Post-Covid Paradise!

Of course we just HAD to go back to the Seychelles for our first holiday in over two years due to covid! Our first visit to Hilton Northolme and this is now our favourite hotel on Mahe Island. Initial impressions were not great, but we’d arrived at 8am, we’d had a 6 hour connection in Dubai and our room was understandably not ready yet, so we were tired and frazzled. We used the day room and went off to the pool. A small pool with rather uninspiring surroundings, but a swim was just what we needed. But then, just after 10am our room was ready, a grand ocean view pool villa. WOW WOW WOW!!! The private pool felt almost as big as the main pool, with a large decking area and sunbeds and table/chairs. The room was huge, bathroom and dressing area massive. A welcome bottle of wine and happy 65th birthday spelt in petals and towels shaped as elephants on the bed for my husband’s birthday. I could LIVE in that room. Food and staff were mostly excellent, views are to die for, and only a short taxi ride to Beau Vallon area if you want to go out – however we mostly stayed IN and thoroughly enjoyed our most comfortable surroundings. If you want a peaceful relaxing couples only holiday with easy access to local restaurants and bars Northolme is most definitely the place for you. But definitely go for one of the pool villa room categories. We stayed 5 nights at Northolme and then moved a couple of miles down the road to Story Resort (formerly known as H Resort) on Beau Vallon beach for a further 8 nights. We had stayed here on our last visit so knew it was good. We had a pool villa again but the pool felt tiny compared to Northolme! The main pool is the key for me at Story though, and I spent many a happy hour swimming up and down, better in the early mornings before the children arrived (it is a predominantly family resort), but it felt SO good to be away after over two years, noisy kids didn’t even bother me! Service wasn’t quite as good as last time, and we weren’t that impressed with their Japanese restaurant, but we loved our old favourite Trader Vic’s and ate there a couple of times. During the day we mostly swam and walked up the beach, and in the evenings we mostly went out to local restaurants and bars – to La Perle Noire (beautiful – we had eaten there on our first visit in 1987 and I’m sure they have the same menu!), to Baobab Pizzeria (another of our favourites) and to Beach Shak for beautiful cocktails watching beautiful sunsets. The Boathouse for people watching, La Plage for ocean watching, and Fisherman’s Cove hotel next door for somewhere we could walk to easily. Weather was NOT good! We knew that January/February was likely to be very rainy (and it certainly was!), but we weren’t there for the weather, we were there to celebrate being able to travel again by going back to our happy place, and we made the most of it. I had to keep pinching myself, and caught myself saying out loud “can’t believe we’re here” many many times during the two weeks! And despite the weather and the requirement at the time for covid tests and forms to fill in, we had such a relaxing time and so glad we didn’t have to postpone AGAIN! As my husband had his birthday while we were away, it is only fair that I get my turn to have a birthday in paradise, so hoping that we will go back next July, it would be rude not to!!