Seychelles is an expensive destination and booking a self-catering villa or rental apartment is a good way to save some money and still enjoy the place. I like vacation rentals because they give us a lot of flexibility and space along with the local feel of the place.
We booked La Maison Hibiscus in Beau Vallon for our 3 nights stay. The property is listed on many hotel booking websites and a few of them are:
La Maison Hibiscus Apartment on booking.com
La Maison Hibiscus, Beau Vallon on airbnb
The place is run by a lady called Beryl who is very accessible and approachable. The property has 2 floors. Ground floor is a 3 bedroom apartment while 1st floor has 2 bedrooms. Though we were only 2 + 1 kid, we booked the ground floor because of the open area outside and ease of carrying luggage. The place can easily accommodate 6-7 people.
Master bedroom has an attached bathroom and a full wardrobe.
Second bedroom has a small wooden rack enough for settling down for 3-4 days 🙂
Child bedroom also has a full wardrobe, similar to the master bedroom.
Bathrooms do not have any toiletries and you will need to carry your own soap/ shampoo etc. Towels are provided.
Kitchen is fully equipped with all utensils, stove, microwave, toaster and kettle. Beryl had provided tea/ coffee bags and sugar/ salt.
The good part is apartment is very clean and gets cleaned everyday. Given its a beach location, sand does get inside.
Its good to have a car during the stay. One, because of the hilly terrain in Mahe and second because it can rain anytime in Seychelles and car comes in handy. Seychelles has a tropical climate and there is no strictly dry season, though Dec to March is considered to be the wettest. Beryl arranged for airport pickup/ drop and car rental too at reasonable prices. We paid her 160 EUR for 3 and a half days of car and pickup/ drop from the airport which was a very good deal in Seychelles. Download offline Google Maps before you go to Seychelles because net connectivity is very slow and super expensive in the country.
Beau Vallon beach near Le Meridien resort is hardly 300 mts from the apartment. This side the beach has shallow waters and easy for swimming. It is rocky at some places but overall a good beach with white soft sand where kids can get into water easily. There is also a swing on the beach. However, the other side of Beau Vallon is better for sunset view (search for Baobab Pizzeria on Google Maps and go to that side for sunset view).
There is a bus stop and supermarket close by. There are quite a few restaurants within a kilometre of the place. The apartment is however on a hilly terrain so distances do feel more when you start walking 🙂 The view however is awesome and the night sky is something to watch out for. We could see more stars in Mahe on a cloudy night than we see in clear nights in Hyderabad 😐
Beryl also kept some magazines and a book on Seychelles in the apartment. The book “Shining Though” by Gilbert Pool was a lovely read with beautiful pictures of Seychelles and gave a good insight into the culture and people of the small island country. I especially loved his version of Twinkle Twinkle little star:
It goes like this:
Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.
When the sun has gone to bed, what will light the sky instead?
Then you show your little light, twinkle twinkle all the night.
Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are
When we travel in the dark, thank you for your tiny spark.
We could not see which way to go, if you did not twinkle so.
Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.
Little star you look so fine, why don’t you visit me sometime?
You always seem so far away, please shoot down here to me one day.
Twinkle twinkle little star, please keep twinkling where you are.
Shining in the sky so bright, keeping all the night-time light.
Twinkle twinkle little star, you are the brightest star so far.
It seemed so appropriate for a place like Seychelles 🙂
The only downside to this apartment was internet was extremely slow. I love to disconnect myself during holidays but we had some change of plans because of rains and wanted to check some reviews on tripadvisor; but it did not load. If Beryl gets better connection, it would be perfect. Infact other than gmail and whatsapp, we could hardly browse through any website. Beryl was however very approachable and suggested restaurants, supermarkets etc to us.
Will surely recommend La Maison Hibiscus on Beau Vallon for families looking for a self-catering villa.
If you would like to book a rental apartment through airbnb, you can follow this referral link to signup and get Rs.1000 airbnb credit.
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