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!

 I went to this resort with a group of 6 guys (25-28yrs) including myself mid January. For a supposed "party resort" there were fifty percent seniors.

The front desk reception staff were very unorganized. I had several issues regarding my room and changing rooms. The first room on the second floor started leaking from the ceiling, someone's toilet from the above floor leaked into our washroom. When we asked to change rooms they said the would have a room by the next day at 9am. That morning we got there promptly at 9am and they told us to come back at 1pm. We were then directed to the fourth floor. The bellhops were not even around to help us lug our luggage up 2 floors (2 out of the 6 elevators  were operating). The room was not clean and there was only 1 king bed when we requested 2 doubles. We went to complain and they told us to use the pull out sofa bed. We then were directed to our third and final room at the end of the day. My friends room had ants on the floor and bed. When he checked into his room there was a worker watching soccer on his tv.

The beach was beautiful and very shallow, calm and seaweed free. There are sandbanks if you want to go out far. There is a beach bar that has a variety of great drinks. I recommend bringing mugs because the ones provided are tiny. Beach maintenance was nonexistent. There was garbage everywhere. Make sure you reserve your beach chairs by 10 am.

The Buffet food was all the same for lunch and dinner.  The food was worse than expected (I am by no means a picky eater). The food was bland so I suggest bringing steak or hot sauce. Close your eyes and pick something everything tastes the same. The waitresses were very accommodating and automatically knew which drinks we wanted after our second day. We went to the Seafood and Mexican a la carts, they were good. I highly recommend only going to the a la cart restaurants. 

Ana from towel exchange was very helpful for our daily activities on the beach. There are catamarans but you must pay to use them. There is beach volleyball and kayaks available free of charge. 

I would recommend renting the motor bikes and riding around the city. The resort has rentals for $20 cc per day. The locals were very nice and friendly

Overall, we had a good trip only because we went out to the nightclubs every night, had fun on the beach and cruised around the city with our motor bikes. I'd give this resort 2/5 stars. The trip is what you make It. Don't think this resort experience will be your highlight of your trip.

spent 1 week at this resort thank god it was only for a week
rooms - very run down and only 2 very small drawers for clothes, maid was not very good left glasses and coffee pot dirty well basicly never touched them
food- was less then average including the hair in my son's food and the tin foil in my husbands dessert. the best food was at the beach and one of the bars by the pool
beach - was very nice
staff most of them were friendly
we were in blances building the soylmar looked newer and nicer
our son's went to a bar in varadaro they had a good time and felt safe
this was oursecond trip to varadaro wil most likely go some place else if you go there i would suggest trying a 5 star we are not picky travellers but both 4 stars i wouldrate a 2.5 to a 3
out of all the barcelo's we have stayed at i have found punta cana to have the best ones
like i said we have been to varadaro 2 time's and there was a 4 year span.i will look for something else mostly on of the islands or down by holgin

Well to start off My girlfriend and I were there for only 5 nights, from the 28-Jan to the 2-feb. Our first room was a little disappointing just because right outside our window there was a fan from the kitchen below, this was on until 1 am then it turned off and then back on at 5 am !!!!!, next day the switched our room no problem !!! Took a little bit of time but it was worth the wait !!!! Nicer room overlooking the inner facilities and huge magnificent pools, 25 feet from the beach we couldn't of asked for a better room !! After reading other reviews I thought I was in for a ruff 5 days, but not at all. The grounds were up kept up all day long, Very clean. If you are impatient , picky, snobby and think you're gods gift Pay the extra money and go to a real Five star further up the Varadero Coast. For the money This place was amazing. The staff were always nice and ready to help and serve you ''give respect and get respect '' .

Room: Clean everyday, sometimes the just don't have the extra towel or toilette paper so bring your own TP and bring an extra towel just in case. Always fresh bottled water and beer everyday they restocked that fridge.

Beach: The beach was AMAZING, beautiful blue and a lot of sand to play in, enough room for everyone. you got your choice of the crowded spots or the calm quiet relaxing spots !!!!! or even the spots right next to the bar and there was always plenty of beach chairs available !! the beach in Varadero looks like you can walk it for ever. So SO nice !!! this made me really happy !!! :)

Food: well we all know we don't go to Cuba to eat like a champion, the buffets were nothing special, look around Im sure you can find something there to eat, just stay away from the food that looks like they have mixed 4 different type of foods in it, this would be the reason for getting sick, cross contamination will get you !!!! Stick to the basic, straight up corn or rice and potatoes, eat the meat that is cooked alone !!! and the pizza is decent !!!, mostly all restaurants outside the resort are amazing, food 1000 times better outside the resort. we ate at this one place called La fondue, very good, different type of fondue experience than what us Canadians are use too!!! Remember you can never go wrong in the Caribbean with lobster and shrimp !!!! as for the buffet maybe bring some ketchup "we did" it helps a little, the buffet food really almost has no taste hahahahahaaha !!!!! Oh and the Cappacinos are amazing had several everyday hahaha !!!

Excursions: We did the Catamaran dolphin adventure, this was great, the whole dolphin experience was a blast, loved the trip loved the beach and seafood lunch on Cayo Blanco and loved crew, the music and the whole catamaran experience not something we get to do everyday !!!! Very pleased and well worth the money...this trip is probably the most popular, so even if you book and cancel the day of, they will refund you or book you another day !!!!!

STAFF: Just remember we all breath the same air and that nobody is better than anybody else, be patient and be polite and people "the Staff" will go out of there way to make your stay that much better. Everyone and I Mean everyone was unexceptionably nice !!!, we just had one bad encounter and it was at the a la carte Mexican restaurant, we lost our reservation paper and one host just gave us a hard time !!!! that was it, on the other hand the seafood a la carte let us eat without a reservation hahahahaah !!!! anyway, it was good a bit better that the buffet hahaha !!!

Overall we were very very pleased with our visit, it was nice short and sweet, we relaxed and came back feeling fresh and happy with amazing memories !!! Thanks CUBA !!! Remember the main reason we go is to enjoy that beautiful beach and my God she is amazing !!!!

Oh and bring clothes, soaps and beauty products you don't need they will be really appreciated, don't forget its a communist country and they are limited to what their government allows them to have. So anything you bring they will chairish and be so thankful. Those of you looking for good Karma this is a good opportunity to get some hahahaah !!!! Try to stay away from bringing visible brand named things that stand out like NIKE !!!