Varadero, Barcelo Solymar Beach Resort

I was in the Barcelo Solymar Hotel and I have to say that the overall service is really pitying. First it has so strict schedules that it seems more a concentration champ than a five star hotel. There are times in the day where you will not find where to eat. A la carta restaurants are only open in the evening, never during the day. To eat there, you have to book them and you can do it a limited number of times depending on your stay duration. For example, for one week, you can only book twice! The result is that you have almost forced to eat always at the buffet restaurant, full of people. Every day the same food. No variety. Hygiene is not preserved. After 5 days I ended up with a diarrhea. The meals are pretty cold and most are fatty. Breakfast is even worse. Coming on Friday and leaving next Friday only on Thursday I noticed a little improvement. The food is very poor anywhere you go. The Italian restaurant is not that good and the Sea Food restaurant is very limited. I didn't had the chance to eat in the creole restaurant. But, I suppose it's not better.

The hotel has no discotheque. Just the seafood restaurant transform into it after 11 PM. The room service is inexistent. Staff never answer. In a week, my girlfriend was never able to call the room service.

Not only the open bar closes a midnight (!!!), but drinks are fully loaded with lemon juice, and very little rum, vodka, etc. The tendance of the staff to give as less as possible is accented on the bar, contrary of most other all inclusive hotels, which are generous in this respect. If you want to drink a whisky, you have to pay for it as well as other valuable beverage. And almost any cocktail, have at least 75% of lemon juice (not natural and very disgusting), 15% of alcohol and 10% of all other ingredients.

The rooms are not very clean, sometimes the waiters even forget to clean it.

The staff is quite rude, the service is not good at all. Despite of its five-star, don't expect luxury at all.

And finally, smoking is allowed EVERYWHERE, except the buffet. In spite of the Cuban law issued on 2004 about smoke interdiction which is applicable to *any* closed public space, in the Barcelo Solymar, smoking is actually permitted.

Conclusion: too many people, the organization is null, the service and the food are very poor, all the included services are cut as much as possible.

I really wonder how a serious chain such as Barcelo could make a 5-star hotel and transform it into a 2-3 stars quality at most. It's really incredible. I had another concept about Barcelo and I surely will never return in any of their hotels, everywhere in the world.

Or, maybe the hotel belongs now to Gran Caribe only (a Cuban chain). In this case, I wonder as well, because they cannot use the name of Barcelo to maintain such as incredibly poor hotel. Barcelo should bring a suit against Grand Caribe to use their name and ruin their reputation, if this is the case.

Anyways, don't go at Barcelo Solymar Hotel. It doesn't worth the price in any case. If you are looking for a nice hotel in Varadero, go instead at Melia Las Americas hotel or any other Melia. It's really superior, even if it's a bit more expensive, but it really worth each extra dollar you may spend.

I had the time of my life at Barcelo Solymar. The week just flew by and it was a party the entire time. It's a great place for the 18-30 year old crowd due to it's proximity to all the clubs in Varadero. The only negative thing I can say is that the food in general was nothing spectacular, but there was always something good to eat. The a-la-carte restaurants are much better than the buffet. This was my 4th time in Varadero and I would not consider any other hotel on my next visit.

The Barcelo Solymar Beach Resort is in my opinion extremely poor. Some staff are rude and the facilities are very basic. I could write a ten page diatribe about all the specific incidents and faults we encountered but I can't be bothered.

Take plenty of money to tip, because in our case we only got a decent service when you tipped.

The hotel is full of Canadians, because a holiday that cost us £3000 in the UK can be bought for £500 in Canada.

In summary, if you have booked to stay at this hotel, my advice is not to go and cancel it whilst you still can, I do not recommend this.

Don't stay at the Solymar!

my partner and i enjoyed the holiday at Barcelo Solymar Beach Resort alot we had read bad reviews before going and were a bit worried but all disappeared when we got there. The food is lovely and very varied and the rooms are spacious and excellent. The beach and weather can't be beaten the water is like stepping into a bath, and Varadero boasts the best beaches on the island. The only down side we found was that staff and shops do require tipping ALOT because cuba is a poor country the residents rely on tourists tipping to make up their wages. Overall this hotel is lovely and i recommed it to all.