Sanctuary in Paradise

We had a wonderful trip from Feb 16-23 2018. From the star right through till the end it was great. I always book with tripcentral as I know exactly what I am getting. This was our first time at this particular resort in Varadero and I highly recommend it. The little extras like personal butler and separate private pool and aka carte restaurant, available only to guest if the sanctuary made it even more special. We will go back to Sanctuary at Grand Memories should we travel to Varadero again.

Love it!

Beautifully maintained property, great food, beaches and pools. Rooms could be more updated but it wasn’t a big deal. Bathrooms were clean and updated. Shower seeemed to only have warm water. But we had such beautiful weather it was refreshing.

You will not be disappointed!

Check in was a breeze! The reception area at Sanctuary is intimate, and allowed for a prompt, personal check in experience. Although we arrived earlier than the posted check in time, our room was ready and waiting for us! Our bags were delivered directly to our room by our personal 'butler', and we needn't worry about a thing. Each building has it's own 'butler' who was available to assist with any need we had, at any time! Despite the fact that we did not require his assistance during our  [... read more]time there, he knew our names each time we passed and often sought us out to ensure we were OK. It was such a nice feeling! In addition to the attentive butler service, the wait and bar staff was amazing!! The pool at Sanctuary was smaller, and not as lively or busy as the main pool at Grand Memories, however service at both pools was prompt and courteous. As for the pools, the pool at Sanctuary was great place to relax and enjoy some time with a smaller group. Although it did not have a swim up bar, there was a bar poolside which also offered some delicious eats! And a couple days they held a poolside lunch with lobster and other amazing food! The main pool at Grand Memories was home to guests of all ages, including the 'spring breakers' who livened it up near the end of our stay. It is a larger pool with various areas able to accommodate everyone! This pool hosted day time activities and contests, which were lots of fun! It also has a swim up bar where we spent much of our time meeting some amazing people! There was never an issue getting chairs at either pool, or the beach! As a guest of Sanctuary we had 'Diamond Club' status, allowing us to access a separate area of the beach if we chose to, as well as top shelf liquors at all bars. There was lots to do at the beach including volleyball, peddle boats, catamarans, aerobics and much more! It did get a little windy in the afternoon however so some water sports were not available later in the day. Food at this resort was delicious, and plentiful! The buffet, located on the Grand Memories side, had a Diamond Club section where we could always find a seat, and service was quite attentive. A la carte dinner reservations were made upon check in, and were available to us any day of the week! There was no limit. My personal favorite was the Cuban dinner!! Regardless of whether you are travelling as a couple or a group, Sanctuary is a wonderful resort with great staff, amazing service and lots to offer. You will not be disappointed!

EXCEPTIONAL

A group of friends and I recently embarked on a trip to Cuba where we had the privilege of staying at Sanctuary Memories in varadero. I don’t think that there is enough space here for me to express what a fantastic trip this was. It was made possible by the exceptional service, lodgings, beach, food and entertainment. The resort was clean and well laid out. I highly recommend the adult only side. We were treated like kings and queens. There’re was always someone around to help when we needed [... read more] it. Everyone from the grounds keepers to bar tenders to wait staff and mostly managers made our trip one of the most memorable I have ever had. The daily theme lunches at our private pool were bar none some of the best food I have ever eaten in Cuba. Hats off to the chefs. The two minutes walk to one of the best beaches I’ve been too was an added bonus. A reserved spot on the beach for sannctuary club members made it easy to find a chair and enjoy the beautiful beach. I give this resort a 11/10. You will not regret staying there.

Average

The hotel was dated and not very well cleaned, the beach was very separated from the rest of the hotel. The lack of restricted smoking areas was a huge negative. Overall the hotel could use some improvements

Good for Gluten Free!

Overall a good resort and good size (easy to get around). Great variety in restaurants & bars and the food & drinks were good. First time to Cuba and we kept hearing about how bad the food would be, this was not the case, while not totally amazing by Canadian standards, the food was good at this resort. My wife has Celiac disease and the servers seemed to be knowledgeable about gluten free food, and my wife never got sick and always had good food (although often she couldn't have the sauces, d [... read more]esserts or the packaged mashed potatoes - ask for rice instead). She enjoyed the Cuban style food - which was generally gluten free - at the lunch buffets. She had a card explaining Celiac disease in Spanish but most servers were already aware of gluten free requirements. The pools were good with great food & drink service at the Sanctuary pool and the beach was amazing (although because of the cold weather we didn't go in the water of either). Unfortunately, our room's bathroom was close to disgusting with black mold in the shower. Thankfully, the room had a shower in the tub as well that was clean. Overall, the room did not seem to be well cleaned. The shower was cold due to cloudy cool weather we had. The resort apparently uses solar power to heat the showers and so we had cold showers (yes cold, as in no warmth whatsoever). I should mention they did offer a courtesy suite to have a hot shower, we did have one hot shower in this suite, but then it was cold a couple times too. I think with some reno's to the bathrooms and fixing the heating of the water this would be an excellent resort. The service was very good and we felt well looked after by our 'butlers' Noel & Gretchal. Being in the Sanctuary (Diamond Club) section provided special areas to eat in for the main buffet which was nice, as well as access to top shelf liquor & perhaps better service with the blue wristbands. We could also change money at our private lobby and avoid the crowds in the main lobby.

Major Disappointment

in Cuba, usually a safe rule is a 4-5 star resort should be somewhat half decent. The hotel is aged and not very well maintained or cleaned, room dirty, NO HOT WATER, musty smell. Cigarette butts everywhere, especially the beach. Despite trying to look past minor things we were overall very disappointed with this hotel, will never return.

Meh...

Hotel was ok but did not meet expectations based on reviews/ranking, have stayed at better in Varadero for less $. Had to ask concierge staff (could never find our "butler") for multiple things that should have been included (drinking water, robes, towels, toilet paper, etc). Hot water is solar heated only, bad weather = COLD showers all week. Definitely not an adults only resort, just adult section of very large family resort and you will likely need to visit the family section on multiple o [... read more]ccasions. Great Beach, and pool area. Enjoyed the private lounge with nightly live music. Nice quiet section has a lot of potential, but just not quite there in my opinion.

A good time

We experienced the high & the low of this resort Low: a mouldy (initial) room, septic issues & cold showers (solar heated & we had some coolish overcast Cuba winter weather while there) High: staff who worked hard to fix the above issues, an amazing second room, decent food and a couple of sunny days. The pool was kept in fantastic shape & the beach was fabulous. I would go back for the right price...

Excellent service ... genuine staff ... whatever you need, just ask!

Stayed at the Sanctuary over the Christmas holidays and we were pleasantly surprised with our overall experience. Resort food is always the number one concern when travelling to Cuba and I can honestly say, there is plenty of variety at this resort and there are many options for everyone. We thoroughly enjoyed eating at the a la carte restaurant for our breakfast and morning coffees each day. I suggest stopping into the cigar lounge cafe before heading into for breakfast to grab your latte, Am [... read more]ericano or Cafe de leche. When we first checked in, we had a few minor maintenance issues with our room. Instead of waiting to have those things fixed we simply when back to the Sanctuary lobby and asked to be moved to a higher floor and explained the issues. This was not a problem. I've been to Cuba 8X and what I realize is, it takes a day or two to really settle into a new resort. I almost find it better to return to the same resort as its easier to navigate around and get a better understanding of how the restaurants and bars work. For example, the cigar lounge bar close to the Sanctuary Pool carries ice cold bottles of Heineken, Crystal and Presidente ... how ever they don't have mojitos so you have to go the a difference bar to get one of those (I suggest asking for it blended btw). "The Gourmet" a la carte restaurant was excellent with a nice cut of tenderloin and rock lobster tail. However the a la carte Asian restaurant did not rate too high for us, but not a big deal, we simply went to the buffet after. The shuttle carts will take you anywhere on the resort, again don't be afraid to ask for a lift. We took off to Havana for a day, we hired a private car. Our driver Alain drove a green 1955 Chev with air conditioning. He was awesome and really made the trip. Ask for him you won't be disappointed. The cars (Taxi's) are usually parked just outside of the resort. Be sure to ask for Alain. Havana is definitely worth the road trip. Check in and check out was simple. We were greeted with hot towels and some bubbly. We skipped the airport shuttle and took a Cab direct. Its worth it and you get to the resort in half the amount of time. Internet/Wifi - The resort has a couple hot spot areas. Anywhere in Cuba you have to pay $2 CUC for 1 hour. We didn't bother with this since our mobility providers have changed their roaming packages. For $12 a day we could roam and use our existing data plans (Bell and Telus) so call ahead to your provider and ask. We would go back to this resort and would also recommend it to our friends and family. The biggest take-away is if you want something specific, kindly ask for it. If you don't understand the language, use Google Translate. Tip well in CUC and you will be greatly appreciated even more. Enjoy!

Awesome Adult Only

The food exceeds expectations - it is a bonus to be served a la carte instead of having to compete with the crowds in the buffet. The staff is so attentive and lovely. The pool area and grounds are so well kept. You can't beat the Varadero beach.

Amazing Resort

We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary at Sanctuary at Grand Memories Varadero - and we loved it. We traveled in December, so as expected our flight was delayed, we were suppose to arrive at the Resort at 2:00 PM, however due to the delay we didn't get to the Resort until 3:00 AM. We were greeted by friendly smiles and extremely accommodating staff. Everyone who works at this Resort is truly amazing. Our room was huge and very well maintained. The food was delicious and a plenty - whether  [... read more]we ate at the a la carte restaurants or at the buffet. We loved the 24 hour snack/bar facility and room service was very much appreciated. We stayed at the Sanctuary, but took advantage of the pool bar. The grounds were well kept and beautifully manicured. The pool and beach were clean and there were plenty of lounge chairs available. The ocean water was a little too cool for my liking - understandably, we were there in December. We would definitely return to this Resort.

Great vacation!

Stayed here from Nov 28-Dec 3, 2017, we were in building 33 on the 3rd floor. This was a great location very close to the beach and the lobby bar/pool/restaurant. We had a nice king bed which we both found was super comfortable, we slept great all week. The air conditioning worked perfect, we didn’t experience any issues with the toilet (which I was worried about after reading some reviews), and I didn’t see a single bug the entire time I was there. Lisette kept the room super clean ev [... read more]ery day and made sure that we had new water and soft drinks in the mini fridge daily. If you are being picky yes, the walls could have used some new paint and the room looked tired but that doesn’t bother me a bit. Other reviews talk about there not being hot water and I would say that it isn’t like being at home where you can have a super-hot shower but it was warm enough to have a nice shower and the water pressure was great!!! The beach was beautiful and the water warm, it was quite wavy which was fun! Lots of beach chairs available, you don’t have to go early to reserve if you are in the sanctuary, the grand memories side always looked super packed so we were thankful to have our section of the beach! There is someone who sets up your chairs for you and will go and get you drinks throughout the day. I would say that drink service was inconsistent but to walk to the bar and get your own drink is very close so we weren’t worried about that, if he came around we got a drink, if we wanted a drink before he came back again we got up and got one! We were pleasantly surprised with the food! We had breakfast at the restaurant which was made to order eggs, omelets, bacon etc. with a cold buffet of meats, cheese, breads, pastries. Lunches we either ate at Paradiso or at the beach buffet, both had great choices. Sometimes we would have a late afternoon snack at the pool bar (they had fries and burgers, calamari etc. here). Dinners we ate twice at Paradiso, the oriental, the gourmet and once at the main buffet, all were great service and good meals. The best meal of the week was the Cuban lunch, the pork was dynamite so don’t miss that! Your butler is supposed to make all of your dinner reservations, we saw ours the day we checked in and then never again. We called several times but nobody ever answered. So, we just went to the lobby and found a different butler there to make our reservations for us, he was very accommodating and helpful. We loved all of the live music around the resort. There was some kind of live entertainment every night in the bar, one night at dinner there was some violinists, there was live music pretty much everywhere you went! Very enjoyable. The only negative I have would be the check in process. When you arrive, you get off of the bus and are told to wait for someone to bring you to the sanctuary check in. We waited a long time, and people kept getting on carts ahead of us (even though we were first in line with our luggage), in retrospect we should have just walked to the check in area. By the time we got there at least 6-8 couples were ahead of us and there is only one person checking people in. Yes, they give you a nice cool towel and a glass of champagne which was lovely but waiting over an hour in the heat did not seem like a perk at all. It would be much better to check in at the main lobby and then get carted over to the Sanctuary. Overall, we had an excellent trip. It is a relaxing and beautiful place; the staff were first-rate and always trying to ensure you are having a wonderful time. We would return.

Great Entertainment - Food not so much

Considering the hurricane I'm sure the efforts to reopen were valiant. However our room smelled of mould and we didn't want to complain but we should have. At home all our luggage still smells of mould. Despite being in the Sanctuary side we found the food in our exclusive restaurant for breakfast and lunch - sometimes dinner was really quite terrible. Some dishes were okay but others Over cooked, raw and just bad. I saw other reviews about bad food thought it would be okay we would be select [... read more]ive somehow and work around it...it's not okay. Others we met also got sick, the runs etc. Whenever we ate off resort on an excursion or in Havana or Veradero we had no trouble with food quality. It's not a supply issue it's a preparation and cleanliness issue. Someone please give the cooks a foodsafe course. I loved the skilled musicians and entertainment, the musical and fun loving nature of the staff. Cuba has wonderful people. The resort otherwise was quite nice. Drinks were fine. They can't make a proper martini though. I think we will stick to Mexico in the future. Hopefully things improve in the future. Just not interested in getting sick on vacation.

Good resort

The hotel was great. Room was large and comfortable. Butler service was not the greatest. Speciality restaurants were very good. Unless it was a fantastic deal we wouldn't go back. We asked for a breakfast sent to our room at 6.00 am prior to going on a tour. It never came.

Post IRMA Experience

AMAZING time, the resort was spared, little damage(nothing to worry about) food was fantastic, room was clean and comfortable, beach was a wicked. loved the 24 hour room service and enjoyed the Diamond Club experience.

Sanctuary at grand memories varadero

I thought the resort was very beautiful and not too big to enjoy walks. The beach was wonderful. The sanctuary lounge was a nice touch with ac and live groups in the evening which were very enjoyable. We noticed they didn’t advise of special activities which made it difficult sometimes. The people were extremely friendly with some going the extra mile. The food was okay. This is the only reason I would be hesitant to return. We are not fish eaters and found there was too much. The  [... read more]smells actually over powered us sometimes. Part of this I am sure is due to the time of year and not all restaurants were open. Some because not enough visitors and 2 because they were still doing repairs on them from hurricane irma. Over all I would rate this as a 4 because of not enough variety in salads and other foods. You can only eat so much chicken or pasta. The food we ate was delicious so no problems with the way it was cooked. I might try this resort again in high season to see about the had a great time and the entertainment was wonderful

First time to Cuba, won't be the last!

We had a wonderful stay at the Sanctuary at Grand Memories. The resort was beautiful, plenty of food options (I am vegan and had a fine time eating enough for breakfast lunch and dinner!). Only complaint would be that of room service, we asked many times for our fridge to be re-stocked and they told us over and over it would be filled but never was. Our stay was only 4 days so this was dissappointing, but not enough to dampen the experience. The beach here is 5 stars. Plenty of space, not crow [... read more]ded, lots of chairs for everyone. The beach is slightly separated so Sanctuary visitors have their own private area, but it is close enough to the music, activities, and beach bar for enjoyment. The wait staff and butler were 10/10. Very friendly, making conversation and attentive to our needs. I would recommend the Asian restaurant, Gin Seng, and also want to commend the guitar player at La Orquidea was fantastic. We will definitely be considering this resort in the future visits to Cuba, but maybe not paying the premium for Adults Only as the room service and fridge perks were not what we expected.

Pre/Post Irma

Arrived in Varadero on Sept. 4th. Negotiated a cab for $35 US. After a short wait at the main entrance of Grand Memories, shuttled to check in at Sanctuary. Check in was very quick, with champagne and fruit skewers. Found out we were upgraded to a suite adjacent to the beach. We did have Diamond Club reservations. room was very spacious, with two bathrooms, and a tub/shower separate from a stand alone shower. We had a dispenser stocked with light/dark rum, vodka, and whisky, and a small bar frid [... read more]ge with beer and soda, restocked daily. Our room was second floor, facing the beach, although we could not see the ocean from our room, it was visible from the third floor. Apparently, we had a butler assigned to our room, although no one came when we called the front desk, requesting ice. We also found out that wifi cards are free, one a day, for Diamond Club.This we found out from another couple, and we were not reimbursed for the days we didn't know about it. Food was pretty average, and nothing to rave about. Unfortunately, they were out of pizza, everyday at the snack bar. Then, we were told by way of a general posted meeting with management, that Irma was imminent. Told to stay in our rooms for 48 hours. Just as Irma hit, we lost hydro, and water. Luckily, management, by way of housekeeping gave us a candle, and bottled water. Unfortunately, they did not give out matches with the candle. They also taped the balcony door glass, in case it broke. Since our room was perpendicular to the winds, we did not sustain any structural damage to our room. The resort, however was heavily damaged. Although water was restored to our room, we never did get any hydro. No air conditioning, no cold drinks, no hot shower. We were given ham and cheese sandwiches, and melted ice cream for two days, before they got the buffet sorted out. For some reason the generator for the Sanctuary section of the resort did not work. We were not given a reason why. Whether it was damaged, or previously incapacitated, we were never told. Our Sunwing rep. was basically MIA after the storm, except for a note under our day saying we would fly out after 2 days. In those two days, we managed to find out Memories, just down the road, had hydro, and cold drinks. Apparently, all the UK tourists had been transferred there by their very active travel reps. Would have been a fabulous 10 day vacation, but for Irma, and I think the Resort should have been better prepared. At least our housekeeper stocked us up with soda, rum, and candles. Btw, the resort stopped serving any alcohol immediately after Irma, because the military takes over. This is what we were told by other guests, and the Management did warn us that there would be no service of alcohol for that 48 hours. When we left Sanctuary, on Sept. 12, it was more of a ghost town.

We definitely will be back!

Me and my 2 friends just got home from Sanctuary Grand Memories this Sunday and couldn't be more happier with how amazing everything was. Great service, amazing staff, overall everything went super well for us and we highly recommend any first time travellers to Sanctuary Grand Memories. Thank you again to the staff for your amazing hospitality!