Villa Manoir

The owner does not know the meaning of hospitality. She is rude and she and her sons are not clean. Food prices are inconceivable and the quality is terrible. On the first day we chose the half board because we didn't know the chef was the fifteen years old son that cooked barefoot wearing a spotty t-shirt. During the horrible dinner all the family was confortable sitting at the other tables staring at us. Our room was poor quality. The kitchenette was rusty and the TV didn't work. In return a lot of bugs keep us company. Don't go there!

We stayed 4 weeks in the Villa Manoir, a small family run guesthouse with 3 units in the affordable price range. One unit is selfcatering. Pretty good for Seychellan standard - which means by European or US standard things are far from perfect. This place is excellent for nature lovers and snorkelers - not for people looking for a cosmopolitan place. Not ideal for nitpickers because you could waste time with nitpicking - but this is normal in the Seychelles. While some equipment and installations could use a little professional touchup the owners are extremely helpful and friendly which more than compensated for any problems. The owners also provide or arrange many extra services. Unfortunately English is not their native language and only few members of the family speak English really well. The stairs to the bathroom in our unit required basic acrobatic skills, other units have no special obstacles. We were selfcatering all the time; other guests told us that the food is fine but can get monotonous after a few days (not unusual in the Seychelles). So if you are thinking about fullboard it may be better to buy the meals on a day by day basis. Excellent location for snorkeling but very remote. Anse Boudin is a small village and bay of the same name on the northwest corner of Praslin, close to famous Anse Lazio beach. There is a small shop in the jungle, next touristy facilities are 5 km away at Cote d'Or. People from the village are friendly, quiet and unintrusive - unlike the Cote d'Or where you can encounter some dubious people attracted by the tourist masses. The guesthouse is situated next to the bus stop where tourists walk off to Anse Lazio. It is next to the road which as of Oct 2008 was very quiet. Most travel guides say it is around 15 minutes walk from this place to Anse Lazio, with snorkeling equipment it was more like 20 minutes. Anse Lazio is in our experience the best snorkeling spot on Praslin. Turtles, eagle rays, sting rays, 2 kinds of sharks, octopus and many others.. neither St. Piere nor Curieuse get even close to that. The smaller Anse Boudin beach was 5 minutes walk from our doorstep, it has safe swimming, some stingrays and turtles for snorkeling - but sometimes also a little sea grass. The coastline from Anse Boudin to Anse Takamaka is quite spectacular for photography. Very few mosquitoes in this place nevertheless a mosquito net may still be a good idea for a good sleep. Like in most places on Praslin water supply is limited. The guesthouse has an own tank which means some water is available around the clock - however because all water runs through the tank it is probably never safe to drink without cooking. Sometimes the tap water is noticeably brownish.