As with previous reviews, we found the hotel is definitely showing it's age, broken lamps, knobs, tiles and flooring but overall the location on the beach and the food is probably the best on the peninsula. At least 9 out of 10 of the staff was great especially Bar staff: Ernesto and Jorge (Lobby), Jaimie and his boss (sorry forget his name) in the pool bar. Also Madeleine at the ice cream stand by the pool and Rosa in the buffet. There is an amazing server in the Seafood restaurant that I also forget his name,(darn) but he spoke 5 or more languages and was really upbeat and funny. We had no problem booking the a la cartes, maybe not for the day of but that fact that you can book for the next two days meant you could go to the lobby in the afternoon with no line and book for the next two days and then go the same time the next day. If was really easy with no limit on how many times you went. That said, the Chinese and Italian were definitely the best but the seafood had the best steak, better than the steak house by far on 4 out of 5 portions. We are from Alberta so......normally don't even bother with beef anywhere else but we were quite surprised by this. The Mexican we found tough meat all around and the steak kabobs were dry and overcooked. Also, the musicians, though talented, were so incredibly loud we couldn't hear our server to take our order, it was truly annoying.
The activities are some of the best anywhere, archery, shooting, yoga all the other usual fare. Our biggest negative surprise this time around, was that in both of our two original rooms, we found a small and a large cockroach in the closet area where the drawers are built in. When we informed the reception (we were on the second floor back behind the Italian restaurant and lobby bar Rm. 2032 and 2033) they said that we were in the tropics and it was to be expected. We have never had any "sightings" in rooms at any of the other resorts we have stayed at, especially on the second floor and I did have some concerns about going back to the Italian restaurant because if we had no food in our room they had to be "living" somewhere. In any case , we moved to a better room on the other side of the hotel, far away from food sources and they sprayed the rooms we had been in. Overall, the resort has great service staff and entertainment staff and the food is quite good for Cuba, better than some of the 5 stars according to people we talked with. We would go back, but will make sure we get on the left side of the hotel. We left all our suitcases in the -25 degree weather overnight when we returned to make sure we didn't bring any "friends" into our house! Hopefully, the hotel will keep up with the maintenance issues, anything we mentioned that didn't work, they promptly attended to but to arrive to broken patio tables on the balcony and a remote that didn't work, fridge that didn't work and knobs breaking off was a little disappointing after our previous visit. One thing I must give great accolades to the hotel, best water pressure ever....I miss it at home and we never had a trouble getting pool chairs even at 9 a.m. and there were 5 of us. Apparently they increased the number of chairs a few years ago and this is such a nice and smart idea because it tends to be a stressful part of a vacation especially when you are traveling with a group of 5 including seniors and a child.

It was our first time to be to Cuba, and we enjoyed this week (January 8 to 16, 2012) at Sol Palmeras very much. Great location, wonderful beach area. Lots of activities were available all day long (volleyball, basketball, table tennis, arching, shooting, darts, some other table games outdoors).
Excellent entertainment program was given. My son especially enjoyed a show by "team of magicians", and all my family - "Beach party".
Food was very good, five a la carte restaurants were available for dinner.
I would particularly single out great service from people working there and say thank you again to Roberto and Raymundo (La Panchita restaurant), Nivia (O Sole Mio rest-n), Omar (El Marino rest-n), Robertico and Fernando (Cubitas bar-cafeteria), Juan (Sol Cubano bar), Ronald (sports instructor), and our maid Judith (bungalow zone 2).
One suggestion: it would be great to have a gym available at the resort, too.

We have stayed at Sol Palmeras -- 7 times and is far the best resort.
Very Clean and food is fantastic and considering I am a Diabetic and have Celiac's - the food
was fantastic.
Staff very friendly and will do anything to make your stay the best.
Entertainment is fantastic - they have the best evening shows - we have never missed one of them .
There is more than enough to do on the resort and they keep you entertained.
I can say enough good about this place -- it is worth its weight in gold !
Beach is absolutely amazing - white sand and clear blue water ! Heavenly !
From Charlene and Manuel

This was our first time in Cuba. We found Sol Palmeras very satisfactory but in all honestly have to agree with almost all of the comments with abcw_8 from couple of days ago.
Some more:
- generally, information about the hotel and/or surroundings and how to get to anywhere just were not availble. On arrival you get a map of the resort area (ours was in Spanish) with your key as well as times for restaurant/bar opening times but that's all. Asking around and reading the several Tour Operator folders in the lobby is a good source but wasted too much time.
- we also stayed in a bungalow (zone 2, 224), not too far from the beach, some distance to the main building, Zone 1 in closest. Bungalow very comfortable, clean and functional. However, the kettle (and the iron) has an US plug and sockets are European 2 pin, luckily we had our own adapter
- mini bar was not stocked on arrival or any other time although it was supposed to, at least on arrival. Did comment to customer service ground floor with no effect
- on arrival 2 tubes of de-cafinated coffee available, no sugar. During the 2 weeks only once 3 coffees (2 of them de-caf) were supplied. Hint: bring/buy your own and take sugar from breakfast.(hotel shop has only de-caf, Las Americas shopping mall next door has more). If you want tea, bring your own, this in not available in the room or shops.
- service is the best in the buffet restaurant. Admitedly we left small tips for them at breakfast but the amount of attention and caring we got just could not be based on the few pesos they got from us. Curiously, it appeared that the ones lower in the pecking order than the reception were really friendly and caring and the ones above, well, let's just say that they may generally have too much to deal with.
- all restaurants are included in the all-inclusive deal, which was a pleasant surprise. The drinks at meal times really are filled all the time, you never (well, almost) have to ask for a refill.
- reservations to a la carte restaurants have to be made in the lobby through a rather demotived lady and can be done only 3 days in advance. Mostly you do not get the restaurant/evening you want to and yet the restaurants mostly were half empty. On our one visit to the Steak Restaurant (best live music) 4 of the 14 availble tables were reserved although it was supposed to be full.
- had a meal once in the Maritime restaurant. This was beyond awful. Service particularly was insulting and rude from before we said a word or did anything. This is a Seafood restaurant, fish not available (friend who arrived before us had fish), our dishes had 3 shrimps each with either steak or chicken.
- beach bar useful but do be prepared to have what ever is on offer. Long queues at lunch time and not speedy or particularly friendly service. Mojitos do not appear to have any Rum in them unlike the ones in the pool Mojito Bar although you see them pouring "stuff" from the bottle. Beer in wonderfully cold, though.
- swimming pool is only 110 cm deep and rather cold, the sea is warmer
- there really are activites for all tastes available. If you are of the participating kind you just cannot get bored. On the other hand, for a very big hotel apart for the reception (it IS awful) and the main part of the beach, it never seemed to be too crouded or noisy. Something for everyone, also the ones seeking for peace and quiet.
- beach vendors, yes, but best behaving from anywhere we have seen. Available but not pushy.
Are we returning to Cuba? Probably not. Like mentioned in a comment below, there is an underlying nervousness in the country, most likely due to the prospected end of the Castro era. It currently is rather sad and the infrastructure has detereorated beyond repair in many places (outside Varadero) Cuba also is not cheap when dealing with tourist pesos (local pesos not allowed for tourists). But regardless, we had a lovely holiday and will remember our honeymoon with warm thoughts.