My husband and I stayed at Iloha for the first three nights of our honeymoon (before spending the rest in Mauritius), so we had opted for a “second-tier” hotel as we were just there for a few nights and our main purpose of visiting Reunion was to take in some of the activities.
We were very pleasantly surprised by the Iloha - although some reviews say that the rooms are a bit dated, we did not think this was an issue at all! We had a bungalow room with a huge double bed (very comfortable) which had been scattered with bougainvillea and frangipani for our arrival which was a lovely touch. The room was spacious (with a separate single bed which was perfect for me to spread my suitcase on!) The television was big and we had a fridge (which was not packed unnecessarily with expensive mini bar items: it was a useful fridge). The in-room coffee/tea facilities were somewhat disappointing with two tea bags (one green, one earl grey) and two instant coffee sachets. I dare say we could have asked for more if we had used them. The bathroom was clean and also spacious, with a walk in shower with excellent rain head. (The toilet door was just a half-screen and felt a bit open for me!) The area was so quiet we were not bothered at all by noise from outside. As we stayed in winter (August) we didn’t need the air conditioning but did use a blanket.
The pool areas were very clean and had lots of loungers. One pool is for residents only (not heated) and the other for day-users which is heated. It was busy but not overwhelmingly noisy.
We ate all our meals at the hotel as we were too lazy to venture out for the three nights we stayed. The breakfast buffet (part of our package) was great - an amazing array of fresh fruit, yoghurt, cheese, meat, freshly squeezed orange juice, pastries, bacon, eggs, jams... certainly something to suit everyone. We ate dinner once in La Trattoria which was fine, though perhaps a little expensive for the bowls of pasta we had (I have never seen a smaller dollop of bolognese on a pasta bolognese!) Food at Kotemer was superb, yes quite pricey, but we found all our meals delicious (especially the salmon). The bar serves some yummy local rum punches which we tried - and can recommend the Grande Anse and Hell-Bourg particularly.
Staff throughout our stay were warm and friendly and we certainly felt that they knew us by the end of our visit (perhaps because we were the only English/non-French speakers in the whole hotel!) Erika on reception was fantastic, and Samantha at Kotemer was absolutely charming and always smiling. (The staff spoke enough English to understand our terrible French and our English!)
To drive over to the volcano for a tour of the lava tunnels (which we would recommend through Rando-Volcan), we hired a car (through our Kuoni rep) and it was delivered to the hotel for a 24h rental. The beach (not really sandy) is a 10-15 min walk down the hill and there’s a great view of sunset from it.
Overall we had a great stay at Iloha and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. If you want a shiny modern room then perhaps it’s not for you, but for a very decent comfortable, clean room with excellent amenities it’s a very good option.
