Sol Barbados

"We had 10 days holiday in Sol Barbados with husband and 3.5 year old child . I requested lower floor and we got first floor ,which I was very happy and our room was facing to road ,which was again great as I would say that was the quite part . Location is absolutely great ,close to beautiful beach , restaurants,bar and shops . Bus stop 5 min. away . Kids pools are great ,we had a lots of fun on a slides and everywhere was enough sunbeds (no sunbeds war 😃) clean area and enough life guards . Now kids club ....that's probably the best part of our holiday ,the staff is more than fantastic,I would like to name it Sofia ,Marta,Natalia,Sheila ,Naty and Nacho (apologies If I forgot someone ,all guys has been amazing ) from reception I would like to mention Carla,she was very friendly and from bar area that was Jesus who look after us very well . The only down part was the food ,I will give rating 6/10 that definitely could be better but nothing horrible like some people describe. Overall I would definitely recommend this hotel for families as kids club made our holiday 5*."

"Went with my 2 year old and 5 year old on first night staff tryed to throw us out on the street the next morning because we drank till 12.30 they wasn’t even phased we had young kids all kids ended up with vomiting and diarrhoea of the under cooked food aswell pool and entertainment was great tho and lifts are slow and always full so you mostly have to carry pram downstairs some staff members are rude aswell"

"Stayed at the Sol Barbados as a family of 4 (2 adults, 3 1/2 year old and 2 year old), from the 6th September for one week. The location: 🏨 The hotel is located at the top of a hill, with steps down to the beach (as you come away from the main doors and turn left). Or by turning right you can walk past a few supermarket shops, bars and restaurants which take you to the beach front. For pick up you actually need to come out of the hotel, turn left and stand at the yellow pick up just up the road. 🏖️ The beachfront isn’t huge, and offers a few bars and restaurants. The beach itself is very busy during the day, and we found the part of the beach we visited, to have a dip in the sand as you walked in. I wouldn’t say this is a very friendly location for anyone with additional needs or babies in pushchairs.. The Hotel: 👩‍💼👨‍💼 The staff were either very friendly and helpful, or very dismissive and rude. One receptionist in particular would ignore everything I had to say, but gladly answer my husband’s same requests.. 🏨 The hotel doesn’t seem to have the capacity to run smoothly for the sheer amount of guests. For example, the queue’s just to get in to have lunch were sometimes long, the wait for meat to be cooked were even longer. Waits for lifts up and down floors were quite ridiculous, with one morning waiting 15 minutes to go down for breakfast. (We were on the 7th floor, but changed to the 1st after day one). For checking out, there is a locker room to store luggage, and shower rooms to get washed and ready if you’re a late check out. This was quite busy, we waited 30 minutes, and in the room we had no fresh towels, so I had to ask reception for more, but overall was nice to have. 🛌 Rooms. The room we initially had on the 7th floor was small, but still lovely and clean. I found the balcony too small, and was quite nervous about the fact my two year old could reach the bars. Also, if they were to climb on a chair they would be very able to just pop over the edge. Being on this floor also meant we couldn’t just walk down a flight of stairs with the pushchair, and were left waiting for the dreaded lifts. We switched day two, to a solarium room on floor 1. This was much better for getting up and down as we just used the stairs each time, and the balcony was bigger with my little ones unable to reach the top of the glass. The room itself was also lightly bigger inside and it meant we could store the pushchair without feeling like it took up the room. 🧹 Cleanliness was not an issue however, as we always found our room cleaned to a really good standard, fresh towels provided and the beds made. The restaurant staff were great at clearing tables, and cleaning down high chairs. 💦 Pools. They opened at 10am, which we found to be quite late. We never had any issues with getting sun beds. The pools on -2 (splash pools and waterslides), were quite slippery. We took water shoes for the kids and they definitely needed them around these pools. The main pool, baby pool and activity pool on ground 0, are great for the daily activities. (Waterpolo, water basket, aqua gym, aqua bikes, paddle boarding to name a few). I found these to be a bit more relaxing than floor -2, although still plenty to do. The baby pool is shallow, but not too shallow enough that the small ones couldn’t have a good little swim. Overall, water is a bit cold when getting in, but quite refreshing and once you’re in they are lovely. My two children didn’t mind the temperature at all. 🪩🌚 Entertainment. The entertainment started really late, 8:45pm,and were different themes and songs most nights. The entertainment staff were really friendly and great with the kids. But being so late meant that most nights my kids wanted to leave early and we didn’t get to see the later acts. (Although we were told by a number of people, that we weren’t missing much).. 👨‍🍳🍴RESTAURANT I feel like this needed its own section to review… Hygiene is shocking. We witnessed raw meat and cooked meat contamination. The cross contamination was everywhere and if I had a family with allergies/intolerances/ or just optional vegetarians, I would say avoid at all costs... The food is terrible. I’m not picky, my husband isn’t picky and my two kids aren’t picky. (Granted on holiday the kids don’t normally eat as much as they do at home, but they usually still eat something..). We all struggled with what to eat. There was always ‘something’, but for an all inclusive this is definitely the worst I’ve ever been to. The queue for food, and the repetitiveness was extraordinary. Desserts were almost always the same and the cakes were frozen. I will add if you wait for them to defrost, they were quite nice. The ice cream section seemed to be backwards as you walked past the toppings to get to the ice cream and it meant squeezing back in to get your toppings. (This is just me being fussy). My husband witnessed people having verbal altercations over the layout of the restaurant as people just wanted to ‘grab’ certain items, but were told by other guests to still wait in the queue.. we actually ate out and bought food from supermarkets (noodles, snacks etc) just so the kids had plenty to choose from that we could make in the room. We had a fridge and kettle. I know I’ve shared a lot of negatives, but I just didn’t fully enjoy our family holiday like we normally do. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel to anyone else.. HOWEVER, if you’re already booked up, you will just make your own opinions, and you might find it more enjoyable than we did. There were certainly friends we made on the holiday who enjoyed it. I will add, that it wasn’t THAT bad that I ended up leaving and booking somewhere else, so that must count for something 🤷🏼‍♀️.."