After a night at Praslin’s most exclusive hotel – the Constance Lémuria Resort – we moved to the Indian Ocean Lodge 10 mins car-ride away.

Expecting the move from five-star to three-star to be a disappointment, we had a pleasant surprise: we loved it.

From the moment we checked in to our delicious lunch of fresh stir-fried Calamari and grey jackfish with tomato chutney, topped off with a fresh coconut milkshake, we’re sold by the personal service, charming setup and friendly laid-back feel of this small property.

Owned by Mrs. Mason – the Seychellois owner of Mason’s Travel, who is one of the largest travel agents on the islands – it is part of a chain of three properties: one on Mahé called Carana Beach Hotel (under reconstruction) and a five-star resort on Denis Island called Denis Private Island Resort.

There are 32 villas located close to the beach with a marine decor. The double shower and the kitschy Coco de Mer-shaped lampshades amused me.

We ate dinner in the hotel one night and it was good. As there are not many restaurants around, it's handy to eat at the hotel, especially if you have been out at the beach all day or diving. We had a watercress soup for starters followed by palm heart with fresh mint.

Main course is grilled barracuda steak, roast lamb loin or a local fish called bonito darne with ginger sauce served with coconut rice which I chose, seduced by the combination of fish, ginger and coconut. In a naughty twist, for dessert, they serve up the popular European desert Black Forest gateau with a watermelon coulis. It’s an unfussy dinner, a cosy atmosphere, the sound of the waves breaks in the background and the service is personal and fast. What more can you ask for.

The Indian Ocean Lodge is good value-for-money (by Seychellois standards). Half board for two people per night will cost around EUR 220.

We stayed here as a family with our 2 young boys over the Easter weekend. Despite an initial mixup re our booking by the junior staff, ending in us paying quite a bit extra on the first night, the next day the lovely Lady Manager or Deputy Manager (unfortunately we've forgotten her name) who hadn't been present for the mixups, approached us professionally and apologised for the mixups & sorted us out for half board for the rest of the stay. Throughout she was uber-professional, friendly & looked after us very well. Admittedly we had been on the verge of checking out and going to another hotel after the mixup, but thanks to her, we stayed on & in the end we had so much fun that we decided to stay one extra night!

The rooms are clean, homely & has the minimum mod cons to satisfy our kids i.e. flatscreen TV, a mini fridge & it was spacious enough to accommodate all of us.

Our kids loved the pool, it is medium sized, and clean which is all that mattered.

For the grownups, once the kids went to sleep the room was right next to the pool so we could sit outside on the beach or poolside and have some "us" time and some cocktails every night.

The food was great, probably if we had been by ourselves we would have ventured out, but in the end with the Easter weekend special buffets put on by the chefs, we opted for half board & most of our lunches was had here too, as the kids just enjoyed themselves in the pool all day.

The kids had an Easter egg hunt on Sunday which they loved, and they loved the special desserts that the chef put on. Everyone got a little gift from the Management on Easter day, which was a nice touch.

On the day we left, the Lady Manager allowed us to check out late, since our boat left in the late afternoon. Fantastic, the boys had another day to splash around in the pool!

The only niggle and that is a small niggle is that I would personally say that the bathrooms need to be updated now, as they are showing signs of wear and tear. Saying that I am very fussy about bathrooms in hotels, my husband and kids didn't mind it one bit.

Another comment is that we usually stay in hotels with a spa facility and a gym, but that's when we travel as a couple, and this time we were with kids which didn't really matter.

We felt that the hotel had as close to a family feel to it as you can get with a commercially owned hotel, and that flexibility and willingness to help definitely made a difference to a family with young children.

The star was the Manager (or Deputy) lady who bent over backwards to ensure that we were happy throughout our stay. Without her care we would have had a totally negative experience with this hotel and she managed to turn our opinions around. We'd like to say a big thank you for making our stay memorable.

We're booking our next school holiday break here! Thank you Indian Ocean Lodge!

6 nights at Indian ocean lodge in Feb 2012. We chose 6 nights in praslin so we could do some other island excursions. Our stay at Indian Ocean was excellent. This is a good quality, homey-feeling hotel. Room had comfy bed, fridge, excellent deck (we were on upper floor), great seaside view, and double shower. Nothing fancy about this hotel - which is exactly what we were looking for. We had entertainment at dinner 2 nights. One was a local musician playing guitar and singing, and the other was a cultural show with drums and dancers. It would have been nice to have something the other nights. We actually only chose dinner for 3 nights at the hotel when we booked our package, but we found the food so good we ate at the hotel every evening. Really good chef - always choice of meat or fish (grey jack amazing!), appetizers and dessert. The nights that we had to pay for dinner we found the price very good value. Breakfast buffet had everything- fruit, choice of breads, cold cuts and always a made-to-order egg station. We read a lot about the beach and seaweed issues that can be here at certain times of year and although this was the 'good' time of year the beach was rather disappointing for swimming... great for walking ...beautiful soft sand for as far as the eye could see, but the grassy water was not welcoming. Only saw a couple people in the water the entire week. We took the hotel shuttle over to cote dor beach one day but found that although the beach was beautiful the water was really not great for swimming either. Actually the entire time in Seychelles both Praslin and Mahe we rarely went into the sea - and we were really looking forward to great snorkelling, but sadly took our equipment back home having only used it once. If you want a quiet, relaxing time you will not be disappointed at the Indian Ocean Lodge.
ps.. also walking distance to a supermarket for cheap snacks and drinks
pss..didn't rent a car on Praslin - the local bus system is excellent and cheap

We Island hopped during our stay and on final stop decided to upgrade from budget hotels. Found it very acceptable although the buffet food (apart from the Creole Buffet) can get tiring and suggest you mix with a trip to local places. Good fun and experience that way. Hotel right on marvelous beach but watch the sand flies and protect. Was disappointed that they could not do anything special for a big birthday dinner but accept that if they do it for one thaen they have to do it for all.