The Seychelles... A Myth to Debunk

THE SEYCHELLES......A MYTH TO DEBUNK

We got back from our honeymoon on 07/08/04 after spending 6 nights on Mahé at the Coco D'Or, 5 nights at La Digue Lodge, and 7 nights at the Paradise Sun on Praslin. We chose Turisanda because it was recommended by our agency as it was supposed to be a very serious and reliable tour operator; our experience doesn't show that at all. We wanted our honeymoon to be truly unforgettable, and in some ways it certainly was...... but only in a bad way. The sum spent (8,000.00 euros) — we ask ourselves what it was for. We found a very rough sea full of seaweed, very different from the one photographed in the brochures. The hotels were, to put it mildly, disappointing. The only beach that truly deserved it was Anse Lazio on Praslin, where we spent the last 5 days, and luckily I came home with the memory of this last place in my eyes.....

but to anyone who asks my opinion of the Seychelles I say change destination.... the Maldives or the Caribbean are a thousand times better. Fair enough, there will always be someone who wants to have the experience, and so I feel I should advise with all my heart not to book from Italy through tour operators but to go it alone. That way you save a lot and at least, if you don't like a place, you're free to change without losing a fortune. The best time to go is April and October, or at least that's what the locals assured us. These were our hotels and our impressions: On Mahé at the Coco D'Or there was a buffet that looked more like a canteen with little choice than a hotel restaurant. We were near the very large Beau Vallon beach, nice but with a rough sea full of plankton.

Then they recommended Anse Major and, after an hour of trekking, we found ourselves on a "black" beach stained with fuel oil, on Mahé we hired a car to get around it, but of all the places we visited there wasn't a single beach I liked. On La Digue we found a rough, seaweed-filled sea, but at least the Lodge was the nicest place we stayed, where the cleanliness, the courtesy of the staff and the food were impeccable. Bad luck had it that when we went to Anse Source D'Argent, the famous beach where the Bilboa advert was filmed, there was a crazy wind and it was impossible to stay on the beach, because you couldn't speak without swallowing sand too. The photos came out fine but the memory isn't quite as good.

The low point, though, we found at the PARADISE SUN, where we really asked ourselves how they can sell this place for gold, given that the cleanliness, the rudeness of the staff and the food reached the highest levels. We understand that geckos are part of the surrounding nature, that spiders live in the greenery and, since there are no window panes, they come in undisturbed, but finding cockroaches walking around the room, the mice or rather the rats (given the size), lording it on the veranda, and worms in the tea-time cakes.....we believe all this has very little to do with nature, but a lot to do with the cleanliness of the place. In 7 nights I managed to get the sheets changed only when I personally stripped them off the bed, otherwise they would never have changed them.

We paid a supplement for the best room and it turned out to be the worst, because, being the closest to the sea, they should also have provided a gas mask to be able to sleep without being nauseated by the smell of the mucilage that completely invaded the whole beach in front. And last but not least, all the smells of the kitchen, which was just a few metres away, drifted in too.... The beach was literally invaded by seaweed, as you can see in the attached photos. Sincerely, for me paradise is quite another thing; I've been to the Maldives, I've visited quite a few islands in the Caribbean (Cuba, Santo Domingo, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Tortola....) but of all the trips I've made, this was truly the worst. And it was our HONEYMOON!!!!!!