Review: Le Dimitile Hotel
Tucked away in a pretty little mountain village, this family hotel is a charming little place and an ideal pied-a-terre for walkers who are keen to explore the area. With its spacious gardens, pleasant swimming pool and delicious cuisine, this hotel has something for everyone, whether you like to keep active on holiday or just want to sit back and relax.
Advantages
- Family hotel.
- Local architecture.
- Gardens.
- The hotel has solar panels installed and adopts the HEQ approach (sustainable development).
- Mini-tennis court.
Disadvantages
- Noise from the road can be heard in the restaurant.
- The televisions in the rooms are a little too high up.
Price and availability of the Hotel
Mini-tennis rackets and balls can be borrowed.
A great many solar panels have been discretely installed throughout the property to provide lighting and heating, whilst the furniture in the guest rooms, restaurant and reception were designed by the owner's wife and made in the village itself.
6.75/10
The hotel was opened in March 2007 by a family from the Alsace region of France who had sold up back home to put everything into this project. It took 3 years to complete and is now the only hotel establishment in the village, attracting a healthy number of guests who generally spend 2-3 nights here. Its location at the foot of Mont Dimitile also means that the hotel has access to various walking trails. The hotel itself consists of a series of buildings, including an old 19th-Century hut which has been moved and transformed into the reception, a house which serves as the restaurant, and, just behind that, the sprawling gardens where you'll find the swimming pool and the two buildings which house the guest rooms. The hotel also boasts one of the island's very few mini-tennis courts which, like the rest of the facilities here, sits amid the vegetation. This includes the aromatic garden tended by the owners, who will gladly explain to you the origin of each and every plant and rare species you might encounter there.
7/10
The hotel's 18 spacious rooms are housed in a yellow one-storey building complete with wooden balconies. All the rooms are decorated differently and feature pleasant decor in warm tones, whilst amenities include a state-of-the-art fan, a flat-screen television and an Internet connection, so you can get online even way up here in the mountains. There is also a large cupboard and a chest of drawers, so you won't be short on storage space, either! All rooms have a double bed as well as a bench seat or a single bed (in Deluxe rooms), meaning that they can also accommodate a child.
The bathrooms, for their part, are very clean and basic and include a bathtub, hospitality products and a large full-length mirror.
The standard rooms on the ground floor have very small balconies complete with plastic chairs, though they are not the most pleasant as they are too narrow and concealed amid the vegetation. Those on the upper floor, however, have larger balconies, but if you really want a spacious balcony you should go for one of the Deluxe rooms located in the building which runs alongside the swimming pool. These rooms are smaller but have larger terraces, making them ideal at certain times of the year when it's not raining too much.
7.25/10
The restaurant at the hotel is rather basically decorated and makes for rather sombre surroundings, with wooden tables and red flooring, though the many little details make all the difference. The light fittings, for example, have been concealed amid the various plants in the restaurant so that guests aren't bothered by any spot-lighting as they eat, and in the evening candles are laid out on the large wooden terrace, creating a more romantic ambience. As far as the cuisine is concerned, there are no complaints whatsoever! Guests can choose from a variety of tasty, original and inexpensive Creole dishes as well as foie gras and even the odd Alsatian dish, all washed down with wine from the extensive selection lovingly chosen by the owner of the hotel.
Breakfast is included in the price of the room and is served as a cold buffet, though fried eggs and bacon are also available on request. Guests staying here on a half-board basis dine from a set menu, but again, the owners are kindly flexible enough to offer you an alternative main course or starter in the unlikely event that you don't like the existing choice!
The only (rather nit-picky) down-side of the hotel is the road that runs right in front of the restaurant terrace. It is concealed by the surrounding vegetation and fortunately there isn't much traffic about up here, but if a lorry does come past when you're there, it can be rather unpleasant.
© 2001-2012 Easyvoyage - 71 rue Desnouettes - 75015 Paris France - Tel: 00 33 (0)1 44 25 94 00 - fax: 00 33 (0)1 44 25 94 01
Contact