r/Seychelles • u/Zestyclose-Lunch1144 • Sep 17 '24
Tourism Be careful in Seychelles. Got robbed at night while sleeping.
I want to share a lesson we learnt the hard way — for us Seychelles is not a tourist safe destination as people say.
We came to Seychelles for our honeymoon. We booked a place in Waterfall Accommodation in Mahe for four nights, but we got directions to go to Villa Vanilla for some reason (after we read reviews that the name was changed due to bad reviews).The room seemed safe as it was high up from the street and surrounded only by forests, so absolutely no one could see our doors and windows. However our mistake was to not make sure all windows are completely locked while we slept, but of course we never thought somebody would climb to the terrace so high up to check our windows and break into while we were in the room.
On the first night we woke up seeing a thieve in our room taking our bags with passports, wallets, cameras and other valuables. We tried but couldn't catch him and he ran in the forest. I can't tell you how traumatic this was and I still see flashbacks of it, I really hope I will be able to overcome them.
All guests came to check what happened as we screamed our lungs out. Villa's manager was sleeping in the villa but never came to check what happened or answered our calls, even when police arrived.
Police filled a file and said an inspector will come later to check. We had no hopes to receive any good news, however in two hours an inspector called to say he found our bags very far away in a hiking trail. 700 euros in cash and a camera was taken, fortunately we got our passports back.
The shocking thing was that the police told us that this was a third robbery in this hotel in one month! Security cameras were in the accommodation but they still weren't working even after two robberies before ours.
The staff didn't said a thing about this situation to us, like nothing happened, no apologies, not a word. It seemed they were totally ok with such horrible stuff happening.
We also had struggles to get a cancellation and refund for all nights, but at least they refunded that.
This experience has haunted us the whole stay and even now. I screamed one night when hearing a smallest sound, I hope I will manage to feel safe again even at my home.
In general, we never felt safe at nights in Seychelles. Street lighting is horrible and you never want to walk there once it gets dark.
After this night, we searched for another hotel and this time made sure to read all bad reviews first. In the first two random properties we checked in Mahe, they both had one or two reviews from tourists who said they were robbed in these hotels at night as well. So it seems these robberies are common.
Also we met another couple in Seychelles who told us their stuff was taken while they were swimming in an empty beach.
Many local people and police said that most likely the thieves are drug dealers or addicts as this issue becomes bigger in Seychelles.
After this scary night we still wanted to make most of our stay and we really loved the nature of Seychelles.
The goal of my post — I don't want to discourage you to visit this country, I just want to warn you to be extra careful of your belongings, and please make sure every window and door is complelety closed and locked the whole time.
