La Pirogue Review

Overall Rating

The staff are the most amazing asset that this hotel has. Immaculate gardens, pool and beach. Food is great with lots of variety.

Rooms are starting to look a bit tatty in places. All prices in Euros really annoying. Gift shops have very limited choice and are ridiculously expensive 99 Euros for a pair of shorts!

Just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary at La Pirogue. We decided on half board after reading several of the other reviews below we made the right choice. Even those on the All Inclusive basis had a bill to settle on departure as not all beverages are included, and we didn't starve by missing out on the daily lunch (which was quite limited any way).

They gave us a free room upgrade and, on our anniversary, sprinkled flower petals across our bed, placed a bottle of sparkling wine (in ice bucket) in our room and treated us to a complimentary dinner in the La Badiane restaurant.

ALL the staff are really genuinely friendly and helpful. Any request was carried out swiftly, efficiently and with a smile. Gardens and pool area are superb and are tended by a vast army of behind-the-scenes staff.

The food offered was really good freshly cooked on the spot and a great variety. The waiters and waitresses can't do enough for you and are some of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.

A lot of the facilities offered in the brochure are shared with the sister resort of Sugar Beach. This is currently closed for refurbishment, so some facilities are limited until August 2008.

We also chose La Pirogue because we had to take out 12 year old son with us and the hotel offered a teens club. We thought he could do his own thing and not have to hang around with us. Complete waste of time as he was the only teen registered.

A couple of words of warning. Gents, make sure you take some long trousers or you won't be eating in the restaurants. Nowhere in the brochure is this mentioned and I nearly got caught out I packed a couple of pairs just in case the evenings were cooler than I thought they might be. Also, all prices are in Euros for some reason, which is handy when the travel agent info says to take Mauritian Rupees. Drink prices are quite high (3 euros for a glass of coke), so take a walk up the road to the Wolmar Store and buy your own at a third the cost. I advise you not to eat or drink anything from the mini bar in your room unless you have taken out a bank loan beforehand. As for the gift shops just don't, OK, don't.

Evening entertainment was pretty limited. The band is very good but the floor shows at the start of the evening are very 'samey'.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at La Pirogue but the 12 hour flight is soul destroying. How people go back year after year we could understand but for the flights.