Solymar Gran Hotel

This hotel was surprisingly good and out of my expectation....

We had a lovely holiday at the Solymar Gran Hotel. The rooms were lovely and clean, and staff friendly. The real downside was for myself, and I guess many fellow guests was the lack of sun loungers, for the size of the hotel. They keep the gates locked for the main, and rooftop pools, once opened people rush in and place their towels. I went once to wait at the gate, and a man told me , he waits at one gate, and his wife at the rooftop one , they both place towels on two loungers, at each pool. I saw where he left his towels at the main pool, he arrived around 3pm , stayed an hour then left. More needs to be done. So I gave up , bought seats and a parasol and used the beach.

We chose this hotel based on the overwhelmingly positive Tripadvisor reviews. In retrospect we wish we had realised that all such glowing reviews tend to come from guests who stay outside the peak summer time when perhaps the hotel is not fully occupied or when the weather does not necessarily require access to a pool. We had a somewhat less than 5* experience in early July 2025. To start with the positives; the hotel is beautifully and stylishly appointed with much to draw the eye on arrival and throughout the stay. It is kept spotlessly clean and this also extends to the guest rooms which are serviced daily. The inclusive breakfast was among the best we have had in all our travels and staff are professional, polite and helpful. It is situated on a long sandy beach on a stretch of safe, clean seawater and with easy access to lots of nearby restaurants and shops. We booked a sea view room which was large, well appointed with a very comfortable bed and high quality bed linen. The evening "gifts" from housekeeping were in the main, welcome but although there were two of us in the room, invariably the gift was aimed at one. However, the negatives. A lot has been written recently about the inadequacy of the pool areas given the number of guests and we absolutely concur with this. From the hotel's photographs both pool areas look wonderful but in reality they are just jammed with loungers that are occupied as soon as the doors open. Along with many other guests, we do not spend our holidays queuing to be cheek by jowl with a complete stranger, so we avoided these areas only visiting them to get beach towels. The hotel provides beach towels and umbrellas to use on the beach, but given the obvious issue and inconvenience the lack of space at the pool causes guests, we think they should consider making chairs or loungers available for guests to use on the beach too. A further point is that with the main pool not opening until 9:30 and rooftop 10am, there was no possibility of an early morning swim. Given that early morning temperatures were in the high 20's, this was a huge shame. Our so-called sea view room was, in our opinion, a partial sea view room given that directly opposite was an apartment block with balconies and windows that looked directly into our room. We queried this with front reception but they maintained that it was a sea view room. Our advice for anyone booking such a room is to try and get a room with a number above 20 or on one of the upper floors to avoid the outlook we had. We think the hotel should reassess their room descriptions and consider making some "partial sea view" if only to manage guest expectations. Soundproofing within the guest room areas is not great and in our first room we were unfortunate in having nearby neighbours who did not respect the idea that other people may want to sleep after midnight. Fortunately the hotel were able to find us an alternative room the next day. The sea view roo