Just arrived home from 12 nights at Le Touessrok in early June, our second stay and just as good as the first.

The reasons why we returned to the hotel were:
- Privacy: the hotel has a private island called Ilot Mangenie, 5 mins on a boat from the hotel, really secluded and exculsive feeling. NB, all beaches on Mauritius are public, so I believe you can suffer from hawkers on other beaches, but not this one!
- Service: it really is the most amazing service, I don't know the staff to guest ratio, but it must be very high. We've also always found the staff genuinely friendly, especially this year as we took our 11 month old son.
- Family friendly but not a kids hotel: One of the great things about the hotel is it is large enough to accommodate couples and families happily, and they are really good at looking after kids. Eg, for under 2's their laundry is free and food is free - just ask for what you want and they will do it. Eg. when our son threw food on the floor and I made to pick it up I was almost physically restrained "Sir, it is our duty to clean up for you, please sit down". We paid for 4 hours baby sitting per day (over 2's are free as part of Kids Club) for 725 rupees per day, about £14, and the nanny was lovely. We also used her in the evening a few times and had an adult dinner for a change.
- Pools / Spa: Really really top class Givency Spa, which we used quite a few times. Plus lovely pools, but only the Frangipani pool is heated. June - Sept is their winter and the other pools are generally too cold to use comfortably then. Fortunately Frangipani pool is open to kids during these months, but quiet zone rules apply.
- Activities: Golf, scuba, tennis, watersports, bike rides, it's all available
- The building: it's really just beautiful in places, and the rooms are very nice. We've stayed in the Frangipani Junior Suite both years. I believe the bathrooms are slightly larger than Hibiscus rooms, and you get the iconic egg-shaped bath, which looks great, but is absolutely useless for bathing in. Fortunately the shower is fantastic.
- The guests: actually, most of the guests at the hotel are friendly and chat a lot, often having lunch or dinner together, something I have never seen at other hotels.

The downsides are:
- Food: personally I think that the evening "buffet" restaurant called 398 is not the best - it's very good for mass produced food, but not outstanding. The other restaurants are very good, particularly Saffron, which is really exceptional. Also, room service is very good and provides an opportunity for you to have a romantic meal on the balcony for two. If you pay for half board you can use the other restaurants and room service and get a credit of 1920 rupees per person to your bill - which is about 32GBP or 60USD. Do the maths whether it's worth paying for half board up front, we did both times but may not next time.
- Price: Of course you expect a premium hotel not to be cheap, but some things stick in the throat for a normal person. Wine is particularly expensive, from about £30GBP for the cheapest bottle. Our extras for 12 nights came to 88880 rupees, about £1500, but we did pretty much whatever we wanted, including scuba diving, spa treatments, and quite a few cocktails!
- Weather: well, of course it is pot luck, in June we had 4 bad days and 8 good ones, if it really bothers you research the seasons and go in Jan when it is scorching, but I think rain showers are a feature of the island.

By the way, the hotel has just changed ownership but we noticed no difference apart from a subtle re-branding. Same staff and management as last year.

We'll certainly be back again soon.

We had a fantastic stay at Le Touessrok in May-- we stayed in a Hibiscus Junior Suite. We were planning to stay in the Frangipani wing, but our travel agent recommended Hibiscus since we were traveling with our young child.

Service was exceptional, the best we have experienced thus far in our travels. Very attentive staff-- the restaurant staff got to know our preferences, and they were all so kind to our daughter. The manager and assistant manager were also accessible, the latter making the rounds at breakfast and dinner to check with the guests.

Beach good-- yes windy, but you could escape the wind in a few spots, including one side of the private island and part of the Frangipani beach. Spa was gorgeous-- only had time to use it once.

Kids Club was great, though for the first part of our stay there weren't too many children around. They have lots of activities going on, including sports for older children.

Our room was great, no complaints. Excellent housekeeping (twice a day), butler on call when needed.

Food was very good-- we ate at the main restaurant. Lots of variety.

We miss it already and would love to go back!

We had booked to stay in the One & Only Le Touessrok for 4 nights and then booked to stay in it's sister hotel the St. Geran for a further 10 nights in two adjoining rooms with our two children aged 3 & 6. This is probably one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever stayed at. Bedrooms (Frangipani junior suites) spacious and modern, service very good (but lacking in genuine friendlyness), food excellent.

After arriving at the hotel I received an e-mail on my laptop telling me that we could move to the St Geran as planned but that they were overbooked after two nights and that we would need to move out for 2-3 nights and could then move back in again. Not ideal with 2 young children. I called the reservations manager and asked if I could look at the hotel that we would have to move to and if he could arrange for transport to take me to look at the hotel. I was told to "take the bus" which would have taken about 4 hours return instead of a taxi. I took a taxi which took me 1 hour including visiting the hotel and cost me about 10Euros. The next day I got an e-mail telling me that we didn't have to move after all, but were then told that this was a mistake and that we did have to move (and this is cutting a very long story short!).

We then dicided that One & Only resorts were no longer for us and rented a car to look for another hotel. We found rooms in the Hilton resort in Flic en Flac on the other side of the island and stayed there for the remaining 10 nights. Although the hotel is not quite as nice as the Le Touessrok, the staff were more relaxed, friendlier and the restaurants were absolutely excellent (even the buffet restaurant) with the French restaurant being 10/10 for me.

Two words of warning to first time Mauritius visitors: if you book directly, they quote you in Euros (which is fine), but they then convert this back in to Rupees (also fine), but use a false exchange rate. Whilst we were there, the rate was €1=MUR41.6 and they tried to charge at 45/46 and sometimes at 47! The other is that it is almost impossible to find your way around the island in a rental car. The maps are unclear/old/wrong and at least half of the junctions don't have signs. Although I am a seasoned driver, we spent 4 out of 10 hours getting lost. Renting a taxi for the day is no more expensive and far more relaxing!

Except for our one & only One & Only experience, we had our best ever family holiday in Mauritius and will definitaly go back to the Hilton again.

On arrival the hotel Manager greeted us and informed us that we had been upgraded to a suite which was lovely.
Having stayed at a number of 5 star hotels across the world I was particularly looking forward to going to a One and Only hotel. We were contact last month to make us aware that this was no longer a one and only resort but to be honest you wouldnt notice any difference.
The resort is quite large with beautiful pools - especially the adult only one. The beaches are nice and spread out and good service on the beach. Attendants bring water, clean your glasses, bring you treats - fresh fruit etc.
The food was excellant but expensive. The fresh juice bar is excellant at breakfast.
The entertainment was very good and not something I would normally do but I have to say the jazz band were excellant although a bit repetitive from one week to the next.
The gym was good - a little hot and only had one bike which may prove a problem when busy.
The gold course and the nearby island are excellant. I had a lesson with Keith who was amazing.
I stayed at Le Telfair last year (preferred the rooms there but the hotel was better here) in August and we had a lot of rain and it was quite cold especially at night - this is the middle/end of the winter - we were told that May is a good time to go and we were very unlucky it rained 4 out of the 10 days we stayed!
All in all a good holiday!