Hotel in zona Centre National de Documentation et de Recherche Scientifique, Moroni

We were taken to ”Jardin de la Paix”by a driver we had hired for the day to take us on a tour of the island. Sayad, our driver highly recommended that we stop to dine here. It was the best meal we had on the island! The setting was tranquil, set in a private garden courtyard keeping out the sounds of the busy city. It was like a hidden oasis. The restaurant was clean and tidy and the service was exception. We had lovely fresh salads to start and then the freshest fish served with local vegetables, accompanied by a lovely French wine and finished off sharing a Tiramisu (could have been in Italy!) with the best espresso coffee we had the whole time we were there. Excellent! I highly recommend it!

I try hard to be positive, so let’s start there. There was plenty of hot water and the sea view was very nice. That’s about it. The hotel is in a very sad state. Our first room had no AC. After leaving it on for three hours, it had cooled to a balmy 30 degrees Celsius. The repair guy just told us to leave it on for a few days (of our 3 day stay). Despite the hotel being mostly empty, they were very reluctant to move rooms. Ultimately they did and the AC was adequate. The rest of the room, not so much Sheets were torn and threadbare. There were exposed wires to the outlet in the bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom, it seems the maintenance requests for the last 15 years May have gone missing. The tiles were filthy and moldy. The towel rack was dangling from the wall. Pretty awful. We were visiting during Ramadan, so food options were very limited in the city. Our lunch here was pretty awful. The buffet had all the canisters unlit and the food cold. My penne arribiata off the menu arrived as spaghetti with meat sauce and a shrug. You had a choice of coke or water - nothing else. The pool had not been cleaned in months and had no chairs. The guard told me that no one ever uses it. The worst part was the communication. They could give no recommendations for anywhere else to eat (“everything is closed during Ramadan”). Not true, we later found a very nice restaurant. We were also told that it was impossible to find a taxi after 7pm. We walked out the gate and within 30 seconds flagged one down. They seemed totally puzzled on where to get a Covid test even though it seems there is ONE place and it’s down the road. The answer to nearly every question was “it’s not possible” I set low expectations given the infrastructure but I think one could find better here