La Digue Island Lodge

We were so disappointed at our choice for 4 nights on our extended honeymoon/25th anniversary trip. Worst place we stayed out of 9 over a month. The people make or break an experience on vacation and this was the wrong choice for us. We ended up eating and drinking at other properties the last 3 days. The rooms were dated and only beach front if you're okay with a public walkway, stone wall and row of bushes between you and the sand. 1 small water bottle a day for 2 people, $7US each cappuccinos, drinks are costly, room 16 had a urine smell, room 2 was tiny, dated and humid, wifi only works in your room or reception not in common areas, bike rental only associated with lodge until something goes wrong (the bike company also had us go to lodge to resolve so it's a real run around), the food was meh went offsite to eat lunch and dinner (I ate protein bars instead of inclyded breakfast at a $550+/night place?!) coffee was even bad, pool is dated but one of the nicer experiences when Pradeep at the pool bar. The lodge should look at expenditures and easily see the 1 happy person they have resulted in more profits for them. Smiles, attention, helpful attitude, willingness to listen, providing options when issues are all simple things when service is a priority. I don't think the staff is treated well, why would they be so glaringly unhappy and unhelpful? Conversations with other guests resulted in comparisons and we couldn't find anyone happy with the lodge. 5 star price, 2 star service, regret our choice. We had to change rooms the last day since we couldn't book 'beachfront' for all 4 nights. They insisted we leave room by 10am and couldn't get new room until 3pm. We walked past new room at 11am and the cleaner was finishing with room, we still couldn't get it until 3pm. OMG, they just don't care, in fact a very unpleasant call with Dora who never apologized to me. Sat night, all dressed up and ready to enjoy a lovely dinner off the menu, we go to restaurant and told no one there to cook for us. What! We'd have to eat off the buffet - yuk and expensive. We ended up eating and drinking at La Repaire and Lo Lans (about $500 worth) and totally wished we had booked there. More boutique size and actually fun with live music Sat night, great employees and food. The people were fun, way happier because they were being treated properly. We also did the BBQ place beside there and Mimi's twice in 1 day on our bike ride. You've got to try the coconut cheesecake!! The island is great, the beaches rock but picking the right place to stay can make or break your experience. We failed on this choice and it's easy to see from my 100+ reviews I'm usually pretty generous with my comments and ratings. Good genuine people experiences go a long way! This place is a worst experience for us after 33 countries.

09/21/2026 Not sure you'll post this, but TripAdvisor and Booking.com and any other reviews site will... sooo.... Here we go... Having travelled the world extensively, documenting our journeys and writing about the places and hotels we've stayed at over the years, this travel adventure was for our honeymoon after being together 25 years and deciding to marry. It commenced 24 days ago in Kenya for safaris, through Rwanda for Gorilla/Chimpanzee trekking then to The Seychelles to cap off an amazing journey with some much needed relaxation. We stayed at 10 different Camps/Hotels and Resorts before landing at La Digue Island Lodge, and by all accounts, this is the place where happiness goes to die. Don't get me wrong, the grounds and beach are outstanding, and if that's all you want, the place can deliver. For me, a place no matter how beautiful, can turn ugly by the service you receive from the people working there, and the people that work at La Digue Island Lodge, are deplorable. Aside from the pool bartender, Pradeep, who moved to The Seychelles from Nepal, the entire staff was disinterested in being helpful, let alone smile, engage in conversation or fake that they enjoy working there. You can tell a lot about the management style based on how happy the personnel is, and based on how miserable they were, I can only summize that the management is a complete failure at providing a positive atmosphere to work in. In a place that costs over $500.00Cdn a night stay in, you should never be told on your Saturday night dress up dinner with your wife on your honeymoon that the "A la cart" dinner is not available because there is nobody there to cook it. But you could take the buffet option for $1,100 rupees ($80US) before a drink is served. Based on the food choices I surveyed for that, it was a solid "no" This was the point where everything turned for the better thanks to Nedy, the food service supervisor, at the on site restaurant that told us there was no one to cook food for anyone unless you're eating at the buffet. I know, I was confused as well. Although disinterested in solving the issue on site, his advice was to go down the beach to the adjacent hotel as they had an Italian restaurant. We did just that. The place is a boutique hotel and was charming, the service wonderful, the people working there, happy and service oriented. That night, we ate at the beach bar on site called "Lo Lans" We enjoyed the vibe so much, we made a reservation the following night for dinner while we were back there for lunch the next day, in fact, we spent the balance of our time at that resort to enjoy the food and cheerful ambiance and escape the dreary attitude at la Digue Island Lodge. I strongly suggest if you want to stay at a place that is interested in creating a good atmosphere to be in, book your stay there. It is called "Le Repaire" it's half the price and although we tried to get in for our last night on La Digue, it was fully booked... no surprise! Of course if you want to stay at a place where the motto is "We're not happy, until you're not happy" then La Digue Island Lodge is the place for you. We also wanted to move to Le Repaire as we were only able to acquire a beach view A Frame room for 3 nights then had to move to a Garden View A Frame for the last night. The process was lethargic and although it could have been quick by cleaning the new lodging first knowing we were just moving to another unit, we were made to feel homeless until the 3pm check in time. When my wife explained her frustration with this process, she was yelled at over the phone by the receptionist whose name was Dorra. Just another employee who had no understanding of customer service. On a side note, do not rent a bicycle from Twin Wheel - located at the hotel entrance - the bikes are in poor condition and in my case, the tires were so worn out it went flat 3km into my ride. Apparently, it was my fault, and I should have returned it immediately, but walking back with a failed bike was not high on my agenda, visiting beaches was. Seems like even the places associated with La Digue Island Lodge have been poisoned with a negative attitude and are more focused on providing a poor customer experience through lack of customer service. "It happens" was the comment after blaming me did not resonate. La Digue Island Lodge is a beautiful place that can appear ugly if looked at through the lens of the people working there. There is a reason they have a present rating of 3.6 stars for service, and in my opinion, that is generous. Go to "Le Repaire" instead, you will avoid being disappointed. ....and to the owners of La Digue Island Lodge, it feels like your hotel is on a downhill trajectory. On our 4 day stay, we had 3 dinners and one lunch at your competitors locations due to the terrible service the employees of your establishment provided. We were not alone. My advice... you may want to groom and fast track Pradeep to a hotel management position before it's too late... if it's not already. Cheers.

Our experience was absolutely terrible here… it took an hour and a half to get checked in it was very unorganized and then were told to come back at 3. Housekeeping doesn’t exist no new towels, toilet paper and not even touched! The property is clearly not sprayed because the mosquitoes are terrible! The food is terrible as well! The bed is so uncomfortable and hard as a rock, woke up every morning with my back killing me! Such ashame because the grounds are beautiful…it is so bad we are checking out of here 4 days early and booked a self catering apartment! They didn’t even ask why… which baffles me! For me I would not recommend this place at all!

Arrived today & weather a bit challenging but staff unfazed by everyone's frustrations. Dealt with everything professionally. We hadn't booked any food for this evening as we were planning on going further up the road for food but....the rain had other ideas! Last minute booking at the Al a carte & served so eloquently by Josephina. Delicious food & perfect service 😋 👌

This was, without exaggeration, one of the most disappointing hotel experiences we have had in the Seychelles. La Digue is famous for its serenity, tranquility and the feeling of escaping everyday life to recharge your batteries. Unfortunately, this hotel completely failed to provide the most basic conditions required for that. What is particularly frustrating is that most of the problems were not caused by the staff themselves. The staff were generally friendly and tried to help when problems were reported. The real issue appears to be management, maintenance standards and the apparent unwillingness to invest in the property and guest experience. A) Extremely loud music — no possibility to rest After a long journey, the first thing we wanted was simply to get to our room and take a nap. Instead, we were confronted with immensely loud music coming from the property immediately next to the hotel. The noise was so excessive that there was absolutely no possibility of sleeping or resting. This is particularly unacceptable on an island such as La Digue, where guests specifically come for peace, quiet and relaxation. We did not travel all the way to the Seychelles to lie in a hotel room listening to extremely loud music from the neighbouring property. We therefore requested a room change. To their credit, the hotel did fulfil this request — but unfortunately, this only led to an entirely different and even more bizarre problem. Lizards repeatedly entering the room — and the absurd response The replacement room was immediately apparent as being very old and clearly in need of renovation. More seriously, there were visible gaps around four of the windows, providing an obvious entry point for insects and animals. It did not take long before we discovered a house gecko inside the room — and then several of them. We contacted housekeeping. The housekeeper came and chased the lizards out and assured us that the windows had been closed/fixed. After a long and exhausting day, we finally managed to sleep. Or so we thought. At 05:30 in the morning, we were woken up by the characteristic noise of another house gecko that had managed to enter our room. Housekeeping and security came again and removed the lizard. Later that day, the hotel added pieces of wood around some of the windows in an attempt to block the gaps. I specifically requested that all four windows be properly sealed, because the issue was clearly not a single lizard — it was an obvious structural/maintenance problem. Yet the hotel only added wooden pieces to three of the four windows. When we returned in the evening, we discovered that the fourth window — the one that appeared to have been “closed” but had not received the additional wooden piece — was still not properly sealed. And, predictably, shortly after taking a shower, another house gecko entered through that very window. At this point, our patience was exhausted. I called reception and demanded to change rooms immediately to a more modern room with properly sealed windows. The response I received was essentially: “We are a tropical island. This is normal.” No. It is not. We have also stayed on Mahé and Praslin, which are equally tropical islands, and we did not experience anything remotely comparable. We completely understand that a tropical destination has insects, geckos and wildlife. That is not the issue. The issue is having structural gaps in the windows of a guest bedroom that allow animals to repeatedly enter the room while guests are trying to sleep — and then presenting this as something guests should simply accept. Eventually, after further discussion and after making it clear that we simply could not continue sleeping in a room where animals were repeatedly entering, another room was prepared for us. We moved very late in the evening, yet again disrupting our evening and our sleep. I even had to ask the hotel for approximately 5 cm of tape so that I could personally seal the gaps around the windows to prevent more lizards from entering. That is frankly unbelievable. We ultimately managed to sleep for the remaining two nights only because we had personally taped/sealed the gaps ourselves. A guest should not have to perform basic maintenance on a hotel room in order to make it possible to sleep. C) Breakfast — extremely poor and completely underwhelming The breakfast was another major disappointment. The variety was close to zero, and the overall selection was nowhere near what one would reasonably expect from a hotel in the Seychelles. Even more concerning, birds and other animals were sitting around/on top of the areas where breakfast food was being presented. The reaction among the guests was noticeable. Almost everyone looked disappointed, and there was very little enthusiasm around the breakfast. Fortunately, there was an egg station, so it seemed that most guests simply ended up ordering an omelette because there was little else appealing. Again, the staff themselves were friendly. The problem is clearly much deeper: the hotel appears to be operated with insufficient investment in maintenance, renovation and food & beverage standards. The fundamental problem What makes this experience particularly frustrating is that none of these problems are really about the Seychelles, tropical weather or island life. We understand perfectly well that La Digue is a tropical island. We came precisely because we wanted to enjoy the nature and tranquillity. But there is a huge difference between: “You are staying on a tropical island, so you may occasionally see a gecko.” and “Your room has poorly maintained windows with gaps large enough for multiple geckos to enter repeatedly during the night, and the hotel tells you this is normal.” The latter is simply poor maintenance and poor management. Likewise, having loud music next door is not the hotel’s fault if it comes from another establishment — but the hotel should have been much more proactive in managing the situation and ensuring that guests who come to La Digue for peace and relaxation have an appropriate room. Final verdict The staff were generally friendly and polite, and I want to acknowledge that they did respond when we complained. But unfortunately, good intentions from individual employees cannot compensate for fundamental shortcomings in the property and its management. The hotel needs serious investment in: • Renovation of old rooms • Proper sealing and maintenance of windows • Basic preventative maintenance • Noise management • Breakfast quality, variety and food protection • And, most importantly, management’s attitude towards legitimate guest complaints Telling a guest who has been repeatedly woken up by lizards entering their bedroom that “this is normal because we are a tropical island” is not an acceptable response. We came to La Digue to relax, disconnect and recharge our batteries. Instead, we spent our stay dealing with loud music, room changes, lizards entering our bedroom, being woken at 05:30, repeated maintenance failures, sealing windows ourselves with tape, and an extremely disappointing breakfast. That is the exact opposite of the experience we expected from a stay in the Seychelles. Beautiful destination. Friendly staff. But an extremely disappointing hotel experience and, in our opinion, a clear management and maintenance failure.