Glacis Heights Villa

The breakfast and the rooms set the standard. Guests praise a delicious and plentiful breakfast, taken on the terrace with the view spread out below, and a nice touch is that you can choose it the evening before so everything arrives fresh in the morning. The rooms are comfortable and well equipped, described by some as suited even to a longer stay, and the veranda outlooks over the coast are a recurring delight.

Brian and his team make the difference. The staff are called exceptional, friendly and accommodating, and Brian himself goes well beyond the usual, personally driving guests on several occasions and, as one reviewer put it, genuinely caring about his guests and doing everything to make their stay great. A handy practical detail rounds it off, with a supermarket sitting right at the entrance to the property.

One honest note, raised by the guests themselves, is the climb. The hill up to the villa is steep, and arriving by car you may want to switch off the air conditioning and drop into a low gear for the final stretch. Set against that, the location is quiet, pleasantly removed from the bustle of Beau Vallon yet with frequent buses to both Beau Vallon and the capital, Victoria, from right outside, a little beach on the other side and Mahé's finest beaches close by.

Glacis is a hillside village strung along the steep north-west shoulder of Mahé, on the ridge between the busy beach of Beau Vallon and the island's northern tip. It is a quiet, mostly residential area prized for its calm and its elevated sea views, a pleasant remove from the crowds yet very well connected, with buses running frequently down to Beau Vallon and on to the capital, Victoria, about twenty minutes away. The roads here climb sharply, so a little care on the hills pays off, but the reward is a peaceful, panoramic base within easy reach of the north-coast coves, the long sand and dive centres of Beau Vallon, and the start of the scenic Anse Major coastal walk a little further round the coast.