Was at the Barcelo Solymar from jan 28 - feb 4. Clean room (facing the street) and quiet. Service very good from reception to maid, bar and restaurants. Tiped little but smiled and a bit of spanish words here & there did go a long way with personnel. Beach absolutely FABULOUS , no seaweeds and looooong stretch up and down to walk. The only reason I gave 3 out of 5 star is the ''food''. I will not go in details but enough to say they need cooks!!. Does'nt matter if certain kind of meat or veggies are not available, the ones that are should be well prepared and tasty. Voila!
P.S. Still would go back again, but diner outside the hotel.

The buffet food was terrible nothing in the buffet was edible and everyone that we had talked to agreed no flavor and no taste and I can eat almost anything and at the pool they served raw hotdogs and hamburgs and greecy fries, now you were allowed two lacarte dinners if you could find the place that gave you a ticket to get in because no one seemed to know anything about it .it's a big secret and when you get there it might be sold out ,but they were exellent, the steak house and the itilian but that is only two meals a week ,a great place to go to if you on a crash diet ,a lot of rude staff and the cabs never have change and even the bank would not give you back canadian money ,so now your stuck with pecos you don't need ,in the room you are only allowed one roll of toilet paper a day and only if the roll is gone which after eating at the buffett ,you will need alot of paper ,not even a 3 star ,and I will never go again or recommend anyone to go especially when you pay $1125.00 canadian,

let’s be honest here if you do your homework before going on vacation you will not what kind of food to expect and what kind of service. I just got back from Barcelo 2 days ago. I knew that it wouldn’t be a luxury resort so i didn’t have high expectations... If you go on vacation to eat all day next time choose a 5 star in other countries and don’t go to Cuba you won’t get amazing food there in a 4 star resort that’s for sure and everyone knows that. This resort was a party resort as promised the food was ok and the service was fine too. Staff could smile a little more but i just don’t exactly care if they smile to me or not as long as they do what i asked them. The beach and the pools were awesome. Lots of people from Canada and Russia.. i went with a few of my friends and we made some new friends there from all over the world and over all i had an amazing time. So for those who are super picky and complain a lot this is not the resort for you and for those who want a good time this will work. For people that going for some crazy party there are 3 clubs near the resort that are fun and safe to go to. So all I have to say im definitely going to go back there sometime hopefully soon.

Dear Fidel,
Please lift the ban on warm and tasty food. Please let your people know that there are serving spoons in the rest of the world and that spaghetti servers aren't good for scooping up
mashed potatoes and corn (ugh!).Please stop the senseless slaughter of pigs and chickens Please do away with the pretense of the local currency.Please, please never invite Gordon Ramsay down there or he would commit suicide.
The worst culinary experience of my life ( and I've eaten in jungle villages in Papua New Guinea!) I would not feed that food to someone else's dog never mind my own.
Staff only smile when the human slot machine is fed a CUC and every one of them is on the mooch at all times.Filled with drunken quebecophones and suspicious Russians... even the guests don't smile in the restaurants. Specialty restaurants ? hah .. same food as the slop they serve in the canteen, only they expect higher tips.
Got to the point where the very thought of eating there made me feel ill. If you want to go on a successful diet, spend a week or two here and you'll come back looking like Twiggy!
Rooms not bad for the Caribbean , maid nice and friendly but if a judge sentenced me to a choice of two weeks in prison or a week in this dump I'd take the prison every time.
Get some standards instituted here! No revuelta aqui es revoltando!