Island Hopping 2016: Mahé, Denis Island and La Digue

Our first destination was Mahé, one of the three main islands of the Seychelles. It is also home to Victoria, the capital of the Seychelles and, incidentally, the smallest capital city in the world.

It was important to us not only to get to know the hotels and resorts, but also the people and, above all, their way of life in the Seychelles.

On our first day, we began by exploring our hotel, the Hotel Kempinski, and were already very impressed. That evening, we also discovered what we could look forward to every night of our stay there: a very generous, varied buffet and exceptionally attentive service.

Kempinski Hotel in the evening Over the next few days, we explored the island in more detail. We:

• took a tour around the entire island,
• swam at the most beautiful beaches,
• had lunch from roadside vendors,
• explored the capital, Victoria,
• visited the small market, where you can buy wonderfully fresh fruit, vegetables and fish
• and toured a tea factory.

We also booked another excursion through our holiday representative. We went snorkelling, fed fish, visited the pirate island of Moyenne and had a barbecue on the beach at Cerf Island.

Trip to the pirate island of Mayenne We also plucked up the courage to hire a car, despite the Seychelles driving on the left. We can certainly recommend it, as there is not a great deal of traffic. Among other places, we drove to Constance Ephelia to go zip-lining, which was great fun thanks to the easy-going lads who took us on the tour. A fantastic experience and very affordable for two people!

After 7 days filled with positive impressions, we left Mahé for Denis Island with mixed emotions, reaching it after a flight of around 25 minutes in a small propeller plane.

When we arrived, the staff at the Denis Island Lodge welcomed us extremely warmly, even greeting us in German. After an excellent lunch, we were taken to our chalet right on the beach.

Beach on Denis Island Although there was no television or Wi-Fi reception in the chalet, we otherwise wanted for nothing – except perhaps a fourth wall in the bathroom, although with a view like that, we would happily do without one at home too!

Bathroom, Denis Island Lodge There was an entire island to explore: enjoying the blissful peace and quiet, strolling along almost deserted beaches, snorkelling, diving, and watching sea turtles in the water and on land as they made the arduous journey ashore to lay their eggs. We also enjoyed the exceptionally high quality of the food served at the hotel.

The difficulty of transporting food to the island seems to have prompted the hotel’s owners to become self-sufficient, including by growing vegetables directly on the island. The meat served there also comes from the island’s own pig farm. This probably also explains the remarkably high quality of the food on offer.

Everything we experienced on this small island felt truly exceptional. The underwater world, reached by boat in just 5–10 minutes from the beach, surpassed all our previous diving experiences thanks to the abundance of fish and the pristine condition of the coral reefs. Of course, coral bleaching has also had an impact here, but it was clear that many of the corals had already recovered. Otherwise, the coral off Denis Island is still completely intact.

The diving excursions were slightly more expensive than those on Mahé, but the entire experience was much more relaxed. The two lads leading the tour helped and supported us in every way they could, providing a very relaxing yet eventful dive.

When the time came to leave Denis Island, which we did with heavy hearts, we knew that nothing else could possibly surpass it!

Our journey continued to La Digue, where we stayed at the La Digue Island Lodge. This hotel offers small beach cottages, although not all of them are directly on the beach. As the local beaches are sometimes strongly affected by the tides, the view from the hotel itself was not always the best.

We therefore quickly realised that La Digue did not reveal its beauty as readily as the other Seychelles islands we had visited up to that point. However, if you were prepared to embark on some truly adventurous walks along even more unlikely paths, you were rewarded with beaches that were sometimes completely deserted! We even spoke to other visitors who told us that some of the paths they had followed had suddenly come to a dead end. However, we learnt not to give up too easily – just around the next corner, you might suddenly discover natural pools framed by granite rocks, perfect for a wonderful dip!

10|Anse Marron A tour with Robert, a guide on La Digue who takes small groups of visitors to exactly these sorts of places, is particularly recommended. We had great fun during his tour. He tells plenty of jokes and shares fascinating, sometimes even moving stories – a genuine experience!

Overall, La Digue feels like a lively village, with very few cars and only a handful of vehicles used to transport people or materials. The island is ideal for exploring by bicycle. During our travels, we came across a small beach – Petite Anse. This beautiful, expansive beach had very few visitors when we were there in mid-November.

While our family and friends back home were experiencing the first snow, we were swimming at a fine sandy beach lapped by waves. Palm fronds planted in the soft sand provided ample shade, while freshly opened coconuts decorated with straws and hibiscus flowers offered welcome refreshment. They could not quite compete with the cocktails we occasionally treated ourselves to at one of the island’s many bars, but they certainly looked better in the photographs!

Our conclusion on La Digue is that it is definitely well worth visiting! However, we would not choose La Digue Island Lodge again, as we were not convinced by the value for money. In particular, we would have preferred the food to be better. It was by no means a complete disaster, but we would have liked to spend the final part of our holiday somewhere else as a result.

Nevertheless, it was a wonderful holiday overall, and we had no complaints whatsoever about the service provided by SeyVillas. Our honeymoon was certainly not a bargain, but the Seychelles are still absolutely worth visiting!