Ambre Mauritius

We LOVED this hotel

I always read reviews before booking a hotel and having been to Ambre, I really cannot see how anyone can give it less than 5 stars. Hotel standards are alway relative to the country you are going to - 4 star in Mauritius is not going to be the same as 4 star in say America or Singapore - it is a poorer country so the hotel needs to be judged in its on right. I think the hotel was excellent. The rooms are basic but very comfortable and very clean. We had fresh towels everyday and really cannot complain. They are also very spacious. We thought the food was excellent. Plenty of choice and if you do not want a buffet meal then there are 2 other restaurants to choose from which are table service. As said by others, the staff are excellent. I have never met a team who are happier, polite and friendly. I would like to mention especially Kenny in the restaurant and Raksha, Geetan and Clina in the spa. The taxi service to local areas was excellent to with friendly, professional and knowledgable drivers. The beach was beautiful and you can get drinks without leaving your lounger. Do not be put off by anything negative said about this hotel, we thought it was simply fantastic.

Our holiday

Overall our holiday has been amazing. We have stayed here for 10 days and have really enjoyed it. Just a few points which the hotel could improve on: - the food choices, there isn’t much selection and found it difficult most nights to find something to eat. There is a lot of the same thing and quite heavy meals nothing light which you might prefer on a hot evening. Also gave me and my boyfriend bad stomach. Luckily after a few days in we found out about the food beach bar which sell sandwiches etc. This saved us as the buffet lunch wasn’t too great. - a lot of people selling things. When your on holiday your there to relax and there are multiple people coming up to you asking to buy things and to book boat tours. I understand they have to make money somewhere but at times it got annoying as they are always saying to go with them instead of other people and you don’t really know who to believe. - lastly the entertainment, this would last for about a hour or so and then after that there isn’t much going on. They could include some fun quizzes/shows or something for everyone to get involved in. Saying this the hotel is amazing. The beach is huge which lovely Sun beds and ‘dome’ beds with cushions. The pool is really nice looking onto the beach. We had a really nice room with the beach right in front of us. Very good service from the bar they always make sure you have a drink. The cocktail selection is huge abit of everything and very strong! The sea is very clear and really nice to go in to. Overall it is a really nice hotel and defo worth the visit. However if I was to come back to Mauritius I would definitely try out another hotel!

A real mixed bag in a great location

First visit to Mauritius for us and we selected Ambre hotel as we fancied the Belle Mare area for the shallow lagoon and swimming from the beach. On the whole, we had a great stay. The staff are incredibly polite and helpful which is great, we found everyone there and in fact the Mauritian people in general to be really friendly. Likes First - The staff, the location, the wonderful beach and lagoon and despite what others have said some of the entertainment was pretty good. I’ve experienced some diabolical entertainment at AI hotels however on themed nights the ‘brought in’ dancers and entertainers were pretty good. Bollywood dancing, belly dancing, African drumming. All a bit of fun for an hour or so. The musicians in the bar were a little more ‘interesting’, I think the keyboard player is learning on the job but it gave us a giggle…. Our sea facing room was literally 10 yards from the beach. This, for me, was amazing. I’ve never had that before anywhere (apart from the Maldives). The Wi-Fi was good for us through our entire 10 day stay - whilst it should be expected these days, it is usually the thing we have problems with when away so that was a plus. No matter where you sit on the long stretch of beach, a waiter will be along to look after your drinks which are served in cold silver metal cups rather than plastic glasses, a nice touch. We also liked the complimentary water sports and went on the glass bottomed boat, snorkelling trip (these both run daily) and had a pedalo and also SU Paddle boards. They also have kayaks, Laser dinghies and Hobie Cats for those who know how to work one! Not sure if they’re free…. There’s a nice boutique shop with decent stuff for sale and the breakfasts are varied and plentiful. The Wife and I don’t drink alcohol these days and I have to say the alcohol free ‘mocktails’ were the best I’ve ever tried, they really were nice drinks rather than just sickly fruit juices. And the nicest part, it was our tenth anniversary whilst we were there and they put a bottle of fizz in our room and served us a chocolate cake at dinner. Lovely touch! Dislikes - Unfortunately there are a few bits that aren’t so good and whilst they didn’t spoil the holiday they became a bit annoying after a while. Firstly, the condition of the room. Although the bed is huge and comfortable, the rest of the room is desperately worn and outdated. The window blind didn’t work, the furniture is shabby and the towel rail actually fell off the wall! I just fitted it back up… The wall lights are hanging off the wall. Housekeeping - When we arrived, we had a complimentary mini bar stocked with various drinks and snacks along with tea and coffee making facilities. Each day it seemed that something hadn’t been done, either the towels were short or the snacks weren’t replaced or the water. On the fourth day when the bed was only half made I’d had enough of chasing after them so I emailed the hotel. To their credit, they sent me a letter apologising and from then on housekeeping couldn’t do enough for us. They even brought us another bottle of fizz…. (Shame we don’t drink!) I realised after that there are a bunch of them doing different jobs. Rather than having one person responsible for your room there seem to be teams doing different things. So the process of making your room up probably involves about half a dozen people at different times of the day…. Not so keen on that myself when you have personal possessions lying around. The food - The worst part for us. As I said, breakfasts are great but dinner is hit and miss and lunch is absolutely dismal. If you like fish you are probably ok because a good 50% of what is served up will have some kind of fish or seafood in it, this includes rice, pasta and salad dishes. Also, they were frying fresh Dorada at most sittings and sometimes slabs of Tuna. But if you don’t like fish (we don’t) you’re out of luck generally. Lunch most days was fish, curry or some kind of chickpea thing. Salads and pasta with fish in. Yes, of course there was more than that but trying to find a fish or curry free source of protein was practically impossible. No eggs, cold meat or cheese. No omelettes, occasionally bolognese but with hardly any meat. It really was very difficult indeed. One day I actually asked for someone to go and get me some ham and cheese, which they did, but I think they thought I was bonkers.. Evening food was a bit better, there was nothing wrong with the quality it was really just the lack of variety. Fish, curry or vegetarian mostly. Sometimes a joint of meat, beef or ribs usually but not every night. It was like the food was done down to a budget. Their bread was amazing though… All in all we had a great time but after 10 days we’d had enough, mainly of the food choices as it was really disappointing for us. Would we go back? Not sure, it was an expensive holiday and I think we would prefer more food choices and a less tired room. However, as we haven’t stayed anywhere else in Mauritius we don’t have anything to compare it to. Overall good.