Solana Beach Resort is the second beach resort that we stayed at on the northeastern coast of Mauritius. It’s another adults-only resort, something I am a big fan off! While we were at Solana Beach Resort we decided to go all-in with the all-inclusive package for our 6-night stay.
I stayed at Solana beach in May 2022, which is winter in Mauritius. Of course, I thought winter on a beautiful island off the coast of Africa would be just as warm as summer in Europe. It was not. Being in Mauritius in May was chilly. You’ll be glad you packed a pair of jeans and a sweater, especially during the evenings.
This was our second trip to Mauritius this year, we also went in January 2022, flying on the 1st to start the year on a beautiful tropical island. On the first trip, we stayed in the north, in Trou-aux-Biches in an Airbnb. When we came back to Mauritius in May we decided to do Mauritius right. And that means staying in one of the beautiful 4-5 star beach hotels that dot the coast of this stunning island.
Our trip was 12 days in total, and we spent the first 6 days at Salt of Palmar before moving to Solana Beach for the last 6 days of our trip.
Read Next | My Stay at Salt of Palmar, Mauritius
Unlike Salt of Palmar, Solana was a much bigger beach resort, which at times felt like you were staying on a cruise ship. They have multiple restaurants, a spa, pool, gym, bars, tennis courts, game room, dance floor, and a stunning beach that runs the length of the hotel. With more than double the rooms, there were a lot more people at Solana Beach Resort.
Getting to Solana Beach Resort
Arriving in Mauritius you’ll be flying into the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport. We organized a round-trip taxi transfer with Taxi Mauritius for €70/$73.55. You can send them an email with your flight details, hotel, and dates and they’ll organize everything very easily. We organized everything with them via email.
Book your return transfer with Taxi Mauritius here.
The drive from the airport to Solana takes about an hour, and for the most part, you’ll hug the coastline, so it’s a really nice drive!
If you want to rent a car for your trip to Mauritius (which is highly recommended if you want to do any exploring) I can recommend renting with Morisoleil Car Rental. We rented with them during our first trip but on our second trip decided to spend most of our time at the beach so we didn’t rent a car. For 14 days in January, we paid €224/$235.35 for the car rental.
Upon arrival at Solana Beach Resort, you’ll get a welcome drink and a tour of the hotel. And in true resort-style, they’ll take your bags to your room for you so you don’t have to carry your stuff around.
The rooms at Solana Beach Resort
We stayed at Solana over Andrej’s birthday, so I booked us an ocean-view superior room and we struck gold! We got upgraded to a HUGE Prestige room on arrival. In our room, we had a working desk, lounge chair, and huge corner balcony that overlooked the beach and ocean! It was one of the best rooms that we’ve ever stayed in.
The bed at Solana was very comfortable, and aside from the A/C breaking at one point (it then resolved itself an hour later and we had no more problems), the room was perfect. We got robes and slippers which I lived in and the shower and bathroom were huge.
The food & drinks at Solana
As I mentioned at the start of this post, Solana Beach resort had 6 bars and restaurants that you could choose from. They have the main Indigo bar and the Cinnamon restaurant where you’ll eat your buffet meals – like breakfast and anything included in the half and full board stays.
When I booked our room at Solana (with Agoda), I booked room only, but after check-in and checking out the restaurants, I realized very quickly that we’d actually save money by paying for meals in advance. We decided to upgrade to the all-inclusive and just enjoy our time without having to think about spending another dime.
With all-inclusive, you can have whatever drinks you want, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic (almost everything is included, some things like drinking at the rum bar were an added supplement). You can also eat any meal at Cinnamon restaurant, and most everything at Pomelo restaurant. And you can have lunch at the Indigo bar (which we did a lot of the time!).
The buffet food at the Cinnamon restaurant was better than expected, I don’t usually like buffet food but they had some Indian options that were great! But our favorite place to eat was at the Pomelo restaurant, which you have to make a reservation for. We essentially made a reservation the Pomelo restaurant every night that we could.
We didn’t eat at Coco’s Bar or the Secrets Corner because they weren’t included in our package and they were mostly seafood.
The activities at Solana
Similar to Salt of Palmar, Solana Beach had a lot of activities that you could participate in every day. They also had performances every night that related to Mauritian culture like dancing, playing music, and singing. It was really lovely to hang out around the dance floor every night and enjoy the performances.
They have a boathouse with kayaks and pedal boats, but they also had a glass-bottom boat that went out every day at 11 am to take you snorkeling. Andrej and I went every single day. We absolutely loved getting to snorkel and taking the glass bottom boat out into the reef was amazing. On our last day, we saw a moray eel eating a crab, a giant shrimp, and several little box fish (our favorite).
Diving with Prestige Explorer Diving
Solana Beach Resort also has a diving center attached to it, which is quite common for Mauritius. We did some diving with another school while we stayed at Salt of Palmar, but we didn’t have a very good experience. Since diving is so expensive in Mauritius, we decided to only go out one more time, and with Prestige we had a much better experience.
We got to go out one morning to the Sea Fan Forest with our guide, and lucky for us, we were the only divers! It was just the three of us and we didn’t see another diver down there. I had trouble on the descent with my ears, but our guide stayed with me until I was able to equalize and enjoy the dive. If you’re staying at Solana, I can highly recommend that you go diving with Prestige. They’ll take very good care of you.
My thoughts on Solana Beach Resort
We had a really nice stay at Solana Beach Resort. I found the staff to be incredibly friendly and helpful. Everyone really went out of their way to make sure you had an amazing experience. It was quite a bit cheaper for the room compared to Salt, but with the upgrade to all-inclusive we still ended up paying quite a lot for the stay.
I found the room on Agoda for $500.85.
But with the upgrade for two people to all-inclusive, I ended up paying $1,701.68 which means that we paid $141.80/per person per night for our room, all food, and drinks. It was essentially $1,200 for the upgrade, or $100 per person, per day to have the all-inclusive element.
In my opinion, it was well worth it because we were able to relax and have an amazing time without having to think about how much money we were spending every day. And trust me, it’s easy to end up spending a lot of money in Mauritius! I would safely budget around $150/per person per day for a really nice holiday in Mauritius.
If you’re planning a trip to Mauritius I can definitely recommend that you stay at Solana Beach Resort. While this hotel was MUCH different from Salt of Palmar, it’s hard to pick a favorite. I preferred the hotel and ‘vibes’ of Salt, but the activities, staff, and room upgrade at Solana made it a great stay!
Find a deal and book your stay on Agoda today! And if you have any questions about Salt or visiting Mauritius, feel free to come hang out and ask me anything on Instagram → @justynjen.
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[kofi]
