Stay The Night: Sofitel So, Mauritius

There is something relaxed and illusory about Sofitel’s recently non-stop skill during a southern finish of Mauritius.

It might be a Buddhist change of Thai engineer “Lek” Bunnag, who
surveyed a 34-acre site early on and motionless to make a underline of the
Belle Rivire trough as it creates a approach to a Indian Ocean.

Visitors arrive around gardens of raked silt and are greeted in a temple-like
structure before being driven down over bridges and past a thatched spa.
You can entrance it usually by stepping on paving slabs lifted from a flowing
H2O around it.

Guests nap in semi-detached whitewashed mill pods (known as prestige
suites) with a forged dodo guarding any pair. Each apartment has a own
private garden that leads down towards a white-sand beach. By contrast,
a common areas – reception, a bar and dining areas – are lofty and
thatched in sugarine cane, recalling some South Sea Island paradise.

Despite a dodo and a use of entire hibiscus motifs, don’t design the
genuine Mauritius here. This is anticipation land. For a impulse forget a real
universe (and that prolonged tour back) and usually enjoy.

The rooms

Into a patience of Bunnag’s 90 suites and villas (plus dual impossibly
costly presidential villas), Japanese engineer Kenzo Takada has exploded
with his possess operation of brightly phony vases, hibiscus-motifed pillows and
hulk lime-green leather beds. You’ll see a same colours and floral
patterns in a saris ragged by hotel staff, who rush around smiling serenely.
Apart from a large bed, any of a suites has a operation of ways to get
yourself purify – indoor and outward showers, marble double sinks and a hot
cylinder in a garden outside. There is nowhere simply to lay and review a book.
The purpose of these bedrooms is to take off your garments and hurl around
and rinse a lot. Beds and linen are by MyBed – a Sofitel code that boasts an
exquisite night’s sleep. Toiletries are by Kenzo himself.

The food and drink

The delight of So Mauritius is Le Flamboyant, a “floating dining room”.
Actually, it’s some-more moated than floating, with cascades of H2O running
down into blue tiled channels on all 4 sides of a freestanding thatched
structure. Access is over wooden bridges. Try not to see it before evening,
when a whole place is bright by 12 high pillars of blue light. The
menu is underneath a organisation of Jacques Ledu, before of a Lemuria
review in a Seychelles, and once a hilt of Mauritian Chef of a Year.
His work is protracted by Nilesh, a immature sommelier whose recommendations are
to be trusted. Lunch is taken during La Plage, a beachside grill underneath a
identical thatched roof where executive cook Isabelle Alexandre has
collaborated with three-Michelin star Frdric Anton to emanate a menu that
takes a evidence from fish held locally. There is a bound cost cooking during 60
(53) a head, though wine, in Le Flamboyant. Going off-menu could prove
costly – though worthwhile.

The extras

In-room internet tie is giveaway though surprisingly slow. Rooms have CD
players and iPod docks. DVD players are accessible on ask and there is a
giveaway DVD library. So Spa is a hotel’s moated spa. Tennis lessons are
available, and there are giveaway glass-bottom vessel cruises.

The access

Pets not permitted. Children adult to a age of 12 stay giveaway in their parents’
room and there is a giveaway kids’ centre with a possess swimming pool. Wheelchair
entrance is adequate as there are no steps, though a series of routes that
engage stepping stones opposite pleasant channels of H2O might outcome in a
rough ride.

The bill

Prestige suites (double rooms) cost from 376 room only, with breakfast
costing 30 per person.

The address

Sofitel So Mauritius Bel Ombre, Route Royal, Beau Champs, Bel Ombre,
Mauritius (00 230 605 58 00; sofitel.com).