The negative reviews of the Hotel Mont Vernon on TripAdvisor.com are at complete odds with my experiences from visits in 2002, 2003, and 2004, so I thought I’d put my two cents in. This is a budget hotel that mostly caters to package tours, so it is unrealistic to expect a lavish resort whose staff anticipates your every desire (we paid $850 per person per week for hotel AND air with breakfast included). What you are paying for is a three-1/2 star hotel in the European sense. About all you can expect is a clean, comfortable room and any “extras” come as pleasant surprises. By this standard, the hotel gives very good value for the money.

The rooms. These are spacious, with a seating area and balcony, just as shown on the hotel Web site at http://www.mont-vernon.com/anglais/pages/gb/hotel/index.html. They are very quiet--I’ve never heard neighbor noise. On all of my visits, the air conditioner, TV, and mini-fridge have worked just fine, as did the toilet and shower (no bathtubs here). The tile floors are washed daily. The “king” beds are actually two twins pushed together, as is almost always the case in European hotels. The TV service is adequate, with ESPN, CNN, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Disney in English, and Tempo in French. I didn’t notice any bugs other than the ones you’d expect to find in an open-air environment where the door-walls to the balcony don’t have any screens (i.e. a few small flying bugs and mosquitoes).

The food: The breakfast buffet is better than many U.S. hotels. In addition to the standard hot items--scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and pancakes, there is a made to order egg station. You’ll also find cold cereal, fruit, yogurt, cheese and ham. Best of all is the great French coffee and pastries (croissant, brioche, etc.). Lunch and dinner are served buffet style, and didn’t look very appetizing. Only the people who choose the all-inclusive plan eat these, and it’s a bad choice. If you are looking for an all-inclusive resort, you should pick another island. On an island that is famed for its many fine restaurants, however, it is crazy to confine yourself to bad hotel food. Still, the many guests from France managed to choke it down without revolt, so it couldn’t be too horrible.

The staff: This hotel has a pretty small staff for its 400 rooms, so if you go at a busy time you’re liable to find them overextended and frazzled. In the first week of February, however, I found them very accommodating. It took only a few minutes to check in, and I was upgraded to an ocean view room, with a complimentary bottle of flavored rum from the management. The front desk was helpful in making phone calls for me, such as letting the car rental know that my return flight was delayed. While I didn’t find the staff rude, they are French speaking, which many Americans think are the same thing. Most speak fair English but know only the basics, so if they don’t understand your fast, colloquial speech they can get a bit frustrated. If you smile and work with them (instead of saying the same thing louder and slower) you should get results. Otherwise, prepare for the same “rude” treatment that Americans receive the world over when they expect everybody to speak their language perfectly, and are POed when they don’t.

Activities: The hotel has a fairly nice beach at the unsheltered north end of Orient Beach where you’ll find some wave action (and seaweed that isn’t swept each day). Despite reports of hostility to nudists, I saw three or four hotel guests sunning in the altogether each day, receiving no flack whatever. The hotel provides chair mats, sea kayaks, snorkel gear, and body boards for free. It also has one of the nicest pools on the island. The walk from the hotel to the beach is hilly, with a certain amount of stairs, but don’t knock it—it may provide the only exercise you get while on vacation. If you’re looking for a lively bar and great entertainment, this isn’t the place for you. Evening entertainments are in French and are laughably bad. I’ve never seen many people hanging around the bar, whooping it up.

Maintenance: The place has an air of negligence about it, but no worse than in previous years. The wicker dressers in the rooms are warped from the sea air, and drawers don’t open smoothly. There are lots of white-painted steel surfaces that are showing patches of rust, such as the couch frames in the rooms, and the supports for the shade canopies at the beach. Some stain has worn off of exterior wood surfaces. Still, I was surprised to find that the courtyard where breakfast is served had new wood tables and chairs this year.

In summary, all you can expect here is a clean, comfortable place to sleep in a great location. If you understand that you are on your own for food, drink and entertainment (and prefer it that way) then you’ll have a fine time. If you want luxury, spend another $1,000 per week and book a more deluxe hotel, or spend another $2,000 a week and rent a villa. Of course, if you could afford that easily, you wouldn’t be considering the Mont Vernon, would you?