Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa

I will start this review with a disclaimer in that the Hotel will be refurbished in April 2023 and some of the senior management is new. Also they did try to resolve the issues where possible and compensation was given where they could not. We arrived at the resort later than expected, due to a 5 hours flight delay and were show straight to our villa so we could order some food and get some sleep. The good parts, the staff are very friendly and go out of their way to make you feel welcome, although for a luxury resort they do lack polish. The resort has numerous different dining options with the casual nature of Sea Bliss being our favourite, all other restaurants other than the bar requires gents to wear trousers. The food service in the evening is truly first rate and the quality of food meets all expectations. This however is not the case for breakfast, which although not bad just misses something and service just takes that bit longer. On numerous occasions items were not replenished regardless of when we went and buffet equipment has seen better days. The standout experience by far was the day spa which is by far the best I have ever been too bar none. If everything works like this the resort would be a hands down winner. Make the time for the Ayurveda consultation & treatment. Now for the areas that left us disappointed. The air con in our villas bedroom did not really cool, which mean that the door to the living area was usually open to cool the entire area. Numerous attempts to fix this came to nought which meant that sleeping was not always comfortable. 3 times we had to call as all the ceiling lights would no longer function this turned out to be because the circuit breaker was tripping every second day. Like I said they are doing an extensive refurbishment so these issue I hope would be fixed. We tried to use the kids club but both times no one was there, the final time we waited for 10 minutes and nearly got eaten alive by the mosquitoes, although they have a sign saying call this number if unattended, it should be staffed or at least be informed that you need to book it in advance. Mosquito are an issue so make sure you bring repellent, we were told they fog twice a week but in 7 days we never saw/heard it happen (its pretty hard to miss). We had an Exclusive Villa and if you are more than a couple this is the way to go. The private pool is bigger than the standard and the beach front access is hard to beat. The villas themselves were in good condition and other than what was mentioned above were as you would expect. A bit mention also has to go to the staff that ensured we were safe and ensured that some service still continued when Cyclone Freddy hit Mauritius, the staff were calm an prepared the area for the worst which luckily did not materialise. This resort is smaller than the others in the area and if you want to be more secluded and not part of a mass of others you can not go wrong. We will definitely be back once they have completed the refurbishment.

Maradiva treated us with the utmost respect and ensured our stay was luxurious and relaxing. The staff, Kenny, Veeren, Calvin and others, all ensured our every need were met and expectation exceeded. I hurt my leg a few days before we arrived and they made sure to help me get around and be as comfortable as possible. We hired a private Maradiva car twice during our stay, both times driven by the knowledgeable Veeren. He showed us all the marvels of Mauritius and made sure we explored the island in comfort and safety.

We were well looked after at Maradiva - from the welcome, the meals, with delicious local cuisine and international fare, the spa and the travel advice. Highly recommend taking the hotel car and driver to explore the west of Mauritius. Shout out to Veeren, our driver for all our excursions to the north and south. Very knowledgeable, he proposed a program and took us safely around - in particular, loved his restaurant recommendations.