Cote d'Or Lodge - Club Vacanze — Hotel in Praslin

This was possibly one of the best hotels we have stayed at (and we have travelled a lot!). Everything was perfect from our arrival at the hotel to the departure.||||ARRIVAL||We arrived at around 11am and despite the fact that official check in starts at 5pm, we were very warmly welcomed, given a welcome drink and shown to our room as soon as we arrived. (Taxi cost us 200 rupees from the ferry port to the hotel).||||Our luggage was taken care of and brought to our bungalow and no tip was expected. It was nice to see that people did their job not expecting any tips for that.||||THE BUNGALOW / ROOM||We had booked a garden view room, but to our surprise, we were given an amazing beach bungalow with a perfect sea view! ||The bungalow was absolutely stunning - it was very large and spacious with almost 2 separate bedrooms (there was no door to separate them but there were 2 different rooms). One of the rooms had a very large double bed (?possibly queen or king size) and the other one had a single bed. There was also a separate dressing room with a large wardrobe and full size mirror. ||The bathroom was stunning too - newly decorated, extremely spacious with 2 sinks, bide and a separate shower room.||||The room had everything you'd need - a fridge, multiple bathroom towels, bathrobes, toiletries, hairdryer, TV, air conditioning and a bottle of water on arrival. A safety box was free of charge, but it was in the reception area.||||There was also a very nice sitting area just outside the bungalow - a private terrace with 2 comfy chairs and a perfect sea view. Paradise. |||| MEALS||We had full board basis and to our surprise, even water was included free of charge with every meal (in other hotels you usually have to pay for this extra). There was also ''tea time'' at 5pm and free tea / juice and biscuits were provided.||||Food was of very high quality and there was good variety with very little repetition. There was something new every meal and they often did ''special's'' - be it grilled fish or meat or a local themed night dinner. ||||The dining area was very spacious with amazing views of the beach.||||There were 2 days when other hotel guests were on a day trip and we were the only ones at the hotel, so they treated us to a nice lunch on the beach with a la carte menu (free of charge). There was a table for just us on the beach in sand which was just magical. ||||||STAFF||Everyone was extremely welcoming and nice. Mattia, the manager always made an effort to talk to us and showed so much empathy and warmth. There was also a girl (sorry, we forgot her name) who was always there welcoming all guests and making an effort to get to know them personally and help in every possible way. ||Everyone else, including reception staff and waiters, and chef were extremely nice and welcoming.||||Despite the fact that most guests were Italian, we were always warmly welcomed and made feel special. ||||WIFI||You are supposed to pay 40 euros for a week + 20 euros for a second device or 10 euros per day, however staff eventually gave us the wifi password for free of charge which was another pleasant surprise. The wifi was not great at the room as the signal was too weak, but it worked well in the dining room / reception.||||BEACH||Beautiful and clean beach. Quiet and not overcrowded. Paradise. ||||DEPARTURE||Official check out time is 10am, but they went the extra mile of letting us stay in the hotel and even have lunch until our departure time at 3pm, without any extra payments.||||OVERALL||This was an amazing hotel with perfect rooms, amazing staff and absolutely beautiful beach! Highly recommended!||||||**||Extra information:||-You can go to Vallee De Mai with public bus (there is a bus stop a few meters away from the hotel) and bus 61 takes you directly to the park for just 7 rupees one way!||||-You can go the other direction with bus 61 and it takes you almost to Anse Lazio beach. You get off at the end of the line and walk for about 20 minutes. ||||-Taxi to Praslin airport cost us 25 euros (originally 30 euros but we...

Unfortunately we have to agree with previous negative comments. The only good thing about this place is the absolutely stunning location on the most beautiful beach and I think they think this is enough. Be aware tho that there is huge sandfly problem on the beach. ||Also totally geared for Italian market... Now it was not so busy and with covid restrictions there was no entertainment but we were glad as otherwise being not Italian would have made it worse. ||||We paid quite a bit - 800 eur for 3 nights wiht breakfast and were very disappointed. Below is why. ||||We booked sea view and were not made aware that there are front and back rows of the bungalows - to charge extra and sell ours as Seaview is just cheeky-picture attached||||Bed and mattress were awful - like sleeping in the floor or piece of wood so hard and painful we had 3 sleepless nights||Also mini fridge was so noisy we had to unplug it||||Breakfast was poor choice and quality and included the most disgusting filter coffee-espresso etc cost extra and were awful too. Omlette etc to order were bad as well. ||||Waiters were super demotivated and not friendly... So was the chef making Omlette ||||WiFi connection was bad ||||Old uncomfy plastic chairs on beach dirty from birds poo||||Late check out we asked to have 3more hours for the room...13.00 instead of 10.00 and although room was not booked on the day we left they would have charged for it||||1 small bottle of water included free of charge for 2 pax and 3 nights ||||Everything is dated and old so the price for quality is absolutely not justified. We definitely feel like we have been ripped off. Shame as this is a once in a...

This place has the makings of being a really nice place to stay, however misses the bar in several ways. The wifi is terrible and expensive. Even after paying the high rate, it was unusable. I get connectivity can be difficult on Praslin, maybe not charging for substandard things would be a good choice. The restaurant charged double for drinks compared to what was available in town, and didn't include anything without charging, including water. ($9 USD for a bottle of water is crazy) We ended up walking to the mini-mart nearby and stocking up on gallons of water we kept in our room. We did the same with beer & wine. The food was average, after a few meals we were no longer interested in their offerings and found interesting places to eat instead. ||The grounds were kept clean, except for the beach. To go beyond average, they should clean the beach daily. It's would not be a huge effort to rake it clean when the tide is low. Other hotels along the same beach did a much better job in this, noted as we walked it one day.||The staff was indifferent on the issues, but the worst experience with them was the checkout, in which they insisted we pay the Seychelles taxes in cash. This wouldn't be an issue if they had an ATM on site instead of being a 40 minute round trip walk on a busy road. They made no attempts to solve this self-imposed problem.||Being an average hotel is one thing, being an average hotel in the Seychelles is another. It's an expensive trip, the last thing travelers want is to be nickel and dimed at their lodging. I wouldn't say don't stay here, but I would say lower your...