"a dream come true..." a Seychelles Travel Page by islandgirlB

Our dream trip to the Seychelles!! We left San Francisco on June 15 on Virgin Atlantic. We had a 10-hour layover in London. We spent the time going to Central London, and touring the city on the Big Bus (hop on and off). We got our connecting Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi, then finally on June 17, landed in Mahé, Seychelles, the largest of the islands.

Mahé-4 nights
Accommodations: We stayed at Panorama Guesthouse in Beau Vallon. A great location. Beau Vallon beach was right across the street and we were near restaurants and the internet café. Panorama was about 100 USD or 85 Euro per night. That included a nice breakfast buffet (toast and jams, fruit, tea/coffee) and eggs made to order. Panorama has only 10 rooms. It is located on the bus line.
Food: We’re vegetarians…so it’s always a little tricky. We ate at Baobab Pizzeria, Mahek Indian, Uncle Will’s, and the Creole buffet at The Boathouse (the best). While in Victoria we ate at Sam’s Pizzeria (overpriced, but good).
Money: We traded on the black market (at the Internet café at the video store) and got 10 rupees to 1 USD. The banks were offering about 6:1. We had to be careful to not get too much rupee, since most establishments require foreign exchange (Euro or dollar-FOREX-Foreign exchange).
Sites: Tea Factory, Morne Seychellois National park, Victoria town, and the south and west coasts of the island.
Highlights: We used the local buses to get back and forth from Victoria (the capital) and to the Tea Factory. The buses go everywhere and are quite easy to use with a schedule and a map (which we got from the bus office at the main terminal). The buses only cost 3 rupees per ride or you can get a “smart card” for 6 rupees for the whole day, regardless oh how many times you board. We met the best taxi driver ever. Ask for Jimmy at the airport. We just happened to get him, and he turned out to be very reliable, we used him a few times back and forth to the airport and on the ride around the south and west coast.

Praslin-5 nights . Flew from Mahé. Praslin is known for it’s beaches.
Accommodations: We stayed at Rosemary’s Guesthouse in Cote d’Or. A great location at the beach. It was about 95 Euro per night. That included a basic continental breakfast (toast and jam, fruit, tea/coffee).
Food: Les Laurier Creole buffet was the top of our list for dinner!! We also ate lunch at Berjaya Beach Resort café (it was okay for pizzas and fries).
Money: We didn’t need anymore rupees since we had traded in Mahé. At the restaurants we either HAD to pay in FOREX, Visa, or rupee
Sites: No Americans…we were it. Anse Lazio, Valle De Mai, the offshore islands
Highlights: Walking the beach at Cote d’Or, diving with Octopus Dive Shop, going to Anse Lazio---a most beautiful beach. A hike through Valle de Mai. We also used the bus to get around the island. We only used a taxi to/from airport and ferry quay (due to luggage).

La Digue-4 nights. Ferried from Praslin. La Digue is magical.
Accommodations: We stayed at La Passe Guesthouse also known as Chez Mary-Anne. Close to town…but then again, everything in La Passe is close to town. La Passe Guesthouse was about 100 USD per night. That included a very good breakfast (pastries and jam, fruit, tea/coffee) eggs to order AND dinner. Mary-Anne is an awesome cook.
Food: Only needed lunch. We ate at Gregoire’s Pizzeria. The best pizza we had in all of Mahé. They were the only pizzeria to use Mozzarella instead of cheddar. The pasta was yummy. Had fries at Hotel L’Ocean restaurant. The view was worth it.
Money: Pretty much the same. If we needed rupee, we would pay in USD, and then get change in rupee.
Sites: No Americans…we were it. Beaches, granite, turtles, almost all of La Digue island
Highlights: Riding bikes to wherever we wanted to go. Anse Coco-got lost, watch for the signs painted on the rocks. Anse Source d’Argent---the most spectacular beach ever. The area around Patatran Village was amazing. I would stay there if I ever went back.

Mahé-1 night
Carefree Guesthouse. Great location near airport for last night, wonderful staff, not so great accommodations. $100 USD with basic breakfast.

To do all over: fly a better class of service. It was a really long journey (22 flight hours each way, plus about 14 hours of layover time each way, and two nights no sleep on tight, crowded planes). I loved the destination. The geography was unique and beautiful. The culture new and different. From the U.S., especially the west coast, I might recommend the South Pacific. It is as stunning, but in a different way. From Europe, the Seychelles should be a no brainer. We heard some amazing airfares that were being offered. We paid $2350 per ticket to get to the Seychelles from California!!

Tip: Check things out, don’t assume things are working, open, and available. For instance, while walking in Victoria, we thought we would go make our reservation for Cat Cocos to take us from Mahé to Praslin, and were informed that the ferry wasn’t working. We ended up making an Air Seychelles reservation instead.

Here’s a link to our pictures:

go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithandbarbara and first choose an album relative to the island or click "View as slideshow" to run through the photos. (While viewing the slideshow, mouse-over the image and click on the "i" to display information about the photo.)

Please let me know if you’d like any more specific information!

IslandgirlB