Dinarobin Hotel Golf & Spa, Mauritius

Location: Le Morne peninsula, on the southwest tip of the island next to neighbouring resort Paradis Hotel & Golf Club.

Location: Le Morne peninsula, on the southwest tip of the island next to neighbouring resort Paradis Hotel & Golf Club.First impressions: The sea – big, blue and sparkling, and never far from view at a Beachcomber Hotel. The facts: The all-suite Dinarobin has 172 spacious rooms, each with a terrace or balcony perfectly suited to decadent in-room breakfasts, providing afternoon shade following a morning on the beach, or after-dinner drinks when you’re not quite ready for bed.Suites are pleasantly light and airy, with large windows and neutral décor adding to the sense of space. It’s a fairly modern resort, but the wooden-shuttered doors and colonial-style wooden furniture in the rooms, and low-rise buildings topped with traditional thatching, give it a sense of heritage – albeit with a layout that’s easy to get lost in.When guests get peckish, they can choose from 200-seat main restaurant L’Harmonie, the more exclusive Saveurs des Iles and Italian eatery Il Gusto, or relaxed beachfront grub at Le Morne Plage. The recent addition of Le Kabanon, a beachfront area with private cabanas and rustic lunchtime eats is welcome.A good base for: Being as active or as inactive as you like. With two resorts for the price of one, guests have an overwhelming array of sporting activities well worth packing trainers and t-shirts for: tennis, table tennis, badminton and ‘speedminton’ make up the racquet sports, plus there’s football, beach volleyball, a well-equipped gym (the views over Le Morne alone are worth working up a sweat for), mountain bike hire, then kayaking and pedal boats or – at the bigger watersports centre in Paradis – windsurfing, waterskiing, sailing, glass-bottomed boat trips, snorkelling and deep sea fishing. Not forgetting the outstanding 18-hole par-72 golf course at Paradis, where golf packages start at £370 per couple for four days.Of course, if all that sounds like far too much effort, there’s a beautiful Oriental-style spa, yoga on the beach or the meditation deck and beach massage. Guests staying in a club suite or one of the two new villas also get access to the Club at Dinarobin, a private lounge set in a Martello-style tower and serving up snacks, drinks and cocktails, plus a library, exclusive check-in and dedicated concierge – as well as a charming spot to escape the sun and enjoy some quiet time. Wow: Le Morne is as stunning a landmark as you’re ever likely to find: its jagged peak rises behind both Dinarobin and Paradis as a constant reminder of the island’s tropical, exotic feel. Its beauty hides a tragic tale, though. The mountain was used as a hideout for runaway slaves during the 18th and 19th century, and has since become a symbol of the fight for freedom, having been declared a Unesco World Heritage-listed site in 2008. But when slavery was finally abolished on February 1, 1835, a mission set out to the top of the mountain to tell the escapees they were finally free, but mistaking the group’s intentions and fearing a return to servitude, the slaves threw themselves from the peak into the sea below.How much: A junior suite starts at £154 per person based on two sharing, with dinner, bed and breakfast.beachcomber-hotels.com