we have just come back from 2 weeks at this holiday, and the first thing we did was find the first fast food restaurant to eat. the food was absolutely terrible it is the worst hotel for food we ahve ever stayed at and we have been to many caribbean hotels and this was the worst for food. the choices at the buffet restaurant were minimal and if you did find anything it was cold. there was steak that could be cooked in front of you, but this was not a piece of steak it was what i would describe as all the trimmings off a nice steak i.e grissle, fat, disgusting. everything else at this hotel was lovely we had a bungalow which was beautiful, the staff in general were lovely, the grounds, swimming pool excellent. it was just the food, but when you have two weeks to pass it was a very long time. i would not recommend this hotel or return.

Returned from the Barcelo Solymar on Saturday morning (3rd Oct). We stayed for 2 weeks and couldn't have asked for a better place to stay. Here's my honest review for any of you that are travelling there soon:

HOTEL: You can't miss the hotel from the outside - it's yellow, red and blue! The hotel is well maintained and spotlessly clean. There is a post office, money exchange, shop, hairdressers, massage parlour, sauna and gym in the lobby, so you never had to go far for anything!

STAFF: Check-in was smooth and quick and the reception staff were very helpful. The waiters/waitresses in the restaurants were also very helpful. We sat in the same plade for the whole 2 weeks and made friends with the waiters. Our one waiter, Louis, looked exactly like Trevor Macdonald! The other two waiters, Ebba and Roger were also fantastic and couldn't do enough for you.

ROOMS: We stayed in one of the bungalows which was close to all the amenities and it was well maintained. The only grumble I had was that there wasn't much storage space, i.e., drawers, so I had to leave alot of stuff in my case. However, there were plenty of coat hangers! The a/c was a god send, as it was that hot over there. Maid kept it very clean every day and we alternated between leaving her a present and a peso or two every day. Towels were changed as often as you liked, as long as you left them on the bathroom floor. The mini-fridge was stocked every day with water, 2 bottles of coke and 2 tins of Crystal beer. For those ladies, like me, that always pack their hairdryer - no need to if you're travelling here! I have quite long hair and the hairdryer in the room was more than ample to dry my hair, so save some lugguage weight and leave the hairdryer at home!

FOOD: I would consider myself quite a fussy eater but I found something every day to eat. Breakfast catered for all tastes, including panackes, omelettes, fried eggs, toast, croissants, melon, cheese, ham - you name it and they had it. We ate at one of the snack bars for lunch and they had a good choice - the vegetarian pizzas are lovely! The buffet in the evening again had a wide range of choice and like I said I always found something to eat. We never found birds or flys a problem like some other people have mentioned on here. We ate at the italian and cuban restuarants a couple of times and the food here was lovely too. A tip though - make sure you book well in advance as they get booked up really quickly.

BEACH: All I can say is WOW - the hotel is on the best stretch of beach in Varadero, it really is amazing. We spent many a day on the beach and the sea is like walking into a warm bath.

TRIPS: we did the Jeep Safari and Catamaran trips and they were both great fun and good value for money. Some people that we met did the Havana overnight trip and didn't think it was that good and it was alot of money (about 195 peso per person - approx £160 pp).

OUT & ABOUT: We felt very safe walking into Varadero from the hotel, and it was a 5 minute walk to get there. We got on the horse and trap a couple of times which are outside the hotel as it was just too damn hot to walk anywhere!

GENERAL TIPS: If you're going out of the hotel, always take some toilet roll with you, as this is like gold dust in Cuba! Also, make sure you take plenty of insect repellant. I sprayed myself regularly, but within 24 hours of arriving, I had to take a trip to the Pharmacy as I had literally been bitten alive, and spent nearly £30 on cream and tablets for the bites. They are most active around sunrise and sunset so if you can avoid being out at these times, otherwise cover up!

Don't bank on good mobile signal out there either! To send and receive text messages was very hit and miss! To call the UK is very expensive too and believe it or not, the cheapest way is from a mobile, otherwise phone cards were about $6 peso per minute, whereas from my mobile it was $2 peso per minute. Also, the internet is incredibly slow, took about a minute to load each page!

I wish I was still in Cuba and particularly at the Barcelo. I will be returning to Cuba sometime in the future and I will DEFINITELY be staying here. For those of you that are yet to go, have a wonderful time!

We stayed at the Barcelo Solymar from August 8th-15th - Here is our experience broken down into the basics -

Food:
We didn't go to Cuba for the food - but we felt it could have been better
We tried the Cuban and Italian A La Cartes and they were awesome - however, the buffet was pretty repetitive and some of the dishes were questionable --but you could always find something to eat - also, the deep fried banana dessert was AMAZING and the lady who serves them was very nice!
They don't seem to use soap when washing their glasses/dishes so you had to dig through the piles to find a semi-clean one
Find a server and stick with them for the whole week - make sure you tip them on the first day and they will take good care of you

Beach:
BREATHTAKING!! Definitely the best part about this resort - It was a busy time while we were down there so you needed to get up early in order to find a hut at the beach - There was a nice guy that would find you a spot and dust off the sand from your chair - he also didnt expect tips but was grateful for them
Make sure that you change your towels in the morning - by the afternoon they were all gone and you would be stuck with a wet towel - also - the "clean" towels have stains on them

Service:
We found the service to be alright - but in order to receive good service you definitely needed to be aggressive and tip. On two separate occasions while at the entertainment pool grill/bar we had to wait over 10 minutes just to be approached by a waiter - unless you call out and make it evident you want to order they will continue to walk past you as if you are just taking in the scenery.

Rooms:
We stayed on the 4th floor and we didnt have any problems with any bugs - although we heard that people on the 1st floor found some creepy crawlies in their rooms
Our a/c worked great! You have to keep one of the room cards in the card reader inside the room for the a/c to work - we just left it in there the entire week and our room was nice and cold! It was nice to come back to after a long day in the sun.
Our maid was overall ok - we left her small gifts and a peso each day - however we noticed that if we hung up out towels in the bathroom she wouldnt change them - we had to write a note to her so she would leave some new ones - she made pretty things out of the towels and left fresh cut flowers
Just a tip - if you are picky about pillows bring your own - we bought some cheap ones at wal-mart and we are so happy we did - the ones in the room were rock-hard and had a bad odor to them - we just left ours to the maid at the end of the week

Nightlife/Day-trips
While we didnt go out to any of the clubs at night there was a group that would meet in the lobby every night around 10pm or 11pm and would travel to a different club each night - we heard it was a good time

We did the Catamaran day trip to Cayo Blanco and it was awesome! Once on the Catamaran they take you to this pen in the open water where they have dolphins - you get to go into the water with the dolphins while the trainer has the dolphin swim by you so you can pet it and get a kiss
We also stopped in the ocean for snorkeling - this was an absolute joke - also if you have your own snorkel equipment we suggest you bring it (they dont provide you with flippers and the masks and snorkels are all shared) There was about 25 people in the water and the current in the water was so strong it just pushed everyone into the boat - it felt like we were on the sinking titanic and everyone was fighting for their life - it was the worst part of the trip
When we finally got to Cayo Blanco it was amazing! I found the beach at the resort better but this one was still beautiful!
We had a lobster lunch and it was fantastic! Wish we couldve eaten like that every day!
Also - the staff on the catamaran was great - they played great music and kept everyone entertained - at the end of the day they sell the cd's that they were playing for $15 CUC -

We also heard that the Jeep Safari Tour and the Havana tours were amazing!

As for going into town - we felt very safe - we took a horse and buggy that was outside our hotel for $20 CUC - the driver took us to the markets and waited across the street for us while we shopped

Overall we had a fantastic time and would recommend the Barcelo to our friends - we would probably return however there are other places that we would like to travel to first.

We moved to Solymar after our first resort was deplorable. We were greeted to a fantastic lobby with lush plants and friendly front desk staff. Yes, our room was not ready, but we had no problems waiting the half hour it was going to take walking around the resort. The buffet was good, but one does not go to Cuba for the food! The services and activities offerred were fantastic and the beach was breathtaking. The service staff at the buffet were absolutely amazing and we've met friends for life there. The a la carte meal at the Italian restaurant was very good as well. There was a cigar shop as well as a gift shop and a mini-market where you can buy souvenirs.

The nightly entertainment was fun to watch, especially when the dancers missed their steps. If it wasn't for Barcelo Solymar, our trip would have been a bust.