This is the first part of a summer trip report for Mauritius.
We started our Mauritius trip with a stay in Bel Ombre in the south of Mauritius, known for its untouched greenery and beautiful beaches. We chose Outrigger Mauritius for our stay mostly because it fit our rating, reviews, location, price and availability parameters on Capital One Travel portal.
Outrigger Mauritius Beach Resort entrance
How booked?
I booked the hotel via Capital One travel portal using Capital One Venture X credit card to utilize the card's annual $300 travel credit. The total cost for the hotel booking came to $474.27 for 3 nights. You also earn 10x points for bookings made with Venture X via the portal. CapitalOne uses Hopper as its backend platform which is one of the new hotel and flight booking platform based out of Canada.
I initially felt sure of my plan and booked a non-refundable rate but later wanted to shorten my trip by a day as we also decided to stay at another hotel for 5 nights, but because of the non-refundable nature of it I was unable to make changes to it.
Venture X cardholders can earn back $300 on travel annually
Check In
We arrived at the resort at around 9 am, which was earlier than our check-in time as our flight was early in the day. We were given welcome drinks and had to wait for a while in the lobby as the check-in was processed. We were administered a rapid anti-gen covid test and after a short wait given keys to our room. (This process was back in May 2022, it might be different now.)
Outrigger Mauritius Lobby.
View from the lobby.
Rooms
We had booked an Ocean View 1 King Bedroom. We did not receive any upgrade on checkin but we found the room be spacious with nice views. Check the video above for a tour of the room. The bathrooms included a big bathtub and a separate shower area.
Bedroom decoration.
View from our room.
Food
Resort had 4 restaurants to name - Mercado, Edgewater, Plantation Club & Le Blue bar. The food at the resort was good but we found the options limited. We didn't try all of them, including the famous Plantation Club restaurant, because the menu was limited for vegetarians. We did have breakfast at the main restaurant, Mercado, every day. For this we bought a breakfast package late into the first day, which saved us about MUR 150 per person every day. We did not select their half board or full board packages as we planned to eat out on most occasions.
Breakfast at Mercado had Mauritian, Continental and Indian stations. The Indian station had pakoras and tandoori rotis at times and some simple dish like Daal or Aloo tari.
View from the main restaurant Mercado looking out to the ocean.
Mercado restaurant.
Edgewater beach restaurant.
Food & Beverage upgrades available at Outrigger Mauritius (2022)
Service
I found the service at the hotel to be relaxed but consistent. The waiters weren't too prompt to arrive at your table but did follow through when they did, and staff was generally well natured and willing to help.
We were celebrating a birthday on this visit and I asked a front desk staff to arrange for a birthday cake. She took note of it and promised to take care of it. A staff member arrived with the cake before midnight along with a sparking candle which we appreciated.
Travelogues Rating: ★★★★☆
I would give the property a 4/5 rating. I loved the property's location and beauty but had trouble finding enough vegetarian food options during my stay.
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