Solimar Aquamarine

We originally chose this hotel because it seemed quiet and relaxing – exactly what we were looking for on our first holiday together (we’re 18 and 19). We were so excited to stay here, but our arrival was really disappointing.

We got to the hotel just after midnight, having received an email confirming our booking, only to be told there was a “problem” with our room and we couldn’t stay. The woman on reception was rude, dismissive, and showed no care for our situation at all. She didn’t offer any solutions or alternatives within the hotel and just said we’d have to go to another hotel they had arranged.

I asked about the new hotel – what it was like, how many stars – and she told us it was 5-star. That turned out to be a lie. It was a 4-star hotel, and definitely not a good one. The taxi she booked was supposed to be a 5-minute journey, but it took around 15, and the driver didn’t speak any English. He dropped us off on a busy street and we had no idea where the hotel entrance was or if we were even at the right place.

The hotel they sent us to was run-down and dirty – black mould on the walls, cracked tiles, and generally in a poor state. We were so upset and couldn’t believe this is where we were expected to stay for half our holiday. We rang the original hotel to explain, and again were met with rudeness and a complete lack of understanding.

Thankfully, the next morning we got a call from the hotel manager, and she was absolutely lovely – finally someone who actually cared. She arranged a taxi to bring us back, and by midday we were finally given a room at the hotel we had booked.

As compensation, the manager kindly upgraded our all-inclusive package to their best tier, which was a really thoughtful gesture and made a huge difference to the rest of our stay. The hotel itself is stunning and the waiting staff were absolutely brilliant – friendly, helpful, and made us feel very welcome.

Just a warning to anyone thinking of staying here: the hotel is amazing, but the front desk staff are hit and miss. Some were fantastic, but others were incredibly rude and unprofessional. And if anything seems off with your booking, don’t be afraid to speak up – if we hadn’t, we would’ve spent half our holiday somewhere awful that we didn’t even choose.

The hotel facilities are extremely good and all staff friendly and personable. The buffet food was generally reasonable and the al le carte restaurant excellent. The availability of alcohol free drinks was limited and and would benefit from improving the variety and quality.

The hotel itself was really nice, clean and good view, the food was great but the drinks they don’t have a lot of options if you don’t drink alcohol just normal sodas but not alcohol free cocktails for normal all inclusive, the staff most of them was nice but few were rude and one of the restaurant staff she came and flirted with my husband while me and my baby sitting with him, he kept ignoring her but she kept going, and everyday we were there she tried to come to the table to talk to him when i am not there and if i come and try to talk to her she ignores me and talks to him still and he doesn’t answer, and we eventually told her to stay away from us but it is very unprofessional, and the rest of the staff was seing what she was doing and didn’t do anything.

Overall experience that the hotel was good, good rooms, clean but because of this we won’t be coming back here again.