Riu Palace Mauritius

We had one of the best times at the Riu Palace. Staff are all very welcoming and friendly. Rooms were clean and tidy, there was always a happy atmosphere, the location is perfect right by the beach with the view of the mountain. I would like to give a huge thank you to the lady that gives the swim towels out, she made the holiday brilliant by her smiling face, great knowledge, caring and kind ways.

We stayed for our babymoon and had a fantastic time and would stay again in a heartbeat. From the moment we checked in, all of the staff were wonderful, friendly and smiley and polite and couldn't do enough to help you. They all remembered us and were asking how the baby was doing which was a nice touch. Everyone from the reception staff, to the chefs, bar staff, gardeners and handymen, cleaners, towel lady and entertainment staff were lovely. There is no rubbish or litter anywhere and the gardens are kept very well. You can see how hard the staff work to keep the place spotless! The hotel is situated in the best location - right on the beach next to the sea. The beach is immaculate and you can walk for miles along it around Le Morne as all of the beaches in Mauritius are public. You get a lovely view of Le Morne Brabant and there are lots of sunloungers and umbrellas scattered in amongst the palm trees, spaced out and you are never stuck for a place to sit. You can watch the sunset every night being on the South West coast - it goes down around 6pm every day. Most days the water was incredibly calm and full of tropical fish - it was like bathwater! It's worth mentioning as you walk up the beach towards the St Regis, the sand gets a little coarser and there is more broken coral, so wear your sliders to protect your feet. There is a watersports centre right at the end of the beach next to the hotel where you can hire paddleboards, kayaks and and pedalos for free each day. You have a slight breeze down on the coast which is great when it gets hot - one of the benefits of the south coast! The main pool is huge and has lots of sunbeds and Bali beds to lie on - it's much better than the photos. No problems ever trying to get a spot, no matter the time of day. The pool bar (including swim up bar) staff are fab and are happy to invent new cocktails and mocktails if you ask! They run aqua aerobics and bingo games in the day but there is no pressure to join in if you don't fancy it. For anyone who doesn't know, Riu Palace is right next to Riu Turquoise which is the family friendly resort and you can use both resorts including the pools and restaurants. The food across all of the restaurants was brilliant - both in quality and variety. We had lobster and calamari and steak and all sorts in the main buffet. Breakfast always had lots of fruit and the pancakes were amazing! The staff were also very attentive and friendly. There is the main buffet La Riviere and then an Asian restaurant Kaori and seafood restaurant Krystal at Riu Palace and then the Steakhouse and Indian Restaurant Bangalore in Riu Turquoise. The process for booking into the restaurants was super easy on the app and we found we could get into all of them without an issue. Kaori was our favourite! There is a cake bar and pool food cafe as well that are open most of the day and good for snacks. Our room was enormous and had fantastic views of all of the greenery as well as the sea/beach. Would highly recommend upgrading to the partial sea view. The cleaners are fantastic and make an effort to keep the room spotless and will bring extra pillows if needed and leave fresh flowers in the room. You have a rainfall shower and the AC is great and the Wifi works brilliantly everywhere in the resort. The bed is huge and so comfortable - we slept really well every night. You have an iron, hairdryer and a minibar which they keep stocked up with whatever you would like - they made a special effort to provide more soft drinks for me. You can also chrome cast onto the TV if you want to watch your own programmes. The room was also incredibly quiet and we were not disturbed by other guests or the evening entertainment. The evening entertainment is run between the two resorts and a show and a DJ on each night. As Riu Palace guest, you can sit in a separate bar off to the side if you don't want to sit where the children are in the main area. This means you can get drinks more quickly and the bar staff are good fun in there. A couple of top tips to mention: - We didn't upgrade to the Elite club and we didn't feel like we missed out. They get an extra pool and pool bar (although is fairly small) and one extra restaurant. Some of the Elite rooms have a little swim up pool but otherwise it doesn't look like you get much more for your money. - In March/start of April you are occasionally struck with the odd thunderstorm that only last an hour or so. You are provided with a big golf umbrella in your room but might be worth packing a packable waterproof for days out. It doesn't seem to rain as much in Le Morne as much as it does in Chamarel and Port Louis. - We looked at loads of hotels before choosing Riu Palace. From speaking to other couples we met staying in other areas of Mauritius, they said Le Morne beach was by far the most beautiful. In the South West, you are near all of the best attractions - the dolphins, the waterfalls, the helicopter tours, the seven coloured earth etc which makes it so much easier to get around. So if you are not sure - just book it, you won't be disappointed!

Had 11 nights at This Hotel couldn't fault the staff or the cleanliness. We did an upgrade to Elite Club well worth the extra. It was Lees Birthday whilst we were there and he got absolutely spoilt. A special mention to John in the Elite Restaurant.

We went here on our honeymoon and the staff were friendly, the hotel was clean and looked impressive. The biggest drawback was definitely the buffet style dining (we didn't get to try any of the other restaurants as I was bedridden for the rest of the stay). Dried out food under heat lamps and I got incredibly bad food poisoning on the second evening of our stay. It was excruciating and completely ruined the rest of our stay as I was not able to leave the room. We hadn't eaten or been to any other location. I had to endure a 12hr flight home still reeling from the food poisoning and ended up attending A&E back in the UK as it wiped me out completely for 6 days. We tried to speak to the hotel about this when we were there and upon our return and got completely stonewalled each time. They simply did not want to know and didn't want the conversation. It was rude and made us feel completely undervalued and ignored. You would think you would get better treatment on a honeymoon. Turns out it was certainly one to remember, for all the wrong reasons.

A truly wonderful stay. Lovely views, hotel, staff, food and atmosphere. Believe hotel was at quite low capacity so perhaps quieter than normal which suited us