If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR556.38), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Maradiva means ‘divine sea’ – the perfect name, then, for Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa, where a special sort of magic flows through the place. The moment you set foot on the grounds, stress seems to undergo a disappearing act, such are the hotel’s pacifying powers. With 800 metres of pristine beach and gardens planted with all manner of botanical delights, it never feels busy, even with tens of villas hidden in the folds of its verdant robes. In fact, you might find yourself vanishing into your bower forever were it not for the Ayurvedic spa, quartet of restaurants and walk-in wine cellar…
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A welcome drink each, plus 25% off a choice of massage therapies at the spa
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 2pm.
Prices
Double rooms from £547.53 (€640), including tax at 15 per cent.
More details
Rates include à la carte breakfast at Cassine restaurant.
Also
The whole resort, including all of the villas, are at ground level, and one of the Luxury Suite Pool Villas is adapted for wheelchair users.
At the hotel
Beach, tennis courts, kids club and games room, 24-hour gym, boutique, art gallery, walk-in wine cellar and cigar humidor, concierge, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, free bottled water, cotton bathrobes, and Bulgari bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Dressed with woods, hammered bronze, neutral fabrics and pale marble, Maradiva’s villas are all about space and light: the bedrooms are big and the bathrooms bigger, with deep soaking tubs and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a walled garden. We’d swing for a beachfront villa, but beyond that you won’t need more space if it’s just the two of you. There are family-sized options and two presidential villas with bigger pools and prime spots on the beach.
Poolside
The main infinity pool is just back from the beach, with sunloungers and cabanas running along its landward side, ensuring the views of Tamarin Bay and Le Morne mountain stay unspoiled. Maradiva’s bar, Lantana, is just off to the side, and staff are always on hand to refresh ice buckets, mix a round of Mauritian rum cocktails or furnish you with a plate of Mediterranean snacks. There’s a second, adults-only pool in the spa’s peaceful courtyard.
Spa
Maradiva’s Ayurvedic spa has a serene setup, with single and couples treatment rooms clustered around a leafy courtyard with an outdoor pool, a yoga platform and lounging spots. At the helm is Ayurvedic doctor Dr Praveen Nair, who’s spent more than 20 years immersing himself in the millenia-old traditions of Indian Ayurveda. Treatments begin with a consultation to determine your predominant dosha before selecting the therapies and medicated oils that’ll do you the most good. There’s also a menu of regular massages and spa therapies, as well as a hammam, sauna, hot tub, 24-hour gym and a professional-grade hair and nail salon. Personal trainers and yoga instructors are on hand for private sessions.
Packing tips
Threads to mount a steed in – horse riding on the beach is a hit with guests.
Also
The bay right outside the hotel is regularly visited by a pod of dolphins. Wake up early enough and you should be able to see them on their morning hunt.
Children
Extra beds (€200 a night) are available for under-12s; children 12 and up are considered adults. Babysitting is available on request; rates vary based on time and season.
At Cilantro, plump for a booth. In Haiku, the marble counters are the place to be. At Beach House Grill, aim for the front row, right by the water.
Dress Code
During the day, resort wear is fine. Evenings are a little dressier, and men need a shirt and trousers for dinner at Cassine.
Hotel restaurant
Cassine is in a double-height room with a pitched timber roof, blonde-wood furniture and sandy neutral fabrics. Mauritian and Mediterranean dishes are championed here, with plenty of fresh fish and produce from the hotel’s kitchen garden. Open for dinner, Cilantro is a softly-lit Indo-Mauritian restaurant with curved booths, intricate woodwork and modernist candelabra dangling from the ceiling. There’s often live music, with musicians on the sitar, zither and tabla drums. Try ordering a dish you’re familiar with – you’ll likely find it’s subtly (and deliciously) different from its purist Indian counterpart. Across the courtyard is Japanese showpiece Haiku, in a circular room with a towering conical roof. There’s a touch of theatre here, with the Japanese-trained chef taking centre stage to preside over an open kitchen surrounded by seating at marble counters. Teppanyaki grilled meats, sushi and sashimi are the highlight, although there’s excellent Thai- and Chinese-influenced dishes too. Waterfront seafood restaurant Beach House Grill is the most romantic of the four, with tables set up on a wooden deck atop the sand.
Hotel bar
Lantana, Maradiva’s beachfront bar, has some of the best sunset views on the island. Its west-facing terrace is the place to be at golden hour, but there are sofas and rattan lounge chairs inside, too. The bar is stocked with spirits from across the globe, from Scotch whiskies to treacle-coloured Mauritian rums, which are combined with local fruits and botanicals to form several signature cocktails. The hotel’s walk-in wine cellar is a star-studded sight to behold, filled with vintages from some of the greatest estates in the world, including Romanée-Conti, Petrus and Château Cheval Blanc. There are less extravagant options too, of course…
Last orders
Breakfast is available at Cassine from 7-11 am; lunch from 11.30am; and dinner from 7pm. At Haiku and Cilantro, dinner is served from 7pm. The Beach House Grill opens for lunch from 11.30 am, and dinner from 7pm.
Room service
In-villa dining is available from 7am to 11pm; the lunch and dinner menu are available from 11.30am. Just call or message your butler.
Maradiva lays claim to a swathe of pristine beachfront near Flic-en-Flac, a village on the sheltered west coast of Mauritius.
Planes
International flights touch down at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, the island’s main hub. From there, it’s a 45-minute drive to Maradiva. The hotel can arrange private transfers in various cars, including a Hyundai H1, BMW i7 or Rolls Royce Phantom. Rates vary and are available on request.
Automobiles
You won’t need a car if you plan to stick to the local area, but a set of wheels will come in handy if you want to do some exploring under your own steam. The usual rental firms are available at the airport and there’s free valet parking at the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
With its long strip of sandy beach, duo of pools and well-groomed gardens, Maradiva makes hermits of most guests. Hardly surprising, when you can get pretty much all of your kicks without leaving the resort. Hit the boathouse for windsurfing, kayaking and other watersports sessions, sail off on a catamaran to spot dolphins in the bay, knock a few balls around on the tennis courts, prepare a Creole curry in a private cooking lesson with the chef of Haiku restaurant, or settle in the bar for Mauritian rum tastings (and, for those who indulge, Cuban cigars from the walk-in humidor). Of course, if you do want to venture out, just Whatsapp your butler, who can arrange everything from chauffeur-driven tours in a Rolls Royce to hikes in the island’s coastal mountains.
Local restaurants
A lot of culinary know-how went into creating Maradiva’s four restaurants, so you’re unlikely to best them. If you do want to eat out, your first port of call should be Maradiva’s sister property and neighbour, the Sands Suites Resort. Their waterfront seafood spot, Pink Peppercorn, is a beauty after dark. It’s right on the beach, with tables arranged on a wooden deck punctuated by trees strung with naked bulbs. Grilled lobster, jumbo king prawns and the catch of the day are perennial favourites here. Alternatively, Spices restaurant leans more towards Mediterranean shores in terms of the cooking, but with plenty of sense-teasing Mauritian flavours mixed in.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this beachfront resort in Mauritius and unpacked their local rum and mahogany incense, a full account of their break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa in Mauritius…
Doing nothing isn’t easy. That might sound oxymoronic – or just plain moronic – but it’s true. The conditions need to be just so, with no nagging feelings of guilt nor fear of missing out elsewhere. You need a cloud of contentment hanging over you like a spell – and it’s this that Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa conjures into being so well. When you first arrive at the vast open-air lobby with its splashing fountain and towering roof concealing harmonising tropical birds, you’re hit by the sheer indulgence of all that space. If you’ve just stepped off a longhaul flight, you can feel yourself uncoiling into those pleasant and shady yards. And from that moment, you’re floating.
Everywhere you go, there’s room to spare: strolling through the gardens, posting up at the bar for sundowners, even taking a pew on the beach, where there’s 20 metres or so between cabanas so you won’t feel like you’re eavesdropping on other guests. Time goes spare too, not least with your personal butler arranging everything, anything, at a moment’s notice. Elsewhere, you might feel guilty for lounging around your villa too long, but with a private pool and a secluded terrace made for long alfresco lunches, here it’s practically encouraged. Of course, you can fill the days to your heart's desire with snorkelling trips, wine tastings, cultural excursions, sunset cruises, helicopter tours and more… but there’s no pressure. You are, in the very deepest sense of the term, at your own leisure.
