A Cuban Paradise

Beautiful grounds, pool & people. Room was great, mattresses could use an upgrade for sure but the rest was great! Lobby was wonderful, resort areas were clean and well kept..Most staff was helpful & friendly. Beach was amazing.Food was typical for what people expect for Cuba. I love the Cuban food so I thought there were plenty of choices for all tastes. Great little ice cream bar by the pool. The conivinience store could use a definate upgrade as it was the size of a closet and could only fit  [... lire plus]2 people at a time and not many things to choose from if you didnt't want to leave resort.Tripcentral was amazing when booking the trip, Sunwing was great as always, flights were great, resort was awesome all around. I would return to this resort for sure. Building 10 was ideal as it was close to everything get quiet!

Terrible resort

This hotel is the worst place I've ever stayed at. Staff not friendly at all . Buffet is disgusting. No service at buffet rude people. Rooms weren't very nice. Lack of communication with any staff member don't understand any English

Beautiful Resort

Labranda Is a very well kept resort. The rooms are nice, very clean. My room was always clean, towels changed. Nothing taken from me. The beach is great, but needs more lawn chairs on the beach. I had trouble finding one. The staff was good, except I had a problem getting a fork and a drink for dinner. The lobby bar seemed to need a "line up" which was odd. Coffee in the morning was hard to get. Pool bar never had cups. The people were mostly from germany, and a much older crowd. The entertain [... lire plus]ment is blah. By 1030 11pm people start going to bed. Unless your with people you'll be bored. The food is good, compared to what ive had. If you like bacon then you'll enjoy.

The worst Resort Ever - LABRANDA CAYO SANTA MARIA

The service was horrible, it would take 1-2 hrs before we could get a drink. They hardly had any staff on and trying to order a drink when not one person who worked on the resort spoke english. The food was horrible, literally rotten, no utensils to eat with and the dishes were filthy all the time. The patio door and safe were broken, so we couldn't lock either one, asked them to fix it several times..never got fixed SHOCKING NOT!!!!!. Seen a lot of staff off in the corner on there phone, so af [... lire plus]ter that we all stopped tipping. The swim up bar had nothing to put your drinks in, they were not very friendly at all. I have been in a few places in Cuba and they were very sweet people, it was like they couldn't get out of there own way. My friend believes she got bitten by bedbugs. The main lounge area furniture was disgusting, like someone pissed all over it. Most of the people we met would never return.One of a la carte restaurants ran out of food, probably a good thing. PLEASE DO NOT GO TO LABRANDA RESORT IN CAYO SANTA MARIA...NASTY

Santa Maria

Pool and beach were nice but the service was not good.most of the time our food was cold before we got silverware and drinks. A fee of the workers were great but most were not. Would not go to this resort ever again.

Nice place to relax

If you are looking to party this isn't the resort. Very friendly staff. Room was okay; just the public bathrooms available for all smelled very strong in urine, not clean and missing toilet paper. Food was okay as well ; however I'm not fussy. For the souper a la carte it was dissapointing; we only got 2 out of the 4 because even if we went to reserve when we arrived they were all booked and there was missing many choices on the menu. Overall a nice place, beach, pools very clean and good s [... lire plus]ervice.

Unorganized reception

The hotel was nice clean and staff is friendly. Unfortunately they are still working the kinks out and the reception desk was chaos both checking in and checking out. I have been to Cuba many times and always greeted with a drink and the keys to your room are ready and waiting for you. We checked in at 4 in the afternoon and could not get a room till almost 9pm. We had several small children with us and you can imagine the exhaustion by the time we were allowed a room. Check out was just as unor [... lire plus]ganized they could not find us in the computer and refused to allow us to leave till we proved who we were. We were a group of 12 not sure how we were not in the computer!

Great resort!

Great spot to enjoy the sun! We had an amazing time. Definately will return next year Friendly staff, clean premises, beautiful gardens, and a short distrance to 3 amazing beaches!! The food was alright, however it would of been nice to have a better supply of orange juice!

Fair

The grounds were kept well. Most of the staff were friendly and courteous. Including grounds and cleaning staff. Most know that if you're visiting a resort in Cuba, "that you don't go to Cuba for the food". However, i did expect more. There was generally enough food, but not really any food that would bring me back to the table. Service in the buffet area was subpar at best. You need to staff TRAINED Life Guards. During my stay there was a near drowning of a 2yr old. Found face down in the  [... lire plus]pool with water wings on. Although I believe the onus is on the parents to pay attention to their children. When the boy was discovered and retrieved there was no one other than a Canadian man who knew what to do! He saved this unresponsive young toddler without the help of any life guard on staff. The "On staff Doctor, i never saw. Even once i assessed the child outside the front lobby. Perhaps they were at the beach patrolling? Regardless, there should be one at the pool. Bathroom at the main building were subpar as well. No tp or paper towels most of the time. I did enjoy my stay. However, food needs big improvements, latrines need a little more attention and most of all; Life Guard at the pool.

Amazing Staff

This resort is dated and needs work. Food was not great but I expect that in Cuba. The staff were so kind and helpful. The beach had a lot of rough coral all along the shoreline. The room was fine however the toilet did not flush well. Was a very high shortage of beach towels and the resort was less than half full.The chicken sandwiches on the beach were the best food in the resort.Jose was an awesome bartender at the pool bar. Had a good vacation but likely would not go back.

Fantastic stay

We just returned from Labranda after our March break holiday. Myself and my two teenage daughters had a fantastic time. The resort was beautiful especially the grounds. We visited a neighbor resort and Labranda had much better landscaping and pool area. Our room was very nice and clean. We did have a small issue with our shower not draining but it was fixed within a day. The staff were very friendly and helpful. This was my third time to Cuba so I had mentally prepared myself for mediocre food.  [... lire plus]We were pleasantly surprised. Most meals were much better than expected. The beach and pool side grills were particularly good. I will make note that the guest were mostly older retirees from Europe. I was hoping for more families with teenagers. Thankfully we did meet another family with similar aged teens so it made our vacation that much better. I would recommend Labranda but if you want to experience Cuba you need to leave Cayo Santa Maria which is a bit difficult. We tried to rent a car with no luck. There are rental businesses but none of them had a car. We ended up hiring a taxi for the day and went to a couple cities. This turned out to be a great option.

Perfect for relaxing

I've stayed at 4 other resorts in Cayo Santa Maria, Labranda is quite comparable except it was unusually quiet. I've never seen such a large resort so empty. I'm not complaining, we go on vacation to relax, enjoy the weather and the beach... we had a perfect week, we pretty much had the resort to ourselves! We had no problem finding a spot poolside or at the beach. Getting towels was a tad frustrating!! Never seemed to be anyone around and no sign posting when service would be available. Norm [... lire plus]ally beach towels are provided in our rooms upon arrival... I'm not one to complain so the usual things we've come to expect from Cuba Resorts I let slide... ie: burnt light bulbs, missing electric plug covers, faucets that drip, toilets that run, missing tiles, even worse MISSING TOILET PAPER, doors not shutting properly, patio doors that don't lock (Do any patio doors EVER work properly in Cuba?) Pros: Lots of toilet paper in all the washrooms - guess low numbers of guests are good in some ways. Housekeeping was great!! Room was clean and no holes in any sheets or towels :) Fresh flowers are always a nice touch. :) Techs were quick to repair door and safe issue. Service with a smile... gotta like that!! No food poisoning from any eating establishments! Always a bonus. Cons: Only 1 bottle of water, 1 can each beer and cola stocked in the fridge. More water should be provided to guest. Drinks should be stocked in two's. Room not ready on arrival... I don't understand this!! It was an empty resort that we booked well in advance and yet we had to wait over 3 hours to get in our room. No beach towels provided in our room. Key service people didn't speak English.(Omelette maker and general store keepers were AWESOME though!! ) Key service people were missing.. Towel guy, Gym guy, Transat Rep. Overall vacation was great! We'd go to Labranda again, fingers crossed that some service issues would be remedied and all facilities would be open. Beach bars, seafood restaurants, and pizza at the snack bar need to be open!! The beach bar with the rope swing seats would be such a cool place to hangout... shame it was closed. Obvious safety hazards need repairs... boardwalks, railings. Also, a book exchange place would be nice. A simple book case in the lobby... take a book leave a book!! Cheers!

Confusing

I always go to Cuba with the understanding you get what you pay for so I am never to critical of the food or service but in this case there were some things I have never experienced before, first the resort was almost empty ,it didn't really bother me but I could not get any answers as to the lack of people,little odd not having anyone at the pools or beach. Second the staff spoke very little English which was okay at first but as the days went by it became very annoying,I have never experienced [... lire plus] this before.Probably the thing that bothered me the most was the lack of professionalism when trying to resolve a problem,the agent for Transat was AWOL for the whole time I was there,the facilities were often closed ,ie.gym,restaurants ,towel exchange dude and when I questioned reception it was usually a shrug with no answers. The plus was the weather and the beach were great but it was definitely lacking in professional standards

Beautiful hotel and beach

The hotel was generally well maintained, clean and the staff were, for most, very nice and helpful. The front desk staff were (to the exception of one young lady we dealt with), slightly arrogant, which surprised me very much. The gardeners were all very polite and attentive to the clients, which was much appreciated, as they seem to be overlooked by a lot of people, especially when it comes to getting a little tip, or even a thank you. The dining room staff were in general all good, some ver [... lire plus]y very good. The resort is huge, but was surprisingly fairly deserted. No need to rush to get a towel on a chair there, which me for me, was awesome. It definitely wasn't a place to go if you expect a lively night life and need to be entertained. But for a relaxing kind of vacation where you like to rest, it was perfect. The pools were always clean and the grounds/ chairs in good condition. The food: I have been to Cuba twice before, many years ago, and I had no issues with the differences , but this time, I was actually looking forward to coming home for a good meal. Breakfast - bananas and oranges were rare, pineapples only if fairly lucky. No ketchup unless again you got lucky, but they had ketchup at the snack bar at lunch.. Lunch - choices were very limited Dinner - a la carte , the first night was actually extremely disappointing. Both the soup, the chicken and the risotto were all so salty that we only took one bite of everything before we couldn't eat more. We were hoping to be lucky with the cheesecake offered on the menu, but there was none available. So we went to the buffet where again, the options were not very appealing. It is the first time I go on a week long trip and I can't say that I "stuffed myself" too many times, as I didn't even over eat once during the week. Overall, except for the food, having the beach and the pools almost to myself on numerous occasions were AWESOME, and just what I needed.

Horrible. Do not book this hotel

We booked through tripcentral.ca which had the resort flagged as a 4 star. I can definitely say I would give it a 2 star at best. Here are the high level negatives: Mould in the room. Had to pay for an upgrade to change rooms despite the 800 room resort only having max 100 people there. They told us they didn’t have a room with a king size bed. Despite the hotel being empty. To put it in perspective there was mould on the bed spread, on the walls and inside the pictures hanging on the w [... lire plus]all. The upgrade cost over $200 just so I didn’t have an asthma attack. No security present. We were verbally attacked and threatened by another guest and their family and staff stood around and watched. When we went to get help we were directed to please speak to the customer service rep. Where there was a line up. Lack of food. Not just lack of variety but food availability was an issue. 24 hour restaurant only served hot dogs or ham and cheese sandwiches. vegetarians and vegans beware there is a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables at all meals. Hot dogs served three different ways at meals. Labeled as sausages, pork or hot dogs. They just cut them differently and use different sauces. Vegetarians prepare yourself to eat cold spaghetti, bread, and frozen or canned peas, mushrooms and corn for a week. Hazards all over. Rotting boardwalks. Children’s play areas with nails sticking up from fence posts. Pool railings that fall apart when you put your weight onto them. Nails sticking up on pool stairs where railings once stood. Personal belongings stolen poolside. Staff response was ya sorry It’s the locals. No free WiFi despite it being listed as a free amenity. $1.25 CUC per hour if you were lucky enough to be able to purchase it. A lot of local Cuban guests. Not an issue unless you mind people walking around with loud portable karaoke machines serenading their families poolside and in the restaurants . Drowning out the music the resort is playing. Or pushing you out of the way at the buffet. No tour operators on site. Our air transat rep was there once and told us to call the emergency number if we needed anything. When we tried to get assistance with our room issue he changed the subject and was rude. It was almost like he knew the place was horrible so he didn’t even try to help. A la cart restaurants are available but no menus to see at booking desk. I have allergies and they refused to provide menus. They said we would have to go to the restaurants when they were open and ask to read them. Or book and hope for the best. They also couldn’t tell us what restaurants were open what nights. Towels in the room and at the pool are stained, ripped and or dirty. One towel we were left in our room smelled of urine. At 7 pm a truck goes around the resort spraying a diesel smelling smoke cloud. Apparently it’s for mosquito control. It triggered an asthma attack and it made me sick to my stomach. They spray the entire property half hour after the buffet opens for dinner so you can’t avoid it unless you hide in your room. Staff cat calls at women. Pool employees walk around and stare at female guests inappropriately. One staff member kept looking between my legs every time he walked by. It got to the point I kept covering myself or crossed my legs if he was around. Please keep in mind I was just lying down on a pool lounger with my legs close together when this would happen. You will never have to reserve any pool chairs because nobody goes to this resort. It has been abandoned by the tour operators. So you will only ever see maybe ten other people at the pool. Trust me when I say do not book this place. There is no service. You will never be served anything except for beverages in the buffet. Every other drink you get you will go to a bar and fetch yourself. The customer service is horrendous. Nobody speaks English. The hotel caters to local Cuban guests more than everyone else.

Beautiful hotel and beaches

I loved my stay at labranda cayo santa maria. The hotel was beautiful and had the most gorgeous pool i have ever seen. The beaches were white sand and pristine and the grounds were just lovely. A beautiful relaxing time

Quiet spot in paradise

This is the second time we have stayed at this resort, and I was pleased with the choice to return. The good: Super friendly staff, eager to help- the resort was maybe only half full and the lovely beach was wide open to us, stunning emerald sea and spotless pool areas. The bad, one of the three beach accesses was almost impassable due to missing planks. Important to note: This is Cuba, enjoy it for all that it is and don't complain about what it is not. Also, the food is basic, but there's  [... lire plus]plenty of it. The room was fairly basic, but very clean, insect free and everything worked fine. Great hot shower. Overall we were very happy to stay at Labranda, and sorry to have to leave until next time. P.S. Awesome "Irish Coffee". Thanks Dayana!!

Good hotel ,

Good clean hotel , good fresh food, Beautiful beach ,not good entertainment . While in Cuba I would like to listen to cuban music The pathway to the beach is in bad shape. Staff is very polite and carring. I would recommend

Incredible Time and Time Again

We have returned to this resort every year for the last 3 years in a row, and we will continue to do so. The resort itself is held to an excellent standard. Very well maintained, very clean, beautiful beaches and extremely hard working and attentive staff. I cannot say enough positive things about this resort. I highly recommend visiting this resort whenever you get the opportunity. The resort next to us ran out of provisions, and our resort was kind enough to help support them, too. I always ha [... lire plus]ve an incredible holiday at this resort and cannot thank the dedicated and caring staff enough for always taking such great care of us. Thank you!

Disappointing

Let me start my saying we are seasoned travellers and normally can just go with the flow and don’t complain much. We appreciate the countries we travel to for their individual beauty, culture, customs, food, people and landscapes. Our party had 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 seniors. The good: the beach and service staff (Except front desk as we found most of them cold and uninviting). Beach was stunning. Most employees were willing to assist and were very friendly. In particular, the room cleanin [... lire plus]g lady, buffet service staff and chefs, a la carte staff, grounds workers, bar staff, etc. were all great. The bad: the room, food, lack of any day time entertainment, the always closed mini club (kids club), bars not equipped for beverages, pool maintenance, and overall maintenance of the resort. The rooms are a good size and location was great (near the pool and close walking to main amenities), however, the maintenance is terrible. Cleaning staff was great (thanks Aylin), but the room did not have a working phone, the ceiling fan we couldn’t use as it would shake and we felt like it was going to fall off any minute (it also had an irritating clicking noise), the shower towel rack fell on my head (thank goodness on me and not on the kids), only half the room had working lights and cockroaches in the room (and also in my parents room). With the understanding it’s a tropical climate, there will be bugs and lizards, etc. - so no problem. However a roach problem is not acceptable. Our concerns were addressed by having the staff simply use Raid, but that was it. With the towel rack that fell on me and the hazardous ceiling fan, front desk didn’t do much other than to call to have it fixed (I say fixed loosely) - which resulted in dirty towels being put back on the towel rack and the ceiling fan draw string being cut to stop the annoying clatter sound. The fact that it was almost falling off the ceiling wasn’t addressed even through a follow up call and so we just couldn’t use it at all. The room phone was never fixed so we had to constantly walk over to front desk or use my parents phone who were next door which was disruptive. Only half the lights were working, but that was resolved once requested. I also asked for a double room at booking and confirmed with front desk before entering the room only to find a king size bed and a single bed. I requested a room change for the bed issue and the above noted issues and they said they couldn’t find rooms for us and my parents that would be close to each other. Keep in the mind the resort was approximately a quarter occupied, and even that is probably a generous estimate. They refused to move us or even consider upgrading to another area even with all of the room issues. Even though we were upset, we always maintain our composure and respect for others. So I could not understand the issue with adequately addressing the concerns. I mean, come on! So for the entire week 4 of us crammed into the bed. Unreal. With the food, we have traveled several times to Cuba and know what to expect. Even with that in mind, there was hardly any selection. And what little options there were, it just wasn’t good at the buffet. Two people in our party are vegetarian and some days there was nothing vegetarian other than bread, cheese, cucumber and cold peas. Literally. Bless one of the cooks/chefs who realized this and cooked us pasta so we could have a hot meal. The breakfast was decent with an omelette station (thanks to the chef!), but lunch and dinner did not have many options at all. I understand it’s low season, but it was unacceptable. For lunch we would go to the snack bar (there was no menu and limited selection of an egg or chicken sandwich with fries) and so for the entire week we had only sandwiches and fries for lunch due to the poor buffet. There were only 2 working a la carte restaurants, so very limited even with the resort allowing up to 5 reservations during the week. The Caribbean restaurant was the best. Although nothing vegetarian on the menu, the chef would make a fried rice with egg and a little veggies. So 2 of us had only that to eat. The meat and seafood eaters were fine and enjoyed the food. Service was good too. The Mediterranean restaurant was okay. They had one veg spaghetti dish on the menu that was so overly salty you couldn’t eat it, but the meat options were ok. Service here was so slow my poor kids feel asleep at the table waiting a ridiculous amount of time for our food so went to bed hungry. It was truly insane because again, the resort and restaurant was not busy! We chose a resort with a mini club so that our young children would have some activities, but it was closed the entire time!! Only the small playground was open, but the activities rooms were closed. So even if we wanted to have the kids stay there we couldn’t at all nor could they do any activities. There was also no day time entertainment other than a DJ that came to play recorded music for about one to two hours. One day they had a lame “fashion show” only because they wanted to sell swim clothes - they literally came around asking if we wanted to purchase the swimwear. The resort had signs posted in the lower lobby for daily activities at the poolside and beachside, but there was absolutely nothing. Nothing. There were 3 working pools out of 4 and for the most part were nice. The problem most travellers had was that they use chlorine stones and so for 2-3 days before they dissolved it hurt everyone’s feet and was outright annoying for most of if not all pool goers. Also there were tiles missing in the pools. We are not sure how often the pools are cleaned. We never saw any maintenance or cleaning being done in any of the working pools. And at least 3 people we saw (plus my own husband) fell as a result of white plastic grating surrounding the pool that was not supported and so when stepped on, they went right through it. The pool with the swim up bar was closed for maintenance (missing a ton of tiles) so to get a drink you had to exit the pool. Not a big deal, but you do miss the convenience of a swim up bar. The main bars located in the upper and lower lobbies were well stocked and offered variety. The pool bar and beach bar though had very limited variety. Other than our first day there we couldn’t even have mojitos by the pool or beach as they had no mint! Why the staff or management couldn’t just restock was beyond us. And it was like that for a few drinks, so poor variety unless you are willing to exit the pool area and walk all the way over to the lobby. Unacceptable. Staff were nice, but the offerings terrible. The grounds of the resort was nice and the staff are very hard working. At the end of the day, the resort could be so much more and has the potential. It is such a shame that the execution is terrible as the concept (and what was sold and advertised) could be so nice. Utterly disappointed with Labranda and no one in our party would recommend it. That includes a 6 yr old, so what does that say? I will be sharing this feedback with the Trip Central agent and Air Transat.