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Mauritius, Telfair
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Le Telfair Golf & Spa Resort
Where: South of Mauritius, in the area of Domaine de Bel Ombre. Former sugar cane plantation, but today largely a nature reserve.
Year built: 2004
Number of Rooms: 158
Amenities: Huge swimming pool, three restaurants (plus one more - Le Chateau - a short distance away), bar, library, shop, very nice kids club, tennis courts, "boat house" with all the water sports you can imagine, Six Senses Spa, etc. .
Remarks: Experience the natural area Valriche with lots of beautiful trees and exotic species.
How to get there: Fly with Air Mauritius from London (12-14 hours).
Homepage: www.letelfair.com
Golf de Chateau
Number of holes: 18, plus 9 short holes.
Par: 72, 6,498 m from the back tees.
Opened: April 2005
Architects: Peter Matkovich
Green fees: Included in price if you stay at Le Telfair and Heritage Golf & Spa.
Rental clubs: Yes, fine Mizuno.
Rating: A very beautiful and fun course with welcoming fairways and a lot of difficulties in terms of water and well-shaped green areas. The view from the highest points is nothing short of magical, and the quality is usually very good.
Address: Domaine de Bel Ombre, Ile Maurice.
Tel: + 230 623 5600
E-mail: golf@domainedebelombre.mu
Homepage: www.domainedebelombre.mu
Mauritius, Telfair - The world's best golf resort?
Just imagine turquoise blue sea and white sandy beaches, lavish luxurious rooms with impeccable service and spectacular and challenging golf holes. Yes, then you've just created an image of the Le Telfair Golf & Spa on the south coast of Mauritius that in 2008 was voted the world's best golf resorts in the luxury class. And it certainly is luxurious, mainly due to the genuinely charming and honest response the personnel provide.
Mauritius is known for its great service and it’s very easy to be spoiled when you even at simpler establishments get first-class treatment that most luxury hotels in Europe can only dream about. And when we come to a hotel like the Le Telfair, you understand that this is something beyond the ordinary.
At the Le Chateau golf club, which is partly owned by the Le Telfair and the neighbouring Heritage Hotel, you notice it right away. The staff doesn’t crawl for you but you are met with a kindness and attention that is probably far from what you are accustomed to.
The course is situated in an area that only a few years ago was entirely covered by sugar cane. Today holes billow up and down slopes, and sometimes they offer a quite magnificent view of the clubhouse area, Le Telfair’s cream-white hotel buildings and the sea - with the characteristic foam wreath where the coral reef breaks the waves.
The whole hotel is in a classic colonial style with white-painted wood facades and a lot of ornate gingerbread work. It is quite different from the adjacent Heritage, with its more African touch; this is about French sophistication and classic elegance.
The rooms are generously spacious, with beautiful furnishings and all the technology you might expect. In typical Mauritian style, you can open up the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom to obtain a clear view from the bathroom out towards the terrace. I was told that they would prefer not to build walls at all, and that you always try to get the feeling of the room continuing out towards nature.
That this is a luxury hotel of top class you can also see on the guests, who hardly need reminding of the facility dress code. "Smart Casual" feels natural in this environment, and it's actually really nice to not see bathing trunks more than on the beach and around the pool. In the evening you dress up just in time for a drink at the Cavendish Bar, where you even profit from concluding the evening with a nightcap and perhaps a game of chess or a good book from the library.
After a pre-dinner cocktail it’s time for dinner and the most common scenario is when you end up at Annabella's, where breakfast is also served up (that alone is worth a chapter of its own) and at night it is served a la carte that’s included in the half pension . The decor is charmingly colonial with large open areas out towards the night and the faint buzzing of fans on the ceiling. The food is delicious and the wine list well-composed so it’s not likely that you will be in need.
To try to convey an image of Le Telfair in so few lines here cannot be done but I hope that I have at least given you a little taste.
It is a wonderful hotel and the beach we won’t even mention, but when it comes to golf it hobbles. No shadow falls over Golf du Chateau, but at one of the world's best golf resorts, I think it requires more courses and more variety. There are admittedly a couple of courses half an hour away, but it’s not enough for the true golf nerd.
For a romantic, relaxing and quite, quite wonderful golf holiday however, I have nothing to complain about. And during a late evening stroll along the beach, I cannot think of anywhere else I’d rather be.
Text: Mikael Andersson
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