Hotel in zona La Maison du Cacao, Pointe-Noire

This hotel is fabulous. It is made up of individual studio apartments comprising of bedroom, decent sized bathroom with large powerful shower. They also each have a little covered patio area with a hob, microwave, fridge and coffee maker. We stayed in superior studio number 5, which was just up the slope from reception. There are some apartments further up the hill which I suspect had a sea view but we had lovely trees and plants around us so there was plenty to look at and listen to. As others have said, some of the walkways are really steep (as is lots of Basse-Terre) so it might be worth mentioning when booking if you have mobility issues. There is WiFi throughout the hotel and in your room. The air conditioning and fan a god send! We were booked on a bed and breakfast basis. Breakfast had everything you wanted, hot or cold, delicious fruit juices and fresh fruit every day. There are fresh mangoes everywhere! We booked a table and ate at the restaurant a couple of times. Fairly reasonable though I did struggle with vegetarian options - there was really only one. I found this in a lot of the restaurants in Deshaies actually, which was a little disappointing and repetitive. We didn’t use the pool, but it was meticulously cleaned every morning before opening. The gardens are fabulous and again maintained very well. We saw lots of lizards, humming birds, and the cats! I’m a cat lover so it was wonderful watching the kittens playing. They do all like to beg and you are discouraged from feeding them. Grande-Anse beach is a few minutes walk away. It is quite a steep shelf so on some days there was quite a wave for playing in - just something to be wary of if you have smaller children or not a strong swimmer. Most of the time it was flat calm. There are a couple of restaurants there. There was also a little takeaway booth next to Les Hibiscus that served bokits and fries and chicken, which was handy if you just wanted a snack. Most of these were closed in the evenings. We hired a car and travelled quite a lot of both sides of the island. I would recommend this. We visited Plage de la Perle beach (where the inspector’s shack is, if you are a Death in Paradise fan) and preferred this somewhat to Grande Anse. There were a few more restaurants open, and it was less crowded so more shade! The weather was very hot and quite humid at times with a couple of really heavy downpours. This in turn brought the mosquitoes out, and my husband and I were bitten quite badly, even with the bracelets and spray! We noticed lots of others nursing nasty bites too! Possibly the time of year. Take your plug ins if you have them! We didn’t and I regretted it. The hotel staff were very friendly and helpful. Helped to have a little French but their English was very good. They helped with our car hire and booking a boat trip. There is a young chap, unfortunately I didn’t get his name, whose English is very good - far better than my French. If you are Death in Paradise fans, s