Miscellaneous Tips (Grand Baie, Mauritius)- Hotel Reviews

I stayed at Dookee House Apartments for 6 nights during a visit to Grand Baie, Mauritius in February 2008.

I paid just 13 GBP / 18 Euros per night for an en-suite apartment.

Location

Dookee House Apartments are located in the northern resort of Grand Baie, which is a 1 hour taxi ride from the airport at Plaisance in the south east of the island.

Within Grand Baie itself, the apartments are located on La Salette Road, opposite the large “Super U” hypermarket, and just a 3 minute walk from Royal Road, the Sunset Boulevard shopping area and the seafront. There are restaurants and shops within a 2 minute walk of the accommodation, while the centre of Grand Baie (with dozens of restaurants, bars, tour operators, banks and shops) can be reached on foot in a little over 5 minutes.

The island’s capital, Port Louis, is 30 minutes away by express bus.

In terms of nearby beaches (which is likely to be a priority for many visitors to Mauritius!), the beach at Grand Baie is less than 5 minutes away on foot. The beach is nice enough, with a long stretch of sand backed by tall trees, and the sea is a lovely shade of turquoise. However, due to the large number of boats in the bay, it is not a particularly great beach for swimming. The best nearby beaches are at Pereybere (5 minutes by bus or 30 minutes on foot), Mont Choisy (10 minutes by bus) and Trou aux Biches (15 minutes by bus).

Room

My apartment was spacious, clean and very well furnished. I was extremely pleased with the quality of the room and, for such a low price, it significantly exceeded my expectations.

The room included a twin bed and a single bed (adequate for sleeping 3 people), a wardrobe, a large fridge freezer, oven hobs, a sink, cooking utensils, cutlery and crockery, a dining table, 2 dining chairs, 2 armchairs, a TV and an oscillating fan. It also had a balcony, although the views (of the dodgem cars and fast food joints surrounding the Super U complex) were nothing special.

The TV only picked up 3 local channels (with a poor signal and with many of the programmes in French), but this didn’t concern me as I wasn’t in Mauritius to watch TV!

My only slight criticism of the room would be the lack of air conditioning. I slept most nights on top of the bed with the windows fully open and the oscillating fan on its highest setting. However, the room was still uncomfortably warm at times.

The en-suite shower room included a large walk-in shower, a toilet and another washbasin. It was generally clean and was serviced by the maid (who provided clean towels and replenished the toiletries) every other day. One small fault was that there was no way of controlling the temperature of the water from the shower. It generally ran luke warm (perfect given the hot temperatures), but with occasional spurts of very hot and very cold water.

The plug sockets in Mauritius are the three pronged British-style ones. However, all of the sockets in my room were fitted with removable adaptors for two pronged European-style plugs.

General

The accommodation includes a restaurant (named “Talipot”, serving local specialities), an Internet café and a souvenir shop on its ground floor. The Internet café and the shop are open between 9am and 5pm, while the restaurant is open until early evening. No breakfast is included in the room rate, but the self catering facilities are more than adequate to prepare your own (although, no toaster was provided) and there are plenty of cafes in Grand Baie that open early and serve continental and cooked breakfasts.

When I first arrived at the apartments, it was a Sunday morning and the restaurant, shop and Internet café were all closed for the day. With no visible reception area and no signs to indicate where I should go, I was starting to get a little concerned about how I would actually get into my room! However, after venturing down a driveway besides the apartments, I was able to locate the family living quarters and obtain the key to my apartment.

One thing to note is that when walking back along La Salette Road at night, the street is poorly lit. Also, there is little in the way of external lighting at the apartments themselves. You might therefore think about taking a small torch with you or you’ll find yourself in the position that I did: having to navigate the steep external stairs in near darkness.

As I was leaving for the airport late on the Saturday night, I booked the room for a 7th night (in order that I could keep the room on until 8pm when I left, rather than having to vacate in the morning). When I came to pay my bill, the owners insisted that I only pay for 6 nights and that I didn’t have to vacate until the evening.

If possible, contact the owners of Dookee Apartments in advance and ask them to arrange your transfer from the airport. I failed to do so, and instead arranged my own taxi upon arrival. The taxi driver that took me to Grand Baie asked me for 2,600 Rupees (almost 50 GBP) for the 1 hour journey. I haggled and paid 2,000 Rupees (about 40 GBP). For the return journey to the airport at the end of my stay, I booked the transfer with the owners of the apartments. For just 1,280 Rupees (approx. 25 GBP), they arranged for my taxi to the airport. It arrived promptly, the driver came up to my room to carry my luggage to the car and he even tuned the radio in the taxi to BBC World Service so that I could listen to the live English football!

I highly recommend Dookee House Apartments to any budget travellers wanting an independent apartment in the island’s biggest resort, Grand Baie.

A great room, a great location…and superb value for money. Highly recommended!!

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