Dive Review of Octopus Diver/Cote d'Or Footprints in
Seychelles/Praslin Island

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Octopus Diver/Cote d'Or Footprints: "Good beginner diving, experienced will be disappointed", Nov, 2015, by Susan Sparkman, TX, US ( 1 report with 3 Helpful votes). Report 8738 has 3 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Octopus Diver. Their location is on the beach. There is an area for setup and nitrox is available free. You will set up your gear in the covered area and then you carry it to the boat. The walk is not very long but you need to walk into the water and carry it onto the boat. They will store your gear at the end of the day if you are diving several days. Your divemasters are assigned before you leave the shop. They speak several languages. The dives are 60 feet and shallower. Most days it was sunny for the week. One day it did rain all day. Visibility was supposed to be great this time of year but it was not. They had some type of algae bloom so visibility was 30-40 feet. One dive had moderate current, a few had mild and several had no current. A couple of dives had a surge. The surface was calm most days. Two days it was mildly choppy. Boat rides was 20-45 minutes each way. The coral is not colorful. There was many areas where it has been damaged. So if you are expecting to photograph colorful coral, you will be disappointed. We saw Octopus, turtles, sea urchins and sea urchins, the largest scorpion fish I have ever seen, nudibranch (few), eagle rays, juvenile ribbon eel (2), green moray eels, spotted moray eel, juvenile box fish, clownfish, banded coral shrimp to name a few. As you can see from the list, most animals are larger subjects to photograph. The turtles were curious and did come up to the lens dome of the housing for a closeup. We enjoyed diving here but don't expect much. It is not Indonesia. Accommodations We stayed one night on Mahe Island upon arrival in the Seychelles. It was a guesthouse called Hotel La Roussette that is not far from the airport. They have 10 chalets, pool, restaurant, bar, ac, minifridge, safe, hair dryer, hot pot for instant coffee. It was a quiet small hotel and the staff were very helpful and friendly. The next day we took the Cat Cocos Ferry from Mahe to Praslin. It was difficult to find the ferry dock with our rental car. I had made and paid ferry tickets online before arrival at the dock. After picking up the tickets, they will weight your luggage and load it onto the ferry. The crossing takes between 1 and 1 1/2 hour. They did not leave on time. It was about 15 minutes late. Once you get to Praslin Island, they just unload the luggage and it is chaos. Just wait until you see your luggage then grab it and go. We had a rental car waiting for us. The staff had a sign with our name so that was easy. They helped with the luggage. We actually got 4 large bags and 2 backpacks into the back of a Kia Soul! Cote d'Or Footprints was our accommodation on Praslin. There are luxury beachfront self-catering chalet apartments. There are 10 units. The bedroom has ac, the living room does not. That was not a problem for us in November. They are on the beach. I had seen some reviews about sand flies or fleas. We had no problem with that. There is a salt water pool, full kitchen (but no oven), a starter breakfast pack. We enjoyed this! There is a large back porch with a drying rack which was great for our dive gear. Staff were friendly and helped to direct us to restaurants and grocery stores. The best price and selection is at Kannus Supermarket. Restaurants included Pirogue Restaurant, Restaurant De Luco Gelitano, Ocean Grill, Cafe Du Arts and Berjaya Resort Pizzeria.
Websites	Octopus Diver Cote d'Or Footprints
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Indonesia, Cozumel, Cancun, Akumal, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, Cayman Islands, Roatan, Utila, Grenada, Tobago, Saba, Bahamas, Seychelles
Closest Airport	1)Praslin airport 2)Seychelles International airport on Mahe	Getting There	We flew from the Washington DC to Dubai with a long layover in Dubai. We had to talk to the agents at Emirates to transfer our bags from United to them. United only checked them to Dubai since Emirates is not a partner airline. Then we left to Mahe Seychelles. When we came back home the route was Mahe, Addis ababa, Paris, Washington DC. This route took a long time from start to finish.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, choppy, surge
Water Temp	81-84°F / 27-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-40 Ft/ 9-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Time limit was enforced. 50 mintues first dive, 60 minutes on the last, sometimes a little longer.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There are no buckets on board for cameras. You either hold them or set them on your towel and keep an eye on it. Divemasters will find things for you to shoot. They mostly focus on the big stuff since there is very little macro.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Octopus Diver/Cote d'Or Footprints in Seychelles/Praslin Island

Octopus Diver/Cote d'Or Footprints: "Good beginner diving, experienced will be disappointed", Nov, 2015,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Octopus Diver/Cote d'Or Footprints in
Seychelles/Praslin Island