Reviews of holidays to Bird Island

"First and foremost we enjoyed our trip immensely and have no regrets about having gone to The Seychelles.

The comments we have made above are therefore intended to be constructive. We did however feel that, like so many other places, we were visiting about 30 years too late and that what we really wanted to see, like the wildlife, peaceful places and the real Seychelles, had been overtaken by events, tourists and tourist facilities. We are not beach people. Knowing what we know now, we would have revised our itinerary somewhat. But for the poor food, we could have stayed on Bird Island for at least one more night but would definitely have added two days to the Coco de Mer on Praslin. We would however have excluded any nights on La Digue and just covered that island by a day trip from Praslin and a taxi tour.

Mason's Travel had made all our local arrangements and these generally went well and efficiently as did the local trips we booked through the good island representatives. The one hiccough was caused by our delayed Bird Island to Mahe to Praslin flights. We were supported well at Mahe Airport but no message from there to Praslin with our revised details seemed to have got through and we, a French family and a French group were kept waiting at the Mason's desk for some time until staff eventually arrived and transportation or hired cars were sorted out. The staff member at the Praslin Jetty could also have been more helpful and friendly on our last day on that island. Trips to Aride did not seem to be operating while those to Cousin were heavily booked. We did not attempt to go because of my mobility problems, the number of noisy participants, and a major mosquito presence. Chris had already reacted badly to sandfly bites on Bird Island and we didn't want a further similar occurrence. We made quite detailed lists of the wildlife we did see and those I shall send separately to Lucy soon.


Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

None. I shall use Expert Africa again." Read full review: 19 nights in Africa; 17 on a Seychelles holiday

"Overall we had a great time.

All the connections worked well.

All the accommodation was good, apart from the few details we have mentioned in the report" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 8 on a Seychelles holiday

"More than pleased that we returned to the Seychelles

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Not really just keep up the good work and thanks." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Seychelles holiday

"Overall a lovely trip.

Certainly Bird Island was a highlight." Read full review: 11 nights in Africa; 6 on a Seychelles holiday

"Great trip and lifetime memories, the team meeting and transferring us went very smoothly.

We were delayed 2 hours at Bird Island as a tropical storm had delayed the plane at Mahe, but they provided drinks and I preferred to wait at Bird Island than Mahe airport." Read full review: 17 nights in Africa; 6 on a Seychelles holiday

"I thoroughly enjoyed my trip. All the transfers were on time and the hotels were nice.

Everything ran smoothly and my holiday was great." Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 7 on a Seychelles holiday

"Brilliant. Everything we wanted it to be.

The week on Bird Island was the highlight, but the two stays on Mahe got us acclimatised and ready for the trip home." Read full review: 12 nights in Africa; 6 on a Seychelles holiday

"What a very nice place to go holidaying.................but you know this already.

On their flights with Etihad, they commented:

We hate long haul and this experience was refreshingly not too bad.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

Just for the record leaving luggage at Mahe Airport cost us 10 EURO a DAY!
Our one bag for our trip to Bird Island would have paid to a few days car hire!!
The airline said that they would have stored our bag for free [excluding the tip]" Read full review: 15 nights in Africa; 10 on a Seychelles holiday

"Overall an excellent trip with some nice added extras from the camps as they knew it was our honeymoon.

Nick at expert africa did a great job organising everything, especially considering the changes caused by Air Seychelles dropping their long haul flights." Read full review: 20 nights in Africa; 10 on a Botswana safari

"We were very lucky as it was a fantastic holiday but had we taken other options it would have been less so. Praslin was perfect for a beach holiday and Anse Volbert absolutely ideal. Beware advice to stay in the "best" beaches like Anse Lazio -this just means they'll be lots of people there - better for a day trip.

Beware the government overcharges for everything. Euro 20 per person over 12 to visit the Coco de Mer - ditto to visit the marine park, ditto the ferry to La Digue. As a direct result we skipped the last of these but those we did-including snorkelling at St Pierre was very worthwhile.

Mahe was great as we did it but we couldn't see that any hotel was worth staying at. The famous beach Beau Vallon has too many hotels and is popular with the locals-fine for a day but otherwise go to any good beach in Europe at much less cost. The west coast is gorgeous but the water too rough for anything other than diving into the waves - again not good for a week.The east coast has that dreadful ribbon development all along its length except for the very south-but take sandwiches.You'd feel robbed if you stayed at any hotel for a week.

Bear in mind that Mahe attracts clouds - it won't be sunny all the time.

Bird Island was unbelievable - if we went back we would return there and go to some of the other smaller islands.

Suggestions to help us improve our trips or our service:

The Bradt guide was out of date or misleading we felt.Look at the descriptions of Beau Vallon and Anse Volbert.Wrong way round but thank goodness perhaps.Casuarina Beach burnt down 3 years before and the beach can never have been great.
It failed to explain properly the varying conditions depending on the time of year.

[ Ed: We'd like to make it very clear here that Expert Africa's Chris McIntyre had absolutely nothing to do with the Bradt guide to the Seychelles. Chris is responsible for his own guides to Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zanzibar ... but has never had any input into the Seychelles guide. ]" Read full review: 16 nights in Africa; 7 on a Seychelles holiday