Dinarobin Golf and Spa Hotel - Mauritius
Posted: 19 Apr 2007, 13:03Well we have been home for just over a week, and thought it was time I got my A in to G, to get the report on the hotel done. I know we are still waiting for our return AF TR, I will chase V-Monkey re this.
We arrived at the Hotel at around 7.30am, the drive from the airport took about 1.5hrs, there wasn't hardly any traffic, just the odd bus, and there is no freeway to this area of Mauritius, for the northern hotels, there is a direct freeway, which of course will take less time, we however had to drive through all the towns, which were nice, and took the coastal route mainly. On our way to the Hotel, there were lots of stray dogs running about the road, we slowed as there were a group of dogs fighting, and our driver honked on his horn, and instead of running away, one of them ran in front of us, and we hit the dog! [:$] We stopped, and he seemed OK! Not want you need after a long flight!
We arrived to the Sanctuary that is the Dinarobin! We were welcomed, and sat down to register. As we were so early, the "Club" wasn't open where you normally would check in if you are staying in a Senior Suite, or a Club Junior Suite, so they took our details, and offered us breakfast, and to come back in around 30mins. I did notice that we didn't get cold towels or a welcome drink? I wasn't overally bothered. We had a lovely breakfast, as you would expect from a 5* deluxe hotel, fresh fruit, hot breakfast, eggs cooked to order, and pastries, all very nice, they have waiter service for coffee, tea etc.... We then went back to reception at 8am on the dot to find that they had a gold buggy waiting for us to take us to our Senior Suite.
The use these large golf buggies to get around the resort, and also to take you to the Paradis Hotel next door. Our Suite was 780, this is IMHO the best room in the whole resort, because it is the very last Suite, you have no-one next door, we were on the 1st floor, so had lovely views of the ocean, and beach. Also the beach at this end of the resort is a lot nicer than near the main pool. Just to let you know the beach isn't fine white sand, it is broken coral, as it is in the water, so shoes are recommended. The beach at the Paradis is sandy. Our Suite was AMAZING! It was huge, if you can afford it, I would really recommend going for the Senior Suites, these are all beachfront, and give you free access to "The Club" We had a lovely living room with a TV, minibar, lounge with armchairs, and a small dining table, where they leave fresh fruit and water daily. The Bedroom was lovely with a huge bed, another TV with a DVD player (you can get DVD's from reception FOC) and then the bathroom with a lovely walk-in robe, a shower with a rainfall shower head, and enough room for about 5 people! [}:)] a separate tub, and a loo. The bedroom had doors opening on to the large balcony, which had a door to the stairs, and the lounge also had doors opening on to the balcony. On the balcony, you had a dining room table, with 6 chairs, and a 2 seater lounge, along with 2 arm chairs.....ALL very comfortable! [y]
The beach in front of our Suite (no more than a few meters) had loungers and umbrellas for shade. There is a beach boy that comes around at approx 1030-11am offering watermelon/pineapple etc, also he drives up and down the path, just in case you need some water, or a drink of some kind.
"The Club" that I mentioned is at the main resort area, near the main restaurant, this is free for Senior Suites, this is open from 8am-8pm, you can get a very small breakfast, they offer open sandwiches at lunch, and cocktails and canapes before dinner, I think this is really worth it, we often went there for lunch, and to have a break from the sun, when it was at it's hottest, it is all waiter service, and you can have any drink you want. They also have free broadband, and WIFI. There is also your own private concierge, to book any trips, tables at any of the restaurants. By far the best waiter there was Arnuad, he was fab, and got to know us, and our drinks, once I had finished my G&T, there would be another one there. Now that is what I call service! [oo]
As we were there over Easter, the hotel soon filled up, with Honeymooners, and families with small children, so the pool area got a little too loud for me (don't flame me, I just like peace and quiet) So more often than not we sunbaked at the beach outside our suite. The Paradis next door is double the size of the Dinarobin, and more lively. That hotel caters more for families with older children (10-18yrs) However saying that the hotel was pretty much full, you never once felt over crowded, and only realised how full the hotel was until it came to dinner.
Food...My favourite part! [^] There are 2 restaurants at the Dinarobin, and a beach restaurant open a couple of times a week, so on some days you have choice of 3. The main restaurant is either A La Carte, or buffet. I hate the use of buffet, as it often brings to mind of, hundreds of people, fighting for food, that isn't all that! Well I the food here, is SO lovely, the quality of food, and presentation was amazing. [y] They had different themed nights, i.e Italian/Asian/Indian, they all were just so lovely, I can not put it in words how lovely the food was. The other restaurant, which is a gastronomic restaurant, is superb! We had my birthday dinner there, and the food was out of this world. You need to book to get in there, as it only seats about 40 people. You can also eat at the Paradis, and they have 4 restaurants. We ate there once, and the food was lovely, and the buffet was just on a larger scale.
There wasn't much in the form of entertainment, had a nice bar, where there had live music, but often the bar was very quiet, the Paradis next door was more lively, just depends on what you want. I was happy to have a quiet drink, and stroll home....(am I getting old?)
One thing I have to say about this hotel, was the service, they were amazing, they all knew our names, by the 2nd day, and had someone from management at our dinner table, asking if everything was OK, and how our day was. For a hotel that got to 97.5% full I thought that was amazing. A true 5* Hotel.
Sorry this report has gone on for an age, you can wake up now! [|)] Just wanted to give you an idea of the hotel. I would recommend this hotel, it was just perfect. I would definitely go back.
Please feel free to look at our pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmetters or PM if you want any more info!
Thanks for reading, hope you haven't lost the will to live!
Dominic
We arrived at the Hotel at around 7.30am, the drive from the airport took about 1.5hrs, there wasn't hardly any traffic, just the odd bus, and there is no freeway to this area of Mauritius, for the northern hotels, there is a direct freeway, which of course will take less time, we however had to drive through all the towns, which were nice, and took the coastal route mainly. On our way to the Hotel, there were lots of stray dogs running about the road, we slowed as there were a group of dogs fighting, and our driver honked on his horn, and instead of running away, one of them ran in front of us, and we hit the dog! [:$] We stopped, and he seemed OK! Not want you need after a long flight!
We arrived to the Sanctuary that is the Dinarobin! We were welcomed, and sat down to register. As we were so early, the "Club" wasn't open where you normally would check in if you are staying in a Senior Suite, or a Club Junior Suite, so they took our details, and offered us breakfast, and to come back in around 30mins. I did notice that we didn't get cold towels or a welcome drink? I wasn't overally bothered. We had a lovely breakfast, as you would expect from a 5* deluxe hotel, fresh fruit, hot breakfast, eggs cooked to order, and pastries, all very nice, they have waiter service for coffee, tea etc.... We then went back to reception at 8am on the dot to find that they had a gold buggy waiting for us to take us to our Senior Suite.
The use these large golf buggies to get around the resort, and also to take you to the Paradis Hotel next door. Our Suite was 780, this is IMHO the best room in the whole resort, because it is the very last Suite, you have no-one next door, we were on the 1st floor, so had lovely views of the ocean, and beach. Also the beach at this end of the resort is a lot nicer than near the main pool. Just to let you know the beach isn't fine white sand, it is broken coral, as it is in the water, so shoes are recommended. The beach at the Paradis is sandy. Our Suite was AMAZING! It was huge, if you can afford it, I would really recommend going for the Senior Suites, these are all beachfront, and give you free access to "The Club" We had a lovely living room with a TV, minibar, lounge with armchairs, and a small dining table, where they leave fresh fruit and water daily. The Bedroom was lovely with a huge bed, another TV with a DVD player (you can get DVD's from reception FOC) and then the bathroom with a lovely walk-in robe, a shower with a rainfall shower head, and enough room for about 5 people! [}:)] a separate tub, and a loo. The bedroom had doors opening on to the large balcony, which had a door to the stairs, and the lounge also had doors opening on to the balcony. On the balcony, you had a dining room table, with 6 chairs, and a 2 seater lounge, along with 2 arm chairs.....ALL very comfortable! [y]
The beach in front of our Suite (no more than a few meters) had loungers and umbrellas for shade. There is a beach boy that comes around at approx 1030-11am offering watermelon/pineapple etc, also he drives up and down the path, just in case you need some water, or a drink of some kind.
"The Club" that I mentioned is at the main resort area, near the main restaurant, this is free for Senior Suites, this is open from 8am-8pm, you can get a very small breakfast, they offer open sandwiches at lunch, and cocktails and canapes before dinner, I think this is really worth it, we often went there for lunch, and to have a break from the sun, when it was at it's hottest, it is all waiter service, and you can have any drink you want. They also have free broadband, and WIFI. There is also your own private concierge, to book any trips, tables at any of the restaurants. By far the best waiter there was Arnuad, he was fab, and got to know us, and our drinks, once I had finished my G&T, there would be another one there. Now that is what I call service! [oo]
As we were there over Easter, the hotel soon filled up, with Honeymooners, and families with small children, so the pool area got a little too loud for me (don't flame me, I just like peace and quiet) So more often than not we sunbaked at the beach outside our suite. The Paradis next door is double the size of the Dinarobin, and more lively. That hotel caters more for families with older children (10-18yrs) However saying that the hotel was pretty much full, you never once felt over crowded, and only realised how full the hotel was until it came to dinner.
Food...My favourite part! [^] There are 2 restaurants at the Dinarobin, and a beach restaurant open a couple of times a week, so on some days you have choice of 3. The main restaurant is either A La Carte, or buffet. I hate the use of buffet, as it often brings to mind of, hundreds of people, fighting for food, that isn't all that! Well I the food here, is SO lovely, the quality of food, and presentation was amazing. [y] They had different themed nights, i.e Italian/Asian/Indian, they all were just so lovely, I can not put it in words how lovely the food was. The other restaurant, which is a gastronomic restaurant, is superb! We had my birthday dinner there, and the food was out of this world. You need to book to get in there, as it only seats about 40 people. You can also eat at the Paradis, and they have 4 restaurants. We ate there once, and the food was lovely, and the buffet was just on a larger scale.
There wasn't much in the form of entertainment, had a nice bar, where there had live music, but often the bar was very quiet, the Paradis next door was more lively, just depends on what you want. I was happy to have a quiet drink, and stroll home....(am I getting old?)
One thing I have to say about this hotel, was the service, they were amazing, they all knew our names, by the 2nd day, and had someone from management at our dinner table, asking if everything was OK, and how our day was. For a hotel that got to 97.5% full I thought that was amazing. A true 5* Hotel.
Sorry this report has gone on for an age, you can wake up now! [|)] Just wanted to give you an idea of the hotel. I would recommend this hotel, it was just perfect. I would definitely go back.
Please feel free to look at our pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmetters or PM if you want any more info!
Thanks for reading, hope you haven't lost the will to live!
Dominic
Oh well not long until the next holiday! YAY.