rooms at Banyan Tree, Seychelles
 

Has anyone stayed here that can help me decide between a Beachfront Spa Pool Villa or an Intendance Pool Villa? At these prices, making the right choice is important!
Thanks.

Babette -

I checked the site - WOW! That's a hard one to decide. Are the prices the same? (I didn't check) Are you a Spa person? (you can always get one regardless which villa) Are there the same number of Beachfront and Intendance villas? How many villas in total? (I didn't browse the entire site)

From first glance I'd go with the Intendance Pool Villa - you have your own pool and have access to the beach if you want.

If others have stayed (and I recall some previous posts a few months back - do a "search" and see if you can find them) to get other comments.

Sorry I can't offer any more, but WOW!

There is a feature on luxury resorts in Seychelles in the September 2003 issue of "Travel + Leisure" (a US magazine). I haven't read the article yet, but I did note that it features Banyan Tree, Lemuria and a few other resorts.

Sandi, it is a tricky one! Both villas have private pools and, actually, it's the Beachfront villas with direct access to the beach. From the Intendance Villas, the beach is a shuttle ride or a three minute walk.
OSC, thanks for the heads up on the great article -- very useful!!

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for that person who's stayed in either type of room here!

Babette - I was thinking of the Intendance Villas for privacy, but you probably have privacy at both. It's not likely that you will find children at Banyan, so privacy might not be an issue, but how close each villa is to the next might be. This really is a personal issue.

Suggestion: If both are the same price, book Beachfront and if for some reason you don't like where it's situated, or whatever, ask for Intendance or vice versa. This isn't something I would ordinarily do, but if you can't get the answer you want before booking, try it = I don't believe Banyan will be full, that they couldn't accommodate your wish.

Bye the way, when will you be traveling to SEZ, and are the Banyan Villas air conditioned? Hope so, as the temp and humidity are very high!

Thanks for your input. We went with the Intendance Villa, as I read in the T&L article (thanks OSC!) that the beach was not private. But, after all this, I'm guessing there's not a bad room on the whole property!

All beaches in Seychelles are public unless it is a privately own island. You are making mistake by staying on Mahe Erica/babette

Babette,
We are also considering a Banyan Tree visit. What month are you going in? Are you aware of whether Intendance Bay will be swimmable then? We are considering September of 2004 and would appreciate any info you may have.

Also, I think you've made the right choice with the Intendance villa. It looks divine.

Ericka, why would the bay not be swimmable? Does the water get cold or rough or sharky? I didn't even consider this. My husband loves to swim in the ocean and will be very disappointed if he can't. Please let me know what you've heard about this.

We are going this November and really looking forward to it. The Banyan Tree looks great to me but I know there are some other nice properties as well. We chose the Banyan Tree since it is part of the Small Luxury Hotel group.

Have you seen www.seychelles.com? There's lots of good information there. Are you from the states? The recent T&L article is also very good.

Hi Babette,
I have been to Seychelles.com. Its quite nice for a travel Web site. I sat down with my husband to review it together and he had no patience for the chirping birds - we had to turn the volume down. Personally, I love it!

We've also just purchased the Travel + Leisure magazine on your recommendation. I was going to review some of those other hotels today.

As for Intendance Bay, I have read on a few Web sites that it can be rough and not always swimmable - depending on the season. I'm assuming the rainy season is when it would be rough, but you should check with the property itself to be sure. I also don't think there is much snorkeling there at all during the year. This is an activity we would get on a boat for.

Hope this helps. And yes, we're from the states - Cleveland, Ohio.

You can also check www.sey.net. We've had good luck with them.

We had a horrible time with www.sey.net and had to dissmised them as our travel agent. Just terrible!

Check this one www.seychelles.net and click on webpages

Well, I don't know where you got a three minutes walk to the beach but it is much longer and steep. It is not fun when ishot and humid and it is hot and humid in November

Ericka, I loved the birds! I thought we might do a snorkeling outing somewhere else as well (I have read that the snorkeling is much better on other islands). That's an awfully long flight from Cleveland. We're coming from France (but I was born a Hoosier!)

Incognito, I don't remember where I got 3 minutes either but I really appreciate your input! Have you stayed at the Banyan Tree? What island do you prefer over Mahe?

Yes, we stayed on Mahe. We prefered Fregate

Fregate is wonderful, but they have a 5-day minimum (at about $1800-$2000/nt.)and it costs over $1,000 flying to/fr the island.

If one would consider Fregate, I'd rather go with North Island at those prices.

We stayed at Banyan Tree in a beachfront Spa pool villa and it was great! The Intendance Pool Villa is bigger and is set higher on the hill so it has a great view. You can't go wrong with either choice. The beachfront villa has direct access to the beach whereas the Intendance Pool villa has a better view from the small hill.

As for the privacy of the beach, we found the beach to be very private. Most days there were only 1 or 2 other couples on the beach.

One other thing to add is that the one thing we did not like about Banyan Tree was the snorkeling/diving. We found other islands and resorts to be much better like North Island, Fregate Island, and Lemuria.

There was some good snorkeling and diving on Mahe but they were at least a 20 minute drive from Banyan Tree.

North Island includes some dives in their rates! Fregate does not include dives but was extremely beautiful. We had excellent service at Lemuria, contrary to the Travel & Leisure article and found the resort to be larger and have more to do than the other ones mentioned.

Lastly, I saw posts in regards to a couple travel agents above, we also had horrible problems with www.sey.net. We would never use them again.

I meant to say that North Island, Fregate Island, and Lemuria were much better for diving/snorkeling. Overall, North Island, Fregate Island, and then Banyan Tree are our favorites. Lemuria is great for the beautiful beaches and golf.

Babette -

Darren was the person who had posted back some time with comments on Banyan, Fregate and North Isls.

Darren -

Thank you for finding this thread as I hadn't been at Bayan (it wasn't finished when we had been to SEZ) and couldn't provide Babette with direct experience.

Someone on another thread had mentioned Sainte Anne Island/Resort as having a great location for snorkeling(marine preserve etc.). Its possible we would consider combining a few days at Banyan Tree with a few days at Sainte Anne. Their villas also look awesome.

Anyone have experience with Sainte Anne?