Veranda Hotel

I AGREE with all the reviews re how bad this hotel is. We were moved to this 'place' 5 days before we were due to fly. We still have had no explaination re move! We have just returned from a stay at this hotel and all we can say is bad things against it! Bloody abysmal! We felt we had stepped back in time to the Raj rule of india..! FOOD; cold and quite often undercooked, how there was no outbreak of food poisoning i will never know. how can you get a raw omelette? SERVICE;Very hard to get drunk( if thats what you try to do) as you have to wait up to 15 minutes to obtain your drink, thats of course if you can get the waiter to take the order in the first place. They do NOT make eye contact and prefer to clean the ashtray rather than take the order.some very 'standoffish' and it was hard work to try to get a waiter or member of staff to smile more than once. ROOM; Drab and Dull. no natural light unless you open curtains on the door..then of course you are open for all to see.! beadspreads are hard( so are beds)and not exactly welcoming( rather tatty)bars on windows in bathroom...in case of fire you are stuck!!Tv in room for bad days...if you speak french..not exactly geared up for The Rest of the world!! ENTERTAINMENT: They did try hard with this one and yep not bad RECEPTION STAFF; RUDE...they answer phones and other people while talking to you...if you dont speak french forget trying to get any sense out of them!! Connections rep; States she would inform management and recerption staff re complaints then does nothing about it! POOL AREA; Not bad. 90% of the time you have to put the sun 'brolly' up yourselves else you would be sunburned waiting for a member of staff to do same. THE BEACH!: Well what can we say about the lovely beach? apart from that there isnt really one! Part of the beach is about 10foot of sand and a swimming pool size part of sea to swim in...the rest of the hotel beach..wait for it...is a largish concrete area with sand thrown over it!! If You have booked this holiday i advise you to change the HOTEL NOW! Photos available if required!

my husband and i stayed here for one week from 1st october 2006. we were most disappointed with our stay at this hotel. The food was terrible, breakfast was much the same everyday, lunch buffet was always luke warm and the meat was never cooked properly, if you ordered a sandwich it took at least 40 mins to get it and the evening meals were not much better. on the non buffet nights we were left waiting ages between courses. If you go all inclusive be aware that this is not the case as there is a charge for some foods, drinks and ice creams. as a result of the poor food we spent the last 2 days ill in our room. The rooms were ok but we had cockroaches in our room on three occassions during our stay, and they were big!!! the beach was a small patch of concrete covered with sand not the dream beach we had imagined. The staff were friendly unless you wanted to have a drink at the bar late evening when drinks were slammed down in front of you. If you are expecting paradise in mauritius then stay in a different part of the island and a different hotel!! value for money this hotel is not.

I have just read the other reviews about the hotel and in the most part i totally disagree with them. My wife and i have just returned from a 9 night all-inclusive stay and we had a really good time. The staff in the hotel could not have been more friendly or helpful and our room was clean and very comfortable. The surrounds and gardens of the hotel were very well maintained by a very cheerful gardener who obviously took pride in his work. The food in the restaurant was typically mauritian but was always good quality, well cooked and plentiful if not always totally to our taste but then if you want british food go to blackpool! I would recommend this hotel to anyone wanting a nice and relaxing holiday although my attempts at water ski-ing were pretty abysmal!

Well the hotel is definitely in lovely gardens and in an excellent position for visiting the centre of Grand Baie and getting out and about. However, we were disappointed with the hotel. The room was very small and dark - twin beds (which were quite short) and nowhere to sit comfortably in the room. After a few days we asked about moving to another room with a double bed, but were told there were none available and we had requested twin beds when we booked (we hadn't!). However, there was a deluxe room available at a supplement of 1000 rupees per night (about £20). We saw the room and decided to take it. It was marvellous - big and airy with plenty of space and a huge bed! My advice to anyone booking this hotel is to request a double bed (if you want one) when you book - as these are in larger rooms. Or to try and upgrade once you get there. The food was mixed - in the evening the hotel alternated between buffet meals and waiter service (or should I say non-service). On these nights there was only the choice of two main courses or a very over-priced chef's special. The portions tended to be small and the service was very slow, and often things were forgotten. The food was also often only luke-warm. Some people seemed to get preferential treatment in the restaurant - the 'best' tables of even special menus. Buffet nights were better, but there wasn't a lot of variation on the evening meals. Breakfasts and lunch were generally okay, but again, service at lunchtime could be painfully slow. The biggest disapointment was that there is no real beach here - just a small area of sand where you can enter the water to swim, but not big enough to sit on, and part of it is taken up with the water sports section. Also, because of where it is situated on the bay, you cannot see the open sea from the hotel, so it gives the impression of being on a lake. If you are looking for a long stretch of sandy beach, then this is not the place for you. The staff were mostly friendly, although some could be a bit surly. It was quite windy in the afternoon and evenings, so do take a cardi or jumper for the evenings. Having said that, it was still winter there so it may be better at different times of the year. All in all, we made the most of it and did enjoy our stay and had some good trips out across the island. We would go to Mauritius again, but not to that hotel and probably not to Grand Baie.

I can't believe some of the wingeing reviews of this hotel. We stayed all inclusive with Mercury Direct. The rooms were a good size, the pool and gardens excellent, staff friendly and helpful, location good for getting out and about. Grand Baie slightly seedy and charming - the island generally is everything we expected, but certainly not a prissy totally tourist place. Dinners could have been better, but we were able to visit sister hotels (eg Paul & Virginie) for a change, without charge. Would definitely recommend this hotel in preference to one of the 'idyllic' ones on the island, which are generally miles from anywhere.

The food was terrible and the room service cost $10 for delivery plus a tip. We had a nice view of the main road. Beware of the porters, they are the most agressive.

My wife and I stayed at the Veranda Hotel for a week in the beginning of july 2006 and we both agree on the verdict - The food is so bad it ruins every other aspect of the hotel. We were on half board because there were no option from our travel agency to just have brakefast included. Dinners were really bad with very dry meat and fish, dishwater tasting soups and plastic desserts. No drinks (not even water) is included despite being on half board and this also goes for coffee after dinner. Every time you order something you have to write your name, room number, date and signature on a piece of paper. In addition to this, our room had no windows except for the glass door used for entry. If you want some privacy this is a problem since when being in the room you are completely visible from the courtyard outside. The solution was to use the curtains then leaving the room with no light from outside whatsoever. Another hint: Watch out for a transfer company called Connections. Their representative met us at the hotel the second day we were there and promised to help us with every problem that may occur. Unfortunatly we trusted our representative to make some arrangements which this person never did. They also charge twice the price for their day excursions (dolphin cruise etc) than other companies in Grand Baie so don´t book anything through Connections. Good points with Veranda: Service is good. The staff really wants to help you with your problems (which very quite many) and clening etc works well. The beach is small but several water sport activities are provided. Biliards was supposed to be free but required coins to play. Entertainment during the evenings were generally good with one or two really good singers and Sega dance every friday. If returning to Mauritius we will most likely not stay at the Veranda hotell and if we do we will be sure not to have lunch or/and dinner included. Hope this review can be helpfull to you.

My girlfriend and I just returned from Mauritius. Bought a package from a renown London tour operator which included flights, airport pickup and accommodation. The hotel looked ok though in comparison with hotels in Asia where I have been for business and leisure, the price we paid seems steep and definitely not value for money, as compared with Asia. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay in the hotel. Great location, we went out clubbing at the NGyone and buddha night clubs, almost opposite to the hotel, enjoyed a lot there.

We asked to be transferred to the Veranda Hotel after a dissapoiting time at another hotel in the same chain, on the north-eastern part of the island. As honeymooners, this turned out to be a fantastic change. By stroke of luck, we got Deluxe rooms, but after looking at the standard rooms, we agreed that we would still not have been dissapointed. The hotel has lovely gardens, and a lovely athmosphere around the swimming pool. The beach is small (in general you won't find endless deserted beaches on the island) but clean, without seagrass, starting swallow, but getting deep which is good for swimming. In the north east, seagrass and shallow water can spoil your holiday, if you want to swim in the ocean. This wasn't the case at Veranda, though. Importantly, the colour of the water is that beautiful inviting turquoise one sees in brochures, but which we did not find on the north-east coast. It is possible to have a nice stroll towards the outer part of the bay, and swim at other cove like beaches nearby. The town of Grand Bay is pleasant to explore and dine out at. The location is good for water sports, including parasailing, water-skiing, kayaking and wind-surfing. The food was good, probably not exceptional, and the dining area had a very classy ambiance. The gardens were beautiful and well kept. We visited a lot of hotels after our initial dissapointment, and this was definately the best that we saw in the price class.I can recommend it for couples and families alike.

We have just returned from this hotel, where we stayed on an all inclusive basis and were a bit disappointed in what we found. On arrival the room that we was allocated was smaller than our garage with very little natural light. We decided to upgrade to a delux room (which is what they show you on the brochures). This room/suite was 100 times better than the ones we left (rooms 210/211). Breakfast and lunch was the best meals, but evening dinner was appalling. The food was very bland and not enough variety. Most of the time we ended up going without food as it was that bad. Towards the end of the week we ate out as we could not face the food any more. Staff were friendly but tended to look after the French first. Hotel gardens and surroundings were kept in very good order and spotlessly clean. The pool area was good although no umbrellas were supplied, beach area was very small and man made and again no umbrellas. Reception staff could not do enough for us when we wanted to move rooms if only the rest were as good, at meal times they would forget part of the order or it would be very slow in coming. Bit dissapointed in the area as Grand Baie and Mauritius itself was a bit basic and not what we expected, we wouild think twice about returning to the island this is not to say that we did not enjoy ourselves and had a relaxing time, but for what it cost we could have done better. If any one would like to see any photos please E-Mail me and i will oblige.