Hotel Le Palmiste Reviews

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Good Points: 1. The service is courteous. Some of the waiters had been very kind.
2. Food was awesome - if you are a non-vegetarian. I loved the breakfast.
3. The hotel was inaugurated by the Minister of Tourism, and the management seems to be on the good books of the Tourism Ministry/Minister.

Bad Points: 1. No Beach view - wouldn't feel like you are at Mauritius. Felt more like in some shady hotel with a pool.
2. The AC is placed on top of the entrance of the room, which makes it difficult to cool the room, with 1) bathroom-door that needs to be closed, 2) the room volume is large and hence there's a high chance of sweating in the room. There are no fans in the room.
3. Not ideal for a honeymoon, as privacy is little.
4. Bathrooms are below average. No bathtubs. The bathroom in an average house, is far better than the ones here.
5. There is a clear disconnect in the design of the building for a hotel, due to which comfort and the ambiance of the room has reduced drastically. Mauritius however, has some of the best resorts in the world. Since these hotels and resorts are marketed by the word of mouth, they refuse indulging in trade relations with the Holiday makers such as Seaside Holidays. we visited some of these resorts, and was amazed at the way these spectacular resorts where designed and maintained.
6. Though Le Palmiste is rated 3 star, it should be rated below 1 star. And if as per mauritian standards, if it is 3 star, I dread to wonder how other 3 star hotels are.
7. They do not allow water-bottles to be taken into the restaurant, and insist on buying the water-bottle from them. It went to the extent that the waiter even took away the water-bottle that we had with us, and gave it back later on. This was the most ridiculous experience I've had so far. I made it a point to tip this waiter with a 100 MR, which was more than the cost of 6 water-bottle.
9. We were checked in this hotel by Seaside Holidays, which is a group I would avoid recommending.

General comments: My bad points discuss Hotel Le Palmiste in Mauritius in much detail. If you are visiting Mauritius and is planning to be up on the NW side of the island, the best place is Grand Bae. This is a very active neighbourhhod, and felt like in Andheri/Bandra belt of Mumbai. The other good place to be at is the Eastern side. This is also another beautiful location, where lagoons are wider, and less commercialised, hence more beautiful and private.

The best way to visit Mauritius is to book your flight tickets on your own, and book a hotel after visiting their websites, or by speaking to someone who's living there. There are even options to rent houses.

You can rent out a small car for 1200-1500 Mauritian Rupee (app. 1800 INR per day), per day, which i believe is the best option to consider. This would be more cost-effective and private than paying Seaside Holidays.

Seaside holidays have tie-ups with Makemytrip, Cox and Kings , STPI and other top-travel agencies in India. If it is a 4 night package, the first 3 days, they'd take you to the silly shops which is either owned by them, or where they have a tie-up. You do not get to feel the sea until the 4th day. After each tiring day of shopping/window-shopping, we generally end up doing site-trips on our own, which we could have had without their kind help.

'Terms and conditions' of Seaside Holidays were strange I found. Time management! The last thing i wanted during a vacation was to manage my time as suited my vendor! In office, i have always done it for clients, but this was the first such experience with a vendor. This was something i was not prepared for - not on a vacation.