Ahhh the Seychelles

By Lee | January 21st, 2010 | 10 Comments »

When you think of the Seychelles, you think of amazing beaches, gorgeous windswept islands, and incredibly fresh seafood that makes your mouth water. These are all true. In fact, I believe the Seychelles may be the perfect island getaway because it offers so much. The beaches are collectively the best I’ve ever seen. Each island I visited had at least one amazing beach and I would say that three in particular are among my top ten of all time, including the top one, and I’ve seen a lot of beaches! The islands are tropical in all ways, good and bad, and they are stunning. Natural mountainous granite landscapes lead down to unreal beaches serving the best seafood I can remember. But most of all, the Seychelles is just chill. You can’t not have fun and relax. There is something for everyone to do or you can do nothing at all.

The main island of Mahe is where the capital, Victoria, and the airport are. It is where my hotel, the very nice Le Meridien Barbarons is located and home to some of the best beaches in the Seychelles. First and foremost, the best beach on Mahe is Petite Anse (below). This amazing beach is wedged within an awesome natural cove and is the setting for the brand new Four Seasons Resort. Although resorts are not my thing, the Four Seasons Seychelles is easily the nicest resort I have ever seen.

It’s not just the resort itself although each individual villa does have its own infinity pool looking out over Petite Anse down the mountain they are built on. The resort is built into the landscape better than any I’ve seen and really doesn’t take away from the main attraction-the beach. The beach is also more private now which is and isn’t good but after talking my way in the door, I enjoyed an entire afternoon of bliss on Petite Anse and even managed a few free bottles of water from the Four Seasons!

Right next to Petite Anse is Anse Soleil which is an awesome beach as well and home to the highly recommended Anse Soleil Café which serves awesome fresh seafood and killer prawns (shrimp). Try the garlic or grilled prawns. Afterwards jump right into the water as the café is right on the beach. To access, you need to go right at the Four Seasons entrance and if you have a car you can go all the way down to the beach.

Anse Louis (above) is another amazing beach and right on the grounds of the super luxury Maia resort. To get there you need to park off the main road just past the resort and climb through the woods to get to the beach and you will not be disappointed or bothered by hotel staff. The only difference between this and the Four Seasons is Petite Anse is a hair nicer and the resort is much newer-well that and they gave me a towel, chair, cooling spritzer thingy and water!

There are several other good beaches on Mahe and the best of the rest is Beau Vallon. Although it was cloudy when I was there, it is still a large stretch of sand and is the most popular beach on the island. That is because of the cluster of big hotels and resorts that make up its tenants. This is where the other Le Meridien and Hilton, etc are.

The weather being cloudy and rainy is very common in the Seychelles because the weather is very temperamental and it rains heavily everyday at some points and this can really affect your visit to certain beaches. Therefore; you need to give yourself some time in case when you arrive at certain beaches when the weather is bad. These are some of the world’s greatest beaches and you don’t want to come away disappointed.

I also visited a few other islands of both inner and outer islands and far and away the two best were Praslin and La Digue for two simple reasons. Praslin is home to Anse Lazio which is the best beach I have ever been on and that’s not an exaggeration. La Digue is home to a gorgeous and the most famous and photogenic beach in the Seychelles called Anse Source D’Argent.

Anse Lazio is an amazing beach (above, below and top picture). It is as if God himself carved it out and placed the powder soft sand and granite rocks on the edges to make it look and feel amazing. Then he added some tropical jungle and the crystal clear water you’d expect that actually has waves you can ride in and is great for swimming. Many of the Seychelles beaches are unswimmable because they are too shallow or rocky. Anse Lazio is truly perfect. It was only made better by the amazing restaurant just off the beach called Bonbon Plume.

Bonbon Plume served me the absolute best smoked fish (marlin) I’ve ever had. Then I had this amazing fish curry and rice with tropical fruit that was so fresh and good it makes you want to cry. Yes it was that good. All with the amazing view of the beach through the takamaka trees and a few little visitors to my table to finish up my rice!

Back on La Digue, Anse Source D’Argent is breathtaking in its beauty (below). The large granite boulders that border the beach makes for amazing scenery and great colors and contrasts. The water itself and the sand are also great but it is clearly the rocks that make this beach the most famous beach in the Seychelles. You can see why even with the clouds and rain looming in the distance. Luckily I was there early and got to enjoy an hour and half of great weather at the beach.

In the Seychelles, you can get around by boat between the inner islands and charter small flights and scenic flights to the outer islands of Desroches or Alphonse in the Amirantes group or Zil Elwannyen Sesel for relatively reasonable prices. But you are again at the mercy of the weather as I was during my flight and may come out disappointed with the scenery. You can also do some hiking on Mahe or any of the inner islands and there are 115 islands to choose from. Some have giant turtles on them and you can actually play with them on land on Curieuse and Bird Island.
Anyway, in case you didn’t realize it, I love the Seychelles. My advice is first to come here for certain. Rent a car when you are here because without one, you’d be lost or paying a fortune in cabs. Driving here can be harrowing and scary down the narrow and windy roads while driving on the left side of the street.

The Seychelles is not cheap so bring cash, and bring it in euros or dollars as they are readily accepted almost everywhere. If you’re looking for a place for your honeymoon and you’ve got the jack or can convince your new in-laws to float the bill come here and you will be very happy. The only other place (islands) I’ve been to that I liked this much was the Maldives but the Seychelles are better and have more to do, the food is better and there are more people than just honeymooners along with a ton of things to do.

Today is my last day of my trip and I am a little mixed with emotions. This trip, while I haven’t fully reflected yet, has been amazing. Starting in Chad and making it all the way through to the Seychelles and so many amazing people and places in between. I feel a tremendous amount of accomplishment and satisfaction because of how much time, effort and money it took to plan and coordinate this trip of a lifetime. It has certainly been worth it and I look forward to the lifetime of memories it has given me. I also have enjoyed keeping this blog and getting comments and emails from all of my readers. Finally, my readership has gone up significantly over the course of this trip and I am grateful for that and look forward to keeping posting while I am back home.