To go or not to go?

Written: 14 march 2011
Travel time: 24 february — 7 march 2011
Who does the author recommend the hotel to?: For a relaxing holiday; For recreation with friends, for young people
Your rating of this hotel:
4.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms: 6.0
Service: 7.0
Cleanliness: 6.0
Food: 7.0
Amenities: 3.0
Dear travelers! Look not at things soberly: this hotel is the cheapest of all that Russian tour operators can offer. Therefore, having a larger amount, you will not consider a 2 ** hotel as your haven and choose something else. If you have a smaller amount, you will not get to this island at all and will not see any beauties and wonders that are here ...From here, let's correctly assess our strengths, soberly formulate requests. . The main thing is that you, please, clearly understand why you are coming here and how you want to spend your time on this island. Now in order.

Hotel.

Located in Baie du Tombeau, 10 minutes north of Port Louis, right on the road that runs along the coast. There are no other hotels around and nearby. The hotel is surrounded on both sides by residential one-story houses of fishermen, huts, summer cottages. The territory of the hotel is small, compact, quite green, neat, cozy.

As accommodation, two-story houses with 4 or 6 rooms are offered. The houses are stone, painted white on the outside, covered with a roof like red tiles (well, I mean, maybe you decide that the roof there is thatched). Each room is entitled to either a terrace (if it is the 1st floor) with two wicker chairs and a table, or a balcony (if it is the 2nd floor), also with furniture. The houses are mostly grouped around the pool.

The rooms are normal, quite clean, with a minimum of furniture and amenities, cozy: a wooden wardrobe painted in artificially aged white and gray, 1 or 2 beds, a bedside table stylized to match the color of the wardrobe, a table. Also in the room there is a refrigerator, a table lamp and for some reason a hair dryer near the window in the room. The walls are orange and blue, simple pictures hang - it turns out quite cozy, like in a country house. C / a combined, no bath, instead of it behind a shower curtain with a drain right in the floor.
In the c / a there are towels that are changed every day, no cosmetics (only a bar of soap). The rooms are cleaned every day very well, whether you leave a tip or not, towels are changed every day, bed linen less often. The staff is very accommodating, never begging for anything or expecting a tip from you.

Territory and infrastructure.

The hotel has a swimming pool, narrow but long and deep. Open-air restaurant (canopy under a thatched roof), it is also a bar, it is also a dining room, where they eat like a buffet. In a bar, if you buy, everything is expensive, as, indeed, everything in Mauritius. Outside the hotel, just across the road, there is a shop - an exact copy of our rural grocery stores, both in terms of assortment and the principle of displaying goods in a window. There is nothing else within walking distance. In a 10-minute drive there is a supermarket like our Auchan - Jumbo.

Nutrition.
Breakfasts are very monotonous and without any choice every day: pancakes or scrambled eggs (which are only made to order), bananas, pineapples, watermelon, natural or flavored yogurt, toast, ham and cheese, croissants, corn and cereal flakes, very diluted milk, highly diluted juice from concentrate, tea, coffee. All.


Dinners are beyond praise: several types of meat, rice, baked vegetables, sauces, salads (as such, 1-2 salads, mostly just chopped vegetables). Dinners were never repeated, the meat was made either on the grill, then baked, then fried, then with spicy curry, then without. . For dessert, ice cream, fruit salad (pineapple, watermelon, banana in small cubes), cake. Considering it's a 2**, the food is amazing. I put four stars only because of my excess of impudence - with such wonderful dinners (for 2 **, I repeat), it was possible to diversify somehow the breakfasts.

Ocean.

This deserves a separate discussion.
Objectively, there is no ocean either at the hotel or nearby. The first thing that comes to mind when you approach it for the first time: the suburbs, the reservoir, well, Seliger, at worst. The ocean never has the color characteristic of the ocean, under any lighting - it is always gray-bluish water, as in a very large lake in the Moscow region. The coast is flat, all the vegetation is low, seemingly not even characteristic of the tropics. It cannot be otherwise here: after all, around the houses of fishermen, shacks and summer cottages, seemingly empty, where can a lush marvelous tropical garden come from here ...The beach strip is very narrow, partly sandy, but mostly covered with dead corals, which are very uncomfortable to walk barefoot . The entrance to the sea is in the same dead corals, already partially drained by water.
After you enter the sea knee-deep, you have to fall face down in a layer, otherwise there is a risk of sticking a spike from the sea urchin in your leg, which are found in abundance here. From the standpoint of snorkeling, it’s not interesting, the entire reef, right up to the end, where the open ocean begins, is in dead and living corals: living ones grow thinly, dead ones lie around. There is no color, the ocean, as mentioned above, is gray. The main ambush associated with the hotel's beach is waiting on the beach itself ...On the beach, yes, it is on it and at the entrance to the water that the boats of local fishermen are. Since these are poor fishermen's boats, I think you can imagine what condition these boats are in. In addition to boats, there are small boats with motors. All this is tied with ropes to cement blocks, which were deliberately thrown into the water so that there was something to tie boats and boats to.

In addition, plastic bottles are floating in the water, tied to the boats with ropes ...As a result, there is only one way out: if you cannot bear to swim in this place, you have to maneuver between the boats, like “chess players” on the Moscow Ring Road. Surprisingly, such a cluster of boats is just opposite the hotel, there are very few of them to the left and to the right, and then there are none at all. When the fishermen have a successful catch, it is interesting to get closer to them - they pull giant tuna out of their boats, dump them on the shore right on the border of the hotel, and start chopping them with axes. Blood is spewing in all directions. We went with a 6-year-old son - he was very interested. I will give credit to the ocean - it is very clean here.

Mauritius.

When we went here, there were no reviews at all. What we found on the English sites contained only information about the hotel itself and not a word about the ocean here. The question of 2 ** stars did not bother us at all, we needed the island itself.
It seemed to us that the coast, as in Les Cocotiers, in Mauritius is not simply by definition - well, it's heaven on earth ...Nothing, we found a way out, and this is exactly what everyone who comes here should do.

The hotel management, realizing that an ambush awaits tourists with the sea, takes tourists by minibus 3 times a week to the La Plantation 4 **** hotel, where you can come freely on other days, as the hotels have one owner. Nothing special, I tell you, a bay by a bay, sand, there is no special beauty. Many tourists from our hotel settled here - why else go somewhere else, in fact, waste time and effort ...Few people walked left and right from La Plantation along the coast in search of beauty. . .
And the picture there changes dramatically, the crazy color of the ocean, the reef is close - the sound of waves, black stones, beautiful vegetation, white sand, no people ...We noticed that almost all the hotels along the coast were half empty (and here they are always half empty), hence the coast it's all yours...Go here, ignore La Plantation, go left and right from it, walk along the entire Turtle Bay and look for beautiful places.


If you are a true traveler, with a thirst for the new and the unknown. Head north clockwise from Les Cocotiers. Places (the most famous beaches of the island) on your route will go like this: Turtle Bay (Balaklava) - Pointe aux Piments - Trou aux Biches - Mont Choisy - Grand Bay - La Cuvette - Perebere. Of the places listed, we were everywhere, except for Pereybere, it’s a little pity that we didn’t get there, they say that it is very beautiful there. Separately, I will say about the coast of Trou aux Biches - Mont Choisy - Grand Bay - La Cuvette: a rare disgrace. . Trou aux Biches and Mont Choisy: the widest sandy strip, safe entrance, turquoise ocean - it's all positive.
It’s terrible that there are a lot of boats and boats here, a lot of people, shouts of people riding bananas and skis everywhere, pestering people meet: “well, please, ride a banana! well, skiing then! » Beauty is not here. There is disappointment and surprise that in Mauritius there are places akin to our Silver Forest. Grand Baie: Even worse. We passed this place by car, looked out of the window in horror and did not even want to stop here. I will pay tribute to this place, many people like these places, not so much because of the beach, the ocean, but more from eateries, supermarkets, discos and entertainment. Ugh! Just behind Grand Baie is La Cuvette: a bit crowded, but at least it's beautiful here. Go to the right of this place on foot along the coast - there is no one (almost), very cozy and beautiful. We have not been to Pereybere, it's a pity, this place is loved for some reason. But what if there is the same disgusting as not Grand Baie? … Who was, share…

The west, southwest, and south coasts are stunning in their own way.
Places called Le Morn Peninsula, the beach of Flic en Flac and the wild south of Gris gris. Flic en Flac: laughably reminiscent of the infrastructure of Alushta or Anapa - guest houses, cafes, buns on the beach, shell garages ...But if you are returning from some kind of excursion, then it's worth stopping by here at least for the sake of photos. Flic en Flac is huge and the place is beautiful or the place is noisy or the place is quiet you will always find here.


The most stunning places await you in the very south of the island: Gris Gris and La Roche qui Pleure. There is no reef here, so the waves of all their power are beating right on the wild rocks, you can’t swim, but you can climb these rocks (there are paths there) and feel like a pioneer who was thrown ashore by a wave. Although, I must say, we managed to swim here too ...naked, in places where the waves are smaller and where there is at least some kind of descent into the sea, and bathed here even our 6-year-old cub. In no case do not go here on an organized tour, you will not experience anything that you can experience here.
You will stand like sheep on the observation deck and take pictures. You won't be able to take a step on your own. We went on a tour, the indignation knew no bounds. Then they returned here themselves already in a rented car early in the morning.

After the wildest south, you can go along the southern coast to the west. Stop wherever you want, the most beautiful coastline, and the waves and the calm, and the blue and green and black mountains. The Le Morn Peninsula is very beautiful, especially around the Indian Resort hotel: there is always a strong wind here (someone doesn’t like it), there are a lot of kiters here - this is the best place in the world for this sport.

The place that struck our imagination with a feeling of complete peace, happiness, is located in the east of the island - the island of Ile aux Cerfs. We've been here 2 times, blowing the last of our money to get here. Try, find a place here where there is no one (and there are such places here), swim naked.
You definitely need to visit all those places that, in fact, are the sights of the island: Black River Gorge and Chamarel, Gris Gris in the very south and La Vanille Nature Reserve (here you can ride turtles, fly over the abyss on a cable), Pamplemousses Botanical Garden with 200-year-old plants, Casela Reserve (something akin to an open-air zoo, but also just a beautiful place to walk), Ile aux Cerfs (No. 1! ), Blue Bay near Maheburg (we didn’t get here, but we saw it from the plane that it is something beautiful and interesting). Maybe there is something else (of course there is! ) that we just didn’t have time to see, but you will definitely see it!

Mauritius is not a paradise on earth: it is very densely populated by immigrants from India, Africa and China, and the Dutch 300 years ago cut down almost everything that was a paradise before them.

But you, as an inquisitive tourist, will surely find here a complete set of earthly beauties: waterfalls and tree-covered craters of extinct volcanoes, a turquoise ocean and wild rocks. You need to get to all these beauties, to something more, to something less, in addition, all this you just need to be able to see. Not everyone can. Many sit on the beach of their, for example, a very good hotel. Even on the most beautiful coast. Not knowing what is in the south or in the north, limiting your idea of ​ ​ Mauritius to a couple of nearby beaches and the beach of your hotel. Ha! Ridiculously simple. Then these people sit at the airport and chat: “Where were you? In the north, right? So how are the beaches? We heard not very good ones. . "Answer: " yes, it sucks in the north (although it doesn't), but what about you in the south? We heard that it's beautiful there, sort of. "

Well, in conclusion, a few facts.

Mauritius is very expensive. Taxi for 10 minutes drive - 300 or 400 rubles one way after bargaining.
Mini pineapples - from 30 to 60 rubles apiece. Mangoes - in the botanical garden are free of charge, in markets and shops - from 10 to 40 rubles apiece. Dragon fruit - 250-350 rubles per kg. Longai - 200-300 rubles per kg. The rest of the fruits are uninterestingly expensive. Restaurants - Moscow prices. From the pier take a boat to the island of Ile aux Cerfs - 1200 rubles for a round trip. Be vigilant, pay only the boatman! At the "official box office" a ticket will cost 2500 for a round trip. Restaurants for locals - they did not dare to enter with a child. Well, with souvenirs, I think you will figure out for yourself what you need. There are few local works, you can buy relatively inexpensively, or you can overpay 3-4 times for a complete divorce. Bargaining is always appropriate. Car rental - from 65 euros per day. Gasoline - 48 rubles a liter. Waste of money for 2 guided tours - approx 350 euros for three. If you want to buy some other clothes, add this expense item here too.
Entrance fee per person to the Casela and La Vanille reserve - 300 rubles and 250 rubles, botanical garden - 300 rubles, water skiing - 300 rubles 10 minutes, water skiing lesson - 1500 rubles. Colored earth Chamarel - 750 rubles for three.

If you go to Les Cocotiers, you will spend almost all the money that you take with you: eat a modest lunch (and we almost didn’t eat: ), bribe fruits, local rum as souvenirs to Moscow, to rent a car, to gasoline, for any related expenses, entrance fees for all those places that you want to visit. For 11 days, the three of us (me, husband, child) lost about 1300 euros.

I hope you don’t think of taking excursions from a tour operator? Well done, you are our man. RENT A CAR - 65 euros + gas - this is the only inexpensive way to get around the island and see more than any excursion can offer you.


Mauritius is small - the size of Moscow, to go around it all - it's just your direct responsibility.
If you do not need to go anywhere, you are going “just to the hotel”, you must understand that Mauritius is expensive and hotels in good places are also expensive. The more expensive the hotel, the more beautiful the coast and the view that opens from the beach of this hotel. If you still need to move around, but you are ready to spend 2000 euros or more locally, you should also choose another, more expensive hotel, since there is a direct relationship - since you can afford big expenses on the spot, you can certainly afford and more expensive hotel.

If your choice fell on Les Cocotiers, do not howl and be vigilant, keep your eyes open: save money, video equipment, always close the room with a key - there are Indians around : ) And come to this hotel, like us, just sleep. Be happy!
Translated automatically from Russian. View original

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