Lovely Hotel but Slow Service
by maneckk about Le Meridien Ile Maurice
One of the reasons i liked mauritius was coz of Le Meridien. Recently returned from mauritius i must say its a beautiful country with lovely people. Le Meridien is a lovely hotel and the reason our stay in Mauritius has been unforgettable is because of the lovely property. Its been built on an amazing expanse of land and has a lovely long beach. The lobby is well done and the sea breeze is excellent, one can sit in the lobby for hours and enjoy the view and the breeze. We booked a room in the Nirvana Block which is highly recommended as the rooms are just an year old and done very nicely. The nirvana residents have access to a lounge, pool, bar and a restaurant-La Faya which is exclusive. The rooms at nirvana are well laid out and very comfortable and if possible opt for a seaview rather than a mountain view. The La Faya restaurant serves breakfast lunch and dinner however if you like a well laid out buffet I would suggest breakfast and dinner 180 degrees. 180 is the main restaurant which has theme buffet every night and the menu though not amazingly huge is well laid out and nice. La Croque is another restaurant which turns into a Indian restaurant Cummins by night for dinner, which i personally did not like being an Indian myself. Shells is a seafood restaurant and is highly recommended for seafood lovers. Except for 180 all other restaurants require reservations preferably 24 hrs before.
The only negative point which i can think of about the hotel is that the room service and housekeeping is very slow and sometimes negligible. The best way to get efficient service is to call the Nirvana Reception (if you are a guest at the Nirvana Block) or call your guest relation officer. Whatever food and beverages buy them just down the road is the Max shop from where you can get stuff at a much lower rate to the hotel.
All in all the hotel and the staff was very nice and polite though the staff could be more polished and more receptive. I would have loved to stay a week more. Nirvana Block and all the facilities attached to it
Lovely Sea View
The beach is quite nice though shoes are advisable since it is full of corals
Most of the water sports are included in the room tariffs but its better to confirm with the boat house what is included in ur particular package.
Penguin CLub for kids
Bayview Bar
Proximity to both Port Louis & Grand Baie
Book with Caution
by archerchef about Le Meridian Ile Maurice
Book your stay here with caution. We stayed here 4 April to 10 April 2010 and are lukewarm to this property. Location is good on the beach. Facility is worn however well maintained in compared to other facilities. Hidden charges, food service, and the restaurants are very well below par.
This hotel is set up for what we call the bus trade. That is tour groups and people who book all inclusive meal plans. That means the food is uninspired and expensive. Expect to pay for everything not in the contract; water in the room, water at the pool, etc.
There are the free activities as advertised, water skiing, sailing etc. Equipment is limited, aged, and low end. Expect long lines for everything, including paid activities.
The 110 Restaurant is the main dining room, no reservation needed. Food mediocre at best. As with "all inclusive" the food is bulk, mostly cold and heavy with inexpensive fillers and salt. The salt is used to increase ones beverage consumption. Expect 330RP for a medium bottle of water, 550Rp for a beer, dont even think of a mixed drink.
Lacroque/Cummin Expensive bar food during the day, decent Indian Buffet at night. Reservations needed. Estimate 1300Rp per person before beverages. Beverages same price as 110.
Shells, it is on the beach. Daytime lunch buffet 600RP with beverages prices higher than 110 & Cummin. Evening should be ala Carte however most nights it has been set Menus. Cost 1100 m- 1300 Rp per person before beverages.
Pool Bar, no food expensive beer and bad cocktails only
La Faya, best restaurant on property. Expensive and few small menus.
The hotel has no beach, pool, bar food service. They expect you to be on a meal plan, or pay through the nose for bad food at la Faya.
No where to buy small snacks on premise. One must walk off premise, or cab it into Grand Baie. this is the best solution.
We have found in our stay it is better to pay the cab 1300Rp (return), go into Grand Baie and eat dinner. Even with tip, beverages, taxi we come out for three people 1500 to 1600 per person to the good. We also have found the meals to be better.
We have stayed at many luxury resort over the years. This is the biggest disappointment. We have stayed at other Le Meridians; Split, Delhi, France x 4, Berlin, etc. Even the ones in North Africa do not abuse their customers this bad. The beach is lovely. Yes there are stone shoals appearing, it happens in this part of the world on volcanic isles. Expect it and you will not be dissappointed
service not in their DNA
by A TripAdvisor Member
The rooms were great, the sea was lovely but the service non-existent. We were at a suite, room 305, about half a mile from the reception, and the kitchens it seemed were half a mile in the other direction...nothing else could have explained the time it took for our breakfast order, or was it just Sunday laziness....and when the eggs did come, they were cold and fairly tasteless...And it wasn' t just breakfast, soda, ice, water, beer, name it everything took time.
the buffet at 180 is okay for a day...after that the food gets boring, take a cycle and ride out to the villages close by, there's some great Creol food to be had.
Getting back to the service, if you are coming in from India you are in for a bad experience. The attitude here is "CAN'T DO". It's not that the staff are unfriendly, but everything seems a chore for them to do...I won't go back
Huge potential for improvements
by TripAdvisor Member JetSetGirl
We have just come back from 12 days at the Le Meridien having stayed at one of the Nirvana Rooms on a B&B basis. We are both well travelled and have stayed in a lot of top-class hotels all over the world.
First of all the good news about the Le Meridien: The Nirvana rooms and the associated pool area were lovely as was the general condition of the hotel. The rooms were modern and spacious with comfortable double bed, Plasma TV and beautiful bathroom with separate tub and shower. The room also had a sea facing balcony. Although the mini bar had at one point not been restocked for 4 days the cleaning services, toiletries and delivery of fresh fruit was as it should be. Facilities such as the gym, business centre and the spa are fully satisfactory. The range of watersports available are superb (water skiing is free). The hotel beach is not as great as you would expect from Mauritius - lots of stones and in the Nirvana area not really accessible withouth sandals - but this is a lot better at the main hotel beach. However, there are some lovely beach walks towards the Le Victoria Hotel and the Oberoi where sand and water are great.
The location itself is also o.k. offering good access to Grand Baie for some dining out and shopping as well as Port Louis. Both are within 15 min. cab ride from the hotel. The are some great restaurants in Grand Baie such as Le Capitaine and Cafe La Plage.
Now the bad news: As already mentioned in other reviews the service really is as poor as described earlier! It appears that staff have no understanding what good service means. Their attitude appears to focus on being physically present and somehow get through the day. Staff can't seem to get anything right first time. It was always up to us to request and chase after something. However, even worse is the quality of food. We were glad to only have B&B and the breakfast was just about bearable! The evening buffet at 180 which we tried a couple of times was just so poor. Even the most basic things such as Caesar Salad, pancakes, cheese burger, cereal etc. - just to name a few - were below average. With the hotel having access to wonderful fish menues there would have been so much more potential to get it right.
Overall our impression was that the service improved after Easter, once the hotel was a lot quieter. Staff seemed to be able to cope a bit better and entertainment improved as well. Thanks to our lovely room, some really friendly people and some wonderful dinners in Grand Baie we would certainly go back to Mauritius. However, we could not help ourselves but compare to what excellent standards and service you get in places such as Thailand and Bali, where people really do put that little bit of extra effort in and nothing ever really seems to be a problem.
Disappointing
by A TripAdvisor Member
Me and my girlfriend have just returned from Le Meridien hotel in Mauritius.
I can start and say that we were looking forward for this trip a long time, and as big the expectations were the disappointment was even bigger.
I will start from the most unfortunate and serious matter: 500$ was stolen from our room (the money was in a drawer inside a wallet and not just laying around the room) put your money and valuables in the safe the hotel cannot be trusted!!!
Don't expect great food and if you will order from the bar a bottle of water you will pay 6 times more than in a store 2 located 2 minutes from the hotel.
The house keeping will keep going all day long and you can still hear people dragging carts at 11:00PM at night and early in the morning making lots of noise and keeping you up.
The staff try to be helpful and are very nice but the overall result is very intermediate and for the prices charged by this hotel per night it is just not worth the trip I would look for other options in the Island I am sure there is a better deal.
Lovely location and very friendly staff
by A TripAdvisor Member
A lovely hotel. The staff were extremely friendly and always willing to help.
We went on honeymoon to the hotel on half board and had a very enjoyable time.
Activities. A number of activities were included free including water skiing, a glass bottom boat, sailing amongst others. The hotel has a nice little spa and gym too and offered some nice massage packages.
Outside the hotel. The hotel was well located, with a souvenier / grocery store a few minutes walk away. All other places were a cab drive - but the hotel has a taxi service which is very reasonable. The taxi driver can even stay with you all day - a very good idea for touring the island instead of the usual tourist coach trips and only cost approx £40 per day per taxi. Grand bay is a 15 minute drive away and is a lovely little tourist seaside town. It has good bars / restaurants and shops. The Banana Club was an exceptionally good bar serving great cocktails. On the otherhand, the italian restaraunt next door to it is nothing to write home about. The hotel organised a catamaran cruise for us, which was an amazing day and again very reasonable. The crew were outstanding and provided a great service as well as making dinner - all food and drinks were included.
Accomodation. Our deluxe room was on the ground floor, was very spacious and had a lovely view of the ocean. The cleaners were very efficient and cleaned the room and changed towels twice daily - its always great to have dry, clean towels when you have spent the day on the beach. However, they did come at erratic times sometimes.
Food. Although the 180 degrees restaurant wasn't very inspiring (it was a typical buffet self service restaurant), there were 3 other restaurants which you can go to within the hotel. The only downside was that you had to prebook them in advance. My advice on the first day block book the restaurant in advance and then cancel them later if you require as they generally wouldn't allow you to book on the day (despite the restaurants generally appearing to be seldom busy).
The cumin restaurant was possibly the best but you had to pay a surcharge for all items on the menu
Wine. The wine wasnt included in the half board package and we found the house red to be quite poor and expensive (surprising as it is so close to South Africa and the wine served is imported from there) so we stuck to the local beer which was very nice and quite reasonable.
The main compliment I could pay to the hotel is wrt the staff. I have never been to a hotel where the staff were as helpful as this. They were superb. Nothing was too much for them.
One minor negative which we fed back to the hotel at the time was that they didn't do much for the 'honeymooners'. Admittedly we got a honeymoon meal but this wasnt any different to the meals already included the package. We were also told we would get a bottle of champagne with the meal but in fact we received a bottle of house red instead (we could have had house white if we preferred).
Overall though we were very happy with our stay and would recommend both Mauritius and Le Meridien for people wanting a relaxing get away.
Forum Posts
help for honeymoon !! hotel reviews
by boots1
Can anyone help a confused bride and hubby to be ?
We are currently looking at Le Meridien Ile Maurice or Le mauricia to stay at for our honey moon...
Is le meridien very conference like ? We are looking for an affordable hotel which overlooks beach and sunset and is near to villages/towns which i think this one does and does look fantastic .. and le mauricia appears to look over grand baie.... something that we can't seem to get to grips with !
The prices we have been quoted are about the same...
Please can anyone help with some honest opinions ?
We have been on trip advisor and were quite disheartened by comments about le meridien.
help would be so much appreciated thankyou
Re: help for honeymoon !! hotel reviews
by JustinJansen
Look at the Le Suffren at Sint Louis, hav efor details a look at the accomodation section at my Mauritius page!
Cheers, Justin
RE: help for honeymoon !! hotel reviews
by cowboybob
Le meridian is situated in the southwest and yes it can be for sunset ect. But the beaches are not great. Also the villages/Towns are about 15 to 20 mins taxi ride away. Le Mauricia is in Grand bay the liveliest part of the island with beautiful beaches. It is walking distance away from restaurants, supermarkets banks ect. So if prefer the scenery Le Meridian is a better option.
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