Ok, maybe I am partly to blame on my experience at Le Relax Hotel. It was advertised as a 2 Star Resort. The pictures of the establishment on expedia were good enough for me to book this hotel "stress free". I thought my 5 day experience at the hotel would be a pleasant and relaxing one. People may think that it was just a one off experience that I had which always happens to someone somewhere; therefore I would like to critique the “Le Relax” Resort completely by offering my fellow travellers with an in depth insight:

1. The night we arrived, we were greeted in a beautiful cabin-type reception room, which was air conditioned very well. When we were taken to our room, it was fully apparent that my room’s air conditioning was not up to par, further to dull the moment, there were various ants around the room, bathroom sink and bath-shower cubicle, and to top it all off in the ice bucket. I had conveyed to the on-site subordinate of the manager that this accommodation was unacceptable and that we should be moved immediately to another room. They moved us from Room 5 to Room 10, where the air conditioning was somewhat better, meaning the remote control was workable and the unit responded to my commands. There were not any signs of ants in the bathroom and/or the ice bucket.

2. The cleanliness of the resort; is nothing to write home about, especially the jobs done by the hired chamber maids at the resort, whom on one occasion left there cleaning products in the bathroom bidet, when we came back to our room and discovered them at 7pm. And on 3 other occasions our room was not cleaned, even though we had put out the sign to ask the room to be cleaned.

3. The restaurant; in the hotel is unique, definitely could be on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. And for the obvious reasons. (a) The Menu is far too extensive, they are trying to do too many things either averagely or badly, instead of concentrating on doing a few things brilliantly, (b) there is only one cook, hence he has to prepare everything himself and has not got any extra pairs of hands to do any preparation, if everyone orders something different from the menu, and if he is the only guy there, he is totally thrown in the deep end. (c) The waiting staff is atrocious, this is specifically directed at the waitress and not the bartender who offers his services to her when he is free, because she is to a point rude, when ordering she has shown me her out starched palm, to convey to stop talking and has refused to alter my omelette specifications, by adding onions and chillies instead of serving me a plain omelette. (d) Mosquitoes are everywhere there, and when we asked for the fans to be turned on, it wasn’t done so and finally (e) The decor could also be touched up a bit; while during our stay on the island, we visited the Capricorn Restaurant in the North, which is beautifully decorated and the chef is amazing to cater to our specific dietary requirements, (f) The Local lizard “Gekko” is everywhere in the Le Relax restaurant.

4. The Manager, we found to be rude, he didn’t seem receptive of any of our concerns on the above matters, and when we were trying to organise a taxi cab for our departure, he was less than helpful.

5. The Location of the hotel, is less than ideal, in fact it is horrible. However there is a mini mart nearby, which is a 10 to 15 minute walk and banking facilities are a step away from the mini mart, with Barclays Branch open from 8:30 to 14:30.

6. The fridge of the room, doesn’t keep anything cold, and has a strange smell.

7. Television services, there is a TV with 12 channels, however it depends on its mood when the channel wants to show any pictures.

8. There is a beach adjacent to the property, however it’s not a spectacular sight, people are usually fishing on this side of the island.

9. I can go on and on, and on and on. But you guys get the picture. I only eventually chose this hotel because my first choice was all booked up, which was Beach Villa. If I had to recommend something about Praslin Island, I would recommend that you do not go there to stay at all, and just have an excursion from Mahe Island to Praslin, it is better in many many many many many ways.