Bretteee

I always wanted to go to the Seychelles. Thanks for your report.

From "Tripadvisor" I noticed that the beach at the Banyan Tree is too rough.

Did you swim in Praslin?

There were 2 shark attacks at the same beach 2 years ago. I would be too scared to get into the beautiful ocean.

I read summer is the best time to visit?

Thanks again.

offerendum

Thank you very much, I appreciate it

The beach itself is fine sand, but the waves are mostly rough

Yes, we did. The beach at the Raffles was very nice and it was easy to swim.

I read it, but I didn´t see any sharks. I wasn´t afraid at all, I think those are really rare events.

We visited in February which is one of the "hottest" month and one of the most expensive, but it´s nearly the same temperature all year long. Mostly November to March are called the best times.

offerendum

The Vallee de Mai is part of the Unesco World Heritage and the most important attraction of Praslin. In fact it's a kind of jungle. You walk through it over easy pathways. The Vallee de Mai is the home of several endagered species, for example black parrots. Sadly we could only hear their singing but didn't catch sight of them. It was still nice to walk through the forest and marvel at the enormous trees and their equally huge leaves and nuts.

Some Impressions










Be careful!

The coco de mer!



We finally saw a bird!

View over the valley



Finally we saw a tenrek. The staff was feeding it near the entrance.

rodsren

Looks like a fantastic trip. 2000 euros seems a lot per night for that one hotel, however, it did look like a big villa.

SASDC8

Excellent and very interesting report so far, as Seychelles and Dubai is on the to do list

United747

Awesome trip report! Thanks

offerendum

Our third hotel on the Seychelles was the Four Seasons Mahé. We had booked a Hilltop Villa which is the highest category. With exemption of the residences all villas are exactly the same, except for their location and view.
Our villa had a big terrace which had two levels, the upper part with a table and chairs and the steps to swimming pool as well as a separate pavilion with a day bed. On the lower level there were two lounge chairs.
The villa itself was one big room with canopy bed, sofa and desk. The bathroom was the highlight of the villa. Of course there were two sinks, a huge glass shower cabin and separate toilet. The huge bathtub was sunk into the floor, made completely from marble and was flanked by a floor to ceiling window - which you could also see from the shower. There were no curtains so you could theoretically look into the bathroom from outside.
But the villas were set widely apart, separated by jungle-like trees so you couldn't see your neighbor. It was impossible to see what was happening in other villas or on their terraces.
From the bathroom (and the pool and terrace), you had a view of the ocean, the beach down below and the green hills. Our villa was on top of one of those hills, about ten minute walk from the beach. But you could take a buggy everywhere - which is advisable since the pathways are quite steep thanks to the hills.
Even though all beaches on the Seychelles are public, this beach is completely surrounded by the Four Season property, so that non-hotel guests would have to reach it by boat if they wanted to sunbath there. I don't think anybody does that. The beach itself was beautiful, but if you did get there later it was a bit difficult to get lounge chairs. Especially great was that the beach was flanked by rocks on both sides which were perfect for snorkeling. The hotel provided you with all kind of water sport equipment like snorkeling equipment, pedal boats and lots of stuff for kids.
The pool was only a few steps from the beach but didn't have ocean view. It was quite empty since most people enjoyed the beautiful beach. There was a kids club with acitivities and a turtle enclosure.
We ate in all restaurants and even tried the room service. There are three restaurant in total. We enjoyed the most the Zez lounge which served Sushi and wonderful Japenese inspired cocktails. The Kannel which served Indian infused cuisine was also very good. The menu in the Zez restaurant was quite boring with international cuisine. We only tried the buffet there. It was okay. The selection was big but the food didn't stand out. If you consider that it cost €100 per person, it didn't convince us.
The room service food was good and despite the long ways the buggys have to travel, it was warm and looked good.
Overall the Four Seasons was the best of our Seychelles hotels. It had quite a different vibe than the Banyan tree (maybe because of its location and different design), and we're very glad that we stayed in both hotels on Mahé.

The villas

View on our villa

Our villa



The bathroom


View from the bathroom

Outdoor shower

Our terrace

The daybed

Our pool

View from our terrace


Roomservice food


Frequent guest (so cute)

The beach

The main pool

The turtles

worldtraveller73

Wow - what a comprehensive report on the Seychelles!! A terrific read for anyone comparing resorts or places to visit on the islands.

Thank you!!

offerendum

Mahé doesn't have a wide selection of attractions. You mainly enjoy the beautiful beaches. A good choice if you want to do something different is the Botanical Garden in Victoria.
It was built in 1901 by the British Government. It's a medium sized park in which you can find all the plants of the Seychelles. There's also the Ministry for Environment.
You'll need about 1 hour to visit the park.

ma91pmh

What a fabulous report thank you!

Brings back some great memories of our honeymoon in Seychelles which was a long time ago in 2000. We also spent an afternoon on St Pierre, it was completely empty back then. Also spent a couple of afternoons at Anse Lazio, sight of the recent shark attacks, and again was pretty much empty. I do still wonder why the Seychelles doesn't do a better job of developing itself as a luxury destination the way Maldives has

GodAtum

Amazing photos! i actually prefer the new F lounge in Dubai then the older one.

cathaana

Great report, thanks. ^

offerendum

After twelve wonderful days on the Seychelles we had to leave. Our sadness was lessened somewhat by the fact that we still had a few days of vacation in Dubai ahead of us. At the airport in the Seychelles we had to park our rental car for lack of other alternatives in the no-paking zone, but we never heard something negative about it.
At the check in there was a first class counter which was crowded, and the staff wasn't very professional. I'd been a bit worried because I'd read that there was no lounge in the airport, but we got vouchers for the Vallée de Mai lounge. The lounge belongs to the Air Seychelles and is the only one in the small airport. The lounge itself is nicely furnished and big enough. Drinks were available, but only a small selection of snacks. While the women's restrooms were okay, the men's restrooms were dirty.
Some confusion ensued when we wanted to board the plane. It started with a thirty minute delay and we were told that we had to line up at a separate entrance as first class passengers (as well as the other premium passengers). But nothing happened in that line, that wasn'T really one since there was no staff and really nothing indicating that someone would take care of us. So while we watch the economy class board the plan, we and other premium passengers waited. After a while, someone opened our entrance, only to make us join the other passengers. That was one of the stupidist things I'Ve ever seen.
The A340 was just like the plane we'd had on our flight to the Seychelles. This time the crew was much nicer. The flight was okay, but the food wasn't very good. There was a small breakfast. We had not so tasty waffles and a boring fruit plate. That definitely wasn't first class.
Once we arrived in Dubai, we had to wait a long time in the line for immigration. When we finally left the immigration behind, our luggage had arrived in the baggage claim area. Now we had to find the chauffeur service which proved more difficult than it should be, since there were absolutely no signs in that regard. We had to ask at the info desk. When we finally found the right place, we were told that we had to go into the chauffeur office to pick up some kind of paper. Since we were already outside, we had to use the exit doors to sneak back in and get the stupid paper. After that, we could finally line up for a car. While business class passengers are picked up in Volvo Stationwagons, first class passengers were picked up in a Mercedes E class. Nothing special. Most taxis in Germany have the same standard. Nevertheless, it was complimentary and quite useful.

The Lounge

The plane/ view from lounge

Suite at A 340

First Class meal

offerendum

Our first hotel in Dubai was the Burj Al Arab. After our two weeks on the Seychelles, Dubai was quite a chance of pace.
When we arrived at the Burj, we had to stop in front of a gate. In front of it, a crowd of tourists had gathered that were taking photos of the hotel. In front of our car was a bus. Yes. A bus that was taking a bus load of badly dressed tourists to the Burj Al Arab, not because they were staying there. No, because they were taking a photo tour of the lobby. This was a bit weird, to be honest. When it was finally our turn to approach the security guard, we had to say our names which led to some confusion since they didn't which our first and which our last name was. Eventually the gates opened for us and we could drive to the hotel entrance.
After we'd gotten out of our car, we were led into the lobby where three members of the staff, dressed in long colorful dresses that reminded me of Indian Saris (the women) and a man in a white maybe traditional uniform. We were given towels to clean our hands, mocca and dates. Then we were asked to take a seat until someone was ready to take us to our room. That took quite a while, until finally a woman who spoke German greeted us and took us up to our suite.
We had booked our room via Virtuoso, which was why we should have received an upgrade upon availability. Although there had been bigger suites available when we checked online in the morning, we were told there weren't and so we got the suite we had booked.
When we entered the room, two butlers were waiting with freshly squeezed orange juice. Generally we aren't big fans of butlers, since we don't need them and most often they don't do anything that the normal hotel staff like the concierge for example wouldn't do as well.
In the Burj the butler were quite helpful. Every level had one and they opened the door to our suite us every time, helped us book restaurants and were always friendly.
The Deluxe Suite - the smallest suite in the hotel still has 170sqm and it was a two level suite with a sweeping staircase with a chandelier. IF you don't like gold, you're definitely in the wrong place. From the faucets, over the TV to the banister of the staircase, everything was golden. The gold frame of the TV made it difficult to actually watch TV.
On the first level there was the living room with bar and work area. On the upper floor were the bathroom and the bedroom. Everything was very spacious. There was a huge mirror on the ceiling over the bed (why I wonder...). The TV in the bedroom was quite small, if you consider the tendency to be bigger, better and sparklier in the rest of the hotel.
The bathroom provided Hermés toiletries and perfumes in selling sizes. We were told it was expected for guests to take it home since they would throw everything away after every guest anyway. We had huge floor to ceiling windows that had a great view over the ocean and Dubai city.
The hotel has an indoor pool on one of the upper floors. Actually, there's one for women only (and boys under the age of three) and one for men and women. The decor was really nice - old wooden planks for example.
Included in our Virtuoso package was a massage. Men can only be massaged by men, and woman of course only by women. There's no way around it. The massages were okay, but nothing special, neither was the room. But my wife had a spectacular view of the palm at sunset during her massage. I didn't...
There was also a outdoor pool - with two pools and a jacuzzi. The number of life guard was really astonishing. There were two for the outdoor pool, though it wasn't crowded at all. I think we were the only guests in the pool except for a woman with her child. The pool is on ocean level and the lounge chairs are positioned on the edge of the Burj island, overlooking the ocean and the surrounding city.
The Burj also has a private beach, with beach club. You have to drive across the small bridge that connects the security gate and the hotel to reach the beach. We were asked frequently for our key card to make sure we were really Burj guests which got annoying. There were many lounge chairs. We spent a few hours enjoying the sunshine. It wasn't really quite since a group of young Arabs listened to loud music and were laughing the entire time. The sweet smell of Shisha hung in the air but it wasn't in any way overwhelming. The water was too cold for swimming since it was winter in Dubai, though the temperatures pretty much equal German summer (around 30°celsius). We got a cool bag filled with two bottles of water, some kind of spray to freshen up and a bag of snacks.
We also had free access to the Al Wadi Water park which is a few steps away from the Burj beach at the Jumeirah beach hotel. The park is perfect for families. You can probably spend two days there with your kids without it ever getting boring. There are many slides, pools, water playgrounds, and a wave pool.
We also visited the executive suite pool of the Jumeirah beach hotel to which we had also access as Burj guests. It's a big pool area with many lounge chair - which were pretty much all taken though it was quite late. We had a drink at the pool bar. The drinks were not so good. That's when you realize you aren't in a real luxury. The Burj is another world altogether.
Of course there are many restaurants in the Burj. On our first evening we tried the buffet at the Al Iwan, arabic infused cuisine. The buffet was huge and of good quality, so were the cocktails. The price was cheap for the Burj (we would have paid more for an entree from the room service menu...). It cost about 100€ per person.
We really enjoyed the Sky Bar which is situated in the top floor with a spectacular view of the city. We were there on both evenings of our stay. On the first day we only had cocktails which were really good. You always get an etagère with sweets and salty nuts with your drinks. You usually have a minimum consumption of 50€ per person, but since we only had half an hour before we had to move on to our dinner reservation and because we were guests of the hotel, it didn't apply to us. When we first arrived, we got a table in the middle where we had no view, but when they found out that we were hotel guests we got another table. On our second evening we asked specifically for a table near the best window and we got it. Most of the guests in the bars and restaurants in the Burj aren't staying in the hotel. That's why the prices for the food and beverages are so ridiculously high. People have to pay an "entrance fee" through their consumption.
Their best restaurant is the Al Mahara which is supposedly one of the best fish restaurants in the world. They told us that you needed to wear a jacket for dinner. I didn't have one with me (because I didn't think it was necessary on the seychelles and in Dubai). They offered to lend me one but I declined and instead decided to have lunch there. In the restaurant most people had obviously tried to dress up because the restaurant is supposedly so noble but had totally failed. Most men looked like farmers who were wearing their prom jackets from thirty years ago. And I'Ve never seen so many ugly floral dresses in my life. Even in our casual outfits my wife and I were overdressed. At least we had something else to look at than the atrocious clothes of other guests because there was a huge aquarium in the middle of the restaurant with sharks and colorful fish.
The restaurant apparently had a different definition of world class than we had. It wasn't bad, but certainly not even close to one of the best fish restaurants. This restaurant is as far away from a Michelin star as the moon is from Earth. There was no creativity and what's much worse: the fish was overcooked. Sorry, but that's a no go in a fish restaurant. We're very glad that we didn'T go for dinner there. We would have had to pay over 200€ per person for this very underwhelming performance. Sadly that's typical for the supposedly "high-class" food in Dubai. Apparently, despite all of their money, they are unable to get decent cooks for their fine dining locations.
You can have your breakfast in two different restaurants. There's an international buffet and a Japanese buffet. Especially the Asian buffet was huge with Chinese, Korean and international section in addition to the Japanese food. Some foods were a bit strange for Europeens, especially the jellyfish salad gave my wife the creeps.
The international buffet was also big but the atmosphere couldn'T be compared to the modern Japanese design of the restaurant which hosts the Asian breakfast buffet.
Overall, The Burj is a good hotel, especially the beach provides a nice chance to relax after a busy day in the city. A big disadvantage are the many tourists that roam the lobby and visit the restaurants, but we would still return to the Burj if we're back in Dubai.

Hotel from outside

Lower lobby

Upper lobby

View from guest floor

Elevators on guest floor

Entrance hall

Living room




Powder room

Bedroom



Bathroom



View from our suite

Laundry service

Starter at Al Mahara (you can even see, that the scallop isn´t cooked properly)

spizzy

Amazing TR. Your impressions of the Burj matches the same impressions I have read elsewhere (ref. tourists) and your review on Al Mahara also matches the numerours reviews I have read of it. ie. overpriced and ordinary food.

If you ever head back to Dubai check out the Al Maha Desert Resort.

Update- (Just re-read your intro. You did go there ) Really looking forward to your review of the Al Maha.

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