Paradise Across Three Islands

Our first stop was the island of Praslin and the beautiful hotel Le Domaine de La Reserve. From Mahé, we took the ‘Cat Coco’ ferry towards Praslin. A word of advice for anyone who gets seasick easily: bring a fan and some travel sickness chewing gum, because in rough seas it feels like a 45-minute rollercoaster ride, and 30% of the passengers were sick. Fortunately, the crew were prepared and always on hand to help. Thankfully, our stomachs were unaffected. Even so, we booked an upgrade for the return journey and sat on the upper deck. Those happy to spend a little more can also fly, which is not much more expensive.
The hotel was absolutely beautiful, and we had a deluxe double room right by the water with a lovely terrace. The hotel is fairly small, so there was always a very welcoming, family-like atmosphere.

90|Le Domaine de La Reserve 90|Le Domaine de La Reserve 90|Le Domaine de La Reserve Praslin is very easy to explore by bus, and the hotel gave us a bus timetable. Each journey costs 5 rupees, which is equivalent to around €0.30.
We were very tired from the long flight on our first day, so we simply relaxed on the beach and by the pool. On the second day, we took the bus to Vallée de Mai National Park. Many holidaymakers rave about the park. Unfortunately, however, we found that we did not enjoy it at all and were disappointed by the rather high admission price. All you see are palm trees and nothing else that you would not also see elsewhere on the island.

We booked an excursion through the hotel, first travelling by boat to the small island of St Pierre, where we snorkelled for 45 minutes. Our guides fed the fish, so we really did get to see a great deal. Afterwards, we continued to the island of Curieuse, which was a real highlight. We saw giant tortoises, as the island has its own breeding centre. It is quite an awe-inspiring feeling when an old tortoise walks towards you and you are allowed to stroke it and feed it leaves.
Giant tortoise on Praslin Curieuse As well as learning plenty about the island and the Seychelles, we also walked through the mangroves, which was simply wonderful. From the top of a hill, we had a spectacular view across the island and its bays, and could look down at a small lemon shark swimming laps around the bay.

Mangrove park on Curieuse The excursion could also be combined with a delicious barbecue buffet. However, as the food at our hotel was so excellent, we decided not to add this extra.
Another wonderful place to visit on Praslin was Anse Lazio, which we reached by bus once again. The beach is beautiful, a little wilder and enormous. Despite the many visitors, we had plenty of space and enjoyed swimming in the waves. Caution was still needed, however, as there is no offshore reef, so you should not overestimate your swimming ability.
After our first five memorable days, we left Praslin and returned to Mahé.

We wanted to hire a car on Mahé, which we were able to add to our booking very easily through SeyVillas. The hire car was waiting at the jetty when our ferry arrived, and we were able to drive straight to our accommodation without any problems. On Mahé, we stayed in a self-catering guesthouse. The guesthouse Le Domaine de Bacova had a small kitchen, a large combined living and sleeping area, a shower room and a balcony with sea views.
Although the guesthouse was good, you do need to be comfortable with its roadside location, or at least not be bothered by it. We found it a little too noisy, and the kitchen could also have been a little cleaner for our liking. One major advantage was the supermarket just around the corner, where we stocked up on fresh groceries every evening.
We travelled around Mahé in our hire car every day, and driving there is quite an adventure for us Germans: firstly, you drive on the left, and secondly, the roads are very narrow and have no barriers along the edges. However, we soon got used to it and thoroughly enjoyed our time there.
During our five days on Mahé, we explored the entire island and visited its beaches. The well-known Beau Vallon was quite nice, but in our opinion there are many better beaches. There is certainly more atmosphere at Beau Vallon, but that also means there are simply more people. Thanks to the hire car, we could always choose what we felt like doing.
We liked the south of Mahé best. It is still very unspoilt, and the beaches are beautiful and secluded, but also very wild, so you should not simply go swimming without due care. Police Bay, for example, was a dream, and we had it entirely to ourselves all day, but it was also too dangerous for swimming. In our opinion, the most beautiful beach was Anse Intendance: spacious, with that classic Bacardi-advert feel, few people, yet still suitable for swimming. There is also a large car park.

33|Anse Intendance 33|Anse Intendance Anse Intendance 33|Anse Intendance 55|Police Bay For food, however, we can certainly recommend the well-known Beau Vallon. The takeaways there were very tasty and, at the equivalent of €5, very inexpensive. You can also enjoy a delicious buffet for the equivalent of €35 at Boat House, which we can highly recommend.
47|Beau Vallon 47|Beau Vallon 47|Beau Vallon After five exciting and very active days on Mahé, we continued to our final island, Silhouette.

We travelled to Silhouette for the final days of our trip. We had booked the Hilton Labriz Resort & Spa, which also arranges the transfer to the island. We therefore made our way to Bel Ombre harbour, where we received a wonderful welcome with delicious lemongrass tea and coconut balls. I would still love to have the recipe for those.
The island was an absolute dream and the perfect highlight at the end of our trip. We did not think the holiday could get any better, but it did.
When we arrived on the island aboard the hotel ferry, we received another warm welcome from the dancers at theHilton Labriz Resort & Spa, along with a large banner. We were first given a tour of the vast grounds in small golf buggies. The resort is beautifully laid out and very well maintained. Despite the many villas and consequently the large number of guests, the hotel manages to make it feel as though you rarely encounter anyone else, giving you a wonderful sense of peace and relaxation. We were impressed by the food and drink at the hotel. We had booked half board and were initially a little concerned about the additional costs, but we were pleasantly surprised: every day, we received 2–3 litres of complimentary water in our room. At breakfast, we could have as many speciality coffees and other drinks as we wanted. In the evenings, drinks could be ordered at very reasonable prices. Before dinner, there was a happy hour in the hotel bar, where we treated ourselves to cocktails every evening.
Our garden villa was spacious and simply fantastic. We would have liked to upgrade to a beach villa, but the hotel was fully booked, so unfortunately none were available. If you can and would like to spend the extra money, you should book a beach villa, as they are even better than the garden villas.
The fine, powdery sandy beach is over a kilometre long, absolutely beautiful and offers both sunny and shaded spots. There were complimentary sun loungers and hammocks, as well as a wonderful, crystal-clear sea that remains pleasantly shallow thanks to the offshore reef. We went snorkelling every day and saw some truly amazing marine life, including lots of large and small fish, a Spanish dancer, crabs and even a large stingray peacefully rummaging through the sand beside us. As there are many shells and pieces of coral on the beach, we recommend that all visitors wear water shoes. It is best to buy them before travelling, as they are more expensive locally. We bought some anyway so that we could walk into the sea more comfortably.

Silhouette Silhouette Silhouette Silhouette Silhouette Silhouette Silhouette Silhouette When we departed, we were once again seen off with a dance, and we were genuinely very sad to be heading back to Germany. We had always said that there was still so much of the world we wanted to see that, for the time being, we would not visit the same destination more than once. However, we now have to reconsider that and will most likely be unable to resist returning next year.