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Barcelo Solymar Hotel and Bungalows 11/11/02
Reviewers Rating:  Great
Myself and a couple of friends stayed at this resort from April 24-May 8/02. Where do we start. The flight down wasn't so great. They didn't have a meal on the plane for us and the flight was delayed three hours. Once we got to the resort is was approx. 2am and were all very tired. Then there was a mix up in where we were staying. We were under the impression that we were staying in a bungalow but then was directed to a hotel room which was supposedly for the night but we ended up staying there for the duration of the trip. The resort itself was beautiful and the lobby was fantastic. The colors around the resort was nice and the hotel was new and modern.(although the glass elevator was broken down every second day) The drinks at the resort were ok. Everything was made with rum and lots of it. They were often made very strong and even when you would say that you wanted only a little rum, it was often too much. The bartenders were not that friendly either. i guess you had to tip them to get better service which we were not doing. The beach was fantastic. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The sand was white and very soft. We also had a very wide section of the beach. The water was very clean and warm. there were also lots of lounge chairs and palm shaders (don't know the technical name of these things). The entertainment was ok at times. We stayed for two weeks and the second week we were there it was a repetition of the first week. There were a lot of cuban dancing shows that were nice at first but became boring pretty fast. The participation shows were very entertaining. There were no outdoor shows due to low season which was disappointing to us, but may have been a godsend due to the amount of flies that were around in the evening. Bring lots of fly dope and afterbite! The entertainment staff were very entertaining. They mingled with the guests alot and tried their best to get people involved in activities. They always had activities in the mornings and afternoons. In the night times they would take guests to the night clubs off the resort. Oh yea, THERE IS NO DISCO ON SITE AT THIS RESORT!!!! We were told that there was. Be prepaed to go offsite everynight if you want to dance and have fun in the evenings. The entertainment staff were always nice enough to us and sometimes went out of their way to help us or to show us a good time. One of the guys from the resort, Jose Hernadez, took us out on the mopeds on his day off to see the sights. Even though one of my friends ended up going to the clinic that day due to a unfortunate act of stupidity( by the way, make sure you have insurance) we still had a good time and appreciated his kindness. The food was alright but it wasn't fantastic. We ate at the pool side grill for lunch everyday. The hotdogs and hamburgers were very good there. Overall, we enjoyed our trip. Varadero is a excellent place to visit. We walked the streets often by ourselves and felt very safe there. We never got harassed by anyone and were encouraged to go off the resort by ourselves. We felt very safe and we enjoyed this aspect a lot. The city itself is very nice. We also took a trip to Havanna and went to the Tropican show. We thought this was an amazing experience. We reccomend this highly especially if you enjoy history and building arcitecture. it was amazing but be prepared for people approaching you asking for pens and pencils. Well worth the money.
Jennifer Mitchell
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