SALT OF PALMAR

Small but very cozy hotel with a unique concept of treating its customers casually like as if they were hosting relatives or friends. With no TV in the rooms, they try to induce you in exploring around or have fun by participating in games or other activities. The food is served 'a la carte' but is of high quality. So you get to choose a 3 set meal course for dinner from a large choice of menu including some local food. Despite being on the East Coast, if there's good weather, you get to enjoy a beautiful sun set with all its different shades reflecting on the crystal blue sea.

I really don’t understand why there is so many positive reviews for this place, but please trust me, it’s not worth your money.

My fiancé and I visit Mauritius once a year, we typically stay in a villa with my family but this time we thought we’d experiment staying at a hotel just the two of us, for a romantic get away. Our stay was 3 nights (Jan 1st - 4th 2023) and to be honest, it was 3 days too much.

FOOD:
Extremely overrated, overpriced and very often the food was spoiled or inedible. I’m not the type of person to send food back to the kitchen but when the steak is so tough you can’t chew it or when the yogurt was clearly left outside all morning it began to ferment… that’s when I have a problem. I complained to the staff numerous times and rather than fixing the problem they just apologise but it kept happening time and time again. I read a review from a prior guest who had FOOD POISONING from this hotel, and it doesn’t surprise me one bit. When it was edible it was mostly very meh.

DRINKS
Overpriced, overrated and has barely any alcohol in it, are you noticing a pattern here?

SMELL
On our last day, there was this awful swage smell that was lingering all day around the pool area and during our last dinner at the hotel, the staff thought that supper would be the PERFECT time to sort out the horrendous sewage stench.
I kid you not, there was a man sorting it out TWO METERS away from guests eating their food. How they think this isn’t a health and safety violation I do not know…

SERVICE:
Some servers were very friendly but good Lord was the service slow.

NOISE:
Our room was next to a public park, where locals would often have parties in the middle of the night. So keep that in mind.

CLEANLINESS:
Never changed sheets or towels, never didn’t sweep or mopped either, there was sand all over the room. The cleaners basically just make the bed and turn on the air-con.

SPA:
Unenthusiastic and miserable. One of the staff walked in the room without knocking while I was getting changed, didn’t apologise.

LOCATION:
Beach front which is great but there isn’t many restaurants at walking distance.

OVERALL:
We did end up complaining to the manager. He was very friendly but always disagreed with our feedback, or had some sort of “reasonable explanation” for every one of our complaints. I.e "Your steak turned out tough and dry because we aim to ensure the safety of our pregnant guests by preparing all steaks to an extremely well-done level”

But not to worry he gave us a free branded reusable water bottle for our troubles.

Magnifique hôtel avec un emplacement paradisiaque, la chambre avec vue sur mer est très bien agencée tout comme l’hôtel, pour avoir beaucoup voyagé, dans le monde entier les prestations et les services sont dignes des plus grands hôtels, 5 étoiles du monde. La restauration est incroyablement bonne les repas sont raffinés et tout est fait maison y compris le petit déjeuner car ils disposent de leur propre boulangerie.
Tout le personnel est à l’écoute et disponible tout en restant discret.
Un grand merci aux managers Rishi et Med
Sans oublier Sanjay qui se soucie, toujours que nous manquions de rien du tout pendant les repas.
Et pour finir, le rapport qualité prix est le meilleur de la côte pour un 5 étoiles.
Incontournable si vous venez à l’île Maurice
Encore merci à tout le personnel.