than regular. Some in our group paid almost ($1500.) and had the same as we did. But if you want a clean, friendly, and safe vacation at a reasonable price, then this is a great one. If you are looking for a 5 star, get pampered all week, white glove treatment, well, don’t come here.

Occidental Caribe: Great resort

I found the resort very clean and well maintain.Service was very good from wait staff to house cleaning. they had lots of activities for every age. The beaches are the best I have see. Food was good not great but very good.

Royal Hideaway Playacar: Fantastic Getaway!!!

Just got back from this amazing resort!! It was our second time there and we were still impressed !! Fantastic food and service!!! The resort is a perfect place to go to escape the busy world !!! The rooms and resort are very very clean !!! Our concierge Edgar was amazing and very good at his job!! Down on the beach we had Igor to greet us and help us every morning and all day long !!! The other guys were fantastic too....David, Javier, and so many more!!!!! The beach is one of the best we hav [... read more]e had !!! I would highly recommend this resort if you want peace and quiet and fantastic food and service !!!!

Barcelo Solymar: 4th and LAST time @ this resort...

Spent last week at Barcelo solymar in Varadero. This was my 4th time to this resort. It has been 3 years since previous stays and many things have changed... When we arrived at 11am on the Saturday we were told that our room would be ready for 4pm which is the check in time, fair enough. Well they didn't end up giving us our room till 5pm and at this time I asked to confirm it had a king size bed and the receptionist lady replied with I dunno... I told her this was my 4th visit to this resort [... read more] and that didn't even phase her. It's like she didn't even care. We stayed in a bungalow and the room was terrible. Air conditioning only worked half the time, no remote for the TV, you could feel every spring in the mattress and the pillows were rolled up hard foam. We had the worst sleeps of our life. The washrooms in the lobby were under construction only leaving 1 public washroom in the hotel for everyone. This washroom or the ones at the pool bar never had any toilet paper either. The service at the buffet/all the bars/cafe were terrible. Took forever to order anything and seemed like you were inconveniencing them. My last complaint is the ignorant vacationers there... 80% just butt in front of you at the front desk and in the buffet lines. Maybe my Canadian manors should have been left at home. The only positive thing I have to say about this trip is the beach and ocean were great and the lifeguards are always great to chat with Andy & John. (Erick previous years ago) Barcelo Solymar I had fun past years at your resort but you will NEVER see me return again after last weeks terrible stay.

Occidental Caribe: Great views!!

The staff was very friendly. The food was okkay. The views are amazing. Only sad part was the hotel was in the middle of renovations and change of owners and it was felt in service from the front desk and in the cleanliness of the rooms

Occidental Arenas Blancas: Aweful Resort

The Solymar made you feel very unwelcome. The staff was not happy at all and treated you like they had better things to do. The resort was nice looking from the lobby and the rooms were nice but, that was it. All of the washrooms on the main level where the restaurants and coffee bar were, were always dirty and had no paper. You had to go to your room to use the washroom. In the bathroom in your room you had no water pressure to shower and the water temperature was always tepid. The food i [... read more]n the buffet was always cold. We made sure we were the first in line one night to see if we could get hot food but, it was all cool. The buffet also never changed. The same cold food and cold desserts. We went to Cuba last year and stayed at Grand Memories and the atmosphere was much better. They treated you like they really enjoyed having you there. The food was typical Cuban food but was hot and changed nightly in some way. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

Barcelo Solymar: I wanted to go home!

We recently traveled with Transat Holidays for a week (October 2 – 9, 2016) at the Barcelo Solymar in Varedero, Cuba. The tour representative Mayelin was wonderful. She was resourceful, welcoming, approachable and kind. Unfortunately, as much as she advocated for us with the hotel, she just could not overcome the deplorable standards of the hotel. After all our past positive experiences with Transat we feel very let down with the Barcelo Solymar. In fact, we actually feel for the first time [... read more], that Transat has deceived us. We booked two bungalow rooms and had the following issues; • Neither room had a coffee maker, ironing board or iron as stated on the Transat Holiday website. It took 3 days to get a coffee maker in both rooms. In one room the coffee maker they provided us did not work. They also did not provide spoons, sugar or even coffee mugs for one of the rooms. It also took four days to get an iron and ironing board. • When we arrived one of the rooms mini bars was not stocked as stated on Transat Holidays website. Twice during the week, the same mini bar (water, beer, soft drinks) was not stocked. • In one room the bed only had a bottom sheet and blanket. No top sheet for the first two days. • When arriving back in to one of the rooms the drapery rods and drapes had fallen from the wall and were laying on the floor. • There was two days without water. We were using the small trash containers from the room to fill up with pool water to flush the toilet. We also had issues with other parts of the hotel as well; • During the entire week, we were there none of the public washrooms had soap, paper towels or working hand dryers. • Per the Transat Holidays website were we suppose to able to use the facilities at Arenas Blanca, however, the resort was closed. • Hence, we were expecting 5 al a carte restaurants (2 at the Barcelo Solymar and 3 at Arenas Blanca) however there we only two open for the entire week as the Arenas Blanca was closed. • Twice we went to the pool bar and it was closed a few hours before the actual hours it was suppose to be open. Also, although your website stated 24 hour unlimited domestic and select international drinks we could only get beer after the other bars closed.

Occidental Arenas Blancas: Horrible Resort - Could not wait for Vacation to end

Was at the Barcelo Solymar Obtober 19-26 with our family. It was a group of 6 ranging in age from 20-70. Our group had all traveled to Cuba previously at least once and most more that one trip. Me personally I love Cuba, the people, Culture. If the Solymar was my first trip to Cuba I probably would have never gone back and all members of our group feel the same. The upside. Although slightly larger than what I would prefer the grounds were very nice. Well landscaped and overall well kept. Th [... read more]ere was some roofing work going on but that was well contained and never a problem. The Downside... 1) Staff. Considering one of the things I love about Cuba over most other "Resort" destinations we have visited is the people. The Staff at this place are horrible. Outside of 1 or 2 people we came across the staff were very unfriendly and not very Helpful. At many times the staff were down right rude. Case in point, on our last day our 20 year old decided to get a manicure while we waited for our departure. After the manicure the woman said she needed to pay at front desk. So my wife went with her to pay as her nails were still wet. she stood there for 20 minutes while 3 different people would not take the money telling her it was the other woman's job. My wife finally said that she did not care whos job it was she just needed to pay. At which point a woman walked up snatched the bill and the cash out of her hands without saying a word and walked away. This type of experience was evident throughout the resort by all levels of staff. 2) Rooms - The safe in our room was half ripped out of the wall and only held on by one bolt, The sliding patio doors were so sticky it took 2 people to open them. Both our room and our Daughters room the handles on the sliding doors were broken and not usable. Hot water was something we had none of the whole week nor water pressure. Generally in resorts we are used to low water pressure but at least can get by with a warm shower. The water in all 3 rooms never got to even warm status. Again we tried moving showers around hoping to find some point in the day or night where we could get pressure or warm water. But never happened. We were on 4th Floor in main Building and pretty much every light bulb was missing in the hallway that connected our rooms and he elevator. Which left you trying to find your room in complete blackness most nights. 3)Food Everyone knocks the food in Cuba, we always knew what we were getting and had never had issue on previous trips. We always knew stick to fish and pork and it would be generally a decent meal. This trip set an all new low in quality of food. The selection was so repetitive but worse was it was always freezing cold. We tried hitting at the start of dinner, middle and end and it made no difference. The food was cold and poorly prepared. Again we always found a positive at every other resort we have stayed at in Cuba. But by final day we just stopped eating. Ala carte - We had Mexican and Italian. They were both at least hot meals but nowhere near the quality we had elsewhere in Cuba both on resorts and off. Entertainment - the nightly shows resembled more young school children putting on a made up show for their parents. A Cast of Dancer's walking around lip syncing songs they don't know the words to becomes tiresome show after show. Which is a bit of a shame since a number of the dancers were actually quite talented. If they had allowed them to dance to the numbers rather than pretend they were the original artist it might have been quite good. We are used to traveling in low season as my wife and my anniversary is in this time period. But there is nothing to do at this resort after the show ends. Pool Bar, Lobby Bar, Cigar Bar all close. Leaving the Disco which was so bad that even most the younger crowd chose to sit out in the dark by the pool with their own blue tooth speakers. Which led me to discover passed out drunks laying around the pool when i would go for a morning walk at 6:00am. Which has you wonder what security actually was doing. But also lead us to returning to our rooms by 11:00pm wishing there was something else to do.

Barcelo Solymar: Good

Good for vacation everything was ok nice place for fans and relaxing......................... .. .......................... .................................... ..... ................................. ok

Barcelo Bavaro Beach: Awesome resort!!

Everything is this resort was very clean. The rooms were cleaned by the maids everyday. The workers at the reception understood english very well and I had no problems talking to them. Checkin and out were very quick. Everyone at this resort was very friendly. You could go off resprt and walk around and no really bothers you. The beach was awesome! Warm water and clean sand the whole time I was there. The food was very good and they had a lot of different foods every day. Love the people in the  [... read more]entertainment group. They were very good at getting people involved!