What People are saying

Affordable Stay within Budget

amit4u2017on 28/08/2017 12:13

Location : - I found it a little far and as it was situated in North of Mauritius. It takes almost 90 min from airport to reach the Hotel.

Ambiance : - At first you will feel that you have entered in some part of Greece. The interiors were nicely designed in White colour which gives you a pleasant feel. The receptionist was very polite and explained about all the facilities which we can avail during our stay.

Rooms - The room was spacious and you get nice view of the garden from balcony. The Bathroom was bit old fashioned and the shower fittings needs repairs. Disappointing part is that I didn't have bath tub in my room.

Breakfast and Dinner :- Breakfast was quite monotonous as you need to eat egg omelet with some fruits and juices on daily basis. Dinner was pretty good specially when you get a nice and yummy chicken from Indian Chef from his kitchen as a matter of courtesy and your liking for Chicken.

Hotel has some package as " all inclusive" and XYZ stuff which had arised some confusion during my stay and has to suffer an embarrassment from Staff as I picked a glass of soft drink during dinner which as per them is not included in my package The worst part is the serving staff was rude enough and instead of charging it on my room the waiter didn't allowed me to have even a sip of it and asked me to leave that glass on the table and this is what made me so furious about him for which I taught him a good lesson and he deserved that.

Advice-hotel should clearly specify this part to avoid any ambiguity and if by chance some mistake happen than waiters should be polite & courteous enough to explain. Leaving the exceptional ones rest of the Staff and Managers were humble enough.

Water is provided during breakfast and dinner and even when required but need to carry a Jug to have it from Dinning area. If you are not okay that packaged bottle is available @ 180 Rs / bottle. Choice is yours.

The best thing you should try from Cafe is Club Sandwich with Hot chocolate yummy and filling.

One more awkward part is that you need to check out from the room @ 11 am even if your flight is in the night and if you needed the room than you need to pay 3000 Rs additional which I think is not fair when you have booked your stay for entire 6 nights and 7 days.

Overall it was nice trip with some beautiful and life time memories. So if you wish to spend less time on hotel and more on outdoor activities I think you should give it a try...:)

Could be a real gem - but needs a lot of polishing to really shine

Catkin65on 27/07/2017 18:50

We have just returned from 2 weeks at Casuarina and it would be fair to say that there were some really good things - and quite a bit that needs some work. We were well aware that hotels tend to be more expensive in Mauritius than in some other long haul holiday destinations so had not expected 5* service from a 4* hotel. In some reviews this hotel is 3* and in some 4* but I would say that it is most definitely 3*.

Welcome and room:
The transfer and welcome at the hotel were excellent - the only problem was that after travelling for 24 hours, we were hardly in a good position to absorb the mass of information that was delivered verbally. The young lady promised to write this all down for us but we didn't receive anything at all so just found our own way around and asked staff/guests if we needed to know something. We were upgraded and our room was lovely - we had a partial sea view and overlooked the fountain from our balcony. Also included was wifi and soft drinks in the mini bar. I would strongly recommend upgrading as wifi is patchy elsewhere in the hotel. If you are a light sleeper, you may be troubled by the incredibly loud frog chorus that lulled us to sleep each night - hilarious! We loved it - it certainly added to the tropical atmosphere but I can imagine some may find it a little too loud. The room was beautifully maintained each day - spotless. The shower was always hot and we had fresh towels every day and fresh bed linen whenever we needed a change. I would suggest, however, that you bring your own toiletries as the soap, shampoo and body wash provided was pretty cheap stuff. I bought some lovely soap when I was in Mauritius so I know its available - such a shame that this stuff smelled of paraffin and would be more useful to stop the tables wobbling in the bar than to try and summon up a lather to clean your hands!

Location:
The hotel is set in beautiful gardens that are well maintained - this is a real plus point. The architectural style is Moorish and quite quirky - we really liked all this. Sadly a key down point is the fact that you need to cross a main road to get to the beach. This is always going to be a problem so the hotel has to work really hard to compensate for this and sadly it isn't doing enough. The beach is good - but not excellent because there are limited loungers, no beach bar and no toilets. It can also be quite stony so you must bring rubber beach shoes to wear in the sea. There are one or two people selling on the beach and we made friends with Elviss (yes that was his name!) who brought joy to our day with his friendly greeting each day. On the beach you will also find Vijay who will sell you any kind of excursion or tour you need at a fraction of the cost in the hotel. I feel the hotel should do a deal with him because no-one is going to buy from the hotel if they read Trip Advisor first as many people talk about him and how good he is. It is worth talking to him as he certainly seems to give good advice and a reasonable price. Despite advice to the contrary, we snorkelled most days and for a strong swimmer, there is no problem if you walk along the beach a little to avoid the boats before swimming out. We saw Pipe fish, shoals of Puffer fish, eels and plenty of the usual tropical fish - some saw a turtle and there was a pod of dolphins just off the coast when we were there. The excellent value is that all the basic water sports are included with the hotel and this was indeed great value. We water skied, kayaked, paddle boarded and went out in the glass bottom boat - all great fun. We also paid extra to parasail and ride in the inflatable sofa which was totally mad - great fun! Other than the beach, the advantage of being on a main road is that the hotel is on a bus route and we took a bus into Port Louis one day and Grand Bay on a number of occasions - its cheap and easy - also quite an experience as the bus drivers have a death wish, or so it seems! Some of the taxi and tourist buses don't like tourists using the bus and we did get some verbal abuse from one guy who said we were depriving the local people of places on the bus but I suspect this was motivated more from his annoyance that we didn't book with him as there always seemed to be plenty of room on the buses we used.

Facilities:
I have to admit that I didn't use the spa as we wanted to get out and about and explore the beautiful island of Mauritius so can't comment however the other facilities need some serious investment. The gym was ok but one of the two bikes was broken for the entire 2 weeks but the table tennis was unusable because the bats were in such poor condition. The two guys in our party planned to play tennis and one had brought a raquet with him but we had to go out and buy another because the two provided (only 2 with 2 courts!) were broken. This is really poor. We donated the raquet when we left so hopefully future guests may get a game!

Despite the fact that it was winter, the hotel was busy and there just weren't enough loungers around the pool. It didn't bother us too much as we were out and about or on the beach but quite often, towels were on the choice loungers by 7.30am and didn't move all day. I know this happens but it meant that many people didn't get a chance to sit by the lovely pools.

The bikes are grossly overpriced compared with others on the island and consequently when we were there - none seemed to be used.

We did use the car hire service and hired a car from the hotel team for 3 days - it was excellent value and we really enjoyed our trips out - thoroughly recommend this.

Entertainment and food
The food was ok. Sometimes it was excellent and I made a point of telling the chef and waiters when this was the case. Sometimes the choice was really limiting. My daughter often ordered off the a la carte and twice had room service as she was hungry as there was little she could eat. On the last day (ironically), the waiter told us that there was a children's menu and she happily tucked into spaghetti bolognaise - if only we had known this was available before. The main problem with the restaurant arrangement was that for evening meal it was chaotic! Often there were no tables available so we would wait for one to become free - not too much of a problem but it meant you had different waiting staff every night so you didn't get to know one person and develop a rapport as we have done in other hotels. Also you could never be sure when you would get to eat as it wasn't possible to book a time. Some of the tables were placed really badly so when eating you were constantly banged by other passing people.

There was some sort of entertainment every night but for some strange reason it was in front of the small sitting area that only sat about 20 people - everyone else sitting around the hotel couldn't see it or enjoy it. They had a large area for parties up stone steps and really suitable for entertainment but it was only used once. Very strange! Because of this there was limited evening atmosphere and most people were in bed by 11pm. Our "all inclusive" status ended at 11pm so you had to buy drinks after this time anyway and just to prove the point at about 1030pm, the hot drinks and "free" drinks glasses were cleared away just to make sure you got the message. There was one evening that was really good because the band was excellent and people were dancing - more of that would have been fantastic.

Service:
This is the main gripe that I have with this hotel, and I have to say, so did many of our fellow guests. We have booked several "all inclusive" deals across the world - its great when travelling with young adults as they can eat anytime of the day and get soft drinks etc on the beach, pool or wherever without having to take money. Sadly this hotel is not all inclusive, although it is advertised as such. There are limited times to eat (which is ok when you get used to it but not what we expected) and we were encouraged to buy extras - for examples cocktails or the Indian buffet. The hotel advertises 3 restaurants - I only saw 2 and one of these is chargeable so there is only 1 for "all inclusive" guests. Also there is no service around the pool or on the beach - again, ok when you know how it works but not the standard set by other all inclusive hotels. The staff were always so pleased to help and really appreciated it if thanked but we didn't feel they had been trained in how to deliver an all inclusive service. We are fairly happy to just muck in and get on with things but I know some people came to be pampered and that certainly doesn't happen if you have to get up and get your own pre-mixed cocktail from a machine or a machine coffee that would compete with my washing-up water for depth of flavour. Fortunately because we were upgraded we had water in our fridge every day, if not we would have to buy it - filtered water was only available at meal times. That's not all inclusive.

We thanked the staff that made an extra effort and really loved the people we met but this hotel just didn't cut the mustard as a 4* and is not an all inclusive hotel as many of us would understand it.

I had planned to try and give a positive review but sadly when we booked out there was a mistake on the bill and although the hotel was wrong, the managers response was that he would take the cost of the wrongly delivered room service out of the wages of the person that had delivered it to us. How dreadful! If the hotel treats its staff that way, no wonder they are not able to deliver the service that they aspire to. The website claims the hotel delivers a "unique service of high quality you won’t find anywhere else in a resort industry" - sadly it doesn't.

We have some key suggestions to make this potential gem shine because it has so much potential - I hope they are taken on board as this really could be a lovely place (as I believe it has been in the past):

1) Poolside drinks service - the bar staff appear not to serve anyone most of the time so would be no hardship to offer a pool service to add value for your guests
2) Same waiting staff at dinner when possible - people like to build a rapport
3) Bar service for all drinks - not a machine (understand you have to pay extra for branded drinks but the self service machine is really down market and gives awful impression that all inclusive guests are "second class" and less welcome)
4) Sports equipment in hotel should be kept in good usable condition
5) Beach bar for drinks and snacks
6) Decent entertainment area so that all can enjoy it
7) More loungers around the pool and someone supervising abandoned towels so those available are not abused
8) Review costs of excursions and bike hire as 2 minutes walk will find the same at significantly cheaper cost

Despite the short-comings of the hotel - we had a fabulous holiday and as we were a family looking to explore Mauritius and enjoy the wonderful, welcoming people (and frogs!), we were not worried too much by yukky machine coffee and lack of pool service but I know some others really were. This is a great, friendly place to come back to after hiking up mountains and exploring the outer reaches of the island but until it improves in certain areas, its not the place for true pampering if that's what you are looking for.

3* for a Reason

Englandtravelgalon 16/07/2017 19:03

Stayed at this hotel for just a week and I feel this was more than enough time to spend at this establishment. It is definitely a 3* resort for a reason, but first here are the pros of this place-

Pros:
- Good well made Indian food but was sadly only ever present at dinner
- coconut ice cream was really nice- you can taste the shredded coconut inside, unfortunately it was only available at lunch time
- staff were happy to replenish the ice cream when asked and gave us bowls too. Staff were also happy to give some of the buffet food even if it was past the designated sitting for the meal, e.g if you were late to breakfast they'd be able to scout some sausages for you.
- staff consistently ask you if there's anything else they can do for you- it genuinely feels like they're trying their best to improve your experience here. Unfortunately I feel out of politeness a lot of guests simply agree that everything is fine which is why the hotel doesn't really improve.
- Kiran, had always cleaned our rooms to a very high standard
- The rooms were big, spacious and airy with very good air con
- Veejay gave us a really good price for the tour of the waterfalls, private island and lunch tour including all transfers. Although he did make out the lunch to be really nice- it was not the best. It consisted of garlic bread (which after one batch of it it looked like they ran out of butter and garlic), coleslaw but not with any flavour, dry bbq chicken and a really bony fish. As well as all drinks included- but they weren't cold drinks, the alcohol provided was local too so once again, very strong. Dessert on this excursion consisted of bbq'd bananas with sugar and coconut. The setting was beautiful however as was seeing the waterfalls and the private island we visited had crystal clear water and white sandy beaches.
- We also made use of the facilities the canoeing was really fun as well as the pedalos which we could use as many times as you want.
- One of the members of our family also did parasailing which she said was a great experience with fantastic views (and at a very good price.)
- They did have quite alright entertainment where they had some traditional dancers, although it was only good if you had a seat- there was also no warning about it even happening, we just happened to be at the bar when it all happened. There was also the band on some nights playing some famous songs who were O K.
- On the first night with the managers inviting us to the presentation there was also a lottery of prizes depending on your room number, which we happened to win a free bike ride for 2 (which we didn't use however) but we felt like it was good that they did that. However it was only because many people left the presentation that we won it on the 3rd time.
- They had 2 different pools, one was pretty shallow (the one by reception) and the other was much deeper with a jacuzzi.

Cons:
- self-service bar for all inclusive guests, it included all basic soft drinks e.g coke, diet coke, sprite, fanta etc although the fanta wasn't the colour we have in the UK it was a bright fake orange. It also included cappuccinos from a machine, coffee and hot water. Tea, Hot Chocolate, 2 types of local beer. It also included various local alcohol which was incredibly strong as well as 2 juice mixers which were incredibly sweet. The tea was also not like tea in the UK, was ridiculously weak and the taste would be drowned out by the milk- i'd advise to bring your own tea bags if i'm quite honest.
- Snack times here weren't the best, when pakoras were served they were extremely oily and chewy- not crispy how they should be. They constantly served this sort of pound cake with a pink swirl through it, which was also dessert at dinner time sometimes. The pancakes made the sides were either jam or honey- no maple syrup which made no sense whatsoever, but also they were rubbery and were very floury tasting. There were also semolina type desserts which would have been from the night before at dinner which were extremely gloopy and heavy, as well as dried out chocolate cake from the night before which didn't really taste like cocoa (maybe its how they process cocoa and chocolate here which is why it falls down on taste?) I wouldn't bother waiting around for snack time.
- Staff were a bit hit and miss, for example there was a moody porter to the room who looked extremely grumpy once he found out we didn't have any money to tip them
- Bar manager constantly advertised an indian chef coming and how the food is really nice, it was £16 per person- however he knew we were all inclusive it made no sense for us to pay more money. Pulled a face when we said we would consult the rest of our family, then left without a word which seemed incredibly rude. Following this, we had asked the chef from the all inclusive buffet what the difference between this indian chefs dinner is and the all inclusive one-and they simply said they had cheese- that was the only difference!
- The games room and gym had no air con
- The games room consisted of a Foosball table, air hockey and some old arcade machines which you had to pay for. As well as table tennis which had a broken net, to get the bat and balls you have to ask reception.
- Hot Chocolate here hardly tasted like chocolate (once again not sure if its just how cocoa and chocolate is processed in Mauritius) but also was inconsistent. The first day I got here the colour was pink and didn't even look like chocolate and tasted sour. Other times the colour would be light, maybe like a really milky coffee colour and other times it would look like a normal hot chocolate colour- but would once again fall down on taste- it simply tasted like sweet milk.
- At the all inclusive table, you would have to keep an eye out on the cups as some of the time they were unclean
- No iron in the room
- We had to ask 3x for them to unlock the mini fridge
- On our first day we were invited to a mini presentation all about the hotel- but really it seemed like a money making scheme, advertising the facilities and paid for activities. In addition at this event the workers didn't seem to have a great grasp of english- asked if a starter was vegetarian and they repeated it was fish several times- however it was actually ham, and quite clearly ham too. The cocktails whilst impressive looking were cheap tasting and super strong. The presentation itself was also very unorganised with staff nudging each other in front of the powerpoint and laughing- it was pretty unprofessional.
- Manager constantly bugged us about the Indian chef coming from Dehli, and that we should book a table at extra charge, at one point he even invited the chef to our table which made dinner extremely awkward for everyone present.
- Very limited options at breakfast. The cereal was eaten by the birds (surely staff would have noticed this and put covers over the cereal?) There was an egg station, 2 types of pastries each day (either raisin danish or pain au chocolat) with croissants (which weren't very buttery, quite dry and sometimes burnt.) Along with this it would come with a side of some sort either potatoes or noodles, with sausages. There was also potted yogurt, various fruits by the cereal. You only got baked beans on certain days. The juice was not fresh juice but like squash. If you wanted any extras like bacon you'd have to pay extra on the separate menu. There were various bread as well for toast but the toasting machine was extremely ineffective and would have to go around the cycle at least 3x to be lightly toasted. Breakfast simply got boring by the 2nd day.
- The egg station was also very limited, the options you could add to your omelette were diced onions, cheese and ham. No mushroom or chilli options or even tomatoes. We also asked for a soft boiled egg, now a little bit of runny egg white is expected- however when peeling my 'soft boiled egg' it tipped to the side on accident and raw egg white poured out- luckily I noticed. This also happened with some of my sunny side up eggs, where the egg white around the yolk was literally raw and could not be eaten- it seemed out of those manning the egg station the lady was better than the man.
- Lunch I actually dreaded on this holiday, the options were ridiculously limited there would be 2 main meats one on the grill and the other in a sort of sauce and 2 types of carbs and then dessert. Most of the time the carb was potatoes from the morning, but it could also be noodles. There would also be salad, however I wouldn't have any as there seemed to be a lack of covering over them so it was easily accessible for flies. The dessert was the best bit of lunch times as they would be half decent and the ice cream (at least the chocolate and coconut would be nice.) We couldn't decipher what flavour the pink one was (either rose or bubblegum?) and the green one was actually a really artificially tasting almond flavour. The meats would also be made on the hot plate but would be over cooked a lot of the time and so very dry. The ice cream cones were also very yellow in colour and artificial tasting too.
- Worryingly sometimes it seemed like the freezer wasn't on at lunch time as the ice-cream would be half melted.
- In the mini bar (which was included with all inclusive) you got a bottle of sprite, fanta and water, they also for some odd reason put your tea and sugar in the fridge alongside this. The tea that they provide however is Vanilla tea, and it doesn't come with milk but a powdered creamer. You had to ask at reception to use the tea bags that they use in their all inclusive vats at the bar.
- The beach belonging to the hotel was a pretty small strip, there were barriers so there was a small area to swim in, the loungers would be taken up very quickly and a lot of the time covered in bugs, the beach also seemed to be a hot spot for insects as we kept on getting bitten when we were here. The water was not exactly clear (which I know isn't the hotels fault) and was quite rough at the time we were here, as well as cold- usually by lunch time the sea would be pretty warm- it wasn't. There were also a bunch of rocks that did ruin nice beach photos. The sand wasn't the softest and the beach wasn't cleaned too frequently- which you can compare to the hotel beside this one (which is in partnership with Casuarina) but had clearer sand than this side. In addition you cannot use the neighbouring hotels sun loungers and would be told off as soon as you so much as sit on them for a second to tie your shoelace or something.
- Another con of the beach is that every time we went there we were hassled- when are you going on a tour? when are you gonna book something with us? Every day without fail, and once you express a little bit of interest the books of what you can do come out and they explain and price everything and I felt like I could not relax here.
- The rotis were doughy at dinner (although we're not sure how they make rotis in Mauritius in their traditional way, if its different to the UK)
- The pool was always freezing cold and after an hour it would be too cold and you'd have to come out to warm yourself up again before you went in.
- There never seemed to be enough sun loungers
- The glass bottom boat tour despite being free was not what we expected. There was a lot of bleached coral and very little fish, which simply reminded you about climate change and our dying world.
- Shampoo and conditioner was not provided and the dispenser inside was actually quite dirty. The soap provided was also very rough and didn't make you feel clean.

Overall I would definitely not stay here again.

Great

Neeksh18on 11/07/2017 05:53

We were pleasantly surprised by the service for this value.
The little villas are very beautiful and spacious. We stayed on the all-inclusive package.
As a vegetarian, I was disappointed to find only boiled potatoes, grilled aubergine and safran rice(I don't eat fried rice/safran rice) for lunch on the last day.
However, within 10minutes-the restaurant was teeming with tourists for lunch at that time, they had arranged another sumptuous vegetarian meal complete with tasty hot chickpea soup, fresh vegetable curries and white rice that satisfied a picky eater like me. The portions were enough that I shared among my 4 friends at the table and still food was left.
The sea activities were also fun 😄

Second Honeymoon

Unit623on 07/07/2017 12:33

Booked paradise for a second honeymoon. Smaller hotel, fully inclusive just what the doctor ordered, small reception area where the staff were fabulous as they knew my wife and I were very tired after a long journey, got us checked in very quickly and the porter had our luggage in our room before we had finished checking in !. Had a superior room to the front of the Hotel, room large, as was the queen size bed, good bathroom and a terrace overlooking the beach. Wifi free within the room, the mini bar was stocked daily with non alcoholic drinks. Complex a little hard to navigate when you get there, found the bar and the two pools in double quick time. The food was always excellent if you ate local food, at the time we stayed, there were a lot of people from India in the Hotel, every night two or three curries were on offer. For over a week I ate vegetarian every evening. Cant say the European food was brilliant as I mainly stuck with local fare. One down point though, after most of the Indian left, the curries ceased, we and others complained as we wanted more. The choice then for cooked food was limited but the different salads and the local fish were excellent.
Finally, the staff and everyone we met were very friendly all over the Island, its the best destination I have been to.