This is an incredible Cuban resort

The trip to Sanctuary at Grand Memories in Holguin was the best trip we’ve had to Cuba (seventh one). The hotel, food, beverages, special dinners, hotel room, excursions were fantastic. We highly recommend Sanctuary at Grand Memories in Holguin. We recommend the Premium service at the resort as you given access to a cool air-conditioned lounge in the lobby, as well as a separate dining room with no lineups, excellent service, and fine cuisine. We were assigned butlers that looked after many un [... read more]expected needs, such as how to work the room safe. Book this resort through Kaylee Toth of tripcentral.ca

Is this the best resort in Cuba?

The trip to Sanctuary at Grand Memories in Holguin was the best trip we’ve had to Cuba (seventh one). The hotel, food, beverages, special dinners, hotel room, excursions were fantastic. We highly recommend Sanctuary at Grand Memories in Holguin. It may be the best resort in Cuba. We recommend the Premium service at the resort as you given access to a cool air-conditioned lounge in the lobby, as well as a separate dining room with no lineups, excellent service, and fine cuisine. We were assigned [... read more] butlers that looked after many unexpected needs, such as how to work the room safe.

Amazing resort and very friendly staff!!

The place is amazing and they have plenty of food, not like some other resort that we have been to cuba. Place is really clean, staff are very friendly specially our butlers Yosbel & Raciel. They took care our Dinner bookings for our groups every single nights. Definitely will be return back to this place Guaranteed!! 5 Stars!!!

Clean, Comfortable, lovely resort

The resort is well maintained with great staff who are very helpful. Food was good, limited variety but always a few choices and well prepared. It was low season so some bars and restaurants were not open. The pools were nice , we stayed on the Adult side and for the most part was quiet. It would have been nice to have had a bit more music and entertainment but with fuel shortages…

Sanctuary! The best resort !

It was my second time to visit this beautiful resort!!!! I spent a week, but I regret not going there for two weeks. Everything was great and specially I would like to mention my butler Ramon who was very helpful and made me feel very welcome. Everything I needed I asked him for and he was always there for me. Because of him I have a desire to come back again. All other staff were very pleasant as well. Room was clean and beautiful. Food was very tasty and lots of choices to choose from. Beach i [... read more]s amazing.

Amazing second time in Sanctuary

I just come back from the Grand Memories Sanctuary hotel. I decided to visit again this place and I didn’t regret. I travelled with my Mom and we had an amazing time together thanks to the amazing people who work in the hotel, plus room was so nice and clean, beach is beautiful with lots of trees and food was very tasty with a variety of choices. I will definitely go back again.

Great Stay!

We came with low expectations, in June. We have never travelled to Cuba in June before, mostly October to April. We were concerned about bugs (none) food shortages for low season (definitely none, we ate so well!!). The staff was top notch, so friendly and willing to help. The pool was clean, there was sargassum, but we only walk the beach, don’t swim and it was fine! We did have Premium and the staff at the premium restaurant were so amazing! We would definitely revisit this resort!! Our  [... read more]only negative was our first room smelled so bad…..it woke us both up at night, but as soon as we asked to switch rooms there was no issue ?

Beautiful resort

The resort was modern, spaces room. Service was ok. Need improvement on the entertainment, I been to most part of Cuba and this resort entertainment was not what I think. The schedule and location was confusing. Beach party is very night. It just a mini disco. No foam party unless I misread the entertainment schedule. The entertainment team seem inexperienced and new. I think in the future they will improve. Most of the guest go there they stay in the resort so entertainment is the only t [... read more]hing they look forward too. Beach is not like other part of Cuba beach. Lots of algae and rocks. Beside that the love the design of the resort. At the lobby you can always catch a good breeze so there hardly any mosquitoes, which is a major BONUS for me. Dining and food can be improve. As for drinks I normally don’t get what I requested but it’s not a big deal. I can have wine or rum and coke. I would rate this a 4 stars

Amazing Resort !

This was my first trip to Cuba and I will definitely be back ! So many mixed reviews but my experience was unforgettable. The staff were all so gracious and catered to whatever we asked for and if they could not accomodate , were extremely empathic. The hotel was clean, our room was always stocked with water , and refreshments. Food was great and we could not have asked for better weather. Love this hotel !

Beautiful resort

Love this resort. If I have one complaint it is with Sun wing and their flight times. If people are not leaving the resort till 5 pm then they should automatically get a late check out. People leaving at 12 noon don’t need to check out at 3 pm

Sanctuary Grand Memories Holguin

Stay were great . Rooms were excellent. Loved our stay people friendly and aim to please. The amenities excellent. Butlers Carlos and Eddy were on top of things. Very friendly and ensured we had everything we needed. Made our reservations for a la carte so we did not waste time doing so.

A great resort

Hotel was spotless.. staff good.. rooms spacious and beautiful.. ground beautiful, beach was nice very natural and food for cuba was OK.. lots of a la Cartes, butler service was an added worth while touch that we never had before.. thry went above for our anniversary, decorating room and they had a bottle of wine in our room and had booked us a special dinner for that nite. Drinks were pretty good ..entertainment lacked from what I could c at nite time.. I would also recommend to hot [... read more]el to keep washrooms in common full of tiolet paper.. that was my biggest issues

Santuary at Grand Memories

Will this us our third time spending our vacation at the Santuary . Our first trip was in 2023 and we just loved this resort! From the lobby of this resort to the restaurants , santuary bar. To the la carte restursnts, beach, pools , we enjoyed it all. The butlers and all staff are pretty amazing they go above snd beyond to assist or help in any way they can . Their smiling faces would just make anyone’s day . Our flight to and from was perfect ! Food was very good. Considering the fact [... read more] of what the Cuban people are having right now . We felt truly blessed ! Big shout out to our butlers , Grabiel, Melissa, Hyki, Marlon, Basilo General Maitre . My husband and I are looking forward to returning to this beautiful resort ! Thank you to everyone at the Sanctuary Resort! We love you

Great time

The resort was a great time where we met some amazing friends who will be life long. Good food and okay beach but stunning pools to make up for it. Definetley will be going back in the future.. see you soon!

Puzzled?

Beautiful grounds, however, all else unfortunately lacks greatly. Very mismanaged. First two days no bread products, however, surprisingly had an abundance on our last day of vacation? Always running out of varied types of alcohol in certain areas, but in stock just feet away at the next bar. Rooms smelled musty. TV and internet kept cutting out throughout the week. At one time had no TV and internet for two days? Staff very uninformed and more than a few were very exhausted. Bartender made me a [... read more] margarita with rum? I think we were there at a time of short supplies. Very unfortunate because I would have gone back but can't risk it.

Amazing resort !

We just came back from this resort and can’t stop to talk about it . From the hotel room(perfectly cleaned every day by Lia , fridge stocked up ) Dining ( lots of it on daily buffets, the bread was not always there , but the yummy cheeses made up for it . We were never hungry . Tried many authentic Cuban dishes . Also we had dinner @ Japanese restaurant and that was amazing . We had 2 special lobster dinners with sparkling wine and a beautiful music . The grounds are nicely kept and you see pe [... read more]ople always working there . The beach is lovely and clean with enough chairs to sit . The pools are nice , big and sparkling clean . And again lots room to sit . And finally the staff . Where to begin ? We love them all ! They smile and are always ready to help. They really care to make people feel good and extra special . Thank you very much for that ! We very much appreciate you . The only thing I missed is nightly entertainment. There is a theatre ,but I never seen anything happening there . Also some water exercises in the pool would be nice . Overall we had a blast and would recommend this resort . Teresa & Julian

Great Resort

We just got back from a week at the Sanctuary at Grand Memories Holguin and did an on-premise upgrade to Premium class. The resort: It is beautiful, new and modern and well laid out, with the usual Cuban oddities. The week we were there was very odd in terms of resort occupancy. The Sanctuary area was fairly well booked, but the non-Sanctuary area of the resort was virtually empty. Close to empty pools, very few people. Not sure if this was because the North-American school breaks were o [... read more]ver or the general warnings about food shortages, but occupancy for the resort in general was very low (I heard 50%). This is the time we normally travel to Cuba and are used to it being prime season with full resorts. One good side-effect is that the price was very reasonable - we paid less for upgraded room (mini-suite overlooking the ocean plus Premium Service and Priority Elite on the plane) for roughly what we would have had to pay for basic travel/room at DR or Mexico. Premium: We upgraded to the Premium service and while fairly expensive, it was a game-saver due to the food situation (more on that later). The butler service was very good in the day (Heyli was awesome), the nighttime butler was pretty much useless. Food: Cuba is going through a very rough patch and it showed in a number of areas on the resort - primarily in the area of food. While the resort obviously tried it's best to work with what it had, the variety and quantity of the food was very poor. For instance one day there was absolutely no bread on the resort. I never saw any fresh fruit, and vegetables were restricted. Primarily the staple was rice and eggs. There was usually some chicken and occasionally beef or pork, but they typically ran out during each meal period. And of course there was always the staple - hotdogs (no buns) and sausage. The Premium service provided a-la-carte breakfast, lunch, and supper. We only used the a-la-carte breakfast once but almost exclusively used a-la-carte lunch and supper. While the a-la-cartes had restricted choice, the food was well-prepared and presented. TripCentral: We booked through tripcentral. I think they have the best website for easily finding travel packages for the dates you want. Once we paid we were assigned a travel agent who provided timely and helpful trip information and was very quick to respond to my enquiries. Sunwing: While we had 45 minute flight delays both ways (plus a longer delay leaving because one passenger didn’t board the flight - they were eventually able to track her down in an airport bar) but the flights were uneventful and the crews were outstanding (fun and personable). We paid extra to upgrade our seats to Priority Elite which gave extra leg room - extremely worth it on the long flights. The bonus was that we had priority check-in and supposedly priority baggage service. In reality the priority baggage service was non-existent. But the priority check-in at Halifax was much-appreciated. There was a very long check in line for regular seats but the priority line had no one in

Great southern hospitality

First thing I’d like to say is thank you to each, and every staff member that I encountered at this resort every single one of you are great people and very down to earth and very helpful and assertive I went on this vacation by myself with minimal expectations I left the resort with great memories. I met great people along the way. I had a couple issues down there that was out of the hotels control just people from other countries being foolish they were very supportive and helpful customer ser [... read more]vice along with the authorities from Cuba they listened to what I had to say and acted on it accordingly as for the hotel the hotel is absolutely beautiful. Anybody that is thinking about this hotel take the opportunity to see the beach one of the best I’ve ever seen in my opinion in today’s world everybody’s opinion is different… I would also like to say a special thanks to Janet the maid from block B. She’s a very beautiful woman. And very kind. And always said good morning. Papasito made me feel real comfortable, even though I was in block a. Just passing by she even got upset when I left asked me why I didn’t tell her. I talked to her and a translator one of the staff members the day. I was leaving. She gave me the biggest hug ❤️ thank you Mamacita …as for the main pool bar you guys are absolutely the best people I’ve met on vacation in a long time. Anything I needed you guys always help me and I appreciate it more than you know. Also, the lady that worked there I’m not sure her name is off by hand called me Papasito. I appreciate it. As for the facilities the buffet I would like to say thank you to one of the girl in the buffet and I wasn’t able to get her name or picture. I do have some pictures of the staff. I would love to share this this girl at the main buffet as soon as you walk through the door during the day and walk straight ahead she has glasses she noticed that I was a little bit off, which I did have a health concern and she kept making sure that I was OK. I had plenty of water. And kept asking me if I felt OK. And if I needed anything, I didn’t have money at the time, but it meant so much to me that I walked all the way back to my room, and I returned and found her at the staff meeting. And I gave her a tip based on the service I received from her and I greatly appreciate it. She is also very beautiful and spoke alittle English as for overall cleanliness in the resort I believe it was a very clean resort you always seen people scrubbing or cleaning something. The effort was there, and they should be rewarded for it. The buffet stuff, especially the pasta bar and pizza seafood and meat bar the people work tirelessly to make sure that everybody is fed on the resort and they should also be rewarded for what they do. They’re sitting in a full suit and stifling hot conditions and they never stop. The beach bar staff deserves a lot of credit too for the service. They provide a lot of drunk people and they do a very thorough job taking care of everybody. I can’t say enough I built great memories if I were to choose a resort again, this one will always come mind I do have some pictures of the staff. I would like to share and I wanna make sure they get the credit they deserve

A great trip

This was a beautiful resort! The grounds were beautiful and everything was clean. The beach was okay, not as nice as other areas in Cuba, but still nice. I’d recommend water shoes as there were areas that were rocky/had broken shells. The pools in each section of the resort were nice and well kept. We stayed on the sanctuary side, which was actually the busier area of the resort the week we went. Food flavour was as we expected in Cuba, however, there was lots of selection and we always had full [... read more] stomachs. At the main buffet they had pasta, fried rice, and pizza bars at lunch and dinner that were always a hit. I’d recommend bringing any condiments and seasonings that you may want. The drinks were the best that we’ve had in Cuba (this was our 5th time in Cuba, first in Holguin). The sanctuary lobby bar had the best drinks! The rooms were clean, but ours had a musty smell and there was a dehumidifier in our room. The AC didn’t always work, and I was very thankful I had brought a small portable fan. We had premium and our butlers were great (Yosbel and Raciel). They were very helpful. Overall we loved the layout of this resort. We would definitely return!

Beautiful resort, beach and weather couldn't ask for more.

Hotel is big but well maintained , plenty of restaurants and bars, food was good and the people were awesome , we were a group of 6 all very happy with the exception of one day one room from our group not having the towels but overall was a very good vacation we would go back. PS we were hoping to be delayed and stay a couple more days but that didn't happen. We met a wonderful young lady by the name of Natalie working in the lobby bar she nicknamed us the Toronto family.