Firstly why did we end up choosing Mauritius? Well it stemmed from some research I had done for a holiday in February to celebrate my 50th birthday. We were looking for somewhere a bit different and were looking at Indian Ocean destinations. We both fancied the Maldives but decided against it mainly on cost. I think if you are only going to go to the Maldives once in a lifetime you want it to be memorable. You really need to go the full hog and have a private chalet over the water on one of the exclusive islands and that doesn’t come cheap.
In comparison Mauritius was relatively reasonable, the only snag was February is their wettest time of year. Eventually we opted for Dubai which we really enjoyed although as always happens we spent much more than we originally intended once we started booking.
We normally go to Mallorca in June which suits us perfectly, the weather is great without being too hot and the island is quieter than in July August. However this year was the In-Laws 40th wedding anniversary and they had planned a family gathering to celebrate on the 30th June so we had to holiday later than we normally would do.
It was only when I started looking the price of flights, accommodation and car hire in July that I realized it was not going to be cheap to book our normal type of holiday in July. It was then that I had another look at Mauritius. There were a couple of very highly rated hotels at seemingly very reasonable prices and it looked very tempting. Just out of interest I did a price comparison and picked the top rated Mauritius hotel on Trip advisor and a bog standard 4 star in a Mallorca resort and Mauritius won hands down on quality, situation and cost. So it was a done deal, we booked 14 nights half board at the Sands Resort & Spa in Flik en Flak Mauritius flying from Aberdeen via Paris.
Our holiday started on a plus note as Hayes & Jarvis had given us access to the executive lounge at Aberdeen Airport which was a nice touch. Sadly our flight was a bit early in the day to take full advantage. I had checked in online for our flights and chosen our seats so the bag drop off at Aberdeen was very swift. The flight to Paris CDG was uneventful and we were arriving and departing from the same terminal which was a bonus. Once through arrivals it was a case of finding out our departure gate and getting there on a monorail train which was quick and simple. We didn’t have much time to wait and were boarded and flying within 90 minutes of arriving in Paris.
The flight was around 11 hours and was OK Air Mauritius do not have the most generous seat pitches and the seats are a bit flimsy and not very comfortable. On the plus side the entertainment was personal seat back units with a good choice of films and other programs. There were also complimentary drinks available as well so I had a couple of beers to get me in the holiday mood.
We arrived in Mauritius at about 6.30am and it was just daybreak, customs took a little while as we had to fill in a good health declaration. The delay in customs meant our luggage was on the carousel when we arrived and we collected and headed out of the terminal. We were met by a driver with our names on a card who showed us to a minibus that we shared with one other couple. The drive to Flik en Flak took about 45 minutes and gave us an opportunity to see a bit of the island. We arrived at our hotel at about 8am. We were shown directly to our room which was ready for us and our bags arrived within a couple of minutes along with a welcome drink. We quickly unpacked and headed down for breakfast. The sky was blue it was warm and sunny as we sat on the terrace having breakfast with an amazing view which all boded well for a great 2 weeks.
Flik en Flak is a small town with a handful of “Resort” hotels along the bay and a few more basic holiday apartment blocks in the actual town itself. The sands is at the southern end of the bay in a quiet location about 1-1/2 miles from the town itself. It is a smallish hotel with about 90 rooms spread around the gardens in blocks of 4 rooms (2 story) 6 rooms (3 story). It feels very informal and relaxed and it never feels busy with enough room for people to spread out and relax. The pool and garden areas are extremely well looked after and give the place a bit of wow factor.
Our room was in one of the 3 story blocks of 6 rooms, it was of a generous size well appointed and fresh looking. On arrival we had a visit from a member of staff who offered us a choice of 3 different toiletry options depending on your preference. The bathroom had a separate shower cubicle which is always a plus. The bed was big and comfy there was plenty of wardrobe space, the room had a large flat screen TV but sadly only two channels in English , BBC News 24 and CNN. We had a reasonable view from our balcony but unfortunately didn’t get much in the way of sun. Our only real quibble with the hotel was the room was a bit noisy. If any of the other rooms were using water or flushing the toilet we could hear the water in the pipes and it was quite loud especially during the night. The room door opened onto stone stairway and we could hear everyone coming and going from some of the other rooms.
We were on a half board basis with breakfast and evening meals being buffet style. Breakfast was good with a wide selection of cereals, bread, cheeses, cold meats fresh fruit and pastries as well as the normal hot breakfast counter were eggs sausages bacon beans fresh omelets and fresh pancakes were available. There was a good selection of fresh fruit juices, the only thing that let it down was the poor coffee. Evening meals were themed with a different one every night, Indian, Chinese, Mauritian, International and Italian. The starters tended to be mainly cold ones with some interesting local delicacies. The salad bar was very comprehensive with something to suit everyone. There was always a good choice available with meat and fish cooked to order as well as slow roast meats carvery style. If nothing else took your fancy there was a pasta bat where you had a choice of ingredients and fresh pasta that the chef would cook for you while you waited. The sweets were to die for, some of the best freshly made sweets we have ever had. Excellent pastries, cakes small morsels of deliciousness I have no idea what they were, on top of that they always had crème brulee on offer. The drinks in the hotel were relatively expensive. The wine list started at about £17 for house wine and a small beer was £3.50 and cocktails/drink with mixer about £6.50-£8.50.
Snacks and lunches in the hotel were expensive you could easily spend £30 plus on 2 meals and 2 beers. They tended to be very filling so one between two was often enough.
There was entertainment in the hotel every evening and it was surprisingly decent with local jazz and traditional music being the best. The entertainment ended around 10-10.30 and once it was over the bar was extremely quiet. Most of the guests seemed to be in bed by about 11pm.
The staff at the hotel were excellent and managed to be attentive without being obtrusive, during the day if you were on the beach or round the pool you would receive free frozen juice drinks as well as snacks and canapés which was a nice touch.
We spent most of our time just lazing about enjoying the hotel and the beach. The weather was reasonable with mostly sunny days. We had a few half cloudy days and a couple of rain showers but nothing that lasted long. It was however quite breezy. We had chosen the west coast as the prevailing wind, the Trade Winds, come from the east but unfortunately there was an anticyclone when we were there which meant the west was getting more wind than is usual. The daytime temperatures were around mid 20s which felt warm in the sunshine but the evenings were a bit cooler at about 16-18 degrees and with the breeze felt cooler. Sometimes on the beach it was very breezy and people tended to sit around the pool as it was relatively sheltered. Although there were plenty beds round the pool it still didn’t stop the dreaded bed blaggers putting out their towels before going for breakfast. The beach was very nice to look at but apart from the areas outside the hotels tended to be covered in washed up pieces of coral which made walking in bare feet quite an arduous task.
It was about a 30 minute walk by road into the town of Flik en Flac or if you walked along the beach it took about an hour. There was very little to Flik en Flac, a few bars a few restaurants one supermarket and a handful of clothes, grocer and souvenir shops. We took a taxi round trip one day to stock up on consumables and it cost us about £6 round trip, the taxi driver waited for us while we did our shopping.
On a few occasions we walked along the beach and stopped off at some of the food shacks on the edge of town and had wonderful ethnic food for a fraction of the cost of the hotel. We would then head off to one of the bars for a beer or 2. The drinks were cheaper in town but not by a huge margin. If we felt energetic we would walk back of if not a taxi was easily found.
One of the taxis we had was a very nice man who had an almost new BMW which was much nicer than many of the taxis. He had offered to give is a day’s guided tour for about £60 which seemed very reasonable so we had set our last Friday aside for the tour. As it happened our taxi driver some sort of crisis and couldn’t manage the Friday so we couldn’t be bothered to rearrange it with someone else and we had run out of time to rearrange it. Having spoken to other people who had done the tour of the island they all seemed to think it was OK but not really much to see.
We really enjoyed our 2 weeks there and would recommend others to try it but for us it is probably a case of been there done that.
If we were to go back again we would probably choose a warmer time of year and probably a hotel with smaller and hopefully quieter room layouts.
Our Hotel Room
View from our balcony
The hotel, grounds and pool
The beach
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Sun Nov 03, 2013 6:14 pm
