We stayed for a week at Mantis in March. The hotel is the best on the island but it does have some issues which could be resolved easily.
Transfers
We booked our transfers to/from airport via the hotel, a local taxi (Joshua) picked us up.
On the way back we were bussed in a big tourist bus with many others.
Staff 5*
The staff is a mix of locals,UK&SA. They are generally nice. A shoutout to Michael,Zamzam and the Uk lady who were working all the time.
Thumbs up to the staff especially those in the restaurant, you are absolutely great!
Rooms 3*
We booked a contemporary room. We also put a request for a quietly located room. We checked in to a upgraded Heritage room, while we appreciate the upgrade our room was above the kitchen and restaurant and rather noisy. We asked to move to a contemporary room as we reserved the next day which was way better (quiet and new).
Cleaning was ok-ish (room for improvement, the dust on the bed tables and the fallen screw next to the minibar the whole week). The hotel provides 2 bottles of water and one small bottle of soap for 8 days, first time I ever experienced that in any hotel. Would highly recommend to give daily soap and water. Strangely enough bigger (sufficient) soap was provided for the Heritage room.
The heritage room we stayed on the first night is big with high ceilings, it’s old stylish and has wooden floors. If you don’t mind a little bit of noise they are nice rooms and way more spacious than the contemporary rooms.
The contemporary rooms are new and behind
the older original building, they are quiet and I prefer the design of these rooms over the heritage ones even though they are smaller.
All the rooms had shower, good blackout curtains, tea and coffee maker, mini fridge and wifi.
Food 4*
Breakfast is buffet style, basic but you’re on an isolated island so fairly good. While supermarkets seem to sell out of date products at a discount maybe don’t give out of date products to hotel guests (yes its Best before but still…). We ate also dinner nearly every day and that seems to be the best on the island we ate, reasonable variety. Also they would try to adapt the menu is we requested something fresh or different and Fishcakes are EXCELLENT. It’s also nice they have a terrace to sit outside.
Hotel general areas 5*
Always neatly kept the terraces and toilets. The design of the common areas were very nice and peaceful.
Wifi 2*
Worth nothing is that you only get one voucher to access wifi from one device per day. If you stay with two people and you both want to connect your phone than you’ll need to pay an additional 15 SHP/day/device. Internet on St Helena is slow and expensive and I do believe Mantis might have the best wifi on the island.
We loved our stay on the island, St Helena is beautiful, its fascinating and has a rich history. Mantis is the best hotel on the island and I hope they improve the little things to make it a proper 4 star hotel.
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