KCR Winter 2025 2026 Mag V3 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 80
Mauritius – Royal Palm Beachcomber
In 1985, when tourism was just taking o昀昀 in Mauritius, the Royal Palm
Beachcomber hotel opened on its north coast, arguably the best spot on
the island for consistently great weather, and began welcoming guests,
some of whom have never stopped coming back.
‘We have one guest who 昀椀rst came here aged three on his birthday and
has come back every year for the last thirty-three years,’ says Angelique
Lacoste, PR for Beachcomber Resorts and Hotels.
The birthday boy is not alone. Multiple generations of the same families
come year after year, and many guests book their next stay as they check
out.
When Covid struck and Mauritius sent tourists home, one couple who
were staying at the private Royal Villa managed to stay put while the
Royal Palm, along with the rest of the island’s hotels, closed their doors.
Four years later, the couple were still there. In fact, they only moved out
– and bought their own place nearby - because the management needed
to redecorate this sumptuous villa.
While few of us could 昀椀nance a four year stay in a 昀椀ve-star hotel, it’s
easy to see why they were so reluctant to leave and why 50 per cent of
the guests are returners.
The Royal Palm’s location, on an arc of silvery sand, fringed by swaying
palms, looking out across the sparkling, turquoise Indian Ocean,
silk-smooth because a coral reef across the bay has created a lagoon, is
laugh-out-loud-lovely.
Mauritius is gloriously green and so are the hotels’ surroundings: the
lush grass of the gardens is punctuated with the vermilion 昀氀owers of
bougainvillea, and honey-scented frangipani trees. Birds with bright
tangerine feathers and scarlet mohawks 昀氀it among the palms or hop
onto your breakfast table looking for crumbs. And the marine life is even
more spectacular. Take the hotel’s 昀氀at-bottomed boat out to the reef,
just 昀椀ve minutes from the hotel beach, and if you are lucky, you might
spot a turtle swimming unhurriedly below.
Don a snorkel and 昀氀ippers and you can swim among the schools of
neon, striped and iridescent 昀椀sh that shimmy in and out of the fantastically shaped coral, some swimming beneath you, seemingly unconcerned at this strange, 昀氀ippered creature above.
Dolphins cavort beyond the reef and sometimes enter the lagoon.
When I was staying, a young boy splashing about on a paddle board in
the shallows found himself accompanied by a friendly dolphin, to the
delight of the onlookers on the beach.
KENSINGTON & CHELSEA REVIEW
No wonder the Royal Palm has become not only the 昀氀agship of the
Beachcomber hotel group which has eight hotels on the island, but as
Mauritius’s tourism minister declared at a spectacular party to mark the
hotel’s 40th anniversary, of the island itself.
I stayed there in the week of the anniversary last year (2025) and within
moments of arriving could understand why it has retained its place as
the jewel in Mauritius’s glittering tourism crown, and in the hearts of its
perennial guests.
Every one of its 69 rooms is a suite, and all are ocean-facing with
spacious rooms, divinely comfortable beds, and classy bathrooms. A
crossbreed of colonial elegance and modernism complete with stylish
artwork and wonderful touches such as thoughtful, personalised gifts
left on your bed – a model sailing boat, a pair of exquisite silver napkin
rings - and handmade chocolates every evening.
The chocolates come from the Royal Palm’s large and impressive kitchen where Executive Chef William Girard presides over a talented team,
most of whom are home-grown, as are almost all Royal Palm sta昀昀. They
keep notes on guests’ preferences, so they know exactly what they like
from their favourite cocktail to the 昀氀u昀케ness of their breakfast pancakes.
There are four restaurants and all - the signature restaurant La Goelette,
the informal La Plage, the funky fusion Asiya and the Royal Grill Thursday night pop up on the beach itself – serve delicious food, presented
so artistically it almost seems a pity to eat it. You can dress up or dress
down for dinner – Mauritius is easy going, like the Caribbean but with a
more interesting cuisine thanks to its cultural heritage hotchpotch.
Since it was 昀椀rst inhabited a thousand years ago, Arabs, Chinese,
Portuguese, Indians, French and English have all settled here and
their descendants rub along happily together. The French in昀氀uence is
particularly felt when you tuck into your breakfast croissants that rival
those from Paris’s best boulangeries. I had my breakfast every morning
on my veranda, served by a white-gloved waiter who even ironed the
linen tablecloth before he laid the silver.
Although Royal Palm is a 昀椀ve-minute walk from the cheerful 昀椀shing port
of Grand Baie, where families picnic on the beach in the evenings and
you can see 昀椀shermen haul in their catch and gutting great, gleaming
silver tuna, most guests eat every meal in the hotel, a tribute to the
chefs’ talents.
I had feared that after so much good food I might return home as spherical as a coconut. But with so much physical activity on o昀昀er, I worked if
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