Seychelles: reviews from our travellers

"The above rating would have been Very Satisfactory had it not been for the poor performance of Air Seychelles. Expert Africa (Lucy) was very helpful and efficient and the organisation of our trip was excellent.

I would not, however, recommend the Hotel l'Ocean. For your information, one of the other tour operators from whom we also secured a quote and with whom we had some discussion, did not recommend this hotel and suggested as alternatives Patatran Village and Le Domaine which were only marginally more expensive.

The advice on the choice of Islands and the duration of stay on each one was excellent." Read full review: 10 nights in Africa; 3 on a Seychelles holiday

"As mentioned previously, some requests to Mason's Travel didn't get implimented - their internal communication leaves a lot to be desired.

The Seychelles are a dream destination, although the romantic this or the romantic that does get a wee bit overpowering at times.

There are some visitors who go for the exceptional birds and other wildlife, as well as the snorkelling etc. and the Seychelles fully lived up to those expectations.

The suggestions made by Lucy Copson on choice of island to visit and where to stay were spot on." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 10 on a Seychelles holiday

"Lovely holiday, beautiful place, friendly islanders

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

On the whole everything went well and we really enjoyed our holiday thank you" Read full review: 13 nights in Africa; 6 on a Seychelles holiday

"We really enjoyed the overall experience was were sorry we did not book a longer stay.

The Seychelles is definitely a location we would consider for a return visit.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really - all the transfers and pick-ups were handled efficiently and with courtesy." Read full review: 5 nights in Africa; 5 on a Seychelles holiday

"We were very lucky as it was a fantastic holiday but had we taken other options it would have been less so. Praslin was perfect for a beach holiday and Anse Volbert absolutely ideal. Beware advice to stay in the "best" beaches like Anse Lazio -this just means they'll be lots of people there - better for a day trip.

Beware the government overcharges for everything. Euro 20 per person over 12 to visit the Coco de Mer - ditto to visit the marine park, ditto the ferry to La Digue. As a direct result we skipped the last of these but those we did-including snorkelling at St Pierre was very worthwhile.

Mahe was great as we did it but we couldn't see that any hotel was worth staying at. The famous beach Beau Vallon has too many hotels and is popular with the locals-fine for a day but otherwise go to any good beach in Europe at much less cost. The west coast is gorgeous but the water too rough for anything other than diving into the waves - again not good for a week.The east coast has that dreadful ribbon development all along its length except for the very south-but take sandwiches.You'd feel robbed if you stayed at any hotel for a week.

Bear in mind that Mahe attracts clouds - it won't be sunny all the time.

Bird Island was unbelievable - if we went back we would return there and go to some of the other smaller islands.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The Bradt guide was out of date or misleading we felt.Look at the descriptions of Beau Vallon and Anse Volbert.Wrong way round but thank goodness perhaps.Casuarina Beach burnt down 3 years before and the beach can never have been great.
It failed to explain properly the varying conditions depending on the time of year.

[ Ed: We'd like to make it very clear here that Expert Africa's Chris McIntyre had absolutely nothing to do with the Bradt guide to the Seychelles. Chris is responsible for his own guides to Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zanzibar ... but has never had any input into the Seychelles guide. ]" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 7 on a Seychelles holiday

"Good trip, mostly as expected.

Irritations were mainly caused by Masons, they seem to consider a whole day for whatever transfer is reasonable, it could be arranged more tightly and efficiently.

Also they seem strangley unaware of local timetables booking us on a non-existent ferry crossing, but at least they tracked us down to tell us.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The info on Bird island could be better, we got all the messages about very little luggage and complied, messing around to store luggage and then annoying Bird Island by turning up to diner in shorts.

Other people just went out there with 20 KG+ each." Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 7 on a Seychelles holiday