Mantis St Helena

We spent three weeks on St Helena from July to August 2023. We can highly recommend this hotel for their excellent breakfast, lunch and dinner choices. As we were staying in Jamestown in self catering, the Mantis became our go to place for an early morning breakfast and a late night cocktail. The hotel also offers an excellent choice of cake to go with an afternoon tea or coffee. Visitors have to consider that the island is in a remote location and supplies arrive by ship infrequently. But the Mantis Hotel is making the best use of what is available and offering excellent choices based on exactly that. Go with an open mind - you won’t be disappointed. Portion sizes are large and great value for money. All the management and staff are friendly and helpful and the service was impeccable

We booked the Mantis for 2021, rescheduled for 2022 and finally made it, post Covid, in 2024! It was definitely worth waiting for - a fabulous week’s stay. We reserved one of the heritage rooms (#3) which is super: spacious, high ceiling, nice sofa and chairs, large comfortable bed, big safe for camera equipment and a good selection of sports channels on the tv. I thoroughly enjoyed all the premier league matches I subjected my wife to! The bathroom is also spacious with a fine walk-in shower. The room overlooks the Castle Gardens. Well worth the extra cost. The hotel itself is superbly situated and the presentation and decor of a high standard. We enjoyed the bar and restaurant. The regular menu is supplemented by daily specials, some great fish and we were lucky - lobster on our last night. The food was very good. Nice service too. We enjoyed the breakfasts - the hot food is buffet. And that brings me to the staff. Just like the people make the island special, so too in the hotel. Mr Itayi on reception gave us a very warm welcome and was helpful and fun all week. We had great service also from Junaid, Juliet, Jingle and Shadie and others whose names I can’t recall. Some of our favourite hotels on our travels have been those where the manager is visible and chats to his or her customers. That’s certainly the case here with Ian. A well run ship! So this is a lovely hotel on an awesome island. Go there and enjoy!

Friendly and kind hospitality like nowhere else in the world! This team is an absolutely gem who will transform a standard vacation into a stay with ‘family.’ Zunaid, Bob, Cynthia, Itayi and Hotel Manager Ian are so very welcoming and have such exceptional hospitality that a stay at Mantis feel like being home. They really exceed expectations in order to tailor your stay to your desire. The Heritage Room is huge, tastefully decorated and yet still cosy. The view of the gardens was beautiful and windows can be opened to enjoy fully. Perfect location downtown and close to the waterfront, and the restaurant serves a great selection of food – the breakfast buffet / a la carte is extensive too!

This was my second stay and it was another excellent one. The hotel is conveniently located in Jamestown. Rooms are nicely decorated with air conditioning - vital when it’s so warm! Ian and his team couldn’t have been more helpful and made us feel more welcome throughout both of our stays. We will definitely be back again

The ideal place to stay in Jamestown. Our room (No.2) was large with an excellent bathroom (walk-in shower!) and a comfortable bed. We ate well and the staff could not have been more accommodating. The location is excellent. If we return, we wouldn't consider staying anywhere else.

Great location in town. Comfortable hotel in a historical building. Wonderful staff who are so friendly. Don't expect the facilities that you would find on the continent and remember that you are in a remote place in the middle of nowhere. Great experience and definitely worth going and staying in this hotel.

As we live on St Helena we were able to take advantage of the ‘Staycation’ deal to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Although we have stayed at the Mantis several times before this experience surpassed past experiences. It felt like the boat had really been pushed out to help us celebrate in style. All of the staff are friendly and professional and we were looked after very well. The fried breakfast was freshly prepared unlike previous occasions where there was buffet service so it tasted really good. We stayed on a Sunday night, had some time at the Jamestown swimming pool in the afternoon and woke up to the sounds of Jamestown waking up on a Monday morning. Firstly the starlings wake up and create a racket in the banyan trees in the park. They go quiet and a little later the refuse collectors tidy up town, then they leave and it all goes quiet. The gardeners appear in the castle gardens so some conversations commence. Then staff who drive themselves to work appear and the activity level increases to a crescendo as the home to duty busses appear, discharge their passengers and then disappear. At 8:30 the streets are deserted with staff sat at their desks and all is quiet again until the shop staff arrive and the shops open. It is also worth mentioning the Friday evening deal, live music in a relaxed atmosphere, cheap drinks and basket food which we enjoyed a few times over the last few weeks. Since the Mantis Hotel opened after the pandemic closure it has taken a while for the new team to move through the forming, storming, norming phases of team development but for sure they are now performing. Credit to Ian and Zunaid for directing the team which is now giving guests the excellent level of service they desire. Thanks for a great stay, Barry & Gonny