Seychelles: reviews from our travellers

"We had a great trip but the 3/4 months leading up to it were stressful and we had diffiulties getting final details sorted needing to chase for updates. We appreciate that this is in part due to recovering from the difficulties caused to the travel industry by covid. I am not sure that the situation was helped by the fact that you are not keen to do flight inclusive holidays.

Tanzania was again a great experience, Be Ho Be Ho being the highlight but it was good to see the contrast between southern and northern Tanzania. Southern Tanzania being remote africa, northern being busy, plenty of townships and easy game viewing.

Seychelles, pleased we went but a one off experience, it lacks a distinct culture and just seems to be a series of holiday resorts but the highlight was Denis Island." Read full review: 31 nights in Africa; 16 on a Tanzania safari

"We nearly did not get our holiday at all. We were refused boarding at Heathrow.

Nowhere on the paperwork did it tell us that we had to complete the Travel Authorisation Republic of Seychelles on the internet and have our landing QR codes for immigration available BEFORE we flew.

This required .jpg files of our passports, our face pictures , our covid details and our accommodation and holiday plans. Just the type of things one has at the boarding gate.

After the first panic attack we found a quiet place and sat down with tablet and phones and filled in pages on line for the Seychelles authorities. An hour later and £140 pound the poorer and we had from the authorities two QR codes and completed authorised forms.

Thank goodness we travel with two tablets and two phones and most of our details are on one of the tablets.

We were not alone in not having the QR codes and being refused boarding that day and I wonder how many holidays were ruined." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 10 on a Seychelles holiday

"We had a great trip to Seychelles. This is our first overseas travel since Covid started. It was postponed from initially scheduled for December 2021 - thanks to Megan for contacting hotels and ground operators that makes it very smooth.

We enjoyed our stay at both accommodations in Mahe and Praslin and all the transfer logistics are very well organized. I felt our stay at Praslin was a little short and I wish we can have time to visit La Digue, hopefully we can revisit again.

We had 2 scary moments during this trip (no fault of Expert Africa). I got verbal abuse from the owner of Anse Soleil restaurant on a day we explored Mahe on our own. Apparently I parked my car at a place where they do not allow, he kept giving me verbal abuse even though I apologized and told him that we will leave immediately. Found out later on reviews and from Katerina (Le Sans Souci) experience with her family that this guy is very bad and may have mental problem.

The other scary moment was when our rental car got struck in the sand in the parking space near Anse Lazio. Luckily, the local people (3 of them) were so nice that they helped us for almost 30 minutes until we can get our car back on track.

Overall, we had a great trip and thanks to your excellent services and thoughtful advice and arrangement throughout." Read full review: 9 nights in Africa; 8 on a Seychelles holiday

"Our trip was fabulous from start to finish.

Extremely impressed with Expert Africa and the service we received from Lucy." Read full review: 27 nights in Africa; 11 on a Seychelles holiday

"We had the most amazing trip this summer for three key reasons:
1) Expert Africa,
2) Giving Back to Africa,
3) Enjoying the benefits of traveling during Covid.

First, Expert Africa, and in particular Maruska, helped us work through all the challenges that Covid 19 presented during planning. Our original trip was for 2020 so we had to deal with many flight changes and reworked our complicated itinerary several times. When planning for 2021 there were important details Maruska worked through for us regarding transitions between countries, all of which required covid testing and declaration documents etc. It was a little tricky because we were traveling to so many countries over just a couple of weeks, but with Expert Africa's help it all came together perfectly. Having Expert Africa people on the ground in each country understanding the situations and meeting us and smoothing the way at every step made it painless and very VIP. Everywhere we went in all countries the local people were very helpful and understanding.

Secondly, the locals who rely on tourism were so happy to see us that it made our trip that much more rewarding. We felt like we were giving back to them by supporting their important tourism industry all the while we got to experience a most amazing vacation.

And third, we were able to enjoy our sightseeing with limited other tourists which made it all absolutely exclusive and magical. Our transfers and flights were awesome because we had room to spread out. The number of guests at the hotels, lodges, safari camps was still low and again we were able to feel like we had the places nearly to ourselves which was very exclusive and lovely.

Everyone we came into contact with was vaccinated, as it is a regulation of the travel and tourism industry and so we were very safe from Covid and never worried.

This was an amazing trip two years in the planning and so we had very very high expectations that were not in any way dampened by covid details - in fact, we benefited by traveling now when we did. Our trip far exceeded our expectations." Read full review: 30 nights in Africa; 5 on a Seychelles holiday

"Chris and Megan brilliant as ever." Read full review: 4 nights in Africa; 4 on a Seychelles holiday

"First and foremost we enjoyed our trip immensely and have no regrets about having gone to The Seychelles.

The comments we have made above are therefore intended to be constructive. We did however feel that, like so many other places, we were visiting about 30 years too late and that what we really wanted to see, like the wildlife, peaceful places and the real Seychelles, had been overtaken by events, tourists and tourist facilities. We are not beach people. Knowing what we know now, we would have revised our itinerary somewhat. But for the poor food, we could have stayed on Bird Island for at least one more night but would definitely have added two days to the Coco de Mer on Praslin. We would however have excluded any nights on La Digue and just covered that island by a day trip from Praslin and a taxi tour.

Mason's Travel had made all our local arrangements and these generally went well and efficiently as did the local trips we booked through the good island representatives. The one hiccough was caused by our delayed Bird Island to Mahe to Praslin flights. We were supported well at Mahe Airport but no message from there to Praslin with our revised details seemed to have got through and we, a French family and a French group were kept waiting at the Mason's desk for some time until staff eventually arrived and transportation or hired cars were sorted out. The staff member at the Praslin Jetty could also have been more helpful and friendly on our last day on that island. Trips to Aride did not seem to be operating while those to Cousin were heavily booked. We did not attempt to go because of my mobility problems, the number of noisy participants, and a major mosquito presence. Chris had already reacted badly to sandfly bites on Bird Island and we didn't want a further similar occurrence. We made quite detailed lists of the wildlife we did see and those I shall send separately to Lucy soon.


Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None. I shall use Expert Africa again." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Seychelles holiday

"We had a really superb honeymoon.

Every flight, connection, transfer, car hire and hotel was planned with our requirements in mind in a totally seamless manner. The recommendations of what to do and see and how to get about were spot on.

Thank you very much Lucy at Expert Africa for such superb personal recommendations which really made the difference.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

I really can't find fault with anything at all and look forward to travelling with you again.

We read about you in the Daily Telegraph and look forward to using you again next year." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 10 on a South Africa trip

"Overall we had a great time.

All the connections worked well.

All the accommodation was good, apart from the few details we have mentioned in the report" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 8 on a Seychelles holiday

"More than pleased that we returned to the Seychelles

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really just keep up the good work and thanks." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Seychelles holiday