A regular guest reported that this hotel changed ownership in October 2011 and accordingly, in my opinion, you should ignore any reviews made before this date.

We chose this hotel as we wanted a total rest where we did not have to think about anything at all for a fortnight. In this respect the hotel definitely delivered.

This hotel has many guests who have been there many times before.

Fors
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Fantastic location near the beach - almost idyllic location ideal for swimming and snorkelling although beware that there is no longer any beach outside the hotel. You need to wear something on your feet as the coral is very sharp. You need to tip-toe around a bit in the shallow water if you want to swim directly in front of the hotel. However there is a lovely public beach about 100yards walk from the hotel which we found to be almost deserted whenever we visited.

Drinks were nice with table service pretty much anywhere. Local lager is passable although served in too small glasses, white wine tastes a little like perry. Gin and Tonic was served quite weak for my taste. They have a lovely blue cocktail which was very tasty. A word of warning though: they have a gala night where you can do a wine tasting - we ended up paying over 15GBP each for 3 small glasses (no refills) of different South African wines so dont go near that as the same wine is only 300rupees (8GBP) per bottle in the supermarket. So its beyond hotel surcharging which I accept - its a total rip-off and you feel as though you have been ripped off. If you take a bottle of wine back to the hotel they will charge you about 10GBP corkage. We also found that some "preferential" guests were receiving "under the counter" drinks and measures, and drinks not on the "all inclusive" price list.

Service was generally reasonable, sometimes very good. It appears to be significantly better if you are German though. We seemed to always be served after the Germans. Some of the staff were very personable, especially those who might go unnoticed like security. Dont listen to all this 5 star service in a 3 star hotel bull though - we've stayed in some of the top 10 hotels in the world and believe me it's not 5 star service. But staff are generally prompt and helpful.

Gardens were manicured within an inch of their lives - they were simply lovely.

Rooms were very clean although our air-conditioner didnt cool much (I dont like aircon much so it was fine for us). And I dont mind geckos in my room, but you might.

Hotel taxis are "relatively" good value. We were charged ~50GBP to a taxi to Port Louis for the day - the taxi driver was excellent incidentally - couldnt recommend him highly enough if only I knew his name. This was about half what our tour operator wanted for the same trip.

Free wifi (which is not advertised) around the bar and pool area. This was good enough to stream BBC Radio at some-times, but bandwidth seemed to degrade quickly when others were using it. We saw several guests using skype successfully with it including video.


Against
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Rodent problem - each night at about 8pm there is a guaranteed floor show provided by the local mice (I hope they were mice) who run around the bar. One night the mice were in the dining room and a waiter flattened a mouse that was making a break for it with a brush and there was a short screaming sound of being crushed as the mouse became significantly thinner and output its insides on the dining room floor. We saw mice running from the dining every night we were there, through the dining room and into the kitchens, right through the bar area and around the swimming pool, but none in our room. We noticed that there were fewer mice at the end of our stay and the man from "Hardy Henry" their extermination company was more prevalent. There are mouse catching devices all through the bar, the dining room and around the hotel in general.

Food - we both lost weight while we were there. I don't like sausage being cut up and used as a meat, but it appeared like this almost every other day on the menu. Also, far too much oil in the food to the extent that I had cholesterol spots appearing on my skin before the end of my holiday. However, they have fantastic white tuna which they prepared well (with the exception of Italian night when it was destroyed by some shocking white sauce). Generally they do buffet nights about 3 nights out of 4 and the buffet-food is tepid at best - meat or fish is hard to find sloshing around in buckets of watery sauce. However their a la carte food is much better (just not often enough), sometimes excellent. They seem to be used to people complaining about the food. Breakfasts are not too bad with lovely croissants, pain-au-chocolats and crepes. Lunch is definitely the best meal of the day with some of the mail courses being really really tasty.

Too much towel placement in the morning by the German guests. By 7.15am on many mornings almost all sun-loungers on the grass area were "bagged" by towels. This seemed to be largely being done by the German guests. Sometimes we noticed that the same guests would not then appear to use the lounger at all, or until late afternoon.

I like cycling. One reason we chose the hotel was that all the information we saw indicated that the hotel offered free bicyles. When we arrived we were told they were ~3GBP per hour for hire. These should be free still.

On our last day we left just before 6pm. We did not arrive until 3pm on our first day but were still told our all inclusive package ended at 12pm on the last day so if you want lunch or any service at all you have to either pay for it or extend your all-inclusive (which is ~20GBP each). Alternatively you can pay for items but this was way more expensive than paying the extra all-inclusive cost. I will be contacting my travel-agent to complain about this extra hidden cost.

They seem to suffer overbookings and asked us after the first week if we would like to move to their sister hotel (which we did not). There was no pressure to move though. You might even see this as a positive if you fancied a change. We knew of guests who decided to take advantage of the move as there were too few Brits there and too many Germans in their opinion.

What can I say, I specifically went there to eat and my 11 years old son wanted to see some Saga dancing ( Well me too okay ).
They served Boring, Tastless, Bland food. I was told that it was Saga Night so everything would be authentic Mauritius style stuff. HA!! Booo
Not even close, what a disapointment. We paid way too much for that night

The Saga dancers where very good though, Man they could swing and shake those hips :-)
They even invited us to join them in dancing with free lessons to those brave enough to try it.
BUT it was just 2 dance demonstrations and then the the tourist sales stuff was flogged to us.

I really enjoyed the dancers more at the Pereybere Place I stayed at last time, I am going there the next time I am in Mauritius and I want to see some swinging hips.

I have been to this hotel twice now and I am going again for a third time in May 2012 for my honeymoon with my new wife, It is that great a place.

This hotel is very clean and the staff bend over backwards to help you. The food is good and there is plenty of it. I would say not to waste any food as it is not a rich country. Take a walk into the local village and you will see what I mean.

You can haggle but I would not bother as it is a poor country. Take the local bus to Flack, the cost is very small.

The last two times I went to this resort was with my friend and he agrees with me, that the hotel is very relaxing and the staff is great and friendly.
A lot of the staff was there the year before and some of them remembered me. Plenty of entertainment, just one warning, expect to get rather tired if they get you up for the Mauritian dance, both time I got up and both times I was exhausted, however it is great fun.
They have some mini sails which are great fun. The beach in front of the hotel is not the best as the sea is washing it away. You will need something on your feet because of the coral and sea urchins.
The hotel is looking into improving the beach.
Snorkelling is great in front of the hotel, I was lucky enough to see a Turtle while swimming/snorkelling. There is a great beach nearby, any problems you have with the beach in front of the hotel is resolved with a short walk.
Take the local free boat the nearby island, it is really good place to go.
After you go back to your room go back outside, get the sun bed out and watch the stars, you will see plenty of shooting stars my friend and I spent hours watching the night sky.
I am really forward to going back.

Stayed at this hotel for New Year. With a little bit more effort on the basics this could be a little gem.
Rooms: Typically colourful with plenty of Wardrobe and Drawer space. Large room with large comfy bed. TV very annoying as the picture kept breaking up. Mini bar good. Bathroom very good with lovely hot shower-beware it could be very hot until mixed with the cold. Lovely private balcony with good quality wood patio furniture. Good number of British 3 pin plugs available in room and nice lot of lamps...Good, quiet Air Con, which you'll need at that time of year....The view from 507 was beautiful and only feet from the sea. Was told by manager of impending revamp. On size alone,with a good quality re furb these rooms would be fantastic.
Beach: For want of a better word...mmmm. Non existent really. Very rocky with many a sea urchin lurking below the water line. The advice to wear sea shoes is worth listening to! There is a small area to the left in front of the Private houses that had some sand allowing you to get into the sea. Didn't snorkel off this particular bay but just around the corner there is a fantastic area on the beach in front of Le Bouganville Hotel. All the beaches are public so no fear of trespassing! Go either way on the beach and you'll walk to some lovely areas,where you can get into the sea and with excellent snorkelling.Use the free Pedalos and if you give it a bit of a go, take yourselves out towards the crashing waves where the actual reef is....fantastic. The little boat house was really good for organising anything like this....
Staff: Very helpful and freindly. Within the constraints of what seems to be Hotel policy they will help where ever they can. Things are very inconsistent here,whether it's food, drink or treatment of guests. I never drink White wine and after reading a previous review asked if the white wine in my minibar could be changed to Red. No it couldn't....but after 2 mins at the hotel bar along came the waiter and said he'd sorted it..and from then on we had Red???
Then when All Inc guests arrived back minutes too late (from a trip) to have lunch and asked could they have sandwiches..Yes they could, but they'd have to pay the going rate! I couldn't make out whether the much better treatment of the French contingent was due to the Language and or historical link but it certainly happened for what ever reason. One day after breakfast a notice was put up saying lunch would end at 2pm instead of the usual 2:30pm. A Scottish couple returning from a trip came into the restaurant at 2:04pm. They were totally ignored by all the staff. After a while, whether through annoyance or embarrassment they got up and left. We then watched a large party of French who had been around the pool area, where they'd been all morning, come in at 2:30pm...no problem..all were waited on, even by the Restaurant manager! And this was the trend I'm afraid all our stay.It didn't bother us as I'm not shy in speaking up for myself!
Pool: Quite small but very well kept with lovely cane/wooden furniture. Good free Wi fi around the pool area. Was always very hot though as they had put up a glass partition across the open area on to the lawned front. There weren't many beds but we much preferred to use the loungers out on the grass for the breeze. And there were a good number of these. We never failed to get 2 right outside our room which was nice when you wanted to pop back and get a cold water or Beer! The trouble with the pool was the children...There is nothing else around the hotel for them to do and they obviously congregate here with family. It's just too small an area to cope. I was fed up of having pool water splashed in my drinks or the pages of my book spoiled where they were jumping in all the time and what was a lovely looking pool was completely vandalised by the time we had left. In front of families with no control, a game developed to see how many of the tiny pretty pool tiles they could pick off...they were collecting buckets full....and the Manager knew what was happening and no one told them to stop. Pure Vandalism!
Food:The main bone of contention.There was never enough of anything put out..When a hotel is full (68 rooms) you do not put a pasta size bowl of just lettuce out to accompany a meal. Everything was so sparce. It felt as though the hotel didn't have enough or didn't want to give it. I asked more than once for some Tomato and Onion to go with the lettuce and within minutes a beautiful fresh plate would arrive. Janet ,Breakfast egg chef, as we fondly called her cooked all types of eggs fresh, along with pancakes. Small bowls of cereal, yoghurt etc were there and if you asked for bacon it was brought to your table...Why not just put it out in the first place? Some of the food was delicious but don't expect any spicy food that reflects the Island. The curries even, are quite mild even though the waiter says they are hot. I think if they paid more attention to the quantity and selection of food it would really make a vast difference to the feel of the place. Tea and coffee were provided by the bar. I did miss having tea/coffee maker in my room but hey it's only 3* So take a tip and do as the French did.....ask for a tray and take it to your room if you want to.The free trips to Ils eau Cerfs were really good value when other people were paying about £40 from other hotels...Lovely island but would only need one visit I think unless you have children where there are so many safe bathing areas around the lagoon.
Entertainment: the usual 'National Dance' etc which we enjoyed...there were also a few nights where we had some good singers who perform around the pool area. So no noise if you were in your room
So to sum up. Good value 3* that could be much more with just a little more effort on the basics. If you're on a budget and want to travel somewhere so exotic I would say go for it. I would love to see it made Adult only...not Anti children but the place is too small to cater for them.Take a little travel kettle with you and supplies and it's lovely to sit on the Balcony with a cuppa first thing in the morning! One word of WARNING : this hotel had issues with over bookings. (as previous reviews have pointed out).We were approached towards the end of our stay and asked would we like to stay at some of the other hotels in the ''Attitude'' chain. We were ''assured'' that the standard of accomodation,food,everything really, would be on par with Le Tropical. As part of the deal we asked could we keep our All inc and room until the time we left(late evening) and agreed to try 2 hotels. The Emaurade was fantastic...much better food wise and room standard.The only thing I think that keeps this 3* is the fact that the beach is across a small road. Read my review on this. The other hotel just along from Le Tropical is The Bouganville. It should be bulldozed to the ground. I will also review this. To say that we were told lies is a bit strong...but we certainly weren't told the truth...So really check it out before you decide whether to take up an offer like this!