VOI Andilana Beach Resort

Location: The resort boasts a stunning location by beautiful beaches and offers a wide array of activities and excursions, making it ideal for relaxation and adventure.

The resort was beautiful. The beach, the pool were fantastic and the rooms were good. They offered some good excursions and the kids club team were great with our daughter. On the negative side, Andilana Beach Resort targets a very specific demographic, Italians. This should have been highlighted as everything was in Italian, including all the entertainment, which limited our enjoyment. The language barrier was also a bit of a challenge, as we spoke very little Italian and most of the staff spoke limited English. The food was also specific to the demographic with more pasta and pizza on offer than we could handle. There were a few other options, but the quality was average. The resort could benefit from incorporating more local cuisine more regularly. We did get local options on the excursions, which was really good. Overall, the resort was great, the staff were great, but we struggled with the fact that everything was in Italian, which we did not expect from a French speaking territory.

Overall: A mixed bag. Recommended for Italian package tourists. Otherwise, I'd say go to a different resort - it will probably be equally as nice and you'll save loads of money. Positives: - Amazing location, beautiful beaches and sunsets, superb pool, stunning grounds - Tasty food and great pizza - Malagasy staff all super friendly (especially when you learn a couple of words to say in the local language!) - On-site doctor incredibly handy if you get ill Negatives: - Extremely expensive, especially for Madagascar - Entirely geared towards Italians on package holidays. They arrive en masse, followed by lorry-loads full of suitcases. I don't think a single person there apart from us wasn't Italian. Very weird, feels like you are in some mass-manufactured Italians-only mega-resort. Italian music, Italian announcements, etc. - The overall vibe is that of a cheesy European resort placed in a luxury location. E.g. cheesy shows by the animation team each night in the theatre (in Italian only), or the dance they do on the beach 5x a day everyday (to blaring Italian music). - Bird kept in a tiny cage in the small zoo area, sad to see an animal like that not be able to fly around. - I got food poisoning, not that it's the hotels fault as I get it can be caused by anything! But just weird that I was fine all week previously eating in much cheaper restaurants around the island, then get food poisoning after coming here - It says it's all inclusive but you have to pay for any bottled water that you want outside of lunch or dinner - Some staff e.g. security near the entrance were pretty rude