I like Seychelles, Beau Vallon is a nice beach where u can swim and do other sports, but this hotel is extremely large and I prefer smaller and less crowded hotels. It is clean, there are giant turtles in the back yard and it is funny to watch them. It is close to Victoria and in the evening it looks very nice. Main guests are Russians, and many of them spend their time in the hotel, restaurant and near the pool. I spent only the breakfast time and nights there, because Seychelles is a place to walk around and there are a lot of interesting stuff instead of staying in a hotel. It is ok, but nothing special. On Seychelles there isn't a fancy hotel where everything is perfect. Get used to that. I don't even know if Hilton and other 5 star expensive hotels are that fancy . The breakfast is amazing and there is a lot to eat, everything fresh and tasty. Take some of 1 day excursions to visit some other islands.

We stayed at The Coral Strand hotel on the recomendation of a friend, and were not too badly disapointed. The position is really quite perfect, the beach is wonderful and the ease of getting into town is simple. Although the hotel is rather tired, and could do with some smartening up, we still had a good time. The only down side was one evening, when there was a fashion show at the hotel and the models were using the room next to ours to change, constantly slamming the door! As we were getting up at 4am the next morning for our flight, it was a bit annoying! The restuarant is good, if limited, and the beach bar is a really super meeting place in the evenings. We understand that renovations are under way at the hotel, and that will make things even better, we would really like to return one day!

The Coral Strand is closed and being "renovated". During our attempt to try and revisit the restaurant we were able to see that the interior has been gutted and work is going on. Competitor hotel proprietor said that since it was taken over by a Russian company a while ago, the service and facilities had taken a dive, even the menus were in Russian. Rumoured that another Russian company has taken over and is carrying out a long overdure revamp...it is after all one of the oldest hotels in Mahe and had been consistantly popular mainly because of it's location on one of Mahe's finest beaches. Worryingly, it's website makes no mention as of today's date (23.8.11) of any work going on and seems to invite bookings. Let's hope it will return as a choice destination.

Hotel is not too bad, it does need to be revamped as the rooms are not as modern.
Right on the beach, with waves almost hitting the wall of the dining area.
We had organised airport transfers to the hotel in advance, so getting there was easy. Our room was on the 3rd floor, there is an elevator from the ground floor to the 2nd and then a staircase. Walking up the stairs with a heavy suitcase was not fun, but the hotel butlers helped.
Seychelles is quite hot and humid so it is important that the aircondition in the room works. We had to change rooms as ours stopped working, but the hotel was very helpful and acted very quickly to move us.
The food is not too bad at the hotels dining area. There is also an AMAZING Indian Restuarant within the hotel. We ended up having our dinners there most of the nights.
Internet is not free and the town is quite expensive as everything is quoted in Euros.
We organised a local driver through the hotel that drove us around the town the whole day and we pretty much covered most of the island. The island has some stunning beach & sea food restuarant gems.
We also did a few island hopping tours and snorkelling on the amazing coral reefs onthe surrounding islands.