Shandrani Hotel

6 readers found this review helpful

What can I say, this is a beautiful resort. The minute you arrive (only a 15 minute transfer from the airport) you are met with tranquil surroundings of candels, incense and water fountains. The staff greeted us with a cold drink and hot towel after over 24hrs of travelling this was very welcomed! We were taken to a private check in and then transported by golf cart to our room.
Our room was located at the far end of the resort, to the front of our room our balcony overlooked the calm waters and white sands of Blue Bay and to the rear we had the white sands and beautiful blue ocean of the wild beach.
The room itself had the biggest bed ever with a small lounge area and huge bathroom with walk in closet. The mini bar was stocked daily with a wide range of drinks and snacks.
The resort itself has 4 restauarnts, one was a buffet restaurant, which was ok but we are glad we pre-booked our table at the other restaurants as we much prefer the dining out experience as opposed to a buffet. The food was fabulous! very very good indeed and the service was out of this world. The Mauritian people are so polite and have such a nice nature. They can't do enough for you. We weren't even allowed to pour our own drinks! It wasn't over the top though, just right.
We spent a few days on the beach but the sellers annoyed us a little as they wouldn't go away (unfortunately the beach isn't owned by the hotel so they have the right to come by every day). We stayed by the pool, which overlooked the beach but was a lot more peaceful. The pool bar staff come round with drinks regularly too. The same bar became a focal point on our evenings with live entertainment and the amazing service.
The resort does close down around 11.30 / midnight though so it's generally back to your room and an early night, but hey you wake up nice and early to enjoy the beautiful weather!
As the hotel is only 15 min drive from the airport you can imagine it is nearby... at the end of the bay actually! You can see the planes land and take off. It can get noisy but it is only for a short time and it's also quite interesting. The 15 min transfer was much better than an hr plus in our eyes.
The resort does cater for large groups and on a couple of occassions some restaurants were closed, which meant getting a table at the other two was harder and most people ende dup at the third buffet restaurant. However this happened early in our stay so we pre-booked our restaurants for the remainder of the holiday and didn't have any problems.
The resort is on the Blue Bay reef so you can snorkle out or take advantage of the twice daily boat that goes out to the reef.
There's also waterskiing and a sailing school. We met a British guy who took us out on a catamaran as his was qualified to do so and it was a great experience, even taught us the basics of sailing and let us have a go! We also took a catamaran trip to the north of the island which was nice. Only thing was we didn't get much time at the other end. The guys that come to the beach offer you a more tailored trip and we know people that went with them, we were just worried about insurance cover so had stuck to a proper tour operator.
The All Inclusive package is amazing. It includes everything from the minute you arrive to the minute you are picked up to leave for the airport. There's international bottles of wine with your meals, champagne by the glass, pancakes at 3.30pm by the pool every day and fruit served to your sunbed. There's even a little guy in a buggy that delivers fod and drinks around the beach every day. What more could you ask for!
If you are looking for a fabulous holiday in beautiful surroundings, with fine food and great service then I would highly recommend Shadrani.