Gorgeous Beach!

The resort was better than expected. Our first room was std on the 4th floor and not what we hoped for. It was small, run down and the pot liÄ£hts in the bathroom were leaking water before we had a chance to ask for another room. We were offered a new room and were very happy to be given an upgrade to oceanview, also on the 4th floor. It made all the difference for our stay. My only complaints were the pillows and bar fridge. The covers were clean, but the pillows smelled pretty rank making me w [... read more]ish I had brought my own. I avoided using them. We also never had our bar fridge stocked aside from a bottle of water per day. We were given coffee one day, but not enough water to make a pot and have water to drink/brush teeth. I'm a non coffee drinker, so clearly I didn't care. Also, I'm told the pool bar makes the best espresso.The only other negative is the nightlife. The disco is only open on wknds. We took a trip to casa de melia which was a disco at another resort. Beer is 2cucs each, more for mixed drinks. It would have been ok, but the huge group of drunk college kids our bus picked up kinda ruined it for me. They were out of hand and very annoying. Aside from that, the buffet food was decent and beach amazing. The staff also made it a great time for us. Zuyami at the pool bar was a sweetheart. David at the beach bar was such a nice guy. Alexi the announcer was such a positive person to be around. The disco dj was a great guy as well. There were so many that deserve a mention, but sadly I can't remember all of their names. We took the bus to Varadero city, which is 5cuc per person for the day. I only wish we had gone earlier in the week so we could have done it again. Sadly the last bus is at 8pm so we couldn't stay to watch the band at the Beetles club. Casa del chocolate was yummy! We had chicken from the street vendor, also yummy. I shared mine with a hungry cat. Neither of us were sick at all. I've been to Cuba 3 times now. The 1st 2 trips in Cayo Coco, which was lovely. But Varadero is where the action is of you want to leave the resort. All in all, I liked the resort and would go again with my own pillow for a reasonably priced vacay. I would rate it a 3.5 star compared to the 5 star I had been to before. It was a good value trip, $729pp CAD booked 2 days in advance. If you're spoiled and have high expectations, spend more and go elsewhere. But as with anywhere, your attitude makes a big difference in how you are treated. I can't comment on the pools as I am all about the ocean.

Great resort

Great resort, pretty clean, decent. Staff and entertainment teams and shows were awesome. Very good value for the deal we had. The coming back experience with Air Canada was an ordeal, with an 18 hours delay, especially for us and other families with kids. But that's another story which doesn't have anything to do with the resort. I would recommend this resort to friends.

Good vacation at Labranda!

Loved the amazing beach, rooms were spacious and clean, food was plentiful and diverse, good shows for kids and adults, outstanding service from all personnel at reception desk, restaurants and bars. Will go again!

Another great time at Labranda Varadero

We are repeat guests at Labranda Varadero and plan to go back again in the spring. The location, beach and grounds are well complimented by an amazing staff in all categories from food servers to bartenders, from grounds keepers to cleaners. There are a lot of renovations going on, including a large new restaurant. We highly recommend the Labranda Varadero.

Great time!

Hotel was great! Wonderful staff and very clean. We would definitely stay here again.. not to mention the private beach was a total plus! Lots of variety when it comes to food/ cocktails/ desserts.. the swim up bar was also a hit with us!

Cuba 2019

Labranda was nice but we prefer the bungalow style resort. Thas the reason we moved to the iberostar alameda in the second day. The service at labranda is lacking staff especially at the buffet restaurant. We know the staff at alameda which was nice to see again

Beautiful resort

This is my second time at this resort....I highly recommend this beautiful resort...all the staff are so very friendly the resort is very clean food was great & of course the beach & the grounds are simply beautiful & also great nightly entertainment.....I definitely plan on returning back to Labranda next April....I've been to Cuba five times & this is my favorite resort....I cant wait to return back there next year ❤

2nd Stay at Labranda , Varadero

We stayed at this resort in November and found resort beautiful and rooms nice and spacious and updated. The food and drinks were good so we decided to go back this April. This time we did a 9 day trip and brought our daughter, son in law and granddaughter with us. Through their rep Juan we upgraded to an ocean view room. Juan was absolutely awesome and got us beautiful rooms on the 4th floor in the main building right next to each other and secured us coffee makers in our rooms and also a late  [... read more]check out. The girls at the Cohibo Bar were great and so was Adonis who made me the best specialty pina colada. We also met a couple of great staff at the main buffet. The resort is beautiful we enjoyed both the pool and the beach during our stay. However I do have to say we were disappointed with the food and drinks on this trip. This resort has so much potential if they could just improve in this area. The majority of our stay drinks were not being made with juice but red mixture that to me was more like kool aid. Also other than Cohibo bar, the pool bar was rarely stocked to make anything more than rum and coke. There were only French fries available on our last day. We have been to Cuba 15 times and several different resorts from 3 star to 5 star. All of the other resorts have always had pancakes and most of them even a pancake station to make them fresh in the mornings. There were none the entire week. The food they did have during the 9 days we were there was very repetitive. More than any other resort we have stayed at ;with pork being grilled pretty much every evening. They didn’t have any themed nights at the buffet. We did enjoy our two a la cartes dinners and also went out for dinner two evenings. I would probably have to think hard about going here again unless I saw reviews with big improvements in the food and drinks. I truly hope they do as the staff and resort itself are wonderful.

Pretty Resort and Gardens

Very clean room, common areas including bathrooms and grounds. Very friendly and helpful staff. Our waitress Yanela made a beautifully decorated table for us one evening and provided excellent service the whole time we were there. Food was good, could always find something tasty to eat. For our many visits to Cuba, this rates at the top.

More than meets the eye!

This hotel was perfect. We originally booked an oceanfront bungalow but upgraded to a junior suite with a sea view. The bungalow is quite a walk to all the amenities. Our bungalow was on the third floor with no elevator. The junior suite was amazing. The bed was a king bed with a beautiful bathroom with walk in shower. We also had a sitting room. We found the suite was well positioned to take advantage of everything the resort had to offer. The beach was breathtaking. The pool was very large wit [... read more]h lots of lounge chairs. The food was fantastic and had lots of variety. The grounds were very well maintained. Everything was colourful and lush. From the moment we arrived the check in was quick and efficient. If you had any questions the reception staff was eager to help. The bank made changing your money a breeze. The check out was as fast as check in. We thoroughly enjoyed our week at the resort and are already looking forward to returning next year. I would suggest you give Labranda Resort a try for your next vacation... we are really glad we did.

Needs improvements

First I must say that I am not impressed with Sunwing, this bit has nothing to do with the resorts its self, but needs to be said. We have never paid for seat selection in our 11 years of traveling and we have always been able to sit together, this year when checking in at the airport the Sunwing agent told us that there were no seats together unless we wanted to pay an additional $50 each, then we could sit together. This tells me that there were in fact available seats together, and as we were [... read more] unwilling to pay an extra $100 we were given seats at opposite ends of the air craft. Now to the review on the hotel. We stayed at Labranda from Feb 16 – 23, 2019. There are some good points to the resort and some negative points as well, resulting in us feeling as though we paid too much for our vacation. We are not new to Cuba, we have visited 9 times, so these are experienced comments. The good: The beach is spectacular (as are all Cuban beaches that we have been to). The grounds and landscaping are picture perfect, with lots of lighting at night on most of the walk ways. The Cohiba bar (lobby) was nicely decorated and Omar and the group he normally worked with were always pleasant, welcomed you and remembered your drink of choice. The lunch buffet/bar El Ranchone was a nice alternative to the main buffet for lunch (this is also an a la Carte in the evening) and the staff Adrian & Yessica were always very nice and happy to see you. The rooms have just been renovated, and are very nicely decorated and modern looking, our bathroom was really nicely redone, the shower worked amazingly with lots of pressure and no issues with temperature. The housekeeping staff were great, and worked very hard to keep the rooms and walkways clean. The not so good: The food at the buffet was not what we expected, there were two options daily…fish & chicken, this was the only resort that we actually saw people eating only fries. The main buffet does not have enough trained wait staff or cooks, and they do not have enough utensils to properly set the tables after people leave and new people sit down, up to a 20 min wait at times, there were no spoons available for the first 4 days of our vacation. The food for lunch at the El Ranchone was also very repetitive. The snack bar by the big pool does not offer much, we ordered hamburgers one evening, and they were served raw, needless to say we did not eat them and did not order anything there again. There is not enough bar staff at the beach or at the bar by the big pool, at any given time we would only see one bar tender/per bar, and at times the line ups were 20-30 people long. They ran out of cups (both glass & plastic) at the bar by the big pool by 6pm one evening and were providing drinks in small paper cups, like the size of a small Dixie cup you’d get at the dentist. And they would run out of all kinds of alcohol (vodka, gin, wine to name a few) daily by 6pm and most bar staff are not trained and would make drinks up; examples would be: vodka & sprite = rum & sprite strawberry daiquiri = rum & grenadine margarita = rum & green slush. The bad: Bring some heavy-duty bug spray, the biting insects are really bad here. The air conditioner did not work the entire week that we were there, and after going to the lobby desk twice, the customer service desk twice and our Sunwing rep once (who was only there for 1 hour/day and hard to find), we were not offered an new room and to our knowledge noone was ever sent to look at it. Our Sunwing rep said that she would get us a late check-out and that we would have to sign off on it at the Customer Service desk. My fiance went to the customer service desk and relayed our unhappiness regarding the food, drinks and air conditioning and told them that we felt we paid too much for this vacation because of those things, and they went on to offer him a nice dinner in our room with wine and flowers, for a cost of only $50. He pretty much laughed and said, no thank you and we never did get our late-check out. In conclusion, this is not a terrible place and it has the potential to be a great resort, but for what is being charged and what you are getting, you might want to consider going elsewhere. If you have already booked your vacation, you might want to consider changing to another resort.

The Real Hotel Labranda

I will start with the good things about the hotel. Beautiful building and beautiful beach. Disappointing parts of the trip Hotel room had the following problems - safe not working, refridgerator not working, tv not working, toilet seat broken, no air conditioning and no outside phone lines. Everything was fixed except the air conditioning and telephone lines. The rest of the resort was also had issues, no cutlery for most meals and the food was poor and tasteless, chicken and fish and pasta  [... read more]daily. The grill at the beach was well prepared and tasty. I wouldn't return as this hotel has under gone extensive renovations and this is the outcome, not prepared for people. The lack of good customer service just blew me away, poor choice for a vacation getaway. The location was a 15 peco cab ride to town as so far away, another issue as nothing close to the resort.This at present is a 2.5 star and if all was addressed would be a 4 star location. Very disappointed for the money paid out for this resort.

Amazing time

Had a wonderful time at Labranda Varadero. Management has changed but very good service. The food needs upgrade a bit since the menu is very repetitive. Hotel staff very friendly and very nice. Looking forward to my next visit.

Not impressed

This was our second visit (first visit two years ago when it was called Naviti). Better services, food and drinks first time. Internet working much better this second time. Grounds are beautiful and beach is lovely. However, seaweed was a nuisance as it was not picked up and nobody seem to care. Most of guests were Germans & Russians. Almost no Canadians. Bread was scarce, some days only “rose” wine - probably diluted red wine - some days red wine, almost no white wine in the resort d [... read more]uring our stay. Last dinner they were completely out of wine. Staff working hard but no smiles - perhaps because tipping is a thing of the past. Most guest don’t tip at all, not even at the “a la carte” restaurants which I find very surprising. No hot water and no water pressure in the evening. Watch out at the currency exchange window as tellers will not hand over receipts and try to scam you a few CUC. We will not return unless there are some dramatic improvements.

Resort needs improvement

The hotel itself is gorgeous, the grounds are amazing. The food needs improvement, food is never hot and there is no variety. We've been to Cuba many times and we love the food but this was not Cuban standard.However, Christmas eve dinner there was a lot to choose from, sad that we didn't have that for the other days. There is only one buffet and a snack bar that never has any food except for ham sandwiches. We tried the only a la carte restaurant and the menu was limited as they didn't have e [... read more]verything available on the menu...what we ate was good...better than the buffet. We booked this resort because we saw in the pictures that there was a play structure in the pool. When we got there it was rolled up and set aside. A storm came threw during our stay and the ocean wasn't safe to swim for a couple of days, the structure would of been great to have. The positive part of this trip is the staff, they made our stay amazing. Our tummy were empty but our hearts were filled. A new owner has taken over in the past 2 months and he's making changes...we read a lot of reviews before coming and they were good. Maybe this new owner shouldn't change too many things as they might lose a lot of returning vacationers.

Amazing Resort

My girlfriends and I ( 4 of us) have been taking a yearly vacation to Cuba for 5 years now and decided to go back to Naviti this year because we enjoyed it so much in 2017. This year was even better! They had special evening Events - Rum tasting, Chocolate night, Wine night and the Cuba Night was fantastic. Rooms were great although we didn't get the rooms we requested which seems to be a issue when you book. The staff are always friendly and warm and can't say enough about the ocean! The onl [... read more]y disappointing thing we find every year is the Disco is rare open, we were there for 14 days and found the Disco only open 1 night. We absolutely had a great time and can't wait for next spring!!!!!!

Great location

Spend 7 days at this place and enjoyed ever day of trip. The rooms were large and clean. Staff on the resort were ever helpful and friendly. Food was good with large selection of Cuban food. Lots of meats, cheese, vegetables and seafood. The only complain I have is that they didn't offer scuba lessons or snokling at the resort which they said they did on thier website.

Amazing Staff

We love this resort, it is our second year at this resort. 3rd time to Cuba. The staff are wonderful and they really stepped up the entertainment, outdoor meals and the drinks. The iced coffee is super yummy.

Great Hotel

It is are second time staying at Naviti Varadaro. Rooms are very nice, cleaning staff is great. Buffet was also good they cooked use a whole pig out by the beach bar, and the last night we where there the had lobster and a huge cheese table at the dinner buffet. Great chefs. We would diffenetly recommend this hotel to anyone.

What happened to naviti?

This was our second time staying at Naviti Varadero. We were disappointed with a few things and after speaking to a few people found out that the resort had been sold last October. The hot tub by the beach club was not hot. The quality of the food has gone down drastically. Whenever our daughter wanted to go to the kids club we could not find staff. After asking at reception they said they would send someone over and after waiting for 20 minutes plus no one showed. There were  [... read more]less organized activities and they did not bring the kayaks and paddle boats out as frequently. During our stay a couple of busloads of Germans came to the resort causing lineups at the buffet and shortages of food. Unfortunately we will not be returning to Naviti again.