Barceló Solymar

I enjoyed my stay due to several reasons. The place is better than the next door hotel. The buffet is great if you go there at opening. I uploaded photos one hour after opening... it is pathetic... It is great that they give access to Havana Club and that includes free drinks there also. The night entertainment is great, the dancers are exceptionally talented and committed. (Still in the theatre room the water is permanently leaking from the ceiling in 3 places... it is crazy... On the beach there is no bar - really not OK... Otherwise it is a nice place and some staff are nice too. I will return. Thanks.

Let me first say I’ve been to Varadero before so this review does not apply to Varadero or Cuba as a whole. The positives: beach and ocean is gorgeous! A “few” staff were great (read the not so great for more). Best food so far is Cuba! The NOT so positives: the hotel is run down, smells like urine in spots, public area washrooms were deplorable, mould on reception ceiling and it was visibly leaking! Our first room had a leaky ceiling with a huge puddle on floor...went to reception to move rooms and got the “eye roll” from reception staff (not warm or friendly). Moved rooms to one that was ok but we had hundreds of bugs (sand ants) everywhere (yes in our beds as well)! We came home with bites all over us. We had to call 4-5 times for a blanket (didn’t want our son sleeping on it after seeing hundreds of bugs on it. You have to call repeatedly to get any kind of service!!! Lastly... this is advertised as a family resort. Beware!!! This is a party place!!! Excessive drinking and ppl throwing up and passing out in pool area ... one person had a blow up s** doll in the pool. Not cool at all since we had our 12 yr old son with us.

We travelled to the hotel May 9-12. We flew as a group of friends (17 of us) with Sunwing and took the bungalow room upgrade option. On our first night I discovered the window to the room would not lock and after carefully studying the cause I realised it just required the lock striker to be adjusted. Since I did not bring a screwdriver on this trip I asked the front desk to send the handyman to make the adjustment. When he showed up he had no tools and said nothing could be done till the next day. I was reluctant to leave any valuables in the room as the safe did not work either. The next morning I waited 20 min in line at front desk to ask about the safe and window to be corrected. The front desk ladies have absolute no concept of customer service and just ignore you while you wait there. They think I do not speak the language and so they carry on about their weekends when customers should be waited on. My roommate was with me and he speaks fluent Spanish and knew exactly what was being said. I was informed this was the wrong lineup to complain about issues yet the night before a staff member recorded the issues at the same counter. Weird!! Evidently only one room key works the safe so if you have 2 keys you should be told that upon check-in. This never happened. The window was never fixed the entire week and I ended up jamming 2 coat hangers into the track to prevent it from being opened. The second day electric power was out for 8 hours and no running water in the rooms due to a major rain storm. This of course is no fault of the hotel but upon the hydro coming back we noticed the A/C did not work and we had no hot water. I returned to the front desk and again just couldn’t seem get the ladies to do much. I was told the hotel is at capacity and perhaps the next day we could get moved. On the way back to the room I noticed a cart with water bottles and since we had water issues and no bottle was provided in the room I decided I would take one off the cart. I wanted to brush our teeth and be able to have something to drink. An employee approached me and berated me for taking the water and demanded I give it back. He told me a bottle would be given but never even asked my room number. Brutal service considering I helped myself to water!! In chatting with our friends they had similar experiences of no hot water, NO WATER period or no hydro for 2 days. Some of their rooms were flooded extensively. The grounds smelt of sewage, the quiet pool was completely green and unusable. Since we had no running water we tried to use the main lobby bathrooms. All but one was out of order and no paper to be found anywhere. Finally I complained to the Sunwing rep and he was able to track down the manager and get some issues sorted out. I spent the better part of a whole day in trying to solve the room issues. We were offered a room in the main building and after inspecting it I decided to stay put as it was significantly more worn looking than the bungalows. In 7 days we never had anyone show up to fix the window. A/c worked maybe for a day or 2 only. The hot water never worked the entire time we were there. Showering with cold water after you’ve been out in the sun all day is quite a shock to the body. In closing its worth mentioning the beach is beautiful and Karen at the pool bar was a huge highlight. She made some fantastic lounge drinks all week. I have been to Cuba many times before and understand the rooms can be lacking but the hospitality would make up for the shortcomings.

Power Issues in all 3 of our rooms. No hot water. No Water Pressure. They do not send anyone to fix it despite how many times you ask them to. Finally after 2 days they tell you that you can switch rooms to one thats slightly better. Food was ok for Cuba... but the guys at the pasta station roll your eyes when you ask for fresh pasta (which is clearly a service they tell you they provide). Beach is nice though and the bartenders are great. Check the dates of any reviews you read... its changed a lot over the years

This time we stayed in the bungalows. They were very niece. The beach was perfect as usual with no evidence of the hurricane. I was only able to use crutches to get around due to an injury. But all the life guards were very healpful and always made sure I had a chair to sit on.