Solid 3 star but could be better.
Jan 10, 2025 AndrewHelen A
Myself, husband and 2 children (8 and 4) stayed at the Veranda Palmer for 10 days towards the end of July. Usually when we travel we start in a 4 or 5 star hotels but we changed our destination some what last minute from Egypt to Mauritius and decided to stick with an all inclusive that was roughly the same price as what we were planning to… Read more
Myself, husband and 2 children (8 and 4) stayed at the Veranda Palmer for 10 days towards the end of July. Usually when we travel we start in a 4 or 5 star hotels but we changed our destination some what last minute from Egypt to Mauritius and decided to stick with an all inclusive that was roughly the same price as what we were planning to spend on Egypt. Veranda Palmer had great reviews so we decided to go with it. Firstly it didn't start well. It was our 10 year wedding anniversary and also our flight was arriving very early one morning so I wanted to enquire about checking in early as we had a very early arrival. I sent 4 different communications over a few weeks - via the website, an email, follow up email and then contacted via social media. Eventually got a response but when arrived at the hotel at 8am and told our room still wasn't ready until 2pm. Also we never had any acknowledgement from the hotel of our wedding anniversary. The positives about the hotel. The hotel itself is very pretty. They've got a lovely little beach, beautiful grounds, good size rooms for 4 people and a nice pool. There were plenty of children with different languages that played together lovely and the kids club was wonderful. They had activities like bracelet making, baking cookies, going to the beach etc. The hotel has very much a relaxed family vibe - most of the children, despite ages and language differences all seemed to play so lovely together. The entertainment team had plenty of activities on too and also the free water activities like a glass bottom boat, pedalo and kayaking. The weather was glorious - I was slightly worried with being on the East coast in the Mauritian winter we would have plenty of rain and wind but it was a pleasant sunny mid 20 degrees all of our holiday which was great. My major gripe with this hotel is the food and the drink. Firstly the drink, as an all inclusive only hotel the majority of drink options aren't included. Fair enough for premium spirits but most were still standard spirits with an different flavour to them. I don't see the point in having so many items you can't have included for the majority of the guests. Also Apple juice was included but virtually every bar it was out of stock and then later on they were out of mango juice too. This was the same for most of our stay. The food was my biggest issue all week. Not the quality or taste of it as we had some wonderful dishes here - but the lack of consistency and replenishment. Primarily the food for children. If I'm honest, my children aren't the most cultured souls so anything beige (chips, pasta, fish fingers etc) with the odd fruit and veg thrown in they are happy. They have a kids corner and at numerous meals times out was completely empty or not even put out. My children won't eat fish curry or Thai calamari salad (like probably the majority of European young children). A few days into the trip we found out they had a specific kids menu you could request meals from - pretty much stuff with chips but also pizza and pasta too. Fantastic we thought. You had to order at breakfast for a certain time and it should be ready. Unfortunately this didn't seem to work as planned. Firstly depending on the wait staff you had in the morning - some seemed to know about it and others didn't. Also if you requested the food to be ready for say 7pm to then wait until 7٫30 for it to be delivered isn't great. They have a daily buffet menu of food and quiet often the dishes were empty or never placed out at all. Once at lunch there was rice, mashed potato, some slightly questionable salads and some chicken. According to the menu there should have been roti, some type of curry, fish, vegetables and more. As with most buffets, things of course run out but they need to be quicker to replenish. One evening we arrived at 7٫15, as dinner starts at 7 it should be well on its way. They had out a BBQ and pasta station which wasn't cooking yet, and numerous empty serving dishes. We were told they started preparing late. It isn't acceptable. If dinner starts at 7, everything should be prepared and ready to go. It shouldn't be a roulette of you get a decent meal or not depending on when you arrive. One family we met actually left the hotel after a few days for this reason as they said they weren't happy with the food. We had dinner one evening at the beach al a carte restaurant. It was lovely - there are 4 menus to choose from and there is plenty of food - so much that we couldn't eat it all. But it is expensive. You get a supplement of 700rps but even still the cheapest meal is 2300 rps which is still about £40 each. Even though it was worth it, but as pretty expensive we only went the once. Most of the time this restaurant was half empty which was a shame. I personally think they need to rethink the whole dining experience. As a captive audience they need to do better. I think maybe instead offer a small Al a carte menu to choose from for all guests. Or change the beach restaurant to an Al a carte with more options and to drop the price. A huge shout out to Priya who is the customer relations lady. We saw her a few days into our trip and we told her the issues we were having and she went out of her way to try and resolve them. Towards the end of our stay there was a noticeable improvement in the food. Also the kids club staff were wonderful. I would love to say that this hotel deserves more than 3 stars but unfortunately not. Read less
