1500km off the east coast of Africa you will find some unique pieces of the ancient super-continent of Gondwana, that floated off into the sea about 100 million years ago; sparkling emerald and sapphire in the Indian Ocean, ringed with perfect white sands and second only to the Galapagos Islands in the number of endemic species that call these islands home…Welcome to the Seychelles!

How to get there

We flew into the main island – Mahe – with Kenyan Airways from Nairobi, and immediately picked up the Air Seychelles Otter for a short 15 min flight to Praslin (pronounced ‘Pralin’…if you don’t want to sound like a complete tourist!).

The plane is tiny and we managed to get seats in the first row, where you get to act like a backseat pilot, checking whether the landing gear is up, flaps are down and should we be heading towards that granite cliff face! The pilots are excellent and despite all the turbulence they got us over in one piece and with a solid landing.

Praslin

Praslin has a coastal road that runs almost all around the island, the only gap in the network is the 5km connect between the airport and most of the hotels on the North East side of the island, hence you have to go on a 24km detour around the island. This is a good opportunity to take a local cab and get a tour along the way…we organised a pickup with Coconut Services and for 650scr you’ll get a luxury van and a great driver (Ryan) to give you the lowdown on what to see and do on the island.

Paradise on earth

The Seychelles is a very special place in all senses. If this natural paradise wasn’t enough then we decided to throw in a bit of luxury too with a stay at the Raffles Resort; a stunning 5-star place where you will get your own villa nestled in the hills above Anse Takamaka.

Perfectly manicured in a tropical island way, with electric buggies whisking residents around the property, it has the feel of a James Bond super villain lair with all the super and no villain!

You will fall in love with the panoramic views of the azure sea below and Curieuse Island in front from from your own infinity pool and enjoy the daily visits from the endemic population of tropical birds coming to say hello (including the interestingly named Seychelles Bulbul…ask a Filipino about what this name translates as!).

The problem with being in a perfect setting in paradise is that you never want to move and see what else there is to see, as you feel you have everything you need and will ever want…hence, this blog will be a bit lite on the sights and sounds of the Seychelles, but we shall try our best to make you also want to getaway to this idyll.

Raffles Praslin

Let’s start by working our way out from our own corner of Eden at Raffles – the resort has a full collection of private pool villas, we had No. 123 one of the two 1-bedroom panoramic villas. Panorama in this case means that when you open the door to the room, your breath is just taken away by what you see as a view right from the threshold; in fact one of the reasons we often left the room was to experience that same view feeling when we get to open the door back into the room!

We did get to see a few other 1- bedroom villas during our stay, and if the view is the thing for you then room 123 should be your target. You can literally spend your whole stay on the deck of the room, either floating in the pool or relaxing in the outdoor lounge…don’t worry about mosquitoes as the resort combats them on a daily basis…even though Matt is sort of addicted to the smell of mosquito coils so there was always one smoldering away.

So let’s tear ourselves away from the view, the rest of the room is just perfect, with living room, bedroom, walk-in closet, bathroom and pantry…almost the size of our apartment in the Hague!

Catching a resort buggy down the hill, don’t miss having a chat with the fleet of buggy drivers who know all the resort gossip and have some great anecdotes to speed away the transit around the resort. In fact the style of the staff at the resort really grows on you as you stay, nothing stuffy about this resort, the team are super friendly and helpful in whatever you need and by the end of the week Lyssa was hugging everyone goodbye as if they were friends of old! There are two restaurants, two bars, a double-tiered infinity pool and a beautiful little beach to pick up the all inclusive water sports (snorkel, paddle board, kayak, body boarding) or just sun yourself with the waves lapping at your feet.

The hotel beach is set in front of a marine area, so snorkeling from the shore is spectacular…even though we did not have the best visibility, you will still see thousands of fish just 20m from the shore, plus a resident turtle who will tolerate a clumsy snorkeler for a few minutes before getting tired and gliding off, as well as the occasional pod of dolphins passing through.

Neighbouring beaches

As in love with the resort that we were, we could not fight our natural desire to explore the island and its surrounds, and fortunately Raffles is at the mecca of sights in the island. A 20 min cycle ride (or 5 mins by car) is the Seychellian metropolis of Cote d’Or, read that as having a multitude of cash machines, souvenir shops and the ubiquitous corner shops that supply the essentials for island consumers…plus a perfect strip of white sand beach that runs on for kilometres and where you can organise island hopping and snorkeling trips to the further reefs (more on that later).

From Raffles you can pick up a bike and be there in around 20mins…or a bit longer if you get caught in a rain shower and have to hide under a tree in Anse Possession – there are worse places to be caught out in the rain!. In the opposite direction is Anse Lazio...voted one of the best beaches in the world (the competitors mainly being in the Seychelles too).

It’s a 30 min walk from Raffles, with a huge hill both up and down just before you get there, but odds are that you will never need to climb it as a friendly locals will always stop in their car and ferry you to your destination. A broad stretch of white sand will greet you in this bay, fringed with palm trees and with granite boulders at either end. It is beautiful and has lots to explore with little passages through the boulders that bring you to smaller and more secluded beaches.

On the day we arrived, the sea was a bit choppy and the waves were pounding the beach and pushing the collection of tourists back into the tree line – be aware that high tide here does come up quite high, so if you don’t want to see you flip-flops floating to Mauritius then pick you spot by the trees. So not really a snorkeling day (Anse Lazio has no corals so it is not really a snorkeling spot), but the waves are fun for a bit of body surfing.

Driving Around the island

To see the rest of the island you will need to get yourself on a tour or hire a car (you can use the great network of local busses, that are supercheap and pretty much go everywhere, but we like a bit of our own freedom and opted for the car hire). Car hire is pretty easy here, it can be organised the day before you need the car – we rented from Capricorn (60 eur p/d), but if you end up walking to Anse Lazio you will probably be picked up by a local who has their own cars to rent for a very good price. Most locals will tell you about how narrow the roads are on the island and that you need to remember that we drive on the left…now for Matt as a Brit who has driven the narrow backlanes of Cornwall and Wales, the thought of being on the left hand side of a narrow road does not strike fear. However, it’s not so much that the roads here are narrow, it’s that their edges are drops of 50 cms to 3 meters. So all of the sudden, you are on the auto equivalent of a tight rope and pulling over for the bus coming the other way could mean an impromptu car wash in the sea that is running alongside the road! Driving on the left now means driving in the centre of the road! But don’t fret, you’ll soon get used to it, slow down for oncoming traffic, don’t pull over and soon your little Hyundai will feel less and less like a hummer and more the mini it is, for you to pass with ease. Directions are pretty easy here, there’s one road that almost circles the island and one road that cuts through the middle, via the Valee de Mai.

Anse Georgette

We started our island roadtrip with a visit to Anse Georgette, another contender for world’s most beautiful beach; just 5 km away from Anse Lazio, but with no road connecting, you will need to circum-navigate the whole island to get there.

The drive is beautiful, past numerous spots where you can just stop the car and jump into the crystal-clear water below, so getting from one place to another can take a bit of time with all these unscheduled stops.

To get to Anse Georgette you have to pass into the 5 star Lemuria resort, this requires a booking in advance at no cost, but your name has to be registered if you want to get in…and slots fill up fast, so book in advance. Once you have parked up, you then need to take a 20-30 min walk along the tropical golf course to the beach itself.

As with many of the beaches on Praslin you are greeted by a stunning vista, white sand, azure water and a collection of fellow tourists that look like they have washed up onto the shores of this paradise and are camping out in the shade of the palm trees waiting to be rescued by the next passing boat!

Vallee de Mai & Coco de mer

Taking the ‘short cut’ from the west side to east of the island will have you passing by the Vallee de Mai, a UNESCO world heritage site where you’ll find a decent collection of the island’s endemic plants and animals – the iconic Coco de Mer, with its suggestive fruit that would look quite at home in a window of the Amsterdam red light district.

The black parrot – which we could try to describe, but we never saw, and a multitude of other species that you will see nowhere else on the planet. The park itself is a little pricey to enter (350 scr), but be reassured by the fact that the money goes towards a lot of the ecological preservation that these jewels of nature require to survive in today’s world. If you manage to get there around 9am or 2pm then you can also join an excellent little tour where you get to learn a bit more about all the flora and fauna. It always helps to have a guide’s eyes to direct you to all those hidden things that you would somehow miss otherwise. A cheaper alternative to the Vallee de Mai is Fond Ferdinand. We didn’t have enough time to get there, but the reviews are great and you’ll pay a quarter of the price to get in for one of the guided tours at 9.30 / 11 / 13.30.

Curieuse Island & Giant Tortoises

You can only be on an island so long before you take a boat into the seas that are surrounding it; whilst it was tempting to swim across to Curieuse island as it looked so close, Matt’s breast-stroke meant that it would be a long day of swimming; so instead we booked a tour with Sagittarius Taxi Boat Excursions who were able to pick us up from our hotel beach and run us across the sea to the island to meet up with their tour.

Curieuse island, home of Giant Tortoises, Coco de Mer, rugged coastline and a great walk through granite hills and mangrove boardwalks. The highlight has to be getting ‘chased’ by giant tortoises who have seen the banana you are carrying…granted it is a form of slow motion chasing that should not have you too worried, but these behemoths can silently sneak up behind you and you don’t want to get between that mouth and its banana!

The tour includes a bbq on the beach and is followed up with a visit to the Islet of St Pierre for bit of snorkeling.

July is not the best month for visibility in the water plus the 90’s saw an increase in water temperature that bleached a lot of the coral, so you won’t see too much colour, but there are still plenty of fish to keep you occupied under the water.

Felicite and Sister Islands,

If you want to see more of the underwater, then make sure you book yourself a trip out to Felicite and Sister islands, a 20 min speedboat past La Digue to the best snorkeling in the vicinity. Here you’ll find cool water and plenty of aquatic life including cuttlefish, eagle ray, grey reef shark (we just saw the tail of one of these) and barracuda looking quite placid in the depths but ready to pounce. On the way back, you can also stop at the solitary Ave Maria, literally just some rocks sticking out the sea, but a prime spot for turtles to show up.

Where to eat

As you are on an island in the middle of nowhere that imports around 70% of its food, then you will find that prices are somewhat higher than a holiday on the Costa del Sol, but also you’ll find some great seafood from the surrounding seas. Just by Raffles is PKs, one of the best value spots on the island with super tasty food – try the smoked fish salad, seafood gratin, the huge seafood platter and the seafood curry.

On Friday evenings, you should head to the Paradise Sun Resort to catch their traditional Moutia dance…

The dance of the original slaves set at dusk to firelight, it’s great to see and is high on audience participation too. It’s open to anyone who comes along to this part of the beach along Anse Volbert around 7pm. You can stay after for a really good priced buffet (500 scr pp) but you may not be guaranteed a seat, so in that case, head next door to the Cafe des Arts for more excellent seafood. Our favourite restaurant on the island was Les Rochers.

Set in the most perfect location on the western side of the Island, plan to get there for sunset, where you can have aperitif outside by the beach to watch the sun go down, and then some great seafood and very interesting curried fruit bat..tasty, but with lots of bones and very pricey.

So that’s Praslin Isand of the Seychelles, beautiful, luxurious and unique; nature capped our stay with some clear skies for the lunar eclipse and the blood moon, a perfect way to end a perfect stay in paradise. We hope you enjoy it too!