L'Habitation Cerf Island ★★★

Excellente situation. Nourriture exquise. Calme. Gentillesse du personnel

Breakfast and Dinner

WiFi is free, but slow..

*the tiny island with a gorgeous view back to Mahé *friendly and relaxed hosts *well-kept lush gardens *nice private beach in front of the hotel *sea kayaks to rent for free

*costly meals and any boat transfer > better stay where you are and enjoy...

I think this deserves a bit more of an explanation. So Cerf Island is a small island with not much more to do than relaxing and swimming/ snorkeling. The hotel provides the space for this as you have a pool, some places to sit, kayaks to get to the good snorkeling spot, etc. Just be aware that there is no significant beach. The hotel itself has very nice rooms with balconies and good views. Interestingly though, the hotel tries to play in the luxury league, but falls short on many small things (see below). One things that should be mentioned is the hike that is on the island. It is not long and not crazy hard, but be aware that it is a dirt path in the jungle and you need to know where you are going. Get the description at the reception and make sure to turn left at the "Private Property" sign. And wear good shoes, it might be slippery.

As mentioned, the hotel is good, but doesn't reach the luxury category they try to claim. As good as the rooms are, they are fairly loud and the internet is often very slow. And is it the lonesome island, I don't think so. The airport is on the other side of a channel and there is quite some boat traffic, especially when the rich and famous harboring on Eden Island need to test their new toys. The next thing that needs mentioning and was picked up in many reviews is the restaurant. This is a bit of a peculiar thing. You get your table with your number and are somehow not allowed to join other tables without telling them. And then you have to order the dinner during the day, which I understand from a management point of view, but it was never mentioned to me, thus creating a weird situation. Breakfast was OK, not amazing. Dinner is not included, so be aware that you have to pay. And this is the main point, it is not cheap. A standard creol curry comes for around 300 SCR (20 Euro). The portions are OK, but with a soda, a dessert, and a cocktail you very quickly reach 750 SCR (50 Euro). And that is a bit steep for a meal. And I think this is also my main point of criticism. It is all OK and nice, but the price tag is too high for what you get in the end.

The L'Habitation accomodation is located on a nice island close to the Mahe coast. A short boat transfer will bring you straight to their jetty from Eden Island (which by the way leaves in front of the Maharaja Indian restaurant). The hotel offers several double rooms and a few standalone villas rented out as Junior Suites. There is a restaurant on premise, a pool and deck chairs that should be enough for all guests, even if the hotel is fully booked. The grounds are well maintained and there is a sandy beach right along the resort. Unlike other reviews we found the breakfast rather sufficient. There was a choice of buffet style items like toasts, pancakes, yoghurts and juices but you could also order complementary eggs in various styles as well as a ham and cheese plate from a breakfast menu. Dinner was set at 7pm in the small restaurant and the food was good and the portions sufficient. However, the dish had to be picked in advanced in the afternoon and there was always something on the menu that they didn't have anymore, which was OK though.The staff was super-friendly and helpful and the room was nice and clean with a working aircon. They have free kayaks for three hours which you can use to paddle to Long or especially Round Island (during low tide) for an amazing beach experience (hotel staff does not recommend to paddle there, but if you have done kayaking before, it's not a big deal. That said, use your own caution to decide!)

When we booked this hotel, we read all the infos about how to get there and what to expect and if it is possible to go to other restaurants during our stay. Well, here are our experiences: 1. Transfer Apparently, depending on where you booked the hotel, you get different "packages". On booking.com you can only book bed-and-breakfast (no half board) and the transfer from/to the hotel is NOT included. Basically, you need to add 10 EUR per person to the hotel price. Additionally, there is no free transfer to Eden Island during your stay. You need to pay for each roundtrip per person, i.e. if you want to go to Eden to buy some stuff in the supermarket, you need to add these expenses. 2. Other restaurants The entire island is basically private property or inaccessible. You can only walk along the beach (at low tide) or to the other side via the jungle trail. If low tide is not in your favour, you cannot reach any other restaurants for dinner. Maybe only Villa de Cerf (but we didn't try that). So you are stuck with the local restaurant. During lunch time there is a beach bar opening up with a creole BBQ for daytrip snorklers. This is a good option to fill your belly for a reasonable price. 3. Water Stock up on drinking water before you go there, since there is no free water provided by the hotel, other than a 0,5l bottle per person when you arrive. All other bottles need to be purchased at the restaurant. It would have been nice to at least get one bottle of water per person and night for free during the stay - guess it also wouldn't hurt too much financially. 4. Prices Well, restaurant prices are more or less common Seychelloise prices, which means: high. Beer is expensive. Best trade-off I found was a bottle of wine. So it doesn't surprise that there is no bustling bar scene at night. Bottom line: when you book there via booking.com be sure to stock up on at least water in Eden Island before you go.

It is an excellent option to enjoy the beaches of Mahe, the island of the hotel has beautiful beaches very close, you can go kayaking or paying for an excursion. The food was always good and the attention more. It is a quiet place to retire for a few days and do whatever activities you like, or simply lie down on the lounge chairs that are all over the place! There are corals nearby to snorkel, and you can use the snorkeling equipment for free as well as the kayak.

There were no multi-standard socket in the room(at least not the one I needed.)

We enjoyed the quiet island life, and meeting similar travellers. The room was good.

As Cerf is such a small island, there is no alternative for eating out, and the food was nothing special, and not cheap.

Cerf Island is beautiful and this hotel is run by lovely people. Loved having the pool, sunbeds and cabana beds to relax on. Great snorkelling from the jetty!

A mosquito net over the bed would be good.

We really enjoyed the hotel and its' surroundings, it was easy to relax and the beach was easy accessible. We also appreciated that we could use kayak for free (and also snorkeling equipment, although we had our own). We used the kayak every morning (the have three) and thus we have experienced a fantastic vacation with wonderful views around the beaches. At the beaches around the island we were pretty much alone (except La Moyenne), they were easy to reach and made it possible to snorkel a lot. We had breakfast included which was OK, strong coffee :-), bread to toast, different dishes to order separate but included (omelette, cheese and ham, eggs etc.), pancakes, fresh fruits and juices. At lunch time we either visited the neighbour's barbeque lunch (boats with tourists from main island came for a barbeque lunch at 13.30), but we had lunch also at the hotel. Our favourite was to share sandwiches with tuna-mayonnaise and cold beers (we aren't that hungry in the middle if the day). Dinner is a fixed 3 course menu for 450 Sey/Rupies or a la carte. Prices was in par/just below what you will pay for dinner in Sweden for the level of cooking (good). The staff was very friendly and helpful (we exchanged the pillows to softer and smaller one) and the hotel and pool arena is kept clean and nice. Air condition worked perfectly! This is a perfect place for a getaway from work. It is so close to the airport and main island so it is easy to get here. Our flight was late in Saturday evening (19.35) so we decided to choose a late checkout at 16.30 and we booked the hotel boat for transfer to Eden Island Our departure time was out of the schedule). We thought it was worth to be able to have a relaxing day with kayak and pool relax before leaving. We strongly recommend it and we'd love to come back!

Beautiful place and island. Kayaks great to get to the bay full of stingrays and grwat views on the other eastern side or to the marine park north east or the southern end with the small island. Can also walk through the jungle to the bay, family friendly climb. Good breakfast and nice choice of dinner at typical restraunt prices. Nice beaches along the western shore north and south of the hotel. Expected more in terms of stuff in the water for snorkeling, but can kayak to the marine park or see the stingrays.

Matresses could be better. The pool is deep so be carefull if staying with small children