In an island paradise off the northern coast of Cuba stands the All Inclusive 4-star Sol Cayo Santa Maria hotel (300 rooms). Ideal for simply relaxing or for exploring the clear ocean bottom and neighboring keys that surround this marvelous Cuban tourist destination. Enjoy an unforgettable holiday with your family, all included.
Star ratings are intended to indicate the general level of features, amenities, and services to expect. This property is classified according to Giata.
HOTEL STYLE
Quiet
Park View
Languages Spoken
French, Spanish
Location
52610 Cuba
Sol Cayo Santa Maria
3,452 reviews
Getting there
Car recommended
Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travelers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
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Sol Cayo Santa Maria is often celebrated for its cleanliness and well-maintained premises, with renovated rooms that receive daily attention from housekeeping. While the modern rooms are generally appreciated, some guests have pointed out issues such as mold and inconsistent water pressure. The service at the hotel is frequently described as friendly and professional, adding a personal touch to guest experiences.
Travelers consider the hotel a good value, despite some shortcomings like limited food options and less satisfactory balcony chairs. The atmosphere is largely regarded as peaceful, catering to adults, although opinions on the music volume vary. The amenities, including the picturesque beach and renovated rooms, are highlights, although some guests were let down by certain facilities like the pools and a la carte dining options not meeting expectations.
Atmosphere
Tranquil
Rooms
Modern
Value
Cost-effective
Cleanliness
Spotless
Service
Friendly
Amenities
Underwhelming
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Detailed Reviews
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First stay outside Canada For us, Sol Cayo Santa Maria was the place we chose! First of all, the arrival is great, the staff is very kind and helpful even if they don't speak French, they will do everything to ensure that we end up understanding each other and that we are happy, they listen to their customers. The rooms are renovated very well unfortunately we had a mattress that was not renovated lol but it doesn't matter. The food we didn't miss anything from all the stay eggs every day for lunch fruits varieties of cold and hot meats (sausage) dinner was on the beach super good great service bartender Ricardo who makes wonderful cocktails. Dinner took place for us mainly at the Italian restaurant with two menu choices. We had a great dinner on the beach with a show, it was magnificent. The entertainment with Yoehni is great, he's really nice. You want to chat, move, have fun or even have a party, so call Yoehni I made a brother here, he's a man with a heart and all the employees here are, I recommend floor . On the other hand, if you are not comfortable with the fact that a portion of the beach practices naturism it is not your place but here it is 10000% respectful I highly recommend it when you are afraid of being judged or whatever it is here on the ground we feel at home we feel good. I leave you a beautiful photo of my brother Yoehni. Here too we never run out of bottled water in the rooms, a large 1.5L per day and outside the room we had our bottles filled at the bar with fully filtered and clean water and ice. The best time to see the sunset is between 7:45 p.m. and 8:20 p.m.
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Date of stay: May 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Il y as toujours de la place sur la plage alors pas de stress un service de gars de plage qui...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
We never stay at all inclusive hotels but we chose this one because of the beach, which was, as we had hoped for, amazing. On top of that lots of umbrellas and few people when we were there. Wonderful.
The hotel itself is ok, the rooms have recently been renovated so they look relatively “modern”. Room cleaning leaves a lot to be the desired, though. They basically only make your bed, don’t even replace toilet paper or soap when it’s gone.
Anyway, we would have been quite happy with the stay if it hadn’t been for the food, which was simply awful. I don’t understand the earlier reviews praising food quality… it was the worst food I had in long years, little choice and everything really tasteless. By the way, the crisis that Cuba is undergoing right now has nothing to do with it, we spent three weeks travelling around the islamd (only 3 nights in the Sol luckily) and nowhere was it even nearly as bad as at this hotel. We were happy to leave at the end of the three days and go to a simple Cuban restaurant the following night.
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Date of stay: August 2023Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Yasmani Valle, Ventas at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded Oct 2, 2023
We have received your communication in which you point out that, unfortunately, during your stay we did not meet your expectations. First of all, I would like to offer our deepest apologies and thank you for sharing this perception with us, since our guests are the raison d'être of Hotel Sol Cayo Santa Maria and their opinions are a very valuable guide to improve our work every day. We are already working on your comments and hope to receive you again to change the first image caused. Once again we offer you our most honest apologies. Atte. Yasmani Valle Commercial Manager
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Travellers: My wife and I. It was our third time this year at Sol Cayo Santa Maria at not last for sure.
We keep coming back for excellent swimming in ocean and naturist beach, as most guests from Canada do. Room: perfectly functional. Maid: very good. Staff: very attentive. Food: adequate. It is disgusting when Canadians complain about food. Go to the damn MacDonalds and do not go to Cuba. Breakfast: at buffet. Lunch: at rancheon near ocean. Dinner: mostly a la cart, sometimes at buffet. One lobster dinner for repeated guests. I am not fan of lobsters. Drinks: river of rum and champagne. Why would you need anything else? Pool: do not care to try. There is wonderful ocean. Territory: so-so maintained. Beach cleaning: I had seen better, I had seen worse. Ocean: fantastic. Small problems (safe stopped working, door, door key etc) were addressed very efficiently which I never experienced before after 34 times in Cuba. Adults only resort, so no screaming kids and families complaining about anything and everything. During these two weeks the number of guests varied from about 60 to about 25. I cannot give 5 stars because nothing is ever perfect. There is no such a thing as a Perfection which is significantly different from person to person anyway.
We will be back very soon regardless of any imperfections. Cheers.
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Date of stay: July 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Yasmani Valle, Ventas at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded Sep 22, 2023
Dear Guest:Noneat The Sol team thanks you for deciding to spend your vacations in our hotel, we also appreciate your fabulous opinions about our team and the renovation of our hotel, hopefully this is one of the many times you will visit us, your comments and opinions will be shared with the Sol team. Sincerely
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We are currently onsite and the staff as usual are incredible, especially working under impossible conditions. I’ve just discovered that the Cuban company Gaviota, I believe, has taken the massage out of the quiet, clean comfortable surroundings of a room and moved it to the gym. It’s honestly quite disgusting. The whole place reeks like sweat and it’s noisy from the clients working out. There is no natural light in the room, so consequently it is moldy and needs a thorough bleach clean. Roberto is one of the reasons we have retuned to the hotel four times in a year. He’s a professional and a master masseuse as well as a Reiki master and chiropractor. He deserves a better environment to in which to work and the clients deserve a more zen, clean location to enjoy his services. You can do better Gaviota! 👎
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Date of stay: April 2024Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Raul Herrera, Director General at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded Apr 22, 2024
Dear: beachloverBainsville We are very pleased that you took a few moments of your valuable time to send us your feedback and suggestions about your stay at our hotel. I have received your communication in which you point out that, unfortunately, during your stay we were not able to meet your expectations. First of all, I would like to thank you for sharing this perception with us since our guests are the reason of being for Hotel Sol Cayo Santa Maria and their opinions are a very valuable guide to improve our work every day. First of all, we would like to send you our sincere apologies for the incidents that occurred during your stay at our facility. Our team is already working to resolve them as soon as possible. In meetings with the departments involved, the irregularities you refer to were analyzed. I assure you that the corresponding actions have been taken to improve the experience of our customers and a personalized follow-up is being maintained. Once again we offer you our most sincere apologies on behalf of the entire Sol Cayo Santa Maria collective with the hope and confidence that we will be able to welcome you back to this hotel. Best Regards.
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We have been to the Sol 24 times now and I must say the changes are spectacular!
The Sol rooms are entirely renovated. Many other parts of the hotel have also been renovated for the better. It is now an adult-only resort 16+.
We stayed at the Sol from December 5th to the 26th 2022. We had a wonderful Christmas eve and the buffet was excellent.
We consider the staff family. They are always happy to see us and ready to make our stay the most memorable.
Although the food is repetitive, they manage to make it delicious!! We did not lose any weight ;)
This resort does have a naturist beach but we do not practice that but respect those who do :) and I must say they are very respectable to us also :)
I must say that the beach is one of the most beautiful I have seen but it really needs to be cleaned more often. During our stay, only the naturist part was cleaned and the lifeguards and other beach staff had to clean it.
Animation is not the greatest but this is probably because the hotel was not at full capacity,
Only one section of the resort is open for now due to the number of guests. But we are told it will be reopening soon.
The à la carte restaurants are not all open yet but are also being renovated. During our stay, they rotated the dinner schedule to the buffet and Picua (beach restaurant) and the Fontanella (Italian restaurant) which made the menu very different and so much tastier.
The only downside I would say is the lack of music (traditional) or animation.
Since being at the Sol in 2019 this resort has really stepped up and made our stay a very positive experience. I would definitely recommend :)
We will be back in April 2023 :)
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Date of stay: December 2022
Location
Cleanliness
Service
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Response from Yasmani Valle, Ventas at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded Mar 24, 2023
Estimada Catherine-and-Daniel Es bueno saber que le ha encantado nuestro hotel, sus palabras de elogio serán trasmitidas a todo el equipo Sol, por nuestra parte le agradecemos infinitamente haber regresado y mejor aún, que le ha gustado nuestras instalaciones. Atentamente Yasmani Valle Núñez Jefe de Ventas.
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Stayed from Feb 7-14th, and loved it. The beach was awesome, a little breezy the first couple days, but calmed down afterwards, nice for a long beach walk in either direction. The grounds were quite nice as well, and constantly being worked on by the hard working, friendly gardening staff. The room was also very nice, renovated, always had hot water and maintained/cleaned very well.Bottles of water were delivered everyday, so never had an issue there either. The location of our room (1502) was also nicely situated, close to both beach paths as well as close distance to the buffet etc. Some things were closed, like the a la cartes, but that didn't really affect us, and when I did inquire about their ability , it was my hubby's birthday the next day, much to my surprise, we were treated to a special dinner for him , so would like to give another kudos to the reception staff for making that happen- thanks again for helping me make his day special. The buffet may have been a bit repetative, but we found everything was still well done quality wise and would not complain and it was nice to change up lunch with the fries and sandwiches from the pool bar. The buffet/bar staff were also very friendly/courteous etc, always greeted us with smiles and we were well taken care of. It is a quieter resort, which we appreciated as it was easy to relax and just enjoy our vacation. We enjoyed it so much , we have booked it again for March 20th, would love to end up in the same room, and are looking forward to seeing all the staff again and another enjoyable vacation here.
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Date of stay: February 2024
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Location
Service
Trip type: Traveled solo
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Raul Herrera, Director General at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded Feb 19, 2024
Dear Guest:SueandGreg2014 We would like to thank you for dedicating part of your precious time to write to us and share with our team such beautiful words regarding your stay in our hotel. Please know that your opinion is of great importance to our work and commits us every day to improve the services we offer. Once again we thank you on behalf of the entire Sol Cayo Santa Maria collective and we assure you that your comments will be shared with our team in the hope and confidence that we will be able to welcome you back to this hotel. Yours faithfully.
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First and foremost, I wish to convey that I do not intend to sound ungrateful, particularly as a Canadian, given our comparative privilege to the Cuban people.
I traveled to the SOL Resort in Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba, from May 11th to 21st. Upon arrival, the check-in process went smoothly, and the resort was quiet at 11:30 pm.
The following morning, I went for breakfast and noticed the resort remained quiet. However, the breakfast selection was very limited, which I had anticipated due to the well-known food supply challenges in Cuba. Despite this, what I found unacceptable was the overwhelming presence of flies on the available food. While I understand that a warm climate can attract flies, the sheer number was excessive and made the food inedible for me.
During a tour of the resort, I observed that the large adult pool was only half-filled and had green slime, rendering it, in my opinion, unsuitable for swimming. Conversely, the smaller pool, which appeared to be designed for children despite the resort being for adults, was clean and swimmable.
After lunch, we revisited the restaurant, hoping the morning issue with flies was an anomaly, only to find the situation unchanged. Additionally, the advertised "A La Carte" restaurants were not available for booking.
It is particularly disheartening that Sunwing promotes this resort with various amenities that were not operational or accurately represented. The unswimmable pool, the inedible food due to flies, and the closure of several amenities were significant disappointments. We later discovered that the resort was hosting only 34 guests.
On the second day, we met with the Sunwing representative and requested to be relocated or to arrange for an early departure. That afternoon, we were granted permission to move to the sister resort, the Melia Cayo Santa Maria, located next door. The Melia resort was exceptional, and I have no negative feedback about our stay there.
The only commendable aspects of the SOL Resort were the updated rooms and the breathtakingly beautiful beach.
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Date of stay: May 2024
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Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
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Trip type: Traveled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Jefe Calidad, Guest Services / Front Office at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded 4 weeks ago
Dear jerkygirl1964 We want to thank you for taking some of your valuable time to write to us and share with our team such beautiful words about your stay in our hotel. Please know that your opinion is of great importance for our work and commits us every day to improve the services we offer. Once again we thank you on behalf of the entire collective of the Sol Cayo Santa Maria and we assure you that your comments will be shared with our team in the hope and confidence that we can welcome you back to this hotel. Best regards.
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We were greeted by Carlos at the front desk. He got us checked in and off we went to our newly renovated room. The room was well done with a king size bed and tv situated perfectly for viewing. The bathroom was white and fresh looking with lots of light, storage and a great shower with rain shower head. Our room was situated with minutes to beach or pool . We thought after being so tired from travelling that we would eat dinner and have a cocktail at the lobby bar. We chatted with Nacho and Ricardo the bar tenders . One cocktail turned into many lol. We had a fantastic time getting to know many of the staff. Before I realized , it was midnight and officially my birthday 🥳 . The manager Jesus popped a party popper for me, it was perfect 🤩 On Saturday we were invited to a lobster dinner at the Picua, it was delicious. Shout out to Marta for the special invitation. So may wonderful staff Lise, Tyson , Leidys ,Joelle , Harrison and many more. Thank you so much! We definitely recommend Sol Cayo Santa Maria. Friendly staff, beautiful accommodations and the most amazing beach. The many wonderful staff made our vacation fantastic ! The manager Jesus is a beautiful person that truly cares about his guests 😉
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Date of stay: March 2023Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Relax
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Yasmani Valle, Ventas at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded Apr 12, 2023
Dear AngelaP137 The Sol team thanks you for having decided to spend your holidays at our hotel, we also appreciate your fabulous opinions about our team and the renovation of our hotel, we hope this is one of the many times you will visit us, your comments and opinions will be shared with the sun team Sincerely Yasmani Valle Nunez Sales manager.
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Since it opened after the pandemic last November we've gone to the Sol Cayo Santa Maria for 2 weeks on 3 different occasions, so obviously we like it. There are many other repeat guests who like the freedom of the beach, the friendly service and the quiet adults only atmosphere. There are shortages in Cuba so one has to expect some inconsistencies in food selections. If you're looking for a very extensive buffet and numerous a la carte restaurants, go to a bigger hotel. The barbecue at the ranchon is very good although the salad selection is limited. We were always satisfied in the buffet and La Fontanella a la carte restaurant. We like that they are indoors because one of us has a sensitivity to mosquito bites. There are mosquitos at dawn and dusk but not the rest of the day. The front desk manager, Jesus, is very professional, courteous and helpful. There are many other friendly, helpful staff members, including Taimary at the lobby bar now, Alvaro in the restaurants and Ricardo at the beach bar. We don't know all the names but we were always treated well by all.
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Date of stay: October 2023
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Raul Herrera, Director General at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded Nov 25, 2023
Dear: 944WiliamB The Sol team would like to thank you for choosing to spend your vacation at our hotel, we also appreciate your fabulous comments about our team and the renovation of our hotel, we hope this is one of the many times you visit us, your comments and criticisms. They will be passed on to the Sol team.
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positives- beautiful beach and location, had a new non smoking room (unfortunately strongly smelt of cigarette smoke) and quite good drinks.
negatives 4pm checkin, dinner rotated each night between 1 of 2 small outside set restaurants with 2 or 3 choices per course, food choice taste and quality terrible (first and second nights walked out, third night skipped dinner as so terrible), so no buffet for dinner. lunch each day terrible mainly bread ,soup, pasta, a little cooked chicken, served at beach bar. I only tried eating once as so bad. breakfast was a buffet and best meal of the day as they had fruit- this was all that was edible. they also did omelletes but only 1 morning managed to cook fried eggs, other days told no fried eggs. 1 large swimming pool which was very shallow and loud music blaring by beach bar during lunch times. snacks inedible- not even hamburger available . its all old reheated chips and sandwiches/ toasted cheese and ham etc. very quickly gave up with this place (by far the worst of 3 all inclusive Melia hotels I stayed at in Cuba, aswell as 2 other all inclusive hotels. The only hotel worse than this was the Allegro Palma real in Varadero, which I only overnighted in.) After first day staying at the sol, I returned for snacks and lunch to the Melia Las dunas each day, which was 20 minutes walk away and I fortunately spent 4 nights at the Melia Las Dunas before staying at Melia Sol. The armbands virtually the same and the staff still knew me so it was very easy. The outside lunch and snacks at Melia Las dunas were very good by Cuban standards and you could actually look forward to eating some BBQ meat or fresh pizza or sometimes fish or hamburgers as snacks(tey were quite good and I dont normally eat hamburgers!) The Melia sol as a 4 star all inclusive hotel was a disgrace. If you look at previous reviews, many of the positive reviews on here seem to have only 1 or 2 other reviews... maybe some of the reviews on here are suspicious as lots of people seem to have an excellent time at the Sol in Cuba yet they don't appear to have stayed at any other hotels, anywhere else in the world...
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Date of stay: September 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Traveled solo
Room Tip:stay at Melia las dunas if you go to Cayo santa maria and want a hotel in a similar price range...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Response from Yasmani Valle, Ventas at Sol Cayo Santa Maria
Responded Oct 2, 2023
We have received your communication in which you point out that, unfortunately, during your stay we did not meet your expectations. First of all, I would like to offer you our deepest apologies and thank you for sharing this perception with us, since our guests are the reason of being for Hotel Sol Cayo Santa Maria and their opinions are a very valuable guide to improve our work every day. We are already working on your comments and hope to receive you again to change the first image caused. Once again we offer you our most honest apologies. Sincerely Yasmani Valle Commercial Manager Quedamos al tanto de cualquier solicitud y aprovecho la ocasión para enviarle un cordial saludo. Atentamente, Yasmani Valle Director de Venta
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Hi - sorry for the late response - when we were there we had one night of strong winds, which brought alot of seaweed into the shore - it took the teams 2 full days to get it all cleaned up and moved into the mangrove patches (that are just off the beach) - yes there is a nude section of the beach on this resort - its ever growing, as MOST people that attend this resort are going there for the nude beach - if you are walking towards the beach on either pathway , the nude beach is to your left when you hit the beach, to the right , is the textile beach - i suspect over time, the nude beach will continue to grow, and conversely the textile beach will shrink, when we were there, 90 percent of the attendees were on the nude beach - the beach is large and YES to answer your question , ocean swim is available to you , assuming good conditions (the same overnight storm that brought the seaweed, also brought strong and high waves for the next day - on that day the best we got which knee deep wading, no swimming at all - further, on the other days, one could walk out chest deep and still see your feet - hope that helps - please do feel free to ask any additonal questions happy to help - enjoy
We have stayed here many times since 2010. Lots has changed but the "ocean view" has never really been a thing.....
We have had a bungalow on the west side "beach front" but all that got you was a sneaky path directly to the C/O side of the beach. The west side has not been opened since the reno's and re-opening so not sure of the condition of these paths. Bldg 28 and their ilk, on the second floor, gets you a bit of a view but not like, say, ABR in Akumal, Mexico.
Do you mean a shuttle to and from the airport? If yes there is a modern air conditioned bus that take all travelers from the airport to the hotel. It is included in the all inclusive trips. If you are buying everything separately ie the flight and the hotel then the bus is not included/ Hope this helps!
There are more places to choose from in the Cayo Santa Maria area.
ALSO KNOWN AS
sol cayo santa maria hotel cayo santa maria, sol hotel cayo santa maria, cayo maria santa sol, sol cayo santa maria cuba, cayo santa maria sol
LOCATION
CaribbeanCubaVilla Clara ProvinceCayo Santa Maria
NUMBER OF ROOMS
296
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