I went to a quick stop at Al Mourjan lounge in Doha and it was a 20 minutes walk from the arriving gate to the lounge. As usual, it was quite full at 01am and this time it was quite hot inside. I stayed there for a while to catch on news and went to my gate for a bus ride to board the plane.
As I wrote before, my flight from Geneva to Doha was excellent, especially as it was an A350. This time it was going to be an A330, with has the worst seats of Qatarīs wide body fleet, with a tight 2-2-2 layout. But as the seat next to me was empty, this wasnīt too bad.
My main complain to this flight is that my previous one was 6 hours long and this one was blocked with 5:35 duration, but it was a redeye. No pyjamas were provided, ok with that, but the blanket available was worse and no amenity kit or chocolates were given, just because of a 25 minutes shorter duration. Seems a bit cheap and unfair to me. There was just a crappy amenity consisting of eye mask and socks.
As I had eaten a bit on the lounge, I slept right away and asked to be awakened for breakfast. The breadbasket, fruits and frittata were all very good.
Getting closer to Seychelles, there were already some glimpses of the beautiful beaches, as well as my companions during my stay: clouds. There was a thick layer of clouds covering the entire surroundings of Mahe Island.





After landing and waiting about 10 minutes in immigration, I took a taxi to Hilton Northolme for 700 rupees on a 20 minutes ride. I arrived at the hotel at 11am and was expecting to hear that no rooms were available at that time, but instead I got some great news: I was upgraded from the basic room with a balcony to a room with a private pool and it was ready for me.
The room reminded me of the Conrad Koh Samui, but it was bigger and nicer. Just the round bathtub from CKS seemed better to me than the one in this Hilton. I actually donīt understand why this property is just a Hilton and not a Conrad, as it is quite similar to CKS.





Anyway, the balcony featured a nice private pool and I was expecting to have some amazing sunset views as the ones from Koh Samui.



But usually it was like this:



It seems like I had a really unlucky choice of period to visit Seychelles, as the taxi driver taking me back to the airport told me that the previous week the weather was the best they had in years.
My plans for this stay was to read a book, watch some movies and just relax, while enjoying beautiful views and having some walks around a nice scenery. The first part was fully fulfilled, but the second part was hampered by the weather, as it was always cloudy or raining.
Nevertheless, the property seems to me like a copy of CKS on another location, with both their virtues and weakness. The public areas are nice but small, just like the main pool. The beaches are small and rocky. There was available gear for kayaking or snorkelling. One major flaw, to me, was a really slow internet.







Breakfast was very good quality but a bit limited in terms of options and service was a bit slow. It was reasonably priced at 550 rupees, though. One thing that caught my attention was not hearing a good morning or hello from employees when crossing with them around the hotel. Not that I think this is relevant or necessary, but it seems to be usual on other properties.





There were some glimpses of the beauty of the property, but I think that even with a good weather, I would choose another place to stay. The hotel is very good, especially the rooms, but for its price tag I would expect better surroundings. Unless with a sunny sky the views are as dramatics as the sunset on Conrad Koh Samui.