We stayed in a Junior Suite in early December 2012. This was our sixth stay in five years.

We travel to Mauritius very often and still return to St Geran (our favourite hotel) at least once a year. The hotel structure itself and the rooms are somewhat dated and the hotel is certainly long overdue for a revamp. That being said there is no resort on the island that provides you with the location and experience that Le St Geran can. Every time we go to the hotel we bump into repeat guests who likewise have a soft spot for the hotel. The gardens are amazing and the setting beautiful and it has a good atmosphere which many upmarket establishments seem to lack.

The somewhat outdated rooms are all suites and incredibly confortable with every convenience you could desire.(great Bose iPod players, DVD players, sattelite television and nespresso machines) What distinguishes the hotel from any other on the island is the location, the atmosphere and the great staff and management with their "can do" attitude.

The water sports at the hotel are unsurpassed due to the extensive operating hours, facilities and attitude of the boat house staff. No other resort gives you the freedom to water-ski, wakeboard and sail to your hearts content the way Le St Geran does. All other hotels seem to pay lip service to the concept of complimenary water sports whereas at St Geran they lead the way. The boat house does not close over some arbitrary lunch hour or due to low tide because of the deep lagoon and guests are permitted to sail (under the careful, subtle and distant watch of the safety boat) to the full extent of the ocean in front of the hotel. The resort also offers great snorkelling at many connevient times.

It is not a hotel that you ever feel pressured into spending more money at, inter alia by virtue of the fact that unlimited bottled drinking water and fruit are always on hand free of charge which makes for a refreshing change from other resorts. Even the use of bicycles is free of charge and it makes for a wonderful environment. it is also worth mentioning that cuppucino's at dinner and breakfast are all comlimentary which is fantastic.

That being said some aspects are not ideal and need addressing:

1) On our last visit the quantity of staff and level of service at dinner and breakfast was somewhat diminshed which left us a bit dissapointed as in the past you could not move an inch without people running around you, which did create a very special atmosphere which is now lost.The service is now somewhat slow but acceptable and the staff are very pleasant.

2) The diving opportunities from the hotel are not prime but the dive centre can arrange dives off the small islands in the North which is unbeleivable. The Blues Dive centre which is on site actually operates from the neighbouring hotel and it lacks punctuality and organisation and its use as a contractor should be reviewed

3) The all inclusive dinners have been moved from an extensive buffet in conjunction with an al a carte arrangement to now being a very limited provision of buffet hors d ouvres and full al a carte which leads to dinner being a very long drawn out slow service affair as you have to wait quite a while for items to be brought from the kitchen. I would urge management to reconsider this as the full buffet and al a carte worked very well as one could pick and choose the best elements of both making for a great and much quicker meal. That being said the chef's al a carte food quality is superb.

4) The prices at Prime and Rasoi restaurants should be more subsidised in the evenings when electing not to eat the complimantary dinner at the main restaurant.

5) Breakfast could be somewhat improved and like the One and Only in Cape Town an a la carte selection of hot food choices should be available to compliment the buffet. The Buffet is, however, still great.

6) The harness riggings of all the Hobie Cats have been removed (allegedly for safety reasons) - this seems totally at odds with the balance of the appraoch of water sports centre. When we stay at Paradis in the South we use the harnesses on their Hobie cats without any concern. perhaps guests should be given the option and not have the removal imposed on them.

7) The gym only has one upright exercise bike which is very unusual for a hotel of this nature, especially considering that a large portion of the clientelle is very active and sporting.In contradistiction the One and Only in cape Town has a massive gym with all the equipment the heart could desire. In the event of a renovation I urge management to considering expanding the gym which is a bit small. That being said the gym has state of the art technogym products and is great to use.

We have used the hotel once a year for 5 years in a row and really love the place despite its few shortcomings. We met the new manager on our last visit and he took a keen interest in our suggestions, was very approachable, and we wait with great anticipation to see what the future will hold.

The gardens and bird life at the hotel are amazing and I hope the same will not be lost when it is revamped in time to come.

I highly recommend the hotel for an unbelievable and very special holiday.

My husband and I travelled to the One & Only from London for a 7 night stay.

We both share the same birthday, and this was a birthday treat for us.

The service at the One & Only is second to none. All the staff looking after us went out of their way to ensure that we enjoyed our stay. One the day of our birthday they set up breakfast for us by the beach after delivering complimentary champagne to our room. We also had a birthday cake sent to our dinner table during which the in house band played happy birthday to us.

A special mention to Saden our housekeeper and Nasser our butler for making our stay at the One & Only very special!

We stayed in the One&Only in Sept 2012. We found the beach to be beautiful, clean and exactly as it appears in photos. There are lots of activities and water sports as well. The gym staff is great and the gym is very clean and has nice equipment. Overall, people are friendly and helpful.
We found the buffet dinner to have ample choices even for picky eaters. We tried both of the a la carte restaurants as well (Prime and Rasoi) they were fantastic. We ended up going to Rasoi twice as we found the food to be exceptional. I would normally provide some food recommendations but each dish we had was absolutely delicious so I think there are no “better” choices. The restaurants are a bit pricy – easily $45 for baryiani rice and even more for some of the curries and steak. Each dinner cost us over $300 for two people.
Here is what I think you should know before booking - the extras add up and alcohol is extortionately over priced. Before you come, make sure to make a pit stop at duty free. Believe me, I’m used to overpaying for alcohol living in New York, but $30 for a single shot of gin and tonic in a tiny glass is absurd. I just don’t think I enjoyed the drink $30 worth and over the course of a day / evening you can easily have multiple cocktails which quickly add up. Of course fancier island cocktails are more than the $30 I quoted, but just use that as a reference point. That being said we did order a bottle of wine with each of our dinners as we were on holiday, and wanted to enjoy it, but know you will pay an arm and a leg.
Lunch is so overpriced we wound up renting bikes and finding a few local places that were delicious.
We played golf on two or three occasions, again club rentals and balls are overpriced. I think one ball is like $5 so it’s a bit extortionate again.
Unless you prepay you will not be picked up at the airport. Airport pick up is an extra fee – cant remember what it was but a cab will get you there for half the price.

The other thing to note is that the place can use a bit of an update to the rooms. They are not new or chic by any means. The rooms were quite spacious but do need an update.
Overall, the place was nice but not worth the money. We happened to be traveling around South Africa so Mauritius was a nice beach break after our safari and Cape Town visit, but don’t think we’d be making a 20 hr journey back any time soon considering the Caribbean Islands and BVI are a short 4 hour flight away equally beautiful and for a fraction of the price. That being said South Africa is amazing and a must go. South Africa is definitely worth the journey!

We have just returned from our third visit to this hotel and we had a great time once again.

The watersports are excellent - the waterskiing is particularly good as it's in a lagoon, and the team are always happy to help you learn to sail and ski.

The Fitness team are first rate - we had personal training with Stephan and Ronnie and they really helped us deal with injuries and overall fitness.

We love the tennis - Ashwinder is dedicated to ensuring you enjoy your game and will help in any way he can.

Ramesh and his golf team are also wonderful - always ready to give you tips on how to improve your game.

The best rooms for us are those that open onto the beach - 152 - 132 are on the ground floor and you can open the doors and dive into the sea first thing in the morning if that's what you want to do!

Our gripes are the cost of extras, the average buffet meals, and the lack of stock in the shops - this is clearly a hotel on an economy drive - highlighted by a significant decrease in staff in various departments, and this needs to be monitored as the best thing about this hotel is the commitment and enthusiam of the staff, which is being severely challenged.

The rooms are nice, but could do with a re-vamp to bring the hotel back to its former glory.

The Famous Nne who entertain in the evening are brilliant, and create a great atmosphere.
The hotels has many guests who return year on year because they love the facilities and the general ambience, but this won't neccessarily impress new visitors, so there needs to be less complacency if this hotel is to remain first class.

We will return to Le St. Geran because we always have a consistently good holiday there, but I hope the new management doesn't trade on it's past reputation because the other more negative reviews make some valid points.

If you love sports, then I don't think there is a better option. We also like the Heriage Awali for family trips as it's all inclusive but it doesn't have such good ambience,the Touessrok as we were married there but the sports facilities aren't so good, and the Dinarobin, which lacked atmsophere and you need to travel to the sister hotel for watersports.