Sanctuary At Grand Memories Santa Maria

Where do we start. In a country where there is much uncertainty it keeps the staff at this resort working hard to meet all our needs.To the staff at bungalow 58 (Rodolfo, Yoel, Uziel, Yadira and Danny to name just a few). Thanks for caring. thanks for taking the time to chat and making us feel at ease so we could receive what we came to Cuba for, “rest”. You all went the 2nd mile to make our stay absolutely wonderful. To the countless waiters waitresses kitchen staff the Beloved. bartenders who all served us knowing abundance was not always there. You are all incredible people. We lacked nothing in our two week stay with you. Finally to summarize anyone considering visiting Sanctuary at Grand Memories… “leave your expectations and your entitlement at home and go be blessed with rest”. [Details]

Bus ride from airport is long offering water on the bus would be helpful ( not just beer) the room was clean coffee maker didn't work didn't matter they have no coffee, food at buffet is cold , The raw meat sits out at room temperature until they cook it . No toilet paper in any bathrooms around the resorts. Cuba unable to provide basic needs to tourists.People are nice if you want extra water or any service take American dollars they have supplies then . I will never go back [Details]

Cuba is going through an especially rough time in the last couple of years and it shows in the hotels.

But some of the stuff I encountered in this hotel cannot be excused: Smelly covers, botched repairs, ill-maintained grounds and especially food poisoning.

The staff were all very nice and hard working but management is a real issue. [Details]

A good place to relax and enjoy the beach. Can walk for miles. Crystal clear water, very clean. For more liveliness, go next door to the Grand. More amenities and entertainment. Bigger buffet. Pizza place. Great lobby bar and better wifi. [Details]

Cuba is know for their people and beaches, it is not known for food for top shelf beverages.

Overall our stay was good for the price point. [Details]

We have had a wonderful week at Sanctuary. It took a while to get here on the bus, but it was certainly worth the long trip. The beach is amazing. We received outstanding service from the Sanctuary staff led by the GM Ulysses. I want to thank Frank, our butler for his friendly and efficient service. Yadira greeted us with a warm smile and excellent service at the buffet. Jorge and Armando looked after us at the pool. Definitely on my list for a return visit. [Details]

The hotel was run down and falling apart. The areas of food and beverage were not inviting and the beach area bar and food were not clean. The main lobby toilets were not clean. The rooms were only cleaned by making the bed and new towels. no sweeping or mopping or changing of sheets. The food was reused every meal and no mix for drinks except lemonade or mango juice. [Details]

This vacation exceeded all my expectations!
It's my third time in Cayo Santa Maria and first time at Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is not too large, very well planned, rooms were clean, all staff was very accommodating and well versed in English which made it very enjoyable. Food was excellent, very fresh, great variety and truly tasty! Was pleasantly surprised that wifi was working throughout the resort. I loved that were was very little music on the beach, which allowed to enjoy the ocean like never before. Overall, hands down the best vacation I've ever had on top off best value! [Details]

The staff make this property without them you may be disappointed. The grounds are lovely however the property is old and tired needs major renovations. Location is a 90 minute plus bus ride so be prepared, sit back and enjoy the diverse countryside and hear about this part of Cuba from the tour guide on the bus. You only get what you pay for. If you want a superb beach with amazing staff than you can't ask for much more at this price point. [Details]

We have traveled previously to a variety of countries and resorts including Cuba but this is the first time we felt compelled to write a review based on our recent vacation. The resort and hotel bungalows were run down, dirty and in need of repair. There were food plates sitting outside room doors for days on end covered in ants and housekeeping would just walk by them. In our case the room phone did not work and when we asked for a repair we were told by the butler that the main phone line had been cut and all phones in our bungalow were out yet we could here phones ringing in other rooms when in the main hallway. The toilet seat in our bathroom was a different shape than the toilet and when sat on it would slide side to side. We asked for a repair/replacement and were told that we had to make do as there were no others?
The food was typical Cuban food so no surprise there however they ran out of natural eggs on the second day of our stay and were using powdered egg for breakfast. They were running out of draft beer and pop and it seemed there was a different brand from day to day. There were virtually no fresh vegetables for the entire week. The room towels were dirty when replaced, there were no face clothes, tissue paper and only 1 roll of toilet paper per room per day.
The cart service to move people around the resort was sporadic at best so we ended up walking most places because we couldn't get an honest answer out of the bell boy as to when they would show up.....lol! [Details]

We had a fantastic time. Thank you to all the hard workers who made our time so memorable. There are too many to mention. See you in September! [Details]

Resort was ok. Nothing fancy. Food needs to be updated. We ate the same food all week. The drinks were ok but the resort ran out of beer everywhere three times during our stay. Beaches are very nice. Would not recommend [Details]

Will not go back
The beach is the best by far! Thank god for the the beach and the ocean… well thats why we went there lol
A la carte or buffet is the same just being served lol. We went to adult only but all the main stuff is at the grand memories. Personally we like smaller resorts with more intimate service. We still had a blast. We ocean view but its like a partial. Its a Party Area with Lots of drunk way younger crowd. Of well lol [Details]

We have been to this location 4 times and love it there this why we keep coming back. Have an open mind and open heart and you will love this resort. Our only issue was downing 4 hrs speaking to hotel and airline to book a night for our friend that lives in Cuba with his wife and baby. We finally booked it with them and confirmed. The day he arrived the hotel declined his entry - and upsetting our trip as we wanted to spend time with our “family” [Details]

I love this resort. I will be back every 6 months. The staff are the best. The entertainment crew is the best part of the resort. They are so fun and make your stay so much better. [Details]

Seasoned Cuban travellers, we never travel to Cuba for the food, it's the beautiful people and beaches. Definitely lack of variety of food, liquor etc, but the beach remains beautiful. The resort could certainly use an update, but we only sleep in our room. [Details]

We booked 9 days in advance looking for time on nice sunny beach, warm water and relaxation. Just needed to get away from things life had thrown at us. Mission accomplished.

There was very little international liquor available and what was there was not what 99 percent would want. They ran out of red wine 3 days in. No milk 3 days in. No fish except one dish in buffet which had crab and razor clam shells all throught it.

Did not do an ala carte because others said it was the same as the buffet, just a little fancier and cold. Two grilling stations for all three meals. Food was tasty and hot, meat was chicken or pork. Buffet was cold and unheated. Bread was good as was coldcuts and veggies. Juice was not identified, but no orange juice. No yogurt. Ice cream available for lunch n supper. Pizza was available around 4, never had any.

The room like the resort is old and worn out and needs some upgrades. Take your own facecloths and some toilet paper. Ran out of toilet paper twice (no kleenex) asked and was told I'd have to wait until maid came in by one of the butlers. Some of the staff seemed indifferent to your requests, some broke their backs. Our good butler, Carlos was very helpful when needed, Jai has an attitude. Our favorite servers (we sat outside) were Helvy and Nimeirys who at the end anticipated what we wanted without us asking. Other servers when we asked for coffee told us we could get it at the bar.

We knew there would be things we wanted that wasn't going to be there. We booked 9 days in advance. We didn't let things ruin the trip, we essentially got what we went for. 25 years of traveling south, 4th time in Cuba, probably the last. [Details]

Experience good. Staff 5 start hotel 1 star. Room lacked ammenities and cleanliness. Definitely needs a face-lift. Bathrooms are very bad bad. Toilet seats broken and bathtub extremely dangerous. Should only have walk in showers. Unable to control AC.
Towels not changed very often.
Hotel definitely a lack of attention. [Details]

It's not that the entire experience was bad, most was good. It was just all the little things that brought my overall rating down to a 3.

For this review, I am only comparing our experience here with other resorts in Cuba (we've been all over the Caribbean). We visited this resort three weeks after the hurricane in 2017, and we recall that being a better experience. Cuba is still having some supply issues, but that is not relevant to my review of the resort itself.

To start with the good, our two main butlers were great. We did not utilize them all that much, mostly to book dinner reservations. We spent quite a bit of time with one of our butlers though. Twice, late in the evening, he spent some time with us chatting about Cuba and his life. We really enjoyed that time with him. The food at most of the A La Carte restaurants was very good. The beach was amazing, so was the beach grill (I had a plate of three grilled meats, the ribs and chicken were excellent). The grounds are beautiful, clean, and well kept. Most of the bartenders were really friendly and helped with drink suggestions when we asked. Our maid did an excellent job, she was super friendly and left us a towel/blanket origami thing every day.

Two of the best meals we had were off the resort. When we had a backup butler one day, that turned into a terrible experience. First we were offered 8:00 PM dinner reservations, which we decided to decline. Then when we returned to our rooms later in the day we had dinner reservations for 6:30 PM. Then around 6:00 PM another butler showed up and offered us a 7:00 PM reservation to a "special" dinner (a secret pop-up type of restaurant). When we tried to go there for 7:00 PM, we were given the run-around on where it was located, then driven around the resort on a cart for 10 minutes before being dropped off at the wrong location. After another 15 minutes of trying to find out what was going on, it turned out this secret dinner was canceled due to staffing issues. We went to our original restaurant that had the 6:30 reservation to see if they could accommodate us, they said they could. We were sat at 7:40 PM and did not finish our meal until about 9:45 PM. We waited over an hour for our entrees due to issues in the kitchen. The worst part of this was the total lack of communication. Had they been straight with us about what was going on, we would have gone to the buffet instead. The staff at times did not seem to really care, or were lazy, or borderline rude. I can't count the number of times I was cut off by staff, where I had to stop dead in my tracks or slam into them. They wouldn't even excuse themselves. One staff hollered to me from 15 feet away to take my drink order so she would not have to walk around the railing. We had a spill one night around 3:00 AM. Since the phone in our room did not work I walked to the lobby to ask for new sheets. I walked back to the lobby about an hour later to ask again since none had shown up yet (the reception guy was asleep both times I went to the lobby, he had to be woken up by another staff member). Someone showed up with sheets 5 minutes after I got back to the room the 2nd time. Carts were either coming in droves or non-existent. When we were checking out, 4 carts showed up to collect us and our luggage (this shows a complete lack of organization). Yet, we once waited at the market for 30 minutes to have no cart show up and then took a 20 minute walk back to the Sanctuary side. Normally I like a nice walk, but I'm currently in physio and should not have been walking that much.

I think most of the challenges we had could be summed up to poor management and training. [Details]

This was a beautiful resort. People and staff were amazing. Weather was perfect. We had two butlers that were amazing Luis and I forgot the girls name. However we had one butler that was very nice. But never followed threw with what he said he would do. He messed up our reservations 3 nights with the restaurants. One night he forgot to book it so gave us what was left. Next we book one restaurant and it was for 630 by 6pm we had to call to see why we still had not got confirmation. And 3rd we had for the restaurants that had the air conditioning and he booked us for the opposite one in the heat. His name was Rudy.

However there were a few things that we wished we better. One the food was repetitive everyday at the buffets. Selection was poor due to shortages. The restaurants there was only 2 that would change every night. But there was no selection . They were also short on alcohol choices either rum or tequila.
In our room we were supose to have room service but the phones never worked but first day.
We were also supose to have wifi but never worked anywhere the whole week we were there
We are assuming they had staff shortages as well as they never had staff around the pool or on the beaches to take drink orders as they had in the past.

Over all we enjoyed our stay except for the food. We are chalking it up to being closed for 2 years due to covid and just not everything worked out yet getting back to business. [Details]

The staff were kind and did their best for me to enjoy my stay. They work so hard. I saw the gardeners using machete, as opposed to motorized equipment, to cut the grass and hedging. They were always pleasant and appreciated when you try to learn and speak their language. My butler always asked about my day and if I needed anything. The beach is gorgeous. I had guava ice cream there for the first time... yummy.
The nightly entertainment featured talented dancers. The three nights I saw them, I enjoyed their performances everytime. [Details]

Only thing good was the warm weather, the beach and the Cuban people!
Music so loud, hard to find a quiet place…not even your room!
Mosquitoes just about eat you alive!
Flies crawling all over the food!
Took 4 days to repair a toilet seat!
Came home and tested positive for Covid! [Details]

Fabulous beach. Very clean and well maintained property and grounds. Excellent attentive and friendly staff. Room was great: clean. no lack of towels or hot water. AC worked fine. Would reccomend this place. [Details]

This was the most romantic place ive been to.
Privacy is an option and party is also an option.
The cooks are amazing and will cater to you anytime of day!
The water is crystal clear like nothing ive ever seen before . The staff will go above and beyond to make youre tropical getaway as special and personal as possible! [Details]

Great week at this hotel. [Details]

Dated but clean, upgrades were in progress during our visit (second visit here) Water pressure is awesome. The first day was not perfect, took a couple days to get beach towels. A comfortable place to stay, bed very comfortable, view was great.Awesome staff, Yoel Ibanez, Carlos and the rest of the staff were superb from house keepers Heydi, to wait staff, Ravelo, Carlos (cannot remember the names of everyone) to grounds workers. Everyone made us feel welcome. [Details]

Overall it was a great experience, being at Adults Only resort the other 2 resorts were easily accessible via Golf Cart transportation and food choices at the ala carte restaurants were very enjoyable. I would recommend this resort and would definitely go back! [Details]

This was my second trip to this resort. I had an amazing time. Our butlers Yoel and Carlos were absolutely wonderful ! We had great a la carte every night but one. The Italian and Mediterranean were our favourites. [Details]

PARADISE
Thats all i can say, it was an amazing week at the Sanctuary. I enjoyed everything and a must for the beach as well the staff. [Details]

Overall good time. Our week seemed to have have almost everybody fal ill but i think the problem ended up getting resolved. [Details]