NightTripper

Thank you for the great trip report!

JALlover

Great trip report! Thanks for both the photos and the detail description!

gstork

worldtraveller73

Praslin Island,
Seychelles

We were up at 7 AM for the private island tour. The Chateau Des Feuilles property offers a private island day trip to Grande Soeur, a nearby island east of Praslin. They seem to charge a landing fee for tour operators from the general public during the week but on the weekend, there are no day tours permitted and the island is made available to the exclusive use of guests.

Unfortunately, the freshness of the dinner was not agreeing with my road wary stomach and things weren’t settling well with me. We were late up to breakfast for about 8:15 AM, with an expected 8:45 AM departure for the private island tour. The weather was bad this morning, and at about 8:30 AM, our host advised us that the tour was cancelled for today and would be re-scheduled for tomorrow. Unfortunately, the turbulent weather persisted throughout our stay in the Seychelles so if you’re planning on coming, make sure you a lot extra time to get in enough sunny days. The view from our deck this morning was grey, but not unworldly.



After breakfast, we took a look around the property. The Chateau des Feuilles is situated on top of a bluff with absolutely spectacular views over to La Dique.











At the top of the property was a small jacuzzi. While it’s a bit silly to have a hot tub in the islands of Africa, the views across the channel from this one were pretty tough to beat!











The property was quite jungle like in places. Despite this, it was well taken care of and properly landscaped. Heading down off the top hot tub, we wandered through the property to the sun deck.













We returned to room to rest.

At about 10 AM, I made the arrangements to get the car rental. I ended up paying 38 € extra to keep the car past 12 PM on our last day. Despite having paid this, it allowed us to self drive ourselves to the Praslin Airport and avoid an extra taxi or transfer fee from hotel to airport.

We ended up taking a drive through the island over to Anse Lazio. It was a tricky and twisty drive through rain and canyons of canopy trees, but we ended up at the beach for most of the day.





Anse Lazio is easily one of the best beaches around. Although given that it was a cloudy day, it was less exciting than others. It was still interesting to see some of the natural beauty of this place. We ended up making the most of the day and hanging out with some of the hard core wet weather beach goers.











We ended up having a rustic lunch at Le Chevalier. It’s a name that imagines up an old era castle but instead it’s actually a small bed and breakfast just off the beach. Despite this, we had friendly service and a small beach lunch al fresco. There were several sand crabs in the area that were pretty active at scampering across the grounds, making for some entertaining lunch viewing.







One of the neat features of Anse Lazio are the fact that they have several Aldabra Gian Tortoises penned in at the beach head. These creatures are absolutely massive and the pictures don’t do them any justice in displaying their size. Don’t ask me why, but they seem to like having the packs of their necks scratched. It’s the thing to do and they seem to respond well to it.







We headed back to the property later that afternoon with dinner up at a roadside restaurant in the Anse Volbert area. Although we had lack lustre weather on day one, we were able to get out and about to get ourselves situated.

worldtraveller73

Praslin Island,
Seychelles
(continued)

We got a call in the morning at about 7:30 AM from the front desk to report that the private island excursion had been cancelled for the second day in a row on the account of weather. I had debated doing a self guided boat trip over to La Dique for a visit to the famous La Source D’Argent beach but the weather was highly unpredictable. There were only a few boats per day so a firm day time commitment was required; otherwise you’d end up soaked and wet for the entire day waiting for your return ticket.

By the time we got mobile, the sun was streaming down across the resort.



We took in a leisurely breakfast, then packed up the car for the day to head to Vallée do Mai. Vallée do Mai is a UNESCO heritage site that offers the opportunity to get close to the Coco Do Mere nut. It is reportedly the largest nut grown in the world. The trees last up to 250 years and the nuts take several dozens of years to germinate. It is a symbol that the Seychellois appear to be exceptionally proud of.

After paying our entrance fee (a steep $21 USD per person), we took a 1 hour walk through the forest. It was amazing to see some of the frocks and underbrush. It was really an example of how thick the vegetation was around Praslin.







Some examples of the coco de mer nuts on the trees, as compared to the finished product.





We were able to get up to the top view point which offered a view of the forest. The forest was lush thick.



We left the Vallée do Mere and headed over to Anse La Blaque on the skinny and narrow roads of Praslin Island.







Anse La Blaque was a smaller beach at the end of a dead end road and completely empty of tourists. It was really representative of local life on Praslin. There were a few local kids playing in the water as a group, and hardly a soul around.













We stayed about an hour. We didn't stay longer as the site was quite wind exposed. We had a bit of a sand flick into the face happening so we opted for a more sheltered beach.

We hopped back in the car and headed back across the island to Anse Lazio. Thankfully, the weather later today was co-operating and we had a great 4 hour visit to the beach. I was finally able to get some great screen saver worthy photographs.













We settled in. MrsWT73 was able to get in some sun. I ended up taking a short walk over to the west side of the beach. On the west side, there is a partially hidden trail that leads over to some of the magnificent rocks that are scattered all around the island. The trail is behind the rocks of this first photograph. You wouldn’t necessarily know it’s there unless you went exploring. The trail made for the most interesting photo opportunities.













I could have spent hours here taking photographs as there was a lot to see. The weather was also just right- not all too sunny and glary.














We ended up staying the rest of the day until sundown. Most of the travelers know that the attractions often get better after everyone has left and gone home for the day. Staying for a sunset drink, we enjoyed a Savanna Cider from South Africa amid the catamarans that were moored in the bay. We were among the last as the beach hut closed up promptly at 6 PM and we just were asked to leave the empties near the counter.















We were able to self guide ourselves back to the hotel after the sunset without any issues.

Praslin can be an absolutely spectacular and magnificent place to visit. The main problem with Praslin is that there is not much to do if it is raining. There were some weather-related issues with our trip that seem to be common with the Seychelles based on what I have read. Although it’s an expensive holiday, I would encourage allowing extra time so that you can appreciate the surroundings without a rain shower. When it’s clear and sunny, it’s an outstanding place to visit. I was a bit disappointed with the cancellation of the private excursion. It probably happens more than the property would care to admit. I would manage expectations accordingly when visiting.

worldtraveller73

Bretteee, the Chateau Des Feuilles does not have direct beach access as it's situated on top of a hill. I suppose the hotel accommodates for this by giving you a rental car to self explore. If you wanted a resort that had a fantastic beach, this isn't the place. What it is though is a property that is exceptionally private where you'll be attended to for almost everything.

Thanks nequine. I think MrsWT73 has gotten used to my strange food tastes over the years.

The Relais and Chateau properties are not usually my first choice FlightNurse, but they'll certainly hit the spot if there are no others available.

Thank you for reading NightTripper.

Thanks JALlover. . .

That's amazing to hear that you stayed at this property gstork. I doubt much has changed on the island in 20 years. It appears quite the same; the land time forgot. We really enjoyed the Chateau Des Feullles, save the sadness over the cancellation of the private island trip. The weather wasn't really within the resort's control.

Bretteee

What month did you go? We went in October and only had 1/2 day of rain in 16 days. The restaurant on the beach where you went looks a lot nicer than the large one we went to on Anse de Lazio. It was also rougher than when you went. Also the 2 shark attacks 5 years ago there made us nervous. We only put our feet in. The Constance Lamuria had a cute beach so at least we swam there. As you mention the problem with the Seychelles is that it's an expensive vacation. But I am glad I went anyway.

worldtraveller73

Bretteee, we ended up being there in the first half of June 2018. This was reported to be the start of the dry season. We weren't too worried about sharks, but then again, we weren't out for any serious swimming.

worldtraveller73

Air Seychelles
HM 3181 – Economy Class (single class of service)
PRI – SEZ (Praslin – Mahe)
June 11, 2018
5:50 PM – 6:10 PM
Booked: De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter
Flown: De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter

We ended up flying back from Praslin so that we could end up directly at the Mahe airport. If we had taken the boat ferry, we would have had to take another shuttle or taxi to the airport. Air Seychelles had about 15 flights per day, compared to the fast ferry service that operated at 3 times per day. The evening ferry departure only had us arriving to the airport at T-90 after a connecting bus, so we opted for the Air Seychelles 15 minute flight on a Twin Otter with a schedule at our convenience.

Last day at the resort, it was another windy and cloudy day. Instead of rushing out to take in a last experience at beaches we’d already seen, we decided to stay on resort and enjoy the excellent pool and loungers at the Chateau des Feuilles hotel.











We took in a last outdoor breakfast. Cappuccino, fresh fruit, croissants and a oached egg with fresh parsley. Devine. . . add the lounging views and it was a great way to get away.











The hotel was nice enough to extend us a late 3 PM check out without extra charge. We eventually checked out and self drove the rental car to the airport. I needed to stop for gas to return the car with a full tank of gas. Unfortunately, it was not a smooth get away for us consistent with our other Indian island departure experiences. When we rolled into the nationally owned gas stations, they didn’t accept any credit cards. I had about $15 USD left of Seychelles Rupees which was not enough to fill the tank. I went to scramble to find an ATM. Unfortunately, there were no ATM’s near or in the gas stations so we had to drive into a town area. I ended up having to go two in two separate areas until I found a Barclay’s that worked with my ATM card at a $7 USD fee.

Per the return instructions, we parked at the airport and locked the keys in the car. There was no car rental office at the airport and no one to turn the keys over to. The car rental company didn’t seem to fussed with this method and suggested we could have left the car anywhere on the island as long as we had informed them in advance. Checking into Air Seychelles, we had a baggage X ray exam, and then checked in. Our hold luggage was weighed and there was a visual inspection of the cabin luggage. Air Seychelles doesn’t list any dimensions or descriptions on its websites of what’s allowed on board its domestic services, other than saying a soft sided laptop or a small personal item. The international portion of the website suggested the usual international configurations. The check in agent told me I would have to check my rollie. She weighed it (thankfully only 7 kg- containing overnight transit clothes) and didn’t charge me an additional fee.













I secured the car away and we went through security into the Praslin departures lounge area. It was a nice airy facility but only minimally air conditioned by small bedroom units that were on quite softly.





There was no working Wi-Fi but there was a JOUEL Fine Jewellery of the Seychelles stand, along with two not so interesting souvenir stands.

The plane landed and parked. A boarding announcement was made. At the same time, the safety video was played in the departure hall for all to watch prior to actual flight boarding.









When boarding time came, we were asked to self guide ourselves out on the apron for the flight. We had assigned ourselves Seat 2B and 2C. I gave MrsWT73 the window seats for this flight.











We had a quick departure with no waits. Our climb out took us out over the south part of the island. There were some beautiful green seas. I tried to get some photographs of it but the propeller wash affected some of the focusing of my camera.







Our approach again had nice views over the St Anne National Park. There were some beautiful small islands that we had seen from land as we arrived on final approach.







It’s always neat to see into the cockpit on any flight and lining up for the runway at Seychelles International Airport was no exception.



We arrived and led ourselves into the arrival hall where our checked bags were already placed out in a corner for collection. It seemed they had travelled over on a flight ahead of us. It turns out that the bags on our flight were actually listed as the next flight number ahead of ours.



We collected our bags and walked the short walk over to the open air international terminal. The Turkish Airlines A330-200 was already parked and on the stand on the arrival of our connecting flight.



Air Seychelles was a neat way to transfer between the islands. I appreciated the fact that they didn’t try to gouge a fee out of me for the extra bag. I would probably use the air connection method the next time I travelled to the Seychelles over the sea option as long as the free bag allowance was taken into consideration and I didn't have to pay any extra fees.

worldtraveller73

Salon Vallée de Mai Premium Lounge
Seychelles International Airport

I had left us 3 hours in between flights to self connect on separate tickets to our international Aeroplan Ticketed Reward flight home. I left three hours since I had heard some mild horror stories about luggage not being on the Air Seychelles flights and being left behind.

With all our bags in hand, we arrived to the open air international departures check in area at Seychelles International Airport. The Turkish counters were at the far right end of the terminal, right next to international arrivals. You can literally look right into the airport from the street; a photo from the car loading area outside...







Despite being a 9 PM departure, it was absolutely deserted at T-180 when we turned up. We walked straight up to the business class line and checked ourselves in. The agent was unable to go any further than the Turkish Airlines flights so our bags were checked through to Toronto with both a Star Alliance Priority Tag and a green Turkish Airlines International Connection tag. I didn’t bother with bag wrap for the flight home. There was no one manning the wrap kiosk anyway.



We headed straight through the departures line to exit immigration where we picked up a Coco de Mer Seychelles Exit stamp. There wasn’t too much in the departures hall. Unbelievably so, in all strange franchising placements, there was a Burger King in the departures hall. It was supper time and I couldn’t resist so I had a Whopper Combo. It was the most expensive Whopper Combo I’ve ever had the pleasure of consuming at $14 USD. The Sprite that I had with it even came in a tin. This must be a fairly new opening since the airport website does not even list it as a restaurant.







We went upstairs to the Salon Vallée de Mai Premium Lounge. We were given lounge invitations for the lounge and were admitted entry thanks to the class of service on Turkish Airlines. The lounge used to be in Priority Pass but it seems to have withdrawn from the program.









The colors of the lounge were of dark earth tones. The layout of the lounge was in a “U” shape, with many comfortable seating areas. The lounge never felt full while we were there and had sufficient capacity during our visit.













There was a small buffet of food that consisted mostly of snacks. There were cold vegetable quiche slices, mushroom canapes, mini samosas and the usual salads and cut cheeses that looked average at best. We could have eaten here if it was absolutely essential, but I was much happier with the flame grilled goodness of the BK burger if I was being truthful.



One area that the lounge excelled in was the liquor selection. I was able to sample some Takamaka run “made from the Seychelles”; both the dark and coconut varieties were on free pour here.







The lounge also offered the oddest men & women’s bathrooms signs that I’d seen in a while. I think they were supposed to be an eel and a Coco De Mer nut but they appeared to be much more oriented towards the human anatomy in a phallic manner than the artist initially likely intended.



The lounge itself was a comfortable place and much nicer than the Air Tahiti Nui business class lounge or the Fiji Airways temporary lounge that we had last experienced on our island departures. It was very good for an island lounge and pretty good for African standards. It still didn’t beat the awesome Air Mauritius Amendée Lounge in Mauritius which is still my all time favorite African lounge.

worldtraveller73

Turkish Airlines
TK 749 – Business Class (O)
SEZ – IST (Mahe – Istanbul Atatürk International Airport)
June 11, 2018
9:10 PM – 4:10 AM + 1
Booked: Airbus 330-200
Flown: Airbus 330-200

We enjoyed the comfortable Salon Vallée de Mai Premium Lounge. The boarding time was listed on our boarding cards at 8:25 PM. An announcement was made in the lounge at about 8:10 PM indicating that the flight was ready for boarding.

We headed downstairs and over to Gate 3 for boarding. Our cards were scanned and we stepped outside onto the tarmac. There are no jet bridges in the Seychelles. Continuing on with the theme of our trip, it had started raining and everything was wet. Fortunately, the rain must be a regular feature of the Seychelles. The airport authority had designed the building with a covered walkway right up to the parking position of each aircraft. We walked past the luggage processing center, passing an Emirates B777 and over to our Turkish Airlines flight. Representatives were handing out umbrellas but we just walked to the jet bridge without the umbrellas.









We climbed up the stairs and settled into our seats. These Turkish Airlines Airbus 330-200’s started off life as Jet Airways aircraft. They offer a 1-1-1 herringbone configuration in a light purple color scheme. This seat configuration was state of the art about 10 years ago but the whole configuration is showing quite a bit of wear and tear. The latches and seats are grinding and groaning and the tables didn’t click functionally like most do. I had a hard time actually getting my table out, which shows the age of this product.















The seats had built in cupholders and a magazine rack. There was also a small compartment for phone storage. The entertainment system was controlled by a wired remote.







As we settled in on board, the amenity kits were dropped off… tonight’s kits were more substantial than the Dar Es Salaam – Istanbul kits but were the same lean Bentley Kits that we had Toronto – Istanbul (long haul version). A pair of Denon headphones were also dropped off. The headphones appeared to be quite new.





With a flight departure time of 9:10 PM, the purser came on the air at 8:30 PM to announce that boarding was complete. We were offered a pre-departure beverage of the usual Turkish drinks; water, orange, lemon and mint and raspberry. I had my usual lemon and mint.



We departed at approximately 8:45 PM heading out of the Seychelles; or about 25 minutes early. Dinner was served promptly; something that I appreciated given that it was a night flight. The whole dinner was over within 60 minutes of taking off.







I started with a gin and tonic along with the starter nuts.



Followed by mozzarella and tomatoes.



I asked for the Rigitoni with creamy tomato sauce and eggplant. Unfortunately, they had run out of it by the time that they had arrived to my row, so they sourced another pasta dish, likely from the inbound flight. It was cream based with parsley. It hit the spot but was pretty forgettable.



The Turkish crew turned down the seat with a mattress pad and a blanket. I pretty much turned in for the night and attempted sleep for the rest of the way. My 6ft 2inch frame did not fit as well as I remembered it in these types of herringbone chairs. I found the seat to be too short and too narrow to side sleep, often at times stretching my feet into the aisle for comfort.

The flight had a few bumps throughout as it took a track inward towards continental Africa, across Somalia, Sudan, Egypt and over the Mediterranean. What made matters more bothersome was that the seat belt sign kept going on and off. Every time they did this (at least 3 times that I was awake for), we had three sets of pre-recorded announcements advising everyone to buckle up in Turkish, English and French. Ugh!

I ended up deliberately sleeping through the second service. I didn’t bother to get up for it as it was just another cheese omelette. I was also comfortable with the fact that we had a 10 hour layover in a very comfortable and pleasant Turkish Airlines lounge where we would have access to proper food and water.



We had an early morning arrival to Istanbul Atatürk airport, arriving at 3:20 AM (50 minutes early). where we found a business class bus waiting for us. We were transferred to the terminal for arrival without any issue.





It’s neat that Turkish Airlines has decided to fly to the Seychelles. It’s a great way to get too and from the island. The only difficult part is the odd arrival time which makes for a long connection to another part of the world. I am sure it will not be long before these aircraft are retired from the Turkish fleet or refreshed.

offerendum

I remember Salon Vallée de Mai quite well. While I don´t remember the "special" restroom signs I remember at least the Mens room was very dirty. Nevertheless I liked the lounge-design.

Seychelles are of course beautiful. Personally I much prefer the ferry to Praslin even if the views from the plane are nice.

Bretteee

The bathroom sign represents the following. There is a male Coco de Mer shaped like a man's private parts; long. The female Coco de Mer is shaped like a female's. In fact the stamp in your passport is the female. That is why they have these symbols which is funny. I did not notice it when I was in the lounge. In fact the small nut in the female is considered to be an aphrodisiac. But no one is allowed to eat them as the plants are protected.

nequine

Just catching up again with your TR and wow at the photos, especially the sunset!

worldtraveller73

Thanks offerendum. I can't comment on the washroom status. It wasn't as memorable as the signs.

It's funny Brettee. I bought a paperweight of the Coco de Mer at the airport souvenir shop on the way out. It sits on my desk. It looks whole inappropriate but I can't easily reference that it is a tropical nut (laughing).

Thank you for your continued support nequine.