O'Soleil Chalets Self Catering

10 out of 10! O'Soleil Chalets is locally owned and operated by Seychellois (Helen and Frank). The chalets are ideally located at Anse Severe, La Digue. Just a stone's throw to the beach and a few minutes bike ride from town and the jetty. The chalets are self catering and had everything we required for our holiday, of course you still have to buy your own food/produce! There are a few local markets in town to top up on everything you need. Favourites: The bed linens were excellent quality and the bed was very comfortable. The hot shower was also a plus! Chalets are serviced daily. The chalets are spatious, private and surrounded by beautiful gardens which provides nice scenery while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee. You can tell the owners take great pride in their chalets and we will be returning to stay again. Just a few tips to staying at the chalets, great takeaways (Tarosa and Fish Trap) in town if you don't feel like cooking and the food is priced extremely well. Also, we rented our bikes from Aria's bike rental, they delivered our bikes to the chalet and we could pay with card on arrival.

We stayed here from 19 – 24 September 2023 as part of our 3 weeks island-hopping around the Seychelles for our honeymoon. When researching where to stay in La Digue, we were overwhelmed with the amount of accommodation choices to pick from. We decided to stay at O’Soleil mainly due to its location: a stone’s throw from a beautiful beach, and only a short bike ride from La Digue’s centre/ port. We also read tonnes of reviews and O’Soleil always had very positive remarks from previous guests. We’re really glad we went with O’Soleil! Communication with Frank (the owner) beforehand was always prompt and polite; we told him our rough ETA for arriving and when we rocked up at the apartment (somewhat sweaty from dragging our suitcases on the 10-mis walk from the port in 37C temperature and 100% humidity!) Frank was kind enough to already have the AC cooling the room and fresh coconut juice chilled in the fridge for us! Frank is a fascinating man with an amazing backstory and so much knowledge about The Seychelles; do spend some time chatting with him, you won’t be disappointed! Frank gave us the general ‘house rules’ for the apartment – no shoes inside; try not to wash sand down the plug; and to turn off the AC when heading out. There was a booklet in the room with useful info, such as Frank’s WhatsApp number; a list of activities/ hotspots to go see; and recommended places to get some food (the bakery near the port has the most amazing made-to-order pizza and little pastries). Frank also assisted us with sorting out bicycle hire from a local shop (if you intend to cycle around the island and stray off the path a little, I suggest you get a mountain bike as the normal road bikes have very little traction on the hilly island terrain!). Our self-catering apartment was colourfully decorated and on the first floor; there was no balcony but two large windows to let in plenty of light and beautiful views of the incredible garden’s. Access was via some steps outside that were covered from the elements with a small seating area, meaning we could still sit outside during the daily downpour and not get wet! The apartment itself was surprisingly spacious: all open plan but with a separate lounge area and dining area: we lost a day of our stay here to bad weather so having a larger apartment with separate area’s came in really useful as it meant we had plenty of space to chillout in whilst waiting out the rain! There was a double bed and a single bed, and the bathroom was more like a wet room but the shower was powerful and we had no issues with water temperature whilst we were there. The kitchen was well equipped for all our self-catering needs: bottle opener; can opener; colander; a range of pots and pans; storage containers, and utensils. Plenty of glassware and crockery too. There were easy to use gas hobs; a microwave and the fridge-freezer was also large, so we were able to easily stock up on food and drinks from the local supermarket, which Frank directed

My wife and I were excited about staying at O’Soleil Chalets based on the positive reviews. Sadly, the guesthouse and our overall interactions with the owners left us feeling disappointed, unimpressed, and more than a bit weirded out, even if the setting was a gorgeous paradise. For context, we are mature, respectful, and experienced world travelers that have traveled the globe for over four decades. We have stayed in literally 100’s of vacation rentals, many of them in tropical destinations. We get the challenges, idiosyncrasies, and limits of living on an island. We made a deliberate effort to be thoughtful, fair, and objective in our review, and report factual observations from our stay, rather than injecting too much of our subjective opinion into this review until our last comment. We hope the owners can accept the feedback, and use it as an opportunity to address the concerns and shortcomings so future guests can have a more enjoyable and comfortable stay, rather than discounting or dismissing honest feedback, as they have done with other guest reviews. We certainly would want to know about the issues we experienced if we were considering staying at O’Soliel. First off, Frank and Helen were both pleasant, welcoming, and several times told us to ask them for anything we needed. The AC worked well, and kept the bedroom cool. Helen was helpful in ordering us a cab to meet us at the Mahe jetty to take us to the airport. They also allowed us to keep our bags at their house after check out for a few hours while we waited for our ferry to depart. The maid and her partner who helped with bike rentals were lovely people and helpful. The most disconcerting, and disturbing aspect about our stay at O’Soleil Chalets is the surveillance camera that is mounted on the front porch of the unit. The camera is pointed at the front door and kitchen window. Because of the heat and humidity, it’s necessary during the day to leave the front door open to allow a slight breeze to move through the family room and kitchen area. (The air conditioning unit does a good job of cooling the bedroom, but is unable to also cool the family room and kitchen). Frank made no mention of the surveillance camera at check-in, nor is there any mention of the cameras in the Air B and B description. When we messaged Frank about the cameras, his (delayed) response was the cameras were functioning, but “for now they are not recording.” He added that Helen planned to bring monitors to begin recording guest activity in the rentals. He made no effort to ask how we felt about having camera monitor us, and its impact on our sense of privacy. He did not ask what he could do to make us feel more comfortable, like perhaps turning the cameras off for our stay. Ultimately, we simply turned the camera 90 degrees so it pointed away from the inside of our unit to help maintain our privacy. Helen’s only comment regarding our query about the surveillance camera was to call our questio