Antsirabe Hotels

Hotel des Thermes: A grand old lady, ravaged but still beautiful

If anyone had shown me a picture of Hotel des Thermes in advance and told me that it was in Madagascar, I simply wouldn't have believed them!
Hotel des Thermes is in the mould of European hotels constructed in the early 20th century that I imagine on the French Riviera or overlooking a Swiss lake. Everything about the hotel - from its location to the proportions of the building to the landscaping of the surrounding grounds - is meant to impress, and from the exterior, the place has an air of quiet, smug elegance. On reflection, it strongly reminds me of the Victoria Falls hotel in Zimbabwe.
It seems to me that the whole point of Hotel des Thermes was that it be utterly divorced from its surroundings. The sort of people who went there would have been expats seeking respite from the heat, disease and ramshackle day-to-day reality of life in the rest of Madagascar, and the hotel was designed to allow them to recharge their batteries in a setting of pampered luxury and like-minded people.
However, these days, the once-beautiful old lady is sadly showing her age, and once you venture inside, it becomes apparent that the hotel has sadly seen much better days. When we visited (November 2008), the interior was shabby, and the lobby decor bore testament to the fact that this 'grande dame's' last face lift took place somewhere in the 1970s. In itself, this is not altogether a bad thing, as the lobby is fascinating and leaves you wondering whether you have unwittingly wandered onto a set from an early James Bond movie!
The dilapidation is most apparent in the bedrooms, where fixtures were functional, but tired and sometimes chipped or cracked. The dining room was also a pale shadow of its former self, and both the food and service were nondescript . Overall, there was a sense of neglect and slow, creeping decay, doubtless brought on by diminished tourist numbers and a resultant lack of cash flow. When we were there, we sensed that the owners were trying to renovate, but the resources required to overall such an enormous hotel must be mindboggling, and it is difficult to imagine the numbers of tourists ever justifying the expense.
Nonetheless, the Hotel des Thermes is a 'must see' if you're in Antsirabe, even if it's only for a drink on the elegant terrace. If so, then raise a toast to the elegance of a bygone era ... given the grandeur and sophistication of your surroundings, this is probably the only time that I'd recommend a G&T rather than a Three Horses!

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average
• Written June 1, 2010

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