We just returned last night from a week at Le Diwali. It's a lovely little hotel right on the beach. Truly "right on the beach", and just a minute's walk from many cafes.

The common areas are so lovely that initially I was a touch disappointed with the room itself. I would recommend getting one of the "deluxe" rooms if you can swing it, but you likely won't spend much time in the room anyway, no? The rooms are small, but clean and pleasant. The deluxe rooms face the beach, ours faced a lot of trees bordering the tennis court of the neighboring condo building. Could be worse.

Breakfast, which is included, was simple but lovely (croissant, fruit, coffee). The staff were very friendly and accommodating, and other guests did what they could to help us along with our french (which is middle-school level in my case and non existant in my husband's). The website advertised a restaurant, but when we were there it wasn't operational, other than the continental breakfast. Supposedly, it's starting up in mid-January '07, but don't count on it and you won't be disappointed. You don't need it anyway, there are so many fun places to eat within a few minutes.

From a details standpoint, they could use some training (one of the light fixtures in the bathroom was missing, they don't replace the shampoo and soap, the door to the bathroom was hard to close, breakfast coffee sometimes cold). If you get hung up on those kind of things, well, frankly, Guadeloupe as a whole is not your kind of place. But the hotel is lovely, and what few shortcomings it has are more than compensated for by its many strengths.