PhilC

[QUOTE=PhilC;9029451]To answer my own question, we ended up exchanging on the street and got 10 rupees to 1 dollar. We used rupees at small restaurants outside the hotel, shops and the market in Victoria. Everything else we paid for with a credit card, so we didn't need euros.

Jobless_In_Seattle

We just stayed at the Hilton Seychelles 3/9-3/16. As a Diamond, I received a lot of perks (beachfront villa upgrade, complimentary drink for myself and wife, champaign bath experience, couples massage, traditional tea service, and a complimentary photo).

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience at the hotel. It was quiet, secluded, and the staff was top-notch. We only ate at the main restaurant once (Asian night), it was good, but on the expensive side.

I would recommend only using euros while on the island, if you can't use a credit card. The majority of the businesses (stores and restaurants) prefer euors. Although in some cases, we found that they treated euros and dollors equally (on La Digue).

The only time that I used rupees was for the local thrill ride: public transportation. For 3 rupees, you can experience a ride that you would only find at traveling carnivals. Easy to get to Victoria.

For what it's worth, this was a vacation of a lifetime primarily because of the experiences at the Hilton.

PhilC

I received 2 comp drinks, 1/2 off sunset cruise, bottle of wine, photo and 2 hats but no champagne bath, massage, tea or upgrade. Based on previous comments, I didn't expect an upgrade but all of the villas are nice anyway.

I thought the dinner buffet was a poor value. We ate at the a la carte restaurant for about the same cost and thought the food was much better. The breakfast buffet is good though and the service is great.

Jobless_In_Seattle

I didn't expect anything, and was pleasantly surprised with the upgrade and all other perks.

The complimentary breakfast was also much appreciated.

We went to this hotel with no expectations and were completely blown away.

timo469

I just got back after a 6 night award stay at the Hilton seychelles. I booked when they had a glitch in the system and allowed you to book ocean front villas on points. They have a book of vouchers for staying in an ocean front villa for 5 nights or more. So I got the same vouchers as the previous poster. I got a 1 hour couples massage, champagne bath service, tea ceremony, picture frame, and free drinks.

The villas are great. The breakfast at the hotel (free for me) was great. On arrival we had a great bowl of fruit and a bottle of wine. We had hats and a golf shirt in the room when we got there, which was a nice touch. The SPA has great services, the couples massage was very nice, and my wife for a facial and pedicure which were both very good. You want to book early to get the times you want, the SPA was full for a couple days during our stay.

We did the Pralain / La Digue tour, and thought it was not the best tour. Very rushed etc. We met another couple that preferred the 3 island tour. I would not do many tours as they are very tiring, start early and are very rushed.

We did some scuba diving with the place recommended by the hotel (Blue Sea Divers I think). They were very nice and professional, but took us to a place right next to the hotel, so we saw the same fish when snorkeling by the hotel, so it was a little disappointing.

We had a couple issues (breakfast coming after we left for an excursions (30 minutes late) and the hotel sending me to a restaurant that was closed. Each time I had an issue like this I mentioned it to the manager, and was given a free dinner. I ate at the fine dining restaurant and the buffet restaurant. The fine dining seemed to be a better value as it was better food.

I had a taxi that was very nice and charged the correct fare. He organizes tours of the Island and was reliable when I booked him.

His name is Didier Dugasse. His telephone number is 713 386. You can e-mail him at didugasse @ yahoo. com

Overall my wife and I had a great stay. the only thing that was mising was a nice beach, so the next trip will be to the maldives.

My tips will be the following:

DO:

- do SPA treatments
- Have fish and chips at the bar and other items (very reasonable)
- Do snorkeling by hotel
- Use lots of sun screen
- Eat once at Cocotiers
- Go to Indian store near by for soda / snacks (3 minute walk from hotel) they exchange euros for 15 to 1 when purchasing goods
- Negociate taxi fares before going
- Go to Management Cocktail (wine and good appetizers)

DONT:

- Go on Pralain / La Digue tour
- Plan a good deal of time in Victoria (it is very small and only worth an hour or so)
- Do an organized Mahe tour, you can book a private tour with a taxi driver for around the same price.


I would strongly recommend going to the Hilton Seychelles for a wonderful getaway. If anyone has any questions, please send me a PM and I would be happy to help.

Cheers,

Timo

WelshGirl

Just returned from a fabulous 7 night reward stay. We were upgraded to an oceanview room. We had free sunhats, 2 free cocktails, 2 welcome massages and a 2 for 1 offer for the champagne sunset cruise which was excellent. We also had a late checkout which meant that we basically had an extra day to enjoy the facilities. The room was excellent and the views were incredible. Food was excellent at breakfast and in the bar. The fishfingers and sandwiches would easily serve 2 people for lunch. Two dinners at Les Cocotiers were superb.
The staff were very helpful and keen to hear our views at the weekly management liaison party.
The pool was fabulous and the sea temperature was incredible. The snorkelling expedition which was free was very enjoyable.
The island could be toured in a day and the whole holiday was excellent. A really good use of reward points!

PhilC

Mmm... those fish and chips came with a really good curry sauce.

Football Fan

Thanks for the report, this all sounded great - only thing that doesn't is that - there aren't any nice beaches near the hotel? I thought the Seychelles also had nice beaches (never been there)?

Bondiboy

There are lots of beaches, but they are all postage stamp size. The biggest beach at the Hilton (and there are at least 7 of them) in about 15m long and 3-4 m wide. For me, they were wonderful.

timo469

There is nothing wrong with the beaches at the Hilton, my wife just wants to try a place that is basically only a beach. During my stay, the seas were very rough, and we didn't swim very much, so we are hoping the Conrad Maldives will provide a different experience of more beach and swimming in the ocean. I already booked frequent flier flights on Emirates and got 7 nights award at the Conrad for November. I can't wait to go.

Cheers,

Timothy

BTW- The tartar sauce with the fish and chips is wonderful, I always ordered three tubs with my fish and chips . I was very surprised that of the 40 villas, usually there are 10 filled with people staying on points (as stated by an employee at the hotel)

Bondiboy

While it is true that there is a beach surrounding both islands, the beach is quite narrow so don't expect something like Miami, Manly or Waikii.

PhilC

The water was also rough during my stay. Beau Vallon has a nice, wide beach and the Hilton provides complimentary transportation during the day. But it's also the busiest beach on Mahe (that's relative though, it's not that busy compared to other places).

Practically all of the guests on my sunset cruise were staying on points.

CHC Kiwi

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere. Website and my confirmation say check in is 2pm and check out is 12am. I assume that's meant to be 12pm?

Kiwi Flyer

Maybe the staff want to use the rooms to have a party(s) the other 14 hours?

demiurg

An update on the property from my recent stay. I was staying there for 6 nights on a GLONP2 award - I am a Gold member.

In advance of the stay I booked in an email exchange what the hotel calls a "Deluxe Indulgence" package for 100 EUR per night which includes:
- upgrade to deluxe Ocean Front Villa
- romantic bath experience
- oriental tea ceremony
- framed hotel photograph of yourselves at the resort
- choice of a gift from gift shop
- couple's massage at the spa

Maybe I would have received the benetifs anyway based on some of the experiences of other posters, but my main motivation was that I wanted to stay in an ocean front villa and not risk that we would recieve an upgrade, I am a lowly Gold member after all. 600 EUR plus 175k points seemed to be good value to me. The massage and the bath were also nice benefits of the package; I did not really care for the other benefits, the photo was in fact never mentioned which did not bother me at all.

Indeed I was very satisfied with the stay and arrangement. I really felt that the ocean front villas are much preferrable to the hillside villas in terms of view and location. Inside they are the same. We had our windows to the deck open almost all the time when we were in the villa and greatly enjoyed the seabreeze, the views and the sounds from the ocean.

As a Hhonors member we received several additional benefits which were spelt out in a letter: voucher for 2 drinks, red carpet in front of our villa (we found this kind of odd), a small present during turndown (spices, soap, etc; not sure if this really is only for hhonors members), preferential villa allocation (we did receive one of the villas with a better location). There were other benefits mentioned that we did not receive like hhonors hats, but also did not care about.

Based on the hhonors carpets, there was only one other hhonors member staying in an ocean front villa, not sure about the hillside villas.

A change that may be relevant to some is that we were told that the benefit for hhonors members of a free spouse on the champagner sunset cruise will no longer be available.

Some other random observations:
- The hotel has great staff. Most were really trying as good as they could to help us making the best of our stay. The only small criticism that I have is that knowledge about the island itself and things to do beyond the standard excursions were not available; the hotel has no concierge services to speak of.
- The villas itself are excellent, good layout, large deck with all the seating options that you need, surround sound system, nespresso coffee machine, etc.
- Free internet is great, but the speed was very slow. No comparison to the speed at the Hilton/Conrad Maldives (which was not really fast either).
- We do not like buffets, so we never tried the buffet dinner and only dined at Cocotiers, at the bar or on our deck. The bar is a great place and also the fine dining restaurant is good, if they set the outside tables. On one evening dinner was served inside and the room is really lacking ambiance.
- One area that definetly needs improvement is their wine menu which was either compiled by someone who is not really interested in wine or thinks that the guests are in general not really interested in wine.
- I rented a 4x4 car for the full stay and while we did not use it every day of our stay it was good to have to explore the island if we felt like it. Driving on the single lane mountain roads can be interesting, if there is oncoming traffic
- There are no decent airline connections to the Seychelles. Either you have inconventient connections (Qatar, Emirates, Kenya Airways) or you have to use a subpar airline (Condor, Air Seychelles). We ended up flying with Air Seychelles in business class on an AF award. The 767-300 airplanes are really outdated and seating is horrible on the night flight - it felt like a business class from 10 years ago. Food and beverage was bad to mediocre. The service on the flight to the Seychelles was really horrible, on the return flight it was quite good, however. The lounge in Mahe was surprisingly good.

Bottom line: The ressort is really a great place to stay, an excellent value for the points.