Miscellaneous Tips, Seychelles

The Chalet d'Anse Forbans was a fantastic place. Brigitte Laporte, her dad Emmanuel, and her brother Jean-Pierre were all amazingly helpful. They had great places to stay, took care of laundry, did a start-up shopping trip, arranged for cars, hotels on Praslin, and boat excursions -- in short, they took care of us in every way. They are warm, caring, smart, friendly, thoughtful people who will really work hard on your behalf before and during your stay.

The chalets are located on land that had been a coconut plantation, and there are still lots of palms on the land that drop a few coconuts on the grass each day. (You can learn how to husk and open them; we made a wonderful fish curry with them and snacked on the coconut meat for the duration of the stay.) The area is nestled in the granite hills of the south coast, and while the sunrises (the beach faces the east) are spectacular, dusk brings an incredible exodus of huge fruit bats out of the hills down into the tree groves that I, in particular, found amazing.

We stayed in one of the smaller chalets, which had a small living room, a combo kitchen/dining area, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a small porch (with a table and chairs). The bedroom had an excellent air conditioner that we came to adore; the Seychelles are incredibly humid, and being able to go in that room and cool off any time was a huge plus. The kitchen was well-outfitted with equipment, though we were very glad that we brought a pair of good knives, and we were able to buy cooking basics to use for the duration of the vacation.

I should add that all of the hotels and resorts we checked out (and we saw several of them on Mahe especially) were terrifically disappointing. They seemed empty and boring and isolated; the food sucked and was over-priced; the main people you seemed to spend your time with were sunburned Germans and Italians sitting by -- of all things -- the hotel pool. Why people pay two, three, or four times the rates at Chalet d'Anse Forbans to stay in such hell holes is beyond us.

The chalets are all within a thirty second walk to the beach itself (Anse Forbans), which is just about as far south as you can get on the island before the main road turns west. The beach there extends very far out to a rocky point to the south; to the north, the beach extends to another, smaller rocky point, just a breakwater, beyond which lies another beach in front of the Allemanda Hotel. We walked out to that beach a dozen times a day, and there were never more than eight folks on the beach; many times we were the only people there.

The beach is really fantastic. The water is incredibly clear and warm, and there are areas where you can walk on the sand and swim off to the left of the beach. Throughout the beach area (and especially off to the left) there are amazing coral areas with lots of anemones, sea cucumbers, dozens of fish, moray eels, even an octopus and two sand sharks. We brought our own masks and snorkels; the folks at the hotel have fins you can borrow if you don't want to bring them. I was a novice, so I'm not sure how good my opinion is, but I loved it. I snorkeled for at least an hour twice a day, rain or shine, and would have done more if I wasn't worried about broiling my back!

Seychelles Hotels