Amazing Lush Grounds & loved my 2 storey level bungalow SUITE in the bungalow villa! ♥ SO CUTE!

LOOK BEOFRE YOU BOOK @ www.youtube.com/@resortwalkthroughs BEACH=The beach here has a gentle decline into the sandy white turquoise ocean. ROOMS=I switched 3 suites before I was happy with mine. They were very accommodating, but my friend saw 2 cock roaches in his 2nd floor room (right above the 1st floor that is condemned) NONO!!! It took him 3 days to get the free upgrade to the top floor ocean view. MOST DEFINITELY DO NOT STAY ANYWHERE ON THE 1st floor, and try not to stay on the 2 [... read more]nd floor either. Get a bungalow suite= worth the money. The bungalow villa is fantastic!! NOTE* The difference between the bungalow and the bungalow suite is the bungalow suite has TWO floors with stairs and the bungalow does not. FOOD/DRINKS= we both loved the food and drinks here & NEVER went hungry! LOCATION= 10 minute walk to the Beatles Bar ( They play old rock n roll and metal here) NOT my style and the club called La Comparsita... Now we're talking!!! (Both downtown Varadero, a very short walk away ) HIT THIS CLUB UP ON A FRI OR SAT NIGHT ONLY. It's dead any other night. Also only pay $20 US and alcohol is all inclusive here that's right! Drink your ass off & get white girl wasted. (and they close late, with VIP upstairs for after hours. This club is octagon shaped with NO ROOF, with stage/live performers for part of the eve then DJ the latest hits (English and Spanish music combo)! Dance all night under the heat of the Cuban stars or dance in the warm rain...either way this club is a win 1000% ♥ SHOPPING= Do NOT bring debit cards or mastercards to the artisans vendors. They accept CAD$ US$ and Cuban pesos ONLY. You can take the hop on hop off bus that stops at each resort and through out the Varadero strip. It is $5 US but your bill must be new (they will NO accept any damaged/ripped/pieces missing money) You can ride this from morning till round 5:00 pm. ENJOY! Just got back from 11 days. Packed chocolate and nuts in my carry on. Brought a lil blanket and my own pillow. The blankets at this resort are the old brown scratchy ones... ICK. Go & enjoy, ask for what you need & want. Be assertive. This is YOUR trip you are paying them. Remember that.

Wonderful beach

The resort was very clean and the staff were wonderful the food was amazing and the "beach beautiful" my only complaint was there was very little entertainment, I have been to Cuba 16 times and this was very disappointing all the other times I have been there was always something to do on the beach in the discos and at the resort the only constant was bingo everyday :( the other problem was if there was something going no one knew where and when something was happening no announcements

“ The New Cuba”

Or at least that’s what the Sunwing agent tried to explain to me at the resort because there were no toilet seats in the main building washrooms ( in the men’s washrooms) I booked my trip through trip Central as always I looked at the pictures and trusted their 4 Star rating. I’ve been to Cuba well over 10 times so I know what to expect or what can be expected while I’m there. I go for the beaches, the weather and for the Cuban people. That said, I have never experienced such a. disappointing ho [... read more]liday in all of my travels to Cuba. We could not get my door to the room to close properly and the safe in my room wasn’t working. I lost the whole first late afternoon and evening., having to stay in my room while they worked on the safe which they were unable to fix . I lost numerous hours over the next two days having to wait in my room while they worked on my safe we’re having to travel to the lobby and wait on staff to come to my room with a key that would open my safe.. There was no water, hot or cold in my room on the first day or night, which happens in Cuba. However, they sent me to a hospitality room to have a shower and it was disgusting. There was no soap or shampoo, no towel and the room and shower hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. I asked my Sunwing rep for assistance i.e. moving to another room or another resort preferably. She told me that this was the new Cuba. That they can’t get toilet seats and things have changed a lot since Covid. I don’t think that she knew that I’d mean to Cuba five or six times post Covid and every resort had toilet seats, and had staffed that would clean rooms and provide towels, etc. She told me that if I was switching resorts, it would be my responsibility to cover the cost of transportation and differences in resource pricing. She was constantly looking over and agreeing with the hotel relations officer, and not supporting me at all. I’m travelling to Cayo Coco at the end of the month with a group of friends … it will be interesting to see what the conditions of the resort are there. The Solymar should be rated as a 3 - 3.5 at best. If you are recommending this trip, your client should be made aware of the conditions there

Barcello solamar

I'll start off by saying all the staff were great aseral is amazing guy who brought me to my room but all the front staff and security were great not big on the food but I ate out at restaurants mostly and I do understand it's tough for Cuba for things so very understandable .I'll be back again soon

Great resort for the money!!

The staff were great. The pools were also great. The beach and location were amazing. 2 min it's walk to the beach and 10 minutes walk to the best part of town. The food is not bad. The rooms are a little dated but worth the value.

Barcelo Good and Bad

Firstly the beach was wonderful and the staff was very friendly. The hotel itself was very clean. On the downside, like many resorts in Cuba, the food was not great. Tasteless and lacking in variety. They have five elevators. Only one was working and that was hit and miss. The desk chair in our room was broken. We reported it three times and nothing was ever done. The toilet did not flush properly. Overall, we had fun, but I don't think I would ever want to repeat the experience [... read more].

Worst hotel ever!!!!

I don't know where to begin, worst hotel ever ,first we had the 4th floor room washroom was disgusting the shower had a bathtub with rust,they changed our room to a bungalow we had creepy centipede's crawled into our room even in our bed and ant nest , dirty towel stinky beach towels only 2 bath towels per room bring your own toilet paper the lobby bathrooms have np paper and no toilet seats, ack of food and terrible food, drinks hilarious no fancy drinks all watered down pita Canada w [... read more]as the only drink that was close to normal, staff was very friendly except the cigar bar tender very rude ,if I asked for a fancy drink he laughed at me!!! Good luck booking this place is garentee you will hate it here!!! Don't waist your money

Be aware . Pictures doesn't mean always reflectsThousand words!!

Hotel :Barcelo SolyMar - Varadero Update :End of May/2025 Stay: 7 days Room: Upgraded Ocean View My feedback is not about what Pictures show: the Beach,how Close to shopping or Entertaiments is an opinion about the Resort itself. For such a large list of conveniences ,no locations are provided on arrival,instead Discover at own time. Reception was approached 4 consecutives days for : Room Service: Private Ocean View Balcony: Heavy Sliding Door with no Exterior handle making it ver [... read more]y hard to operate . Minibar: No existance Mini Fridge: for storage of Fresh daily bottle of water provided. Flatscreen TV: Poor Quality images if any. Just 1 Bottle of Water Housekeeping : Bed Sheets:Don't get replaced same for Toilet Paper unless you ask often. Faucets partially blocked providing minimum water pressure. Facilities: Elevators Stoped working mecanically for 3 out of 7 days.The use of Stairs denoted "loose" glass-metal railings,unsafe to lean .They were aware of this too but un-resolved Service: for " A la Carte" Meal reservation , only 1 hr per day provided to make reservations,if you miss out ,choice for Buffet : Here is were Services stand out: for 3 days we did not know of other places but the one across from Reception ( no others were disclosed to us) we hardly found kindness and quality of basic services,unless.... you Tiped ! Once seated with food on the table: delayed Utensils,Napkins, Water or Juice ;Wines & Drinks are diluted too. Not a pleasant experience,since Management didn't acknowledge our concers and Act on them. Does it really Feels they care ?? Name withheld.

Very poor, no sanitary measures

This hotel is very large. There were very few canadian tourists when I was there. Lots of Russians and cubans. Several people including myself got food poisoning from the buffet food. When I pointed this out to the assistant manager Christian he blamed me saying I drank too much. And seem to care little. At one point he mention that he had a mild case of diarrhea and it must be something in the air. Idiot.

Family Trip

We had an excellent trip The hotel is a little dated The villas were very helpful when you have most of your family with you very spacious while we are there, they were working on the hotel, which was good to see trying to make things up-to-date the people were amazing they made you feel very welcome we had no issues with the food. beach was beautiful. All in all the hotel was comfortable I would definitely go back.

Barcelo solymar

Would NOT recommend this hotel. Ran out of towels. And toilet paper. It’s old and needs renovation. Ran out of rum and whisky every night. Including mojito mint for drinks. Was only at 40% capacity. Rooms were super old beds very uncomfortable would NOT recommend

Good Location

Great location, walking distance to downtown varadero, the food shortages in Cuba really shows at this resort not a lot of options but it was fine, I suggest hitting some of the great restaurants downtown much better quality, older hotel but clean, service was fantastic, beds very comfortable, beach is great as well, it was pretty quiet for march as a lot of people are reluctant to go to Cuba due to the shortages but things are fine there! Good relaxing vacation

Terrible

Should have listen to reviews and stayed home. Worst vacation ever in 20 years. Stay away and safe your money. We are not fussy but this was the worst of the worst. Nothing to eat, no bars at beach, no entertainment….on and on and on

Amazing resort

Terril & Ken we there at the barcelo solymar Jan. 21 to Feb. 4, 2025. This is our third time at the resort. All the staff is friendly & very helpful they try their best all the time. We had a wonderful time met lots of fun nice people. We stayed in the bungalows very nice spot very quiet beautiful hedge with red flowers leading to your spot. All the gardens we immaculate the staff work so hard every day to make this happen. We always found something great to eat & all the special restaurants to  [... read more]book were all great too. We walked on the beautiful beach everyday. We had great weather. We enjoyed our vacation there & will definitely come back.

Good

Hî everything was good ´for the hotel just with sun wing i take upgrade for seat elite plus and it’s worst service I have ´I pay 140.00 for service and I pay for no service thsnks norm 514 895 6185 and they sell seat for 30.00 on the plane si I been screwed

Very nice resort

Remember it’s Cuba and you need to know that befaure you go lol. In saying this our hotel was very nice rooms were clean staff friendly food plentifull the beach is amazing. But Cuba is by not a country with everything were us to there you can’t just go out to the store and buy apples oranges bone steaks you get what’s available but it’s good and you won’t go hungry. If you go for a walk into Varadero do bring toilet paper with you as there probably won’t be any in public washrooms oh and no toi [... read more]let seats either not kidding but it’s funny lol

Awfull Hotel

Thanks for requesting our review for the Barcelo Sokymar hotel at Varadero. We are not happy at all with this hotel. Our room (1128) was invaded by cockroaches. The food quality and variety was very poor. They were short of sugar, and veggies. No lettuce, no tomatoes, carrots, etc. The only vegetable for salads in the buffet was cogombers and raw pumpkin. We got sick with diarrea 4 of our 7 days in the hotel. Same apply for the drinks. As juice the use to serve a mix of a little bit of  [... read more]juice with water and honey. We were expecting 4* quality on the food. The towels were dirty ans short. Finally, the pools where not clean and use to smell bad, so we did not use them at all.

Terrible resort

I have been to the resort a few times and it has never been up to the standards it used to have. It is only the staff( which I have become close friends with) that there is a reason to go there. The pool had to be closed one day because the water was green and cloudy and had to be cleaned. Buffet was below standard as was expected ( ate off resort most days).I was in a bungalow which was fine but heard the main hotel rooms were pretty bad. This was my 25th trip to Varadero so I knew what to expe [... read more]ct.

Amazing resort

It was my 6th time going to that resort and I love it. Love the people, love the beach and the food was ok. It was my second time this year going and I will definitely go back. I just wish that they would do more activities at the beach! But overall I love it!!!!

Old and run down

The hotel is in need of some major renovations, our room had paint peeling off the ceiling, dressers that wouldn't open, rust or black mold around the tub,maid service that didn't change towels or sheets all week,(had to request towels when we got there and no beach towels while others had them ) elevators out of service, Not impressed.