Vanila Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Nosy Be

The White Lotus Hotel without the drama. My wife and I came to Nosy Be after a two week trip through South Africa, Botswana and ZImbabwe with 8 days on Safari. We arrived at the hotel from the airport and were treated by friendly staff and a light cocktail. The hotel is staffed 24 hours and has full security however it is very discreet .||Our room was spacious, clean and ocean front. We opted for a room on the second floor versus the first as we thought the view was better however almost all the rooms face the Ocean and the views are spectacular. All of the rooms have a patio towards the water that offer some of the best sunset pictures we have ever seen. We decided that we would rest at the hotel and take excursions on alternate days and the poolside view with an infinity pool was beautiful. There are two pools, a large tiled infinity pool with a deck and a smaller infinity pool at the bar. My wife took advantage of the spa and for $60 US she had a full body massage and facial lasting almost 2 hours. Clean comfortable spa and throughout the stay the hotel is very relaxing and quiet. ||The staff is everywhere all the time taking care of the grounds, the chairs on the beach, the floors and most importantly anything you may need. The bar offers a large variety of cocktails and flavored rums made at the hotel. The local beer is great and white choices are mostly from South Africa. You can buy a bottle of wine and they will store if for you at the bar to have whenever you return. Everything is purchased to the room and you pay when you check out.||The views from the entire site are spectacular and the grounds are maintained as if it was a botanical garden in the tropics. The water is blue and the beach is shallow and perfect for walking. If you want ocean swimming you just move out to the deeper water. ||We had the trip arranged through AfricanHeartlandSafaris.com and Teri Allen found us the perfect hotel for our stay. I would always book through this service as this I was the second trip we had to Africa first being Tanzania and Zanzibar. I cannot say enough about how perfect everything was. They provided local entertainment at the bar every night and excursions which we nightly recommend can be booked at the hotel lobby which is open air. ||Free breakfast buffet was included and there were many choices for everyone’s tastes as well as an omelet bar. Transportation is easily arranged by Tuk-Tuk outside the entrance or by arranged taxi. When I watch the White Lotus television show I always imagined that I could live a 4 Season Hotel experience on a regular salary and this did not disappoint. Will always be one of the finest places I have ever stayed for a...

if you want an honest review from two 24 year olds from the UK keep reading. now i don’t want to just slate everything off because the hotel is absolutely stunning, the pools and view we got from our room was amazing. especially at sunset. however that is how good it got.||we had booked bed and breakfast which is the only option i found on the website we booked through. i had no idea it was a resort/all inclusive type of hotel. so when we got there we checked in, everything was fine. coming to dinner time we checked out the all inclusive buffet as you could pay extra if you wanted a meal at the hotel etc. i just want to say there is nothing all inclusive about this buffet, NOTHING, it was literally just fish, EVERY NIGHT! i get its a tropical hotel next to the sea but come on, not even any fries??? what do the kids eat? now i’m a fussy eater but ill eat anything if i have to, but i just couldn’t even bring myself to eat any of what was offered! we asked reception if there was any nearby restaurants- no. what were we supposed to do, starve? ||it was that bad we ended up having to take food from the breakfast buffet (criminal i know) and make it last all day. genuinely felt like i was doing a bush tucker trial day in day out. we even got told off for refilling our water bottles with WATER at the breakfast we PAID FOR? one night we went to a neighbouring hotel to their restaurant as we were getting fed up being hungry and got chased and growled at by a man in the dark!||say goodbye to family back at home as the wifi is none existent. when it was down, reception refused to let us connect to their hotspots so we could let family know we are okay. one nice man eventually let us but we were only allowed a few minutes. it seems like all inclusive people are prioritised a lot more than those who pay for b&b. we were always left waiting to be served drinks, no one seemed to want to help us etc.||when coming to pay for our bill at the end of the stay (snacks we had at the bar for dinner) they added extra tax ontop of the food tax. they also tried to make us pay for a bill that wasn’t ours.||all in all the only good thing about this hotel are the rooms and the pool. the food is horrific, the variety is horrific, the majority of the staff are rude, outside is unsafe at night, there’s literally nothing to do unless you book a tour, and the beach is ugly. don’t waste your time...

We moved in for one night to Vanilla from Le Grande Bleu.

Our overall experience was positive with a few exceptions:

Concierge is efficient and friendly. Reception claims to speak English but they actually don't. Google translate helps here. It's ideal to read from the hotel guide and pick up words so that receptionists can understand.

Hotel size is good. It's large and pleasant. The adjoining veranda is beautiful and offers an absolutely splendid view of the sunset.

Wooden and tiled floors. The room and bathrooms are clean. Towels, bed sheet and equipment clean. Large bathroom space. Plenty of ventilation.

Issues: The air conditioner is too small for the room and it does not work. The air is consistently warm. This means we were burning electricity for no reason. The fan is good and the speed is fine.

Toilet and shower: a shower door might be required. Because the shower head was wonky, the water kept going outside making the floor slippery despite keeping a towel on the ground.

Lighting: Extremely poor! This needs to be massively improved. One cannot work inside the room at all.

Outside decor: Very traditional, clean and tidy. Professionally done and managed.

Restaurant: Well staffed and managed.

Pool: Small, but its size is absolutely irrelevant as the beach is less than a 5 minute walk away.

Breakfast: Large variety of continental including croissants. Pleased with this.

Will we go again? Yes Will we refer? Yes Value for Money? Yes.

Suggestions: Please fix the lighting and the air...